WEBVTT 00:00:02.800 --> 00:00:04.370 Greetings, trouble-makers. 00:00:04.370 --> 00:00:05.910 Welcome to Trouble…. 00:00:05.910 --> 00:00:07.530 my name is not important. 00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:10.900 In the year of 1990 my community, the Mohawks of Kanehsatà:ke, 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:14.130 began to fight the construction of a golf course that would have destroyed 00:00:14.130 --> 00:00:15.620 one of our sacred burial grounds. 00:00:15.620 --> 00:00:20.590 We filed petitions, we protested, and finally we took up arms against the Quebec police 00:00:20.590 --> 00:00:23.060 and eventually the Canadian army, to protect our land. 00:00:23.060 --> 00:00:25.710 After a 78 day stand off... we fuckin won! 00:00:25.710 --> 00:00:29.380 And the cemetery and the surrounding pines, that would have been cleared and used by rich 00:00:29.380 --> 00:00:31.670 men to play golf on, are still there today. 00:00:31.670 --> 00:00:33.390 Fast forward to 26 years later. 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:37.300 The Lakota community of Standing Rock, faced off with oil infrastructure company, 00:00:37.300 --> 00:00:42.340 Energy Transfer Partners against their attempt to build the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL, 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:44.420 through their territory, and under the Missouri River. 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:48.310 A pipeline that they say, if built, will almost certainly rupture and contaminate 00:00:48.310 --> 00:00:50.540 the water of millions of people in the United States. 00:00:50.540 --> 00:00:53.320 The fight against DAPL became the stuff of legend. 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:57.470 Thousands of Indigenous and Settler allies converged in North Dakota to stop this project 00:00:57.470 --> 00:00:58.910 against incredible odds. 00:00:58.910 --> 00:01:03.750 They became known as water protectors, and in November of 2016 they had a temporary 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:08.140 victory, when outgoing president Barack Obama denied a permit for a key part of the construction. 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:11.970 For some, this executive action seemed to validate a particular strategy 00:01:11.970 --> 00:01:14.020 and corresponding set of tactics. 00:01:14.020 --> 00:01:18.030 But history has clearly shown that states have never had any qualms breaking the countless 00:01:18.030 --> 00:01:20.170 promises they’ve made to Indigenous peoples. 00:01:20.170 --> 00:01:22.720 As for those who’d forgotten, or neglected this fact... 00:01:22.720 --> 00:01:24.540 Donald Trump wasted no time in reminding them. 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:25.690 At the same time, 00:01:25.690 --> 00:01:28.450 there were many water protectors who saw this political maneuver 00:01:28.450 --> 00:01:31.110 as the dirty trick it was, and who continued to stress 00:01:31.110 --> 00:01:34.990 the need for a strategy based on physical confrontation and direct action. 00:01:34.990 --> 00:01:38.580 During the next thirty minutes, we’ll bring you the voices of some of these individuals, 00:01:38.580 --> 00:01:41.501 as they relate their experiences fighting the black snake... 00:01:41.501 --> 00:01:43.720 and making a whole lotta trouble. 00:02:25.790 --> 00:02:30.290 It's hard to just even use the English word "warrior" when you're talking about 00:02:30.290 --> 00:02:32.580 what it means to be a warrior. 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:39.310 Because as Indigenous people, we we born into this life and we believe that it's our duty 00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:44.110 and responsibility to defend our land, in which our language, our culture, 00:02:44.110 --> 00:02:46.410 our existence flows from. 00:02:46.410 --> 00:02:49.050 There is no separating us from our land. 00:02:49.050 --> 00:02:53.640 It's a spiritual connection that goes deep since the beginning of our people. 00:02:53.640 --> 00:02:55.570 So as a warrior we are a defender. 00:02:55.570 --> 00:02:57.010 We are a protector. 