I'm a Native journalist returning to Standing Rock to cover this historic moment in my Dakota people's history. I see in this the reemergence of our nation--called the Great Sioux Nation by the Americans and called the Oceti Sakowin Oyate in our language, the seven council fires of the Dakota/Lakota people. I have been covering this for TeleSUR English. If you haven't heard of TeleSUR, it's been described as Latin America's answer to CNN and they have begun expanding to include North American news coverage. So the pieces I write are carried hemispherically, which seems right since the rising of an Indigenous nation matters to all of our Indigenous peoples who have been impacted by colonialism. 

I will be leaving for Standing Rock on December 7th. Right now, things are tense. The Army Corps of Engineers have demanded the thousands camped at the main Oceti Sakowin camp on federal land leave by December 5th or face fines. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is standing firm in their assertion that the only solution is to deny the permit and easement to drill under the Missouri River--just 10 minutes upriver from their sole water intake on the river, which if the Dakota Access Pipeline breaks (and Sunoco has a terrible record) their main source of drinking water will be poisoned.

My coverage is unique because I am Dakota. My father's Yankton Sioux Tribe is also suing the Army Corps and the US Fish and Wildlife Service over lack of consultation over DAPL as they are also signers of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie and their unceded treaty lands include the pipeline corridor.

My grandmother's family also lived in Wakpala on the Standing Rock reservation for 40 years where her Yankton (Ihanktonwan) Dakota grandfather served as the first Episcopal priest to his people. I was raised hearing stories about Standing Rock and mu family has many Hunkpapa stories of Sitting Bull's people and their epic story of survival against the onslaught of the United States. Also, despite being Yankton my grandmother's paternal grandmother, Kate Bear, was Sitting Bull's niece and he stayed with our family when he was imprisoned by the Americans at Fort Randall on the Yankton Sioux reservation. We have family photos of him with his tipis and his wives in front of our family farm-house. 

I feel this deep history and connection to the story that is unfolding at Standing Rock is a reason my journalism could be helpful to the many who seek to understand what this important moment in history means. My last visit in October was amazing and inspires me to this day. To wake in my tent at dawn to the sounds of the eyapaha (town crier) saying, "Wake up Water Protectors and come to do what you came here for. Wake Up and bring your canunpa (sacred pipes) and pray!" And to see the hundreds of Native Nations' flags flying on long lines of flag poles that line the main avenue through camp and along the highway. It reminds us that the struggle for justice for our people is not dead and that we, the Indigenous people and all people, stand together as nations, as allies (Dakota means allies) and as protectors of the things in this world and our hearts that truly matter. 

Pidamaya ye (thank you) for any help you can give.