Rise (2016) s01e01 Episode Script
Sacred Water: Standing Rock Part I
1 LADONNA: A long time ago, they told us this story that there will be this big snake that comes.
And when the black snake comes, the world will end.
One hundred years ago, they said when that happens, we have to stand up.
We have to stop the black snake.
(Drum beating) 'Kay, so we got some news from down the line.
We got calls of police coming in, but they're actually about 7 miles down the road.
They built a road in, and they dropped barricades to keep people from going in, but they've been getting their equipment in through the back.
If any of you guys know any other people with horses, they're asking them to scout in and see where the machinery is.
Alright, so we need to send in everyone over there now? - Yeah.
- Three Three gravel trucks and one crane.
- Okay.
- Coming this way? Yeah, coming this way.
It should be here.
Half hour ago, they were in a big cemetery.
Okay.
'Kay, ready? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our water is under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our people are under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our lives are under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our land is under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! They're staying out of the way of everyone.
They don't want no problems.
You know, they've been going probably about half a day without water, so if any of you have extra water, share it with them, 'cause I know that they probably don't wanna be here.
So you know, be kind, be a human and share it with them.
Oh, well, thank you.
I appreciate that, thank you very much.
Oh, you guys truly don't need to Thank you very much.
REPORTER: There is a standoff in the Great Plains.
Two hundred Native American tribes are fighting construction of an oil pipeline.
REPORTER 2: Dakota Access Pipeline would have the same impact on the planet as 21.
4 million cars.
It would also pose a serious threat to the water supply along its entire 1,170 mile route, not just on Standing Rock Sioux land, but down stream in the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers.
In what possible world is this a good idea? SARAIN: Here at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, thousands have come together, camped along the banks of the Missouri River, in unity against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
This is the largest mass gathering of Natives and allies in more than a century.
I arrived when the camp was still young, before we knew this would grow into the movement it has become.
Before the police barricades, before the arrests, before the world began to take notice, when just a few dozen people had collected on a patch of land known as the Sacred Stone Camp.
So I know that this camp has just been set up for about two months now, and I'm not sure what to expect when I get down there, but I know for sure that there's definitely an occupation now.
Sacred Stone Camp is ground zero for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
This largely female-led movement is bringing together people from all walks of life.
(Horn blowing) While they call themselves water protectors, water is not the only thing they are here to preserve.
They stand in defense of Native sovereignty, their presence a reminder of whose land the United States was built upon.
Founder of Sacred Stone Camp Ladonna Brave Bull Allard has invited people to camp on her land since April 1st, 2016.
We sent out the word, and all the Lakota Dakota Nations responded, and they said, "We'll come.
" The youth said, "We'll have a run," and these are young people.
And it was just a movement, and it happened so fast.
Just even setting up the camp, it just all happened so fast.
It's because young people understand how important our water is.
Once that water's gone, it's gone for everybody along that path.
- (Cheering) - In opposition of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a group of Indigenous youth organized a 500 mile relay run from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to the office of the United States Army Corps in Omaha, Nebraska.
They delivered a petition asking them not to grant the final federal permits needed to complete the pipeline.
One of the main organizers of the youth run was 24-year-old Bobbi Jean Three Legs.
It doesn't take extraordinary people to do extraordinary things.
It takes a good mind and a good heart.
We started out with four runners, just two girls and two older guys from the camp.
It took us eight days to do the whole run to get down to Omaha.
It was to bring awareness to the people about the Dakota Access Pipeline being built here.
Not a lot of people knew about it.
Like when we were coming through the towns, that was some of the people's very first time hearing about it.
I wanted to bring awareness to the youth, 'cause this is gonna affect them the most.
All the runners were really random.
We didn't even plan anything.
Kinda just sorta happened, and it felt really good.
And you could see it in the people's faces, especially in the elders.
What do you think that they're seeing when they see young people running, and when they see you running, and when they hear about the camp? That we wanna learn, that we care, and we care about Mother Earth, that we care about our traditions, our culture.
Pretty much just not letting it die out.
And that's our responsibility, to keep it alive so that my grandchildren from 100 years from now will know all these things.
Bobbi, do you want kids? - I have a baby! - You have a baby? She's the reason why I kinda started with my efforts against all this, 'cause every morning she wakes up and she asks me or her dad for a drink of water.
It's just that simple, you know? And what am I gonna do if I can't give her water, or give her a bath, or feed her? It's pretty scary to think about when you're a mom.
Originally the Dakota Access Pipeline was supposed to be built by Bismarck-Mandan, but they said that the people of Bismarck-Mandan - were concerned that, you know, - - it would affect their water source and stuff.
- So they decided to put it not even a half a mile away from our reservation.
It pretty much just makes us feel like oh, it's just Indians, you know? We're humans too.
We're human beings.
(Helicopter whirring) Hey, I'm Sarain.
What are you doing? Well, I'm just gonna give my daily check and see what kinda if there's any progress or movement over here.
Let us see.
Where are you looking? I'm looking over there where they got their staging at.
Oh, there's those big red big white boxes again.
Oh, they're getting ready to put them in somewhere.
It's new though? Something new is down there? - Yeah, see, check this out.
- Okay.
You see those see that that field where they grated the ground there? - You see those big white things? - Yeah.
And plus that a little to the right, you can see that they got equipment over there, so they're working over there.
Across the river from the Sacred Stone Camp, the Dakota Access Pipeline construction has begun.
But they cannot complete it without a final permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, a decision that could happen any day.
If approved, the pipeline could be fully operational by the end of 2016.
Maybe the greatest insult of all is that the tribe has repeatedly objected to the construction of a pipeline in the first place.
Its intended path crosses under the Missouri River, just a half mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, cutting through ancestral lands, threatening to destroy hundreds of sacred sites.
We're waiting for 'em to come down that last hill towards the river, and once we see them do that, then we're moving over, setting camp right up in the pathway of the pipeline to the river, and that's when we're gonna start letting ourselves be noticed.
And when do you think you're gonna make that move? I don't know, that's why we're gonna have to have a group discussion, because this is new info here right this minute.
You know, it goes by their move.
You know, it's gonna be like a chess game here.
Is it dangerous to be over there? Well you know, they got them man camps over there, and I'm sure they all would like to pop an Indian or two, so They start construction and say, "Look, we put this much money into it already.