00:02:57.010 --> 00:03:03.619 And as a warrior we would do and by any means protect and defend our people. 00:03:03.619 --> 00:03:06.540 Anything that comes in the way of that 00:03:06.540 --> 00:03:12.220 -- and here we're talking about the contamination of water that so much people depend on. 00:03:12.220 --> 00:03:15.570 I've been down here since the middle of September. 00:03:15.570 --> 00:03:20.650 And here to be in solidarity with people that are fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. 00:03:28.700 --> 00:03:31.590 Across the river is Sacred Stone camp where it originally started. 00:03:31.590 --> 00:03:35.380 There was like a handful of people there for a long time. 00:03:35.380 --> 00:03:41.170 Once these guys actually came here and really started building and destroying the earth, 00:03:41.170 --> 00:03:44.140 so everyone just started coming here faster. 00:03:44.140 --> 00:03:47.160 And every day it was just growing and growing. 00:03:47.160 --> 00:03:51.270 Before you knew it, Sacred Stone camp was just overflowing. 00:03:51.270 --> 00:03:57.059 I came out here in response to a call for medical support. 00:03:57.059 --> 00:04:02.779 We received an invite from some of the matriarchs and Indigenous leadership from this Lakota/ 00:04:02.779 --> 00:04:07.580 Dakota/Nakota territory to come and help fight the black snake, help fight the pipeline. 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:10.740 And in some matriarchs' opinions, "by any means necessary". 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:16.000 And in a spirit of collective resistance, and use a diversity of tactics to do that. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:20.329 There's hundreds of camps in this bigger Standing Rock encampment that's called 00:04:20.329 --> 00:04:21.499 Oceti Sakowin camp. 00:04:21.499 --> 00:04:24.029 It got up to around twenty thousand people. 00:04:24.029 --> 00:04:28.579 But a lot of the people that are here and have maintained camps here. 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:31.329 There's High Star camp, there is Wild Oglala camp. 00:04:31.329 --> 00:04:34.880 So this is a big massive mobilization. There’s a lot of people here 00:04:34.880 --> 00:04:36.910 and they want to stop a pipeline. 00:04:36.910 --> 00:04:42.860 It went from just a few of us in little small groups, going out and shutting down the pipeline 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:44.719 wherever we could, y'know? 00:04:44.719 --> 00:04:46.910 Like multiple sites a day... everything. 00:04:46.910 --> 00:04:48.060 We were just on it. 00:04:48.060 --> 00:04:51.049 Black Snake Killaz! Black Snake Killaz! 00:05:13.049 --> 00:05:14.889 Alright, now from here. 00:05:14.889 --> 00:05:16.360 On three, we're gonna move. 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:17.930 One, two, three! 00:05:17.930 --> 00:05:19.880 Move! Move! Move! 00:05:19.880 --> 00:05:27.010 Diversity of tactics is a turn of phrase that represents the very real fact that for every 00:05:27.010 --> 00:05:31.609 one person on the frontline who's there and who can stand and catch rubber bullets, 00:05:31.609 --> 00:05:33.400 there are many folks behind them. 00:05:33.400 --> 00:05:38.599 Be those folks medics, be those folks logistics personnel, be those the folks in the kitchen 00:05:38.599 --> 00:05:41.119 who fed them that day. 00:05:41.119 --> 00:05:45.990 I believe that the only way that anyone could organize is as a diversity of tactics 00:05:45.990 --> 00:05:49.620 because we are all so diverse people. 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:55.199 Where else could you get thousands of people to all come together like that and form this 00:05:55.199 --> 00:06:02.059 community and actually people are not, y'know... like killing each other? 00:06:02.059 --> 00:06:03.739 Look at the rest of society! 00:06:03.739 --> 00:06:04.919 We need all the things. 00:06:04.919 --> 00:06:09.649 We need people litigating in court, we need people doing "petitions", we need people praying, 00:06:09.649 --> 00:06:11.509 and also people that are doing direct action. 00:06:11.509 --> 00:06:13.259 A lot of people did a lot of different things. 