In the summer of 2016, Native Americans set up Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota to protest the construction of an oil pipeline under Lake Oahe. The lake is a critical source of water for the Sioux tribe. That lake water, in turn, flows into the Missouri River – all 2,341 miles of it. And that water, in turn, eventually flows into the Mississippi River. In other words, just about all of the folks who live in the Central time zone and some others to boot would be affected by an oil pipeline spill into Lake Oahe.
Calling themselves “water protectors,” tribal members set up an encampment where the pipeline was supposed to go under the lake. Then they began to broadcast word of their situation on social media.
This protest was entirely peaceful. Native Americans came to Sacred Stone Camp from many different tribes around the country to engage in prayers and rituals based on their shared reverence for Mother Earth. They formed human shields to protect ancient burial sites from deliberate destruction by the oil company. They called on political leaders and bankers backing the project to pay attention to their plight and to the risk the pipeline posed to much of the nation’s water supply.
They were met with bulldozers, armored tanks, police in riot gear, razor wire, tear gas, pepper spray, percussion grenades, rubber bullets, attack dogs and stun guns. Over 75 law enforcement agencies amassed against the protesters (The Guardian Weekly, Julie Carrie Wong and Sam Levin, November 29, 2016).
These heavily armed forces also used the tactics of psychological warfare: Keeping floodlights on the encampment all night, performing 24-hour surveillance from the hillside, sending helicopters over the camp day and night.
Oil company security forces and law enforcement personnel treated both males and females, young and old, the quiet and the vociferous as if they were all rabid wolves: throwing individuals to the ground, yelling in the faces of all who came near, locking some up in dog cages and writing numbers on their arms, using water guns on the crowd in sub-freezing temperatures, setting up road blocks so food and supplies could not get through (ACLU, Jennifer Cook, September 13, 2016).
It seems as if every protest in this country, especially a protest by a minority group, is now being met with a heavily armed show of force: Ferguson, Baltimore, Charlotte and now Stone Camp. One reason for this is very clear: the U.S. Government has been selling its surplus military equipment to local police forces all over the country, everything from armored tanks and aircraft to rubber bullets and bayonets.
Regardless of the political origin of civil unrest, regardless of whether the location is inner city or the vast open prairies of the Midwest, we might expect any large protest in America these days to be met with the same show of force mounted against the Sacred Stone Camp.
That response to civil unrest makes no sense, especially when rioting is not part of the protest, especially when the protest is deliberately, conscientiously peaceful.
Furthermore, as soon as predominantly white policing groups display their arsenal of deadly force weaponry against peaceful non-white protesters, the situation devolves into yet another case of responding to passionate expressions of concern about an issue with the tactics of exclusion, rather than inclusion.
The show of force is an embarrassing example of America’s mind set that might equals right, as if our modern-day police forces are nothing more than the armies of old, defending a fortress against invaders. Beat them back. Chase them away. Make them scatter. As if we have learned nothing in over 200 years of life in a democracy.
Police departments are charged with keeping the peace. But domestic peace is never kept by equipment. Peace is kept by people – people willing to hear the voices of all concerned when a situation is volatile. In the case of Sacred Stone Camp, no one was listening to the concerns of the Native Americans. Their voices in the matter of oil pipelines had been dismissed.
Now that Native Americans have made us all aware of the pipelines that are being built across the country and the dangers they pose – not just to the environment, but to the quality of life for potentially every human being in the country – we all need to help bring their voices to the table. The concerns of the workers hired by the oil company to do a job, and the concerns of area residents, and the concerns of police forces, and the concerns of the oil company have to be integrated with the concerns of Native Americans.
Many members of police departments will tell you they hope to never have to use the gun they are trained to use if necessary. If something happens in the line of duty that requires them to use deadly force, they are generally required to go through counseling and often times do not feel comfortable returning to active duty. The act of taking another human life is too traumatic.
What our police forces need is access to unarmed peacekeeping strategies. Like the members of the Lakota tribe at Stone Camp who brought a donation of heavy winter gear to the police station when the severe prairie winter set in, because it is central to their culture to be generous and peaceful. Like members of Sacred Stone Camp who brought warm bowls of food to the forces masses against them, because every human being living in the teeth of a prairie winter is cold and needs warm nourishment.
Peacekeeping begins with recognizing our common humanity.