You need to give us the permit, otherwise we're gonna lose all these millions of dollars.
" That's their strategy.
And their environmental assessment has 380 sites our sites, that are up for total destruction.
That's burials, rock cairns, sacred sites Traditional cultural properties and village sites are up for destruction by Dakota Access.
A lot of non-Native people, when you when they see the fights, they'll just say, "Well, there's an easy solution.
Why don't you just move somewhere else, or leave, or go to the city to get income?" Why do you stay? Why do Indigenous people stay here? Because the roots go right out of my feet down to the ground.
I can tell you where my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's grandfathers live.
I can give you the history of this whole river and this whole land, and everybody I see is my relative.
Why would I want to be any place else? Why would the whole concept of money be more important than my relatives? We always take care of our dead.
They're never away from us.
We remember our dead every day.
You look around at this land.
It's because of their sacrifice that we actually have this.
We moved back here in like '99.
I was probably about like eight or nine.
There wasn't even no pavement, no sidewalks.
There wasn't no driveways.
Everything was still gravel.
This ridge we're coming up to, my siblings and my dad would all ride out on bikes.
And yeah, we used to just jump off this bridge.
- How many siblings? - Six of us.
- You have six siblings? - Yeah, one I have one brother and five sisters.
We all kinda had to grow up really early, from like everything that we went through.
Can you tell me more about that? It had a lot to do with alcohol.
Just I don't know, all of us kinda just went our separate ways for a little bit.
I had actually got the opportunity to go to college.
- What did you take? - Criminal justice.
Why did you wanna take criminal justice? Because of everything I've been through when I was younger, and all the stories that are here about, like, sexual assaults and the crime made me wanna do that for my people, because we need a lot more support that way.
What is the struggle? Uh, alcohol and drugs, domestic violence, sexual assault.
You know, like molestation, rape.
That I believe comes from the boarding schools, 'cause that's what they learned.
And like it happened to me whenever I was a little girl.
I was about five or six years old.
I had already been molested.
It went on until I was about nine years old.
As a kid, I was really lost.
I didn't know who to trust.
But you see that in like every generation.
Like you see it in my grandparents' generation and my parents' generation all the way down to us.
John Brown met a little Indian John Brown met a little Indian John Brown met a little Indian One little Indian boy One little two little three little Indians I watched the stories with the people that had went to boarding school.
Like I would get on the internet and just look up stories, and it kinda gave me a lot of answers to why everything was the way it was growing up.
SARAIN: In the 1870s, the American government separated thousands of Indigenous children from their families and forced them into boarding schools.
We bring them in, clean them up, and start them on their way to civilization.
Through the agencies of the government, they are being rapidly brought from their state of comparative savagery and barbarism to one of civilization.
The schools banned all forms of Indigenous culture and spiritual beliefs, and many children suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse from the people who were supposed to be caring for them.
(School bell ringing) Many survivors turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with their pain.
The intergenerational effects of this trauma are still felt today.
By the time I was like 10 or 11, I had already tried to commit suicide.
I did pills a lot, and I drank a lot too.
It was just kinda getting out of control.
It took me a long time to realize that I love myself, and that I'm not gonna let that define me.
(Sighing) I finally found it in myself to quit.
We need to just forgive that part of us and just grow from it, and try to prevent it as much as we can.
And if that means just talking out loud about it, you know, that's what we need to do.
And you know, I see it, and I grew up with it, I've been through it, and I wanna fix it.
I would go crazy if someone ever hurt my baby.
Never Never thought that I would ever be working with the youth till they asked me to coach them.
So we started doing that and started having practices, and we went to a couple tournaments together, and you know, went for runs in our town.
And that has really turned my life around too, being able to do that.
It's a game that gets them away from reality.
You know, it's just trying to show them that we can be positive.
And you know, whatever we're going through at home or whatever, we don't have to let that define us, and that we can go out and live our dreams and get an education and all that.
REPORTER: Workers are digging trenches in Emmons County for the Dakota Access Pipeline, even though a federal permit for the project has yet to be approved.
The North Dakota section would cross under several rivers, which prompted protest on the Standing Rock and Fort Berthold Reservations about the threat to drinking water supplies.
The Army Corps of Engineers still hasn't given approval to cross those waterways.
Right now, Army Corps is holding our whole lives in their hands with this permit.
So they must issue the permit to allow that pipeline to go across the Missouri River.
With Standing Rock, we're 2.
3 million acres.
We're the 5th largest land-based tribe in the United States.
Across the river, that's our homelands.
We call that Docket 74A, unresolved land claims of my people, because in 1873 they rounded us up and brought us over to this side of the river.
But our homes, our ceremonial sites, our sacred sites are all across there, where they're digging right now.
And I went over there and I watched them, and I was thinking what are you gonna do when you find my family's remains? Are you just gonna throw them aside? So you can see probably the tip.
There's a little island that's out there in the river.
That little island is a burial ground.
It's all burials out there.
So what they're gonna do is they're gonna go down underneath the river and come up underneath that burial ground.
And we're saying, "You can't do that.
" One of the things that no human being should have to do is pick up human remains from the river.
What do these flags here mean? What do they represent? When we first asked for help, people sent their flags as their support, and what they represent is all of these nations, that we stand with you.
So we have the Yankton Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Lakota, the Cheyenne River, and then Standing Rock.
So Oceti Sakowin is our Seven Council Fires, which is how we establish our nation.
And today, we are separated into 14 reservations and nine Canadian reserves, and that is one nation.
And so we are trying to bring that all back together again so we can work as a nation again.
SARAIN: The Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is home to some of the poorest people in America, organizing to oppose a fossil fuel industry supported by some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.
Ladonna's camp has brought people together in prayer, a courageous act of non-violent and defensive resistance to say, "Enough is enough.
We will not let our water be spoiled for profit.
" But this is a war not easily won in a country solidified in its strong allegiances to the fossil fuel industry.
The Standing Rock Occupation, coupled with the recent presidential race, is widening an already existing divide in the community.
While Donald Trump speaks at an oil and gas conference in the state capital of Bismarck, North Dakota, outside, racial tensions run high.