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:19.800 They went to courthouse, went to the State Capitol, locking down on the machinery and 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:23.670 actually physically stopping the construction and the machines for the day. 00:06:23.670 --> 00:06:29.060 They had massive caravans out to just make a presence and stop the construction. 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:32.820 Stopping it everywhere we could... anyway we could. 00:06:32.820 --> 00:06:38.220 Using our bodies, locking down, just showing up in force and scaring the workers off. 00:06:45.700 --> 00:06:51.179 Just the pure presence of four hundred water protectors and Native people 00:06:51.179 --> 00:06:54.050 would shut DAPL down for the day. 00:06:54.050 --> 00:06:57.099 And sometimes they would actually be running to their trucks. 00:06:57.099 --> 00:07:01.450 Because they know what they're doing is wrong. Like... I would be scared too! 00:07:01.450 --> 00:07:03.569 At one point, lockdowns were really effective. 00:07:03.569 --> 00:07:07.859 They could stop construction, they could stop what was happening for the day on 00:07:07.859 --> 00:07:09.139 prospective work sites. 00:07:09.139 --> 00:07:11.180 But then it got to the point where it was so militarized. 00:07:11.180 --> 00:07:15.909 And with the resources that we were up against, it didn't matter that we had the intention 00:07:15.909 --> 00:07:17.210 to go and lock down to something. 00:07:17.210 --> 00:07:18.309 It just wasn't an option. 00:07:18.309 --> 00:07:23.009 So then people had to reevaluate the situation and ask themselves what it means to be effective, 00:07:23.009 --> 00:07:27.729 look at the violence that is being perpetrated on them, and then collectively come back together 00:07:27.729 --> 00:07:29.860 and decide what tactics they're going to use. 00:07:29.860 --> 00:07:35.049 And then people started seeing things like flaming cars on highways, and what-have-you. 00:07:35.049 --> 00:07:39.969 Because a lot of the time, that sacred fire was the only thing protecting people from 00:07:39.969 --> 00:07:44.749 the crazy cops and military from coming in and wrecking shop. 00:07:46.929 --> 00:07:51.459 The climax of everything that I witnessed when I was here, 00:07:51.459 --> 00:07:54.479 was when the police took the front line camp. 00:07:54.479 --> 00:07:58.019 People sacrificed vehicles that day, to blockade. 00:07:58.019 --> 00:07:59.980 "What does that mean, to sacrifice vehicles?" 00:07:59.980 --> 00:08:00.980 Lit up. 00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:08.149 Were it not for people who had been training for these sorts of non-violent civil disobedience 00:08:08.149 --> 00:08:13.379 confrontational situations... that pipe would've been built by now. 00:08:18.369 --> 00:08:22.099 Success in stopping a pipeline or other major infrastructure project 00:08:22.099 --> 00:08:24.029 depends on a number of factors. 00:08:24.029 --> 00:08:28.959 And despite what lots of people wanna believe... facebook likes aren't one of them. 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:34.360 A strong heart, patience, and determination on the part of land defenders are all crucial. 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:36.789 But timing and proper planning are also key. 00:08:36.789 --> 00:08:40.799 It's important to get out in front of the pipeline, both physically and by knowing 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:42.539 when and where to make your stand. 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:47.120 On the west coast of Turtle Island, in the unceded territories of the Wet'suwet'en nation 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:51.500 in so-called "British Columbia", warriors and tribal elders from the Unis'tot'en clan 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:54.510 have been blocking the construction of multiple pipelines through their territories 00:08:54.510 --> 00:08:56.050 for seven years now. 00:08:56.050 --> 00:09:01.080 This anchor of land defense has been the Unis'tot'en Camp, a resistance community constructed 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:05.890 smack dab in the pipelines' proposed path -- similar in some ways to Oceti Sakowin, 00:09:05.890 --> 00:09:08.730 also known as Sacred Stone camp, that has served as the home base 00:09:08.730 --> 00:09:12.090 for water protectors fighting to block the Dakota Access Pipeline. 