Democracy Now

Many across the United States are celebrating this Thanksgiving holiday. But many for Native Americans observe it as a National Day of Mourning, marking the genocide against their communities and the theft of their land. We spend the hour looking at the standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota—the struggle against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that has galvanized the largest resistance movement of Native Americans in decades. The movement has largely been ignored on this year’s presidential campaign trail and by the national corporate media

AMY GOODMAN: Many across the United States are celebrating this Thanksgiving holiday. But many Native Americans observe it as a National Day of Mourning, marking the genocide against their communities and the theft of their land. We’ll spend today looking at the standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota, the struggle against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that’s galvanized the largest resistance movement of Native Americans in decades.

In Cannon Ball, North Dakota, members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and representatives of more than 200 Indigenous nations from across the Americas have been encamped for months to block the construction of the pipeline. It’s slated to carry half a million barrels of crude a day from the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and into Illinois, where it will link up with an existing pipeline to carry the oil down to the refineries in the Gulf. The thousands of water protectors, as they call themselves, have been joined by many non-Native allies, all concerned a leak could contaminate the Missouri River, which provides water for the tribe and millions of people downstream. The tribe also says the pipeline’s construction across unceded Sioux treaty land will lead to the desecration of sacred sites, including tribal burial grounds. In recent months, hundreds have been arrested after using their bodies to block construction of the pipeline and to protect the sacred sites. The movement has also spread across the country and the world, as protesters have held demonstrations at banks funding the Dakota Access pipeline.