America first, America first, America first! (Yelling) Trump will make America great again! Get a job, you bums! You're fucking racist! I'm tired of the government taking $300 from my cheque a week to give it to you bums! - I pay for my own shit! - Shame on you! I pay for my shit! - Get outta here! - There, not here! Step back up on the curb! The line's right here, not there! You know, if they come in and they break ground and they complete the Dakota Access Pipeline, they are potentially going to be contaminating all of our water systems in South Dakota, which extends from the reservation here in Standing Rock all the way down to Yankton, to the other corner, and goes all the way back up to Minnesota and back down through Lake Traverse into our reservation and system.
So to say that it's not gonna affect everything, than the entire Dakota territory is just plain naive.
We are fighting for a future of America that's better for all of us! - (Cheering) - At an hour's drive away, Bismarck is the closest major city to the camp.
Every day, Ladonna and her husband, Miles, make the drive to town to get the much needed supplies to keep the camp functioning.
So this isn't it's out of your pocket right now, but there'll be a like a camp fund, or how does it work? Like are you footing the bill? Right now, about a third of my income goes to the camp, and then the rest are all donations, and we wrote three grants.
And so the grant money should be in the account soon, which will be able to buy ply board and stuff.
How much money do you spend a day on the camp? - Oh, can't complain.
- Hundred, 150, about a day.
Wow.
That's to make sure everybody's got food and meat, and their biggest thing right now is get real coffee.
- (Laughing) - Yeah, real coffee! REPORTER: The Dakota Access Pipeline is getting closer to approval.
Last week, both South Dakota and Illinois approved the project, although it hasn't yet been approved here in North Dakota.
Since the camp, I've been taking I have lots and lots of sick leave.
So I've been taking four hours at least once or twice a week just to take care of what the camp needs.
It's like people understand what we're doing, so community members come down and bring any extra food, any extra supplies.
I'm trying to make all the records accountable.
I opened a bank account just for the camp, so then we have bank statements saying this is how much money's a year and stuff, so accountability.
So how long do you think you can run it like this? It's gonna need to run like this? Till we win.
SARAIN: Back at the camp, some youth from the Fort Berthold Reservation are visiting.
Their community, a three-and-a-half hour drive north of Standing Rock, has been heavily fracked over the last decade.
And are you the only guy in this youth group? Um, no, there's another one, but he couldn't come.
So there's how many how many boys? There's three.
- Three? - Yeah.
Why do you think it's young women stepping up to this this fight? When I was younger, I remember it changing because of the oil coming in, and you like go into New Town and you could just see wells, oil wells everywhere you looked.
Like a long time ago, it wasn't like that.
Like it's just basically destroying our land up there.
And our tribal leaders don't really care because all they see is the money and everything.
It's really taken over our people.
We don't feel safe in our own communities anymore because of all the men that the oil brought in, because like the economy and the jobs and everything.
You just You can get just picked up off of the off of the sidewalk or wherever you are.
Someone can just steal you.
You can just get stolen? And what happens to you? - You can get raped, you can get killed.
- Or sold.
Multiple times.
Sold to who? Different men.
The oil boom in North Dakota has brought an influx of money to the region, but with it has come drugs, crime, and sex trafficking.
In the community of Fort Berthold, there has been a 168% increase in violent assaults against women.
Man camps, the temporary lodgings set up to house oil workers, has put women's lives at risk, and tribal police officers can do little to stop it.
The United States Supreme Court stripped tribes of the right to arrest non-Natives who commit crimes on reservation land, sending a strong message that on Indian land, criminals can get away with almost anything.
It's scary to think that you guys are scared to walk out your own doors.
It's scary to think that that could become what our community is like.
I refuse to let that happen to me or like any of us, you know what I mean? Like anybody in our community.
That's why I'm doing this, that's why I'm standing up.
And I wanna use my voice 'cause it can't continue to go on how it is going up there, so (Singing) (Cheering) MAN: Their suffering in their land is very great, our Native America family.
So all of those who cry for justice, no cry is greater than those who have suffered the most.
We're here at the 17th Annual Chiefs Ride in Standing Rock, North Dakota.
This is a ride that the elders and the youth go on every year to honour their fallen ancestors and to honour the chiefs who fought for them to be here today.
This ride lasts for six days, and right now they've circled up behind us, and they're about to take part in ceremony.
(Chanting) It's been a good week.
To get up early and - (Horse neighing) - you don't wanna go, but then you're like you know what you're riding for.
So at the end of the day, you feel good.
What are you riding for? To honour all our chiefs, the leaders that led the way and stood up for our people and did what was good for them.
I ride for the chiefs, and I ride for my family.
- Is this your first time riding? - Nope.
- Like 5th year.
- Your 5th year? How about you? - Eighth.
- Your 8th year? So what kind of stories, what kind of things do you hear when you're riding? - What happens? - Lot of old stories.
Amazing, kinda cool stuff about how they fought to free fought for freedom and stuff.
Can you guys tell me why you think it's important to know your history? So it'll happen again.
Sitting Bull became a warrior as a young boy.
Believe he was on a buffalo hunt.
Somebody had shot that buffalo.
Buffalo was sitting there, sitting down.
Front feet were up.
Later, after that hunt, he took the name of Sitting Bull when he'd seen that.
SARAIN: Chief Sitting Bull is a legendary face of Indigenous resistance, revered for his leadership in the Battle of Greasy Grass or Little Bighorn, where Sioux warriors annihilated General Custer's army in 1876.
Sitting Bull's fearless spirit continues to inspire the people of the Great Sioux Nation to never back down.
MAN: Until justice is ours.
I feel the cry of our ancestors, the pain of those on whose shoulders we stand.
I feel that the ancestors are happy that a young generation has arisen.
(Echoing) (Water running) (Children chattering) - BOY: I'm gonna go play games.
- Okay.
Hello.
Good to meet you guys.
Hmm? Where's your glasses? Um, I got I got tipped over helping somebody with their motorcycle.
Dad, what do you think about the pipeline? I think they're so rich, the oil companies, they're gonna get what they want.
It's always the ones that are rich, have money that can get their way.
They don't think about the grassroots people at all.
Once she asked me The only thing about this run that I knew, she asked me, she said, "Dad, do you think I could do it?" I said, "You know, it's not a matter if you could do it," I said.
"It's a matter what you're gonna do after that," I said, "because you're gonna open one door, it's gonna lead to another door.
You're representing the people," I said.
"They'll always be watching you now, and that's a big responsibility to have.
" I know what you did was very important 'cause you shed a lot of light on it.