00:09:12.090 --> 00:09:15.930 Here’s camp spokesperson Freda Huson, kicking the cops out of her territory. 00:09:15.930 --> 00:09:20.040 People don’t just freely walk in because were blocking pipelines out, 00:09:20.040 --> 00:09:21.240 we’re not blocking everybody out. 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:22.040 I’m not a pipeline. 00:09:22.040 --> 00:09:24.630 And here she is again kicking out pipeline workers who illegally 00:09:24.630 --> 00:09:26.980 choppered in to do survey work. 00:09:26.980 --> 00:09:29.790 Is there a problem why you’re not leaving? 00:09:32.850 --> 00:09:36.980 And here she is denying access to Chevron executives, who had the audacity to 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:40.460 offer her corporate bottled water and industrial tobacco. 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:47.200 We’re here today to talk to you about doing work on your land and are requesting access 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:48.440 onto your territory. 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:53.230 We’ve already said no to these projects and that no pipelines would come on our territory. 00:09:55.720 --> 00:10:01.080 In November of 2016, Canada's walking photo-op of a Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:03.730 signed an order killing the Northern Gateway pipeline, 00:10:03.730 --> 00:10:07.610 one of the pipelines that had been slated to cross paths with the Unis'tot'en. 00:10:07.610 --> 00:10:11.480 But at the same news conference where he signed Northern Gateway's death certificate, 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:15.940 Trudeau announced the approval of two other pipelines including Enbridge's Line 3 00:10:15.940 --> 00:10:17.840 and Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.530 -- which is expected to face serious resistance in the months and years to come. 00:10:21.530 --> 00:10:26.240 In addition to logistical considerations, those seeking to block pipelines need to be 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:31.040 prepared to deal with internal dynamics, and for the potential for disagreements over tactics 00:10:31.040 --> 00:10:33.560 to sow further discord and disunity. 00:10:44.760 --> 00:10:49.430 Here you have hundreds of different people and hundreds of different tribes 00:10:49.430 --> 00:10:50.890 that are coming together. 00:10:50.890 --> 00:10:54.720 People that have many different views on how we're gonna fight this pipeline. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:58.370 People believe that the only way we're going to fight this pipeline is if we face off 00:10:58.370 --> 00:11:00.380 and when we fight direct head-on. 00:11:00.380 --> 00:11:03.010 Some people think the best way is the legal route. 00:11:03.010 --> 00:11:06.290 Some people feel that prayer is the most powerful thing 00:11:06.290 --> 00:11:09.790 and that's the only way that we're going to beat this. 00:11:09.790 --> 00:11:15.810 But as Indigenous people, we have to understand that we come from respect. 00:11:15.810 --> 00:11:18.130 Y'know... that's who we are as Indigenous people. 00:11:18.130 --> 00:11:21.890 Respecting the way that people believe. 00:11:21.890 --> 00:11:26.570 There has been a group ever since we got here, y'know, that wanted some of us out of here. 00:11:28.130 --> 00:11:29.990 But we're still here. 00:11:29.990 --> 00:11:32.300 We didn't want to go and we weren't gonna go nowhere cause we knew 00:11:32.300 --> 00:11:34.510 nothing was gonna happen if we left. 00:11:34.510 --> 00:11:37.470 There was a lot of fighting that went on too because they didn't want our camp 00:11:37.470 --> 00:11:38.920 doing actions no more. 00:11:38.920 --> 00:11:44.000 They didn't understand direct action so they just didn't want it, you know? 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:47.770 The whole tribe and all the council and everybody. 00:11:47.770 --> 00:11:50.240 There has been a lot of issues with "peace police" and how people 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:51.440 have been fighting this struggle. