WSA: "Solidarity with the #NoDAPL Resistance'"

any other reading recommendations from a libcommunist & co. viewpoint on the matter (especially on the issues of tribal sovereignty/self-determination)?

https://godsandradicals.org/2016/10/30/occupations-contrasting-responses...

I came across this today -

https://nycstandswithstandingrock.wordpress.com/standingrocksyllabus/

I've only managed to glance through it but it seems to be an extensive list of articles, not just on the Dakota Access Pipeline but also links to relevant articles and a reading list for social, political & economic context. There's also a historical time line of Native American history.

Absolutely in awe of these protesters bravery. Solidarity!

Glen Coulthard has written on indigenous nationhood from an anti-state communist perspective in Red Skin, White Masks. This is an excerpt from the concluding chapter. Taiaiake Alfred isn't a communist afaik, but has also written on indigenous sovereignty (iirc he initially held a kinda nat lib position, then later concluded sovereignty is "an inappropriate concept" too bound up with statist political thought and treating land as property. Edit: basing this on his Peace, Power, Righteousness: an Indigenous manifesto, 2nd edition.).

The pipeline is an almost textbook case of environmental racism. It was re-routed through Standing Rock over concerns for nearby (92% white) Bismarck's drinking water. So now the Standing Rock Sioux are literally being forced at gunpoint to have it.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/pipeline-route-plan-f...

It's important that the fight of the Standing Rock Sioux has gotten so much popular support, as in labor circles and elsewhere, and has made it into mainstream news.

Historically a form that anti-Indian racism has taken in USA is being "disappeared", marginalized, forgotten about. Shove off onto bits of land & their conditions of life rarely if ever publically discussed. The mountain & plains states have higher than average native population. These states also were historically treated as kind of internal colony of extractive capitalism, headquartered in the east, with the mining & lumber industries dominant in the early 20th century.

In the San Juan (AKA Four Corners) region many natives were employed as wage-workers throughout last century in commercial livestock, mining & lumber industries. Most of the uranium deposits in USA are in the San Juan region...San Juan County Utah & adjacent areas of western Colorado. (Population of San Juan County Utah is 54 percent native...Navajo & Ute.) That's where the uranium came from for the atom bombs in World War 2. Most of the miners in this industry were native and most died of cancer. The uranium mining & processing industry left a trail of cancers. There is currently a proposal for a new uranium mine & processing mill in Paradox Valley Colorado, so this industry isn't dead yet.

There are thousands of abandoned mines in Colorado & nearby mountain states. There was of course the recent case of incompetent management of a tailing pond at a defunct gold mine that led to a massive spill that poisoned the water of the Navajo nation. Navajo supporters for Standing Rock point this out.

Due to lack of other economic alternatives, there are three coal mines in the Navajo-Ute area and two coal-fired power plants, which pollute the air. Also, San Juan County New Mexico has been fracked so bad there is an oil or gas well within 500 feet of every residence, and these leak volatile organic compounds. These include endocrine disruptors as well as carcinogens. They poison livestock as well as humans. That county is 34 percent native. San Juan County has major gas, oil & coal deposits. So without other economic resources they are forced to accept polluting industries.

I mention all of this by way of expanding on the theme of environmental racism as it relates to the extractive industries.

Really glad you guys mentioned the environmental racism aspect. Wish I could say I was shocked when I read about it being rerouted from Bismarck, but environmental discrimination is a regular thing.

Oklahoma is another good example of an area with a large first american population, and fracking earthquakes have become routine their at this point. From what I understand about the way OK's major aquifer is situated, one fracking earthquake in the right place at the right time could contaminate all of the drinking water in the state.

http://theantimedia.org/cops-leave-standing-rock/

unusual for cops: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/crime/after-feedback-sheriff-w...

seems that a partial victory was scored: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/the-historic-victory... ... however with the danger looming that a Trump administration potentially could embark on a second era of termination

Apparently the pipeline financing relies on oil flowing as soon as January, so delays could be enough to kill it off:

Why any delay could mean death of DAPL: see The High-Risk Financing Behind the Dakota Access Pipelinehttps://t.co/aU8NIFfw0D— kai a. bosworth (@kaibosworth) December 4, 2016

I'm hopeful that this serves as an example moving forward. Given that direct action will be the only way to stop some of the things coming down the pike, having a victory on the board will hopefully steer opposition to Trump's program away from Bernie Democrats and electoralism into a more radical sphere. While it's possible the Trump administration will try to overturn this, It's been a really long time since I remember such a high-profile victory.

but having had a look at recent legislative steps, e.g. this one - http://www.indianz.com/News/2016/12/06/congress-passes-longawaited-land-... - it seems to me that there is quite a number of republicans in congress who would oppose termination and are relatively moderate in regard to issues of native rights

Trump advisors aim to privatize oil-rich Indian reservations

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2016-12-09/standing-rocks-civil-diso...