I know there's some coalitions that are starting up, are a little bit more fired up because of what you did.
You made the non-Natives more aware of what the pipelines are actually doing.
That it's not just a Native issue.
- Because it's not just a Native issue.
- Yeah.
I guess this is the starting point where we're fighting back.
When your daughter gets older, I see I see a lot better things for them than happened for me or my parents.
(Birds chirping) SARAIN: In the 19th century, after hundreds of years of defensive battle with settlers, Indigenous tribes signed treaties with the United States government agreeing to live on designated land in exchange for peace.
Over the years, the United States has repeatedly broke its promises.
To date, every one of the treaties signed with Native peoples has been violated.
Lands were forcibly claimed through violence and genocide, and today the Sioux people still face being arrested on their own land.
(Birds chirping) Our challenge is to try to educate the company that's developing the pipeline on our treaty boundaries and our treaty rights, and remind the federal government of these treaty obligations that they entered into.
And this pipeline is going right through our treaty lands.
One judge, one person can can rule against our treaty right.
And if they do get the permit, what type of legal action can the tribe take? We're gonna file an injunction, and then we're gonna we'll have to go with the Supreme Court, and then it's up to the judge to take a look at everything and see if this warrants a hearing.
We never had any say or any input on the pipeline from the beginning, even though it threatens our future.
What is the best-case scenario for you and your people? Well, the best one is for them to reroute the pipeline.
This pipeline route can be changed so that there's minimal impact on water if it's national security or if it's energy independence.
Those can be achieved without threatening water.
(Singing) REPORTER: A crude oil pipeline has received final federal permit approvals needed to proceed with construction.
The US Army Corps of Engineers were approved 60 river crossings in the state, a decision pipeline opponents hoped to stop.
SARAIN: Despite pushback from three federal agencies, in July 2016, the US Army Corps of Engineers grant the final permits to construct the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Yesterday was a very devastating day.
But that doesn't mean that we stop fighting.
We must fight with every inch of our lives now.
We need to all stand together.
We need to do our best to fight this demon, to fight the black snake.
I'm asking each of you to come stand with us at the Sacred Stone Camp.
REPORTER: Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are taking the legal steps to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
They're suing the Army Corps of Engineers for issuing the final permits.
SARAIN: Earthjustice is a non-profit environmental law firm representing the tribe's legal suit.
In the court documents, the tribe says the project threatens sacred sites and violates federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act.
They want an injunction to halt the pipeline's construction until their case can be heard.
(Singing) Bobbi Jean leads her youth group in another run to raise awareness for the fight.
This time, the youth run from North Dakota all the way to DC, arriving on Obama's front steps on August 5th with a petition signed by 140,000 people in support of halting the pipeline construction.
We had a 48-hour notice about two days ago that they were gonna start drilling under the Missouri River, and we're trying to stop it with every power that we have.
And it took us three weeks to get here to DC.
We did over a 2,000 mile relay run.
All these kids are from different various reservations throughout the Midwest.
Their livelihoods are at stake, and we're asking for your support and your signatures to help us stop this pipeline.
- We run! - We run! - For our people! - For our people! - For one nation! - For one nation! I feel like my people were so oppressed for hundreds of years that they never got to have a voice to speak out.
And you know, maybe it did take us kids to say something for people to listen, but now people are listening.
And you know, they're hearing where we're coming from, they get to understand our perspective of life, and you know, this is scary.
This is all our futures.
And I feel like this is the time that's changing now.
I really do.
I feel like a great change is coming.
REPORTER: The encampment near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation is now one of North Dakota's newest and biggest communities.
Two, at times three thousand people are joining tribal members in their fight against the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.
SARAIN: Shortly after Ladonna's live call to action, and the youth run led by Bobbi Jean, thousands of Native Americans from across the country arrive at the camp to stand.
Just up the road from the camp, they form a frontline where direct actions play out to stop construction.
(Yelling) LADONNA: I sent out a call to all the warriors, and I am just kind of in shock at all the people who came.
People came from everywhere.
I see the Eagle and Condor here.
I see Oceti Sakowin coming together.
I see all the nations standing with us.
I hope that the world can change their thought, their mind, and remember that water is important to all living things.
I am not moving till every pipe is removed from that earth, and the earth is put back the way it was.
BOBBI: You know, running across the country and bringing this awareness, like look at how much people it brought here.
It's so crazy to, like, watch everything grow, but it makes me feel good that our message is being heard.
- Really clearly you can see it.
- Like these are things that I just imagined, like I never thought I would get to be a part of.
It's not just about, you know, protecting our land and water, but it's about healing, because I know on different reservations they go through the same thing that we do.
And it's just it feels so good that all of us are in one spot.
And it feels really good to know that you belong to them, and they belong to you.
- We stand! - We stand! (Cheering) (Motors rumbling) Criminals! You guys are criminals! Go get your money somewhere else! Yeah, you! Yeah, you! This land being bulldozed is an ancestral burial ground.
The tribe filed evidence of this sacred site to the court on Friday, September 2nd.
On Saturday, September 3rd, construction workers jump ahead of their intended route and bulldoze all evidence of the burial site.
When defenders rushed to protect their sacred land, they are met by private security forces hired by Dakota Access, armed with pepper spray and dogs.
CROWD: We are not leaving! We are not leaving! We are not leaving! We are not leaving! (Shouting) (Dog yelping) (Yelling) - Dog bit him right now.
- Don't follow me! These fuckers throw the dog on me! (Shouting) Get your fucking dogs outta here! (Yelling) Get the fuck out! Get out! Get the fuck out! We aren't scared of you! We aren't scared of you! What the fuck's your dog gonna do?! Get the fuck out! Get the fuck outta here! (Yelling) Things are getting pretty serious now.
They have dogs out there.
They have pit bulls, German Shepherds.
They're macing people.
All my people on Standing Rock, I need you to wake up, and open your eyes and ears.
I need you to get out there and stand with the people.
Stand up for your land, stand up for your families, your daughters, your sons.
It makes me cry because what would we do without all these people on our land, without all these people helping trying to help protect us? They're risking their lives right now.
And the government does not give a fuck right now.
I need my Standing Rock people to wake up, you know? Put the bottle down for a day, you know? Put the drugs away for a day.
I know I know that's why we're struggling right now, I know that.
I know those struggles.
But this is a much more bigger struggle.