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:53.610 Even when it's been just lockdowns. 00:11:53.610 --> 00:11:59.870 The peace police both here in treaty territory, much as I've seen them over the years 00:11:59.870 --> 00:12:07.200 in urban settings and demonstrations, are folks who tend to, for one reason or another, 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:13.250 feel that their concern for other people's safety trumps any good tactics, or any of those 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:17.150 individuals who may be putting themselves knowingly in harm's way. 00:12:17.150 --> 00:12:22.280 Trumps their opinions that they have made to choose to be in harm's way. 00:12:22.280 --> 00:12:23.520 Who are the Peace Police? 00:12:23.520 --> 00:12:26.070 It's a combination of people that are closely affiliated with the tribe, 00:12:26.070 --> 00:12:28.920 people that have, like, monetary interest in different NGOs. 00:12:28.920 --> 00:12:33.190 So even some people that came here that threw down in Ferguson and Baltimore, 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:37.440 that were part of those struggles, have come here and have felt relatively immobilized. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:42.230 Because they've tried to be good comrades in deferring to Indigenous leadership. 00:12:42.230 --> 00:12:48.460 But there's such a struggle between different groups as to, like, who is Indigenous leadership 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:51.280 and what it means to be here in a good way. 00:12:51.280 --> 00:12:56.310 And what it means to resist in a way that's beneficial to the local community. 00:12:56.310 --> 00:13:01.050 There was this group of people that came in and they were just all about "peace! peace!" 00:13:01.050 --> 00:13:05.350 And they were bringing around spiritual items and trying to use them against the people 00:13:05.350 --> 00:13:09.650 and it caused a lot of confusion and fear and, I don't know, anger. 00:13:11.270 --> 00:13:12.270 Don't touch me! 00:13:12.270 --> 00:13:13.270 Back up! 00:13:13.270 --> 00:13:15.650 Back up! 00:13:15.650 --> 00:13:20.450 Some of our own people that were policing our own people, telling our own warriors 00:13:20.450 --> 00:13:23.610 and water protectors that were taking direct action to go back. 00:13:23.610 --> 00:13:25.200 Go back to camp. 00:13:31.090 --> 00:13:34.540 "Keep it peaceful!" 00:13:34.540 --> 00:13:38.940 "Come on you guys...that's not okay" "We need to be peaceful!" 00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:45.280 You can't both ask people to come and fight and use civil disobedience and nonviolent 00:13:45.280 --> 00:13:51.920 direct action tactics and similarly lose your spine for those tactics when people 00:13:51.920 --> 00:13:55.510 start getting injured or the police start responding with the sorts of violence 00:13:55.510 --> 00:13:57.240 that we train folks to expect. 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:01.860 When we instead tell folks that this will be accomplished through the courts, 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:04.050 or this will be accomplished through prayer... 00:14:04.050 --> 00:14:07.380 why were so many people asked to come to be physically present? 00:14:07.380 --> 00:14:13.940 These peace police have time and time again scuddled and interfered with actions that 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:17.940 were well under the momentum to be successful. 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:19.390 And they were hampered. 00:14:20.010 --> 00:14:21.990 “love will find a way!” 00:14:24.150 --> 00:14:28.030 If there's one good thing you can say about nazis, it's you know that they are your enemy. 