The Pipeline protests

I have been watching the pipeline protests with dismay.  Can there be a more stark example of the conflict between economic expediency and protecting the environment?  I am not naive enough to think that we don’t need energy, because our current consumption rate still requires the use of oil.  But neither am I naive enough to think that we can build a failure-proof pipeline under the Missouri River.  To think that we can is, at best, magical thinking, and, at worst, economically-driven indifference to an inevitable disaster.  Thank you, Native America, for having the courage to stand up.  As a Shoshone elder said about the arrival of the European:  “They don’t know it yet, but they have come here to learn from us.”  May that learning not be too late.

I’m attaching an adapted version of one of Dan’s “little talks” from The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo. I think it is appropriate.  Please pass it along if you feel it says something that needs to be said.

NATURE HAS RULES

Nature has rules. Nature has laws.
You think you can ignore the rules, or if you don’t like them you can change them.
That’s what you did with us. If you made a law with us — you called them treaties — and it didn’t work for you, you changed it. You
said the old rules, the old laws, didn’t apply anymore. You just
made new ones.
Well, that doesn’t work with Mother Earth. She doesn’t
make deals. She doesn’t change the rules.
It takes fifteen minutes to cut down an oak tree and a hundred years to grow another one. Are you going to change that?
If you kill all the animals are you going to go to Mother Earth and say, ‘We made a mistake, give us another chance?’
You don’t get another chance.
I’m telling you, when you can count the animals, you’re getting
near the end of your chances. We can count the eagles. We
can count the buffalo. I’ve heard that in Africa and India they can count the
tigers and the elephants.
That’s Mother Earth crying out. She’s giving us a warning
and she’s begging for her life. We ought to be helping her and thanking her, not just taking from her.
Instead, we’re just taking everything, using everything, thinking we’ve got a right to everything and that we can fix everything if we get it wrong.
Well, we can’t fix everything.
We can’t make it all fit the shape of our own lives.
Mother Earth thinks different than we do. She thinks in the Creator’s time, not human time. She’s got long patience, but she’s got her laws.
And here’s what worries me. It’s something your people
don’t seem to ever learn.
There’s going to come a day when things can’t be fixed.
And you know what? It’s going to be a day just like
today.

8 thoughts on “The Pipeline protests”

  1. I’ve been continuously posting this story on Facebook, urging the big oil to stop what they are doing here, taking the sacred burial land to put in this pipe. Possibly destroying the water for the natives there. What can we do? This is an atrocity what we’re doing, and against the treaty. We have broken every treaty given to these people, now we are possibly taking their well being.

  2. Eileen Grundstrom

    Don’t know if you’ve heard, Kent, but Lake Superior is warming. Warmest it’s ever been.

  3. This story is also making news headlines in UK. There may now be an opportunity to engage more effectively with the international community in supporting Native Americans. I think the lessons of history teach us that nations are not good at properly protecting human rights (including the rights of indigenous people)within their own boundaries, without outside intervention and influence. This seems to apply even more to countries that consider themselves ‘exceptional’…e.g. Hilary Clinton’s recent comments. White House intervention is most welcome in the Standing Rock case. However, it must be followed up effectively if we are to avoid it becoming another ‘Big Horn moment’.

  4. Kent, I have posted daily on FaceBook, sent emails to family and friends. I have sent funds to support the Water Protectors. What can I do to spread the Truth more effectively and across a wider audience? How do I approach local or regional news to engage them in publishing stories that embody Truth? Jeanette Spence

  5. Thank you for the very intelligent remarks regarding the current situation. Prayers for the earth and for the people.

  6. The pipeline protests, especially having begun at Standing Rock, are a partial answer to my SunDance obaghi – the part that says, “..& we Indigenous Turtle Islanders will stand up for ourselves & each other; for our Treaty & Constitutional RIGHTS..” my journey to Walk with ‘My’ Pipe began with an unsolicited vision I & another woman & 2 men had. It took me to Pine Ridge for awhile as part of the process but I Danced on Standing Rock. People who know me say I & the ‘leave-her rocks’ have much in common, which makes me smile.
    The protests showed The People how tough we still are & how much power we have. The outrageous response of Jack $rymple & Al Carlson & ‘law enforcement’ proves our power. They are terrified of us & of us rising again.
    Most of us may be neither wolf nor dog but not all of us. Now the washichu know it – & they should be afraid. They should be very afraid. This is good. I rattle my tongue for us! K’sto! Mitakuye oiasin

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