This is our land, and this is what we have to take care of.
And when the black snake comes, the world will end.
One hundred years ago, they said when that happens, we have to stand up.
We have to stop the black snake.
(Drum beating) 'Kay, so we got some news from down the line.
We got calls of police coming in, but they're actually about 7 miles down the road.
They built a road in, and they dropped barricades to keep people from going in, but they've been getting their equipment in through the back.
If any of you guys know any other people with horses, they're asking them to scout in and see where the machinery is.
Alright, so we need to send in everyone over there now? - Yeah.
- Three Three gravel trucks and one crane.
- Okay.
- Coming this way? Yeah, coming this way.
It should be here.
Half hour ago, they were in a big cemetery.
Okay.
'Kay, ready? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our water is under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our people are under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our lives are under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! What do we do when our land is under attack? CROWD: Stand up, fight back! They're staying out of the way of everyone.
They don't want no problems.
You know, they've been going probably about half a day without water, so if any of you have extra water, share it with them, 'cause I know that they probably don't wanna be here.
So you know, be kind, be a human and share it with them.
Oh, well, thank you.
I appreciate that, thank you very much.
Oh, you guys truly don't need to Thank you very much.
REPORTER: There is a standoff in the Great Plains.
Two hundred Native American tribes are fighting construction of an oil pipeline.
REPORTER 2: Dakota Access Pipeline would have the same impact on the planet as 21.
4 million cars.
It would also pose a serious threat to the water supply along its entire 1,170 mile route, not just on Standing Rock Sioux land, but down stream in the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers.
In what possible world is this a good idea? SARAIN: Here at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, thousands have come together, camped along the banks of the Missouri River, in unity against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
This is the largest mass gathering of Natives and allies in more than a century.
I arrived when the camp was still young, before we knew this would grow into the movement it has become.
Before the police barricades, before the arrests, before the world began to take notice, when just a few dozen people had collected on a patch of land known as the Sacred Stone Camp.
So I know that this camp has just been set up for about two months now, and I'm not sure what to expect when I get down there, but I know for sure that there's definitely an occupation now.
Sacred Stone Camp is ground zero for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
This largely female-led movement is bringing together people from all walks of life.
(Horn blowing) While they call themselves water protectors, water is not the only thing they are here to preserve.
They stand in defense of Native sovereignty, their presence a reminder of whose land the United States was built upon.
Founder of Sacred Stone Camp Ladonna Brave Bull Allard has invited people to camp on her land since April 1st, 2016.
We sent out the word, and all the Lakota Dakota Nations responded, and they said, "We'll come.
" The youth said, "We'll have a run," and these are young people.
And it was just a movement, and it happened so fast.
Just even setting up the camp, it just all happened so fast.
It's because young people understand how important our water is.
Once that water's gone, it's gone for everybody along that path.
- (Cheering) - In opposition of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a group of Indigenous youth organized a 500 mile relay run from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to the office of the United States Army Corps in Omaha, Nebraska.
They delivered a petition asking them not to grant the final federal permits needed to complete the pipeline.
One of the main organizers of the youth run was 24-year-old Bobbi Jean Three Legs.
It doesn't take extraordinary people to do extraordinary things.
It takes a good mind and a good heart.
We started out with four runners, just two girls and two older guys from the camp.
It took us eight days to do the whole run to get down to Omaha.
It was to bring awareness to the people about the Dakota Access Pipeline being built here.
Not a lot of people knew about it.
Like when we were coming through the towns, that was some of the people's very first time hearing about it.
I wanted to bring awareness to the youth, 'cause this is gonna affect them the most.
All the runners were really random.
We didn't even plan anything.
Kinda just sorta happened, and it felt really good.
And you could see it in the people's faces, especially in the elders.
What do you think that they're seeing when they see young people running, and when they see you running, and when they hear about the camp? That we wanna learn, that we care, and we care about Mother Earth, that we care about our traditions, our culture.
Pretty much just not letting it die out.
And that's our responsibility, to keep it alive so that my grandchildren from 100 years from now will know all these things.
Bobbi, do you want kids? - I have a baby! - You have a baby? She's the reason why I kinda started with my efforts against all this, 'cause every morning she wakes up and she asks me or her dad for a drink of water.
It's just that simple, you know? And what am I gonna do if I can't give her water, or give her a bath, or feed her? It's pretty scary to think about when you're a mom.
Originally the Dakota Access Pipeline was supposed to be built by Bismarck-Mandan, but they said that the people of Bismarck-Mandan - were concerned that, you know, - - it would affect their water source and stuff.
- So they decided to put it not even a half a mile away from our reservation.
It pretty much just makes us feel like oh, it's just Indians, you know? We're humans too.
We're human beings.
(Helicopter whirring) Hey, I'm Sarain.
What are you doing? Well, I'm just gonna give my daily check and see what kinda if there's any progress or movement over here.
Let us see.
Where are you looking? I'm looking over there where they got their staging at.
Oh, there's those big red big white boxes again.
Oh, they're getting ready to put them in somewhere.
It's new though? Something new is down there? - Yeah, see, check this out.
- Okay.
You see those see that that field where they grated the ground there? - You see those big white things? - Yeah.
And plus that a little to the right, you can see that they got equipment over there, so they're working over there.
Across the river from the Sacred Stone Camp, the Dakota Access Pipeline construction has begun.
But they cannot complete it without a final permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, a decision that could happen any day.
If approved, the pipeline could be fully operational by the end of 2016.
Maybe the greatest insult of all is that the tribe has repeatedly objected to the construction of a pipeline in the first place.
Its intended path crosses under the Missouri River, just a half mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, cutting through ancestral lands, threatening to destroy hundreds of sacred sites.
We're waiting for 'em to come down that last hill towards the river, and once we see them do that, then we're moving over, setting camp right up in the pathway of the pipeline to the river, and that's when we're gonna start letting ourselves be noticed.
And when do you think you're gonna make that move? I don't know, that's why we're gonna have to have a group discussion, because this is new info here right this minute.
You know, it goes by their move.
You know, it's gonna be like a chess game here.
Is it dangerous to be over there? Well you know, they got them man camps over there, and I'm sure they all would like to pop an Indian or two, so They start construction and say, "Look, we put this much money into it already.
You need to give us the permit, otherwise we're gonna lose all these millions of dollars.