00:14:28.030 --> 00:14:29.030 No doubt about it. 00:14:29.030 --> 00:14:32.340 You see one of those racist idiots walking down the street, or giving an interview with 00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:34.740 a reporter, you just wanna punch 'em in the head. 00:14:35.980 --> 00:14:36.650 Ouch! 00:14:36.650 --> 00:14:40.070 But within movements of liberation, there are actors within our ranks 00:14:40.070 --> 00:14:42.340 that claim to be our allies, but who are really not. 00:14:42.340 --> 00:14:46.010 Putting aside police infiltrators and informants, who pose a real threat, 00:14:46.010 --> 00:14:50.300 we'd like to talk to you about Non-Governmental Organizations, or NGO's. 00:14:50.300 --> 00:14:54.860 NGO's have a sordid history of infiltrating, pacifying and co-opting movements. 00:14:54.860 --> 00:14:59.560 Now... not all NGO's engage in these practices, and some actually do good work, 00:14:59.560 --> 00:15:03.890 but in recent memory we've seen far too many examples of Environmental NGO's 00:15:03.890 --> 00:15:07.200 royally screwing over Indigenous folks engaged in land defense. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:11.810 Take the battle for the Great Bear Rainforest in Western Canada, where Greenpeace and ForestEthics 00:15:11.810 --> 00:15:16.420 joined the Indigenous grassroots forest protectors, later to sideline them and negotiate with 00:15:16.420 --> 00:15:20.760 logging companies to save a fraction of the one of the most important temperate rainforests 00:15:20.760 --> 00:15:21.830 left in the world. 00:15:21.830 --> 00:15:26.080 What the logging companies got in return, was a promise that the Environmental NGO's 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.810 would not protest or oppose logging in Western Canada. 00:15:28.810 --> 00:15:31.460 This deal became a template for an even bigger betrayal. 00:15:31.460 --> 00:15:34.160 At stake this time was the Canadian Boreal Forest, 00:15:34.160 --> 00:15:36.670 one of the largest continuous forests in the world. 00:15:36.670 --> 00:15:41.070 This time Greenpeace and ForestEthics teamed up with the Canadian Forests Products Association, 00:15:41.070 --> 00:15:43.920 i.e. the logging industry, for a similar deal. 00:15:43.920 --> 00:15:48.240 Once again, Indigenous communities who have land in the Boreal Forest were not consulted 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:52.140 and NGO's promised not only to stop anti-logging campaigns in the Boreal Forest, 00:15:52.140 --> 00:15:54.070 but also to defend the industry. 00:15:54.070 --> 00:15:57.770 One interesting piece of the agreement is, uhhh.... 00:15:57.770 --> 00:16:04.180 with Greenpeace, David Suzuki, ForestEthics, Canadian Parks and Wilderness on our side, 00:16:04.180 --> 00:16:07.300 when someone else comes and tries to bully us, 00:16:07.300 --> 00:16:13.330 the agreement actually requires that they come and work with us in repelling the attack. 00:16:13.330 --> 00:16:16.380 And we’ll be able to say... fight me, fight my gang. 00:16:16.380 --> 00:16:19.920 The latest deal of this type was signed between NGO's like ForestEthics, 00:16:19.920 --> 00:16:22.180 and Alberta's Tar Sands industry. 00:16:22.180 --> 00:16:26.410 Given the public backlash of the previous two agreements, this one was done 00:16:26.410 --> 00:16:29.180 behind closed doors, so we don't know all the details. 00:16:29.180 --> 00:16:33.950 What we do know is that oil companies agreed to place limits in Tar Sands extraction, 00:16:33.950 --> 00:16:38.010 in exchange for the enviros backing down on their opposition to pipeline construction. 00:16:38.010 --> 00:16:41.020 We now turn our attention to another movement enemy hidden in plain sight. 00:16:41.020 --> 00:16:45.810 That is the federally-funded tribal governments that rule over and police Indigenous communities. 00:16:45.810 --> 00:16:50.740 In the US, these so called "sovereign tribes" govern federal government-assigned pieces 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:53.860 of land called reservations, or reserves in the case of Canada. 00:16:53.860 --> 00:16:57.050 Their leaders are members of the community, and are chosen through elections, 00:16:57.050 --> 00:16:59.820 and have little or nothing to do with traditional governing structures 00:16:59.820 --> 00:17:01.880 of the Indigenous communities they oversee. 00:17:01.880 --> 00:17:05.637 Historically, although there are some exceptions, tribal government officials are more likely 00:17:05.637 --> 00:17:09.709 to cut deals with mining, logging and other extractive industries to exploit traditional 00:17:09.709 --> 00:17:11.909 territories of the Indigenous nations they belong to. 00:17:11.909 --> 00:17:15.409 This is land outside the reservation and land in which they have no jurisdiction. 00:17:15.409 --> 00:17:19.319 Both in the US and Canada, Tribal Councils have their own police forces. 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:23.887 Let's not forget that Indian Police killed Chief Sitting Bull at the Standing Rock Reservation. 00:17:23.887 --> 00:17:27.647 And in my community of Kanehsatà:ke, Mohawk police shot and severely crippled 00:17:27.647 --> 00:17:29.200 Oka Crisis veteran Joe David. 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:30.849 He later passed away from those injuries. 00:17:30.849 --> 00:17:33.110 Today we see the same thing happening in Standing Rock. 00:17:33.110 --> 00:17:36.910 Just this month Bureau of Indian Affairs cops brutally beat a water protector 00:17:36.910 --> 00:17:39.869 fighting to stop DAPL, in their campaign to clear out 00:17:39.869 --> 00:17:42.559 the last remaining people out of the protest camps. 00:17:44.449 --> 00:17:53.639 I believe, and it is my belief, that any type of DIA, or Department of Indian Affairs, 00:17:53.639 --> 00:17:58.780 or Bureau of Indian Affairs, you know Tribal Government or elected Chief and Council 00:17:58.780 --> 00:18:03.940 that receives federal funding from the federal government that pays their bills, 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:10.900 that gives them the paycheck, has [no] right within a people's movement. 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:16.459 Because we've seen it time and time again, them be co-opted. 00:18:16.459 --> 00:18:19.880 And it's not the true voice of the people. 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:24.879 And we're dealing with this back home with our fight against the Kinder Morgan pipeline 00:18:24.879 --> 00:18:32.320 and I see us as Indigenous people battling with this straight across the whole hemisphere, 00:18:32.320 --> 00:18:38.390 where there are Native people that side with the corporate interests. 00:18:38.390 --> 00:18:42.459 And it really does damage to our people and to our movements. 00:18:42.459 --> 00:18:50.280 And a lot of times our people fear exposing the corruption within tribal government, 00:18:50.280 --> 00:18:54.399 or even take this tribal government as their own government 00:18:54.399 --> 00:18:59.060 -- when that was invented by the American and Canadian state 00:18:59.060 --> 00:19:01.299 to continue to control the people. 00:19:01.789 --> 00:19:06.149 As discussions about the Dakota Access Pipeline continue, Standing Rock tribal council 00:19:06.149 --> 00:19:09.589 will take all the support they can get, provided they abide by 00:19:09.589 --> 00:19:11.429 the rules of peaceful protest. 00:19:12.179 --> 00:19:17.279 Folks who overly fetishize Native peoples and populations on Turtle Island but don't 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:22.130 have a real understanding of the reservation system, or that these reservations used to 00:19:22.130 --> 00:19:28.389 be prisoner of war camps, they think that Tribal Council is part and parcel with the 00:19:28.389 --> 00:19:33.240 traditional leadership, which is only played into when you see tribal council members wearing 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:38.190 full war bonnets when they've not done anything that the traditional mandate 00:19:38.190 --> 00:19:42.269 to get such a sacred item would dictate. 00:19:42.269 --> 00:19:50.090 And so you have this real kind of constant simmering conflict between these more traditional 00:19:50.090 --> 00:19:56.240 Native folks and these IRA governments who you even see in much of the mainstream media 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:01.599 who talk about Chairman Dave Archambault, and don't talk about the International Youth Council 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:04.260 or the Youth Runners, or Ladonna Bravebull-Allard, 00:20:04.260 --> 00:20:08.099 who it was their spark that started the first sacred fire over at Sacred Stone. 