" That's their strategy.
And their environmental assessment has 380 sites our sites, that are up for total destruction.
That's burials, rock cairns, sacred sites Traditional cultural properties and village sites are up for destruction by Dakota Access.
A lot of non-Native people, when you when they see the fights, they'll just say, "Well, there's an easy solution.
Why don't you just move somewhere else, or leave, or go to the city to get income?" Why do you stay? Why do Indigenous people stay here? Because the roots go right out of my feet down to the ground.
I can tell you where my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's grandfathers live.
I can give you the history of this whole river and this whole land, and everybody I see is my relative.
Why would I want to be any place else? Why would the whole concept of money be more important than my relatives? We always take care of our dead.
They're never away from us.
We remember our dead every day.
You look around at this land.
It's because of their sacrifice that we actually have this.
We moved back here in like '99.
I was probably about like eight or nine.
There wasn't even no pavement, no sidewalks.
There wasn't no driveways.
Everything was still gravel.
This ridge we're coming up to, my siblings and my dad would all ride out on bikes.
And yeah, we used to just jump off this bridge.
- How many siblings? - Six of us.
- You have six siblings? - Yeah, one I have one brother and five sisters.
We all kinda had to grow up really early, from like everything that we went through.
Can you tell me more about that? It had a lot to do with alcohol.
Just I don't know, all of us kinda just went our separate ways for a little bit.
I had actually got the opportunity to go to college.
- What did you take? - Criminal justice.
Why did you wanna take criminal justice? Because of everything I've been through when I was younger, and all the stories that are here about, like, sexual assaults and the crime made me wanna do that for my people, because we need a lot more support that way.
What is the struggle? Uh, alcohol and drugs, domestic violence, sexual assault.
You know, like molestation, rape.
That I believe comes from the boarding schools, 'cause that's what they learned.
And like it happened to me whenever I was a little girl.
I was about five or six years old.
I had already been molested.
It went on until I was about nine years old.
As a kid, I was really lost.
I didn't know who to trust.
But you see that in like every generation.
Like you see it in my grandparents' generation and my parents' generation all the way down to us.
John Brown met a little Indian John Brown met a little Indian John Brown met a little Indian One little Indian boy One little two little three little Indians I watched the stories with the people that had went to boarding school.
Like I would get on the internet and just look up stories, and it kinda gave me a lot of answers to why everything was the way it was growing up.
SARAIN: In the 1870s, the American government separated thousands of Indigenous children from their families and forced them into boarding schools.
We bring them in, clean them up, and start them on their way to civilization.
Through the agencies of the government, they are being rapidly brought from their state of comparative savagery and barbarism to one of civilization.
The schools banned all forms of Indigenous culture and spiritual beliefs, and many children suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse from the people who were supposed to be caring for them.
(School bell ringing) Many survivors turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with their pain.
The intergenerational effects of this trauma are still felt today.
By the time I was like 10 or 11, I had already tried to commit suicide.
I did pills a lot, and I drank a lot too.
It was just kinda getting out of control.
It took me a long time to realize that I love myself, and that I'm not gonna let that define me.
(Sighing) I finally found it in myself to quit.
We need to just forgive that part of us and just grow from it, and try to prevent it as much as we can.
And if that means just talking out loud about it, you know, that's what we need to do.
And you know, I see it, and I grew up with it, I've been through it, and I wanna fix it.
I would go crazy if someone ever hurt my baby.
Never Never thought that I would ever be working with the youth till they asked me to coach them.
So we started doing that and started having practices, and we went to a couple tournaments together, and you know, went for runs in our town.
And that has really turned my life around too, being able to do that.
It's a game that gets them away from reality.
You know, it's just trying to show them that we can be positive.
And you know, whatever we're going through at home or whatever, we don't have to let that define us, and that we can go out and live our dreams and get an education and all that.
REPORTER: Workers are digging trenches in Emmons County for the Dakota Access Pipeline, even though a federal permit for the project has yet to be approved.
The North Dakota section would cross under several rivers, which prompted protest on the Standing Rock and Fort Berthold Reservations about the threat to drinking water supplies.
The Army Corps of Engineers still hasn't given approval to cross those waterways.
Right now, Army Corps is holding our whole lives in their hands with this permit.
So they must issue the permit to allow that pipeline to go across the Missouri River.
With Standing Rock, we're 2.
3 million acres.
We're the 5th largest land-based tribe in the United States.
Across the river, that's our homelands.
We call that Docket 74A, unresolved land claims of my people, because in 1873 they rounded us up and brought us over to this side of the river.
But our homes, our ceremonial sites, our sacred sites are all across there, where they're digging right now.
And I went over there and I watched them, and I was thinking what are you gonna do when you find my family's remains? Are you just gonna throw them aside? So you can see probably the tip.
There's a little island that's out there in the river.
That little island is a burial ground.
It's all burials out there.
So what they're gonna do is they're gonna go down underneath the river and come up underneath that burial ground.
And we're saying, "You can't do that.
" One of the things that no human being should have to do is pick up human remains from the river.
What do these flags here mean? What do they represent? When we first asked for help, people sent their flags as their support, and what they represent is all of these nations, that we stand with you.
So we have the Yankton Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Lakota, the Cheyenne River, and then Standing Rock.
So Oceti Sakowin is our Seven Council Fires, which is how we establish our nation.
And today, we are separated into 14 reservations and nine Canadian reserves, and that is one nation.
And so we are trying to bring that all back together again so we can work as a nation again.
SARAIN: The Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is home to some of the poorest people in America, organizing to oppose a fossil fuel industry supported by some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.
Ladonna's camp has brought people together in prayer, a courageous act of non-violent and defensive resistance to say, "Enough is enough.
We will not let our water be spoiled for profit.
" But this is a war not easily won in a country solidified in its strong allegiances to the fossil fuel industry.
The Standing Rock Occupation, coupled with the recent presidential race, is widening an already existing divide in the community.
While Donald Trump speaks at an oil and gas conference in the state capital of Bismarck, North Dakota, outside, racial tensions run high.
America first, America first, America first! (Yelling) Trump will make America great again! Get a job, you bums! You're fucking racist! I'm tired of the government taking $300 from my cheque a week to give it to you bums! - I pay for my own shit! - Shame on you! I pay for my shit! - Get outta here! - There, not here! Step back up on the curb! The line's right here, not there! You know, if they come in and they break ground and they complete the Dakota Access Pipeline, they are potentially going to be contaminating all of our water systems in South Dakota, which extends from the reservation here in Standing Rock all the way down to Yankton, to the other corner, and goes all the way back up to Minnesota and back down through Lake Traverse into our reservation and system.
So to say that it's not gonna affect everything, than the entire Dakota territory is just plain naive.
We are fighting for a future of America that's better for all of us! - (Cheering) - At an hour's drive away, Bismarck is the closest major city to the camp.
Every day, Ladonna and her husband, Miles, make the drive to town to get the much needed supplies to keep the camp functioning.
So this isn't it's out of your pocket right now, but there'll be a like a camp fund, or how does it work? Like are you footing the bill? Right now, about a third of my income goes to the camp, and then the rest are all donations, and we wrote three grants.
And so the grant money should be in the account soon, which will be able to buy ply board and stuff.
How much money do you spend a day on the camp? - Oh, can't complain.
- Hundred, 150, about a day.
Wow.
That's to make sure everybody's got food and meat, and their biggest thing right now is get real coffee.
- (Laughing) - Yeah, real coffee! REPORTER: The Dakota Access Pipeline is getting closer to approval.
Last week, both South Dakota and Illinois approved the project, although it hasn't yet been approved here in North Dakota.
Since the camp, I've been taking I have lots and lots of sick leave.
So I've been taking four hours at least once or twice a week just to take care of what the camp needs.
It's like people understand what we're doing, so community members come down and bring any extra food, any extra supplies.
I'm trying to make all the records accountable.
I opened a bank account just for the camp, so then we have bank statements saying this is how much money's a year and stuff, so accountability.
So how long do you think you can run it like this? It's gonna need to run like this? Till we win.
SARAIN: Back at the camp, some youth from the Fort Berthold Reservation are visiting.
Their community, a three-and-a-half hour drive north of Standing Rock, has been heavily fracked over the last decade.
And are you the only guy in this youth group? Um, no, there's another one, but he couldn't come.
So there's how many how many boys? There's three.
- Three? - Yeah.
Why do you think it's young women stepping up to this this fight? When I was younger, I remember it changing because of the oil coming in, and you like go into New Town and you could just see wells, oil wells everywhere you looked.
Like a long time ago, it wasn't like that.
Like it's just basically destroying our land up there.
And our tribal leaders don't really care because all they see is the money and everything.
It's really taken over our people.
We don't feel safe in our own communities anymore because of all the men that the oil brought in, because like the economy and the jobs and everything.
You just You can get just picked up off of the off of the sidewalk or wherever you are.
Someone can just steal you.
You can just get stolen? And what happens to you? - You can get raped, you can get killed.
- Or sold.
Multiple times.
Sold to who? Different men.
The oil boom in North Dakota has brought an influx of money to the region, but with it has come drugs, crime, and sex trafficking.
In the community of Fort Berthold, there has been a 168% increase in violent assaults against women.
Man camps, the temporary lodgings set up to house oil workers, has put women's lives at risk, and tribal police officers can do little to stop it.
The United States Supreme Court stripped tribes of the right to arrest non-Natives who commit crimes on reservation land, sending a strong message that on Indian land, criminals can get away with almost anything.
It's scary to think that you guys are scared to walk out your own doors.
It's scary to think that that could become what our community is like.
I refuse to let that happen to me or like any of us, you know what I mean? Like anybody in our community.
That's why I'm doing this, that's why I'm standing up.
And I wanna use my voice 'cause it can't continue to go on how it is going up there, so (Singing) (Cheering) MAN: Their suffering in their land is very great, our Native America family.
So all of those who cry for justice, no cry is greater than those who have suffered the most.
We're here at the 17th Annual Chiefs Ride in Standing Rock, North Dakota.
This is a ride that the elders and the youth go on every year to honour their fallen ancestors and to honour the chiefs who fought for them to be here today.
This ride lasts for six days, and right now they've circled up behind us, and they're about to take part in ceremony.
(Chanting) It's been a good week.
To get up early and - (Horse neighing) - you don't wanna go, but then you're like you know what you're riding for.
So at the end of the day, you feel good.
What are you riding for? To honour all our chiefs, the leaders that led the way and stood up for our people and did what was good for them.
I ride for the chiefs, and I ride for my family.
- Is this your first time riding? - Nope.
- Like 5th year.
- Your 5th year? How about you? - Eighth.
- Your 8th year? So what kind of stories, what kind of things do you hear when you're riding? - What happens? - Lot of old stories.
Amazing, kinda cool stuff about how they fought to free fought for freedom and stuff.
Can you guys tell me why you think it's important to know your history? So it'll happen again.
Sitting Bull became a warrior as a young boy.
Believe he was on a buffalo hunt.
Somebody had shot that buffalo.
Buffalo was sitting there, sitting down.
Front feet were up.
Later, after that hunt, he took the name of Sitting Bull when he'd seen that.
SARAIN: Chief Sitting Bull is a legendary face of Indigenous resistance, revered for his leadership in the Battle of Greasy Grass or Little Bighorn, where Sioux warriors annihilated General Custer's army in 1876.
Sitting Bull's fearless spirit continues to inspire the people of the Great Sioux Nation to never back down.
MAN: Until justice is ours.
I feel the cry of our ancestors, the pain of those on whose shoulders we stand.
I feel that the ancestors are happy that a young generation has arisen.
(Echoing) (Water running) (Children chattering) - BOY: I'm gonna go play games.
- Okay.
Hello.
Good to meet you guys.
Hmm? Where's your glasses? Um, I got I got tipped over helping somebody with their motorcycle.
Dad, what do you think about the pipeline? I think they're so rich, the oil companies, they're gonna get what they want.
It's always the ones that are rich, have money that can get their way.
They don't think about the grassroots people at all.
Once she asked me The only thing about this run that I knew, she asked me, she said, "Dad, do you think I could do it?" I said, "You know, it's not a matter if you could do it," I said.
"It's a matter what you're gonna do after that," I said, "because you're gonna open one door, it's gonna lead to another door.
You're representing the people," I said.
"They'll always be watching you now, and that's a big responsibility to have.
" I know what you did was very important 'cause you shed a lot of light on it.
I know there's some coalitions that are starting up, are a little bit more fired up because of what you did.
You made the non-Natives more aware of what the pipelines are actually doing.
That it's not just a Native issue.
- Because it's not just a Native issue.
- Yeah.
I guess this is the starting point where we're fighting back.
When your daughter gets older, I see I see a lot better things for them than happened for me or my parents.
(Birds chirping) SARAIN: In the 19th century, after hundreds of years of defensive battle with settlers, Indigenous tribes signed treaties with the United States government agreeing to live on designated land in exchange for peace.
Over the years, the United States has repeatedly broke its promises.
To date, every one of the treaties signed with Native peoples has been violated.
Lands were forcibly claimed through violence and genocide, and today the Sioux people still face being arrested on their own land.
(Birds chirping) Our challenge is to try to educate the company that's developing the pipeline on our treaty boundaries and our treaty rights, and remind the federal government of these treaty obligations that they entered into.
And this pipeline is going right through our treaty lands.
One judge, one person can can rule against our treaty right.
And if they do get the permit, what type of legal action can the tribe take? We're gonna file an injunction, and then we're gonna we'll have to go with the Supreme Court, and then it's up to the judge to take a look at everything and see if this warrants a hearing.
We never had any say or any input on the pipeline from the beginning, even though it threatens our future.
What is the best-case scenario for you and your people? Well, the best one is for them to reroute the pipeline.
This pipeline route can be changed so that there's minimal impact on water if it's national security or if it's energy independence.
Those can be achieved without threatening water.
(Singing) REPORTER: A crude oil pipeline has received final federal permit approvals needed to proceed with construction.
The US Army Corps of Engineers were approved 60 river crossings in the state, a decision pipeline opponents hoped to stop.
SARAIN: Despite pushback from three federal agencies, in July 2016, the US Army Corps of Engineers grant the final permits to construct the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Yesterday was a very devastating day.
But that doesn't mean that we stop fighting.
We must fight with every inch of our lives now.
We need to all stand together.
We need to do our best to fight this demon, to fight the black snake.
I'm asking each of you to come stand with us at the Sacred Stone Camp.
REPORTER: Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are taking the legal steps to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
They're suing the Army Corps of Engineers for issuing the final permits.
SARAIN: Earthjustice is a non-profit environmental law firm representing the tribe's legal suit.
In the court documents, the tribe says the project threatens sacred sites and violates federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act.
They want an injunction to halt the pipeline's construction until their case can be heard.
(Singing) Bobbi Jean leads her youth group in another run to raise awareness for the fight.
This time, the youth run from North Dakota all the way to DC, arriving on Obama's front steps on August 5th with a petition signed by 140,000 people in support of halting the pipeline construction.
We had a 48-hour notice about two days ago that they were gonna start drilling under the Missouri River, and we're trying to stop it with every power that we have.
And it took us three weeks to get here to DC.
We did over a 2,000 mile relay run.
All these kids are from different various reservations throughout the Midwest.
Their livelihoods are at stake, and we're asking for your support and your signatures to help us stop this pipeline.
- We run! - We run! - For our people! - For our people! - For one nation! - For one nation! I feel like my people were so oppressed for hundreds of years that they never got to have a voice to speak out.
And you know, maybe it did take us kids to say something for people to listen, but now people are listening.
And you know, they're hearing where we're coming from, they get to understand our perspective of life, and you know, this is scary.
This is all our futures.
And I feel like this is the time that's changing now.
I really do.
I feel like a great change is coming.
REPORTER: The encampment near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation is now one of North Dakota's newest and biggest communities.
Two, at times three thousand people are joining tribal members in their fight against the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.
SARAIN: Shortly after Ladonna's live call to action, and the youth run led by Bobbi Jean, thousands of Native Americans from across the country arrive at the camp to stand.
Just up the road from the camp, they form a frontline where direct actions play out to stop construction.
(Yelling) LADONNA: I sent out a call to all the warriors, and I am just kind of in shock at all the people who came.
People came from everywhere.
I see the Eagle and Condor here.
I see Oceti Sakowin coming together.
I see all the nations standing with us.
I hope that the world can change their thought, their mind, and remember that water is important to all living things.
I am not moving till every pipe is removed from that earth, and the earth is put back the way it was.
BOBBI: You know, running across the country and bringing this awareness, like look at how much people it brought here.
It's so crazy to, like, watch everything grow, but it makes me feel good that our message is being heard.
- Really clearly you can see it.
- Like these are things that I just imagined, like I never thought I would get to be a part of.
It's not just about, you know, protecting our land and water, but it's about healing, because I know on different reservations they go through the same thing that we do.
And it's just it feels so good that all of us are in one spot.
And it feels really good to know that you belong to them, and they belong to you.
- We stand! - We stand! (Cheering) (Motors rumbling) Criminals! You guys are criminals! Go get your money somewhere else! Yeah, you! Yeah, you! This land being bulldozed is an ancestral burial ground.
The tribe filed evidence of this sacred site to the court on Friday, September 2nd.
On Saturday, September 3rd, construction workers jump ahead of their intended route and bulldoze all evidence of the burial site.
When defenders rushed to protect their sacred land, they are met by private security forces hired by Dakota Access, armed with pepper spray and dogs.
CROWD: We are not leaving! We are not leaving! We are not leaving! We are not leaving! (Shouting) (Dog yelping) (Yelling) - Dog bit him right now.
- Don't follow me! These fuckers throw the dog on me! (Shouting) Get your fucking dogs outta here! (Yelling) Get the fuck out! Get out! Get the fuck out! We aren't scared of you! We aren't scared of you! What the fuck's your dog gonna do?! Get the fuck out! Get the fuck outta here! (Yelling) Things are getting pretty serious now.
They have dogs out there.
They have pit bulls, German Shepherds.
They're macing people.
All my people on Standing Rock, I need you to wake up, and open your eyes and ears.
I need you to get out there and stand with the people.
Stand up for your land, stand up for your families, your daughters, your sons.
It makes me cry because what would we do without all these people on our land, without all these people helping trying to help protect us? They're risking their lives right now.
And the government does not give a fuck right now.
I need my Standing Rock people to wake up, you know? Put the bottle down for a day, you know? Put the drugs away for a day.
I know I know that's why we're struggling right now, I know that.
I know those struggles.
But this is a much more bigger struggle.
This is our land, and this is what we have to take care of.