00:20:08.099 --> 00:20:12.029 There has been a lot of self-proclaimed Elders that are men that are not all from this community, 00:20:12.029 --> 00:20:16.730 or are not deferring to the matriarchs in this community that are supposed to have power. 00:20:16.730 --> 00:20:19.540 And that has created conflict and divide when we don't need it. 00:20:19.540 --> 00:20:23.359 Which is exactly what the gov wants and what COINTELPRO and shit like that does. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:31.709 As a friend kinda put it as the question of the year around here.... is "which Elder?" 00:20:31.709 --> 00:20:36.510 Because you always have these instances of people coming and saying they're speaking 00:20:36.510 --> 00:20:39.040 on the authority of "the Elders." 00:20:39.040 --> 00:20:40.580 Or "a Elder." 00:20:40.580 --> 00:20:43.580 But often time they don't know the name of that Elder. 00:20:43.580 --> 00:20:47.749 And so you can't help but wonder how good of a way they are operating in 00:20:47.749 --> 00:20:50.639 if they're coming in and barking orders but they don't really know 00:20:50.639 --> 00:20:52.879 where those orders originated from. 00:20:52.879 --> 00:20:56.770 "The chiefs told us to go around asking people if we could-" "There is no chief here! 00:20:56.770 --> 00:20:58.950 There are no chiefs!" 00:20:59.080 --> 00:21:02.469 "No, nobody's listening right now! 00:21:02.469 --> 00:21:06.290 The Elders asked you guys to go back to camp!" 00:21:06.290 --> 00:21:08.389 "See... fuckin people are always doing that shit. 00:21:08.389 --> 00:21:09.890 Trying to split everybody up." 00:21:09.890 --> 00:21:11.559 You see it clearly. 00:21:11.559 --> 00:21:16.589 The players that come in to be able to co-opt. 00:21:16.589 --> 00:21:21.060 And we have to be able to pinpoint that and to be able to address it 00:21:21.060 --> 00:21:29.089 in a way that's going to expose it, but also eliminate it from happening again. 00:21:29.089 --> 00:21:33.059 "And what we need to do is we have to be proud of what we did. 00:21:33.059 --> 00:21:37.879 We have to be honored by the victory and it's time now. 00:21:37.879 --> 00:21:40.510 It's time to go home." 00:21:40.510 --> 00:21:47.120 There is a lot of different ideas and lot of discussion around why Dave Archambault 00:21:47.120 --> 00:21:49.450 asked people to go home. 00:21:49.450 --> 00:21:52.769 One of the things is someone said that the tribe could be held liable 00:21:52.769 --> 00:21:54.459 if he didn't publicly say this. 00:21:54.459 --> 00:21:58.700 But this land is what they call "1851 Treaty Land." 00:21:58.700 --> 00:22:04.150 This land that the government calls "Army Corps Lands" is out of the jurisdiction 00:22:04.150 --> 00:22:08.179 of the Reservation so it's supposedly out of the jurisdiction of 00:22:08.179 --> 00:22:10.970 Dave Archambault and the Tribal Chairman. 00:22:10.970 --> 00:22:14.550 This one pipeline where people refuse to leave. 00:22:14.550 --> 00:22:18.670 This is not gonna be detrimental to our Nation. 00:22:18.670 --> 00:22:20.139 He's a politician. 00:22:20.139 --> 00:22:20.959 That's what it is. 00:22:20.959 --> 00:22:23.520 Like, is that who people defer to in the community here 00:22:23.520 --> 00:22:25.689 as like the end-all be-all? No. 00:22:25.689 --> 00:22:29.869 People defer to the matriarchs from the community, or their Elders from their tribes 00:22:29.869 --> 00:22:32.840 that they're representing that have been, like, invited to be here. 00:22:32.840 --> 00:22:35.279 Does that make people leave? Obviously not. 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:39.880 So obviously the people that are left here, think it's bullshit, or they would have left. 00:22:42.360 --> 00:22:45.880 Despite all our best efforts... sometimes pipelines still get built. 00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:50.660 The US alone contains over 2.5 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines. 00:22:50.660 --> 00:22:53.320 That's enough pipe to encircle the earth more than 100 times. 00:22:53.320 --> 00:22:56.360 Thankfully, there are a number of ways to stop the flows of existing pipelines 00:22:56.360 --> 00:22:57.520 for those who know what they're doing. 00:22:57.520 --> 00:23:01.541 Last year, Enbridge's Line 9 pipeline was shut down three times by trouble-makers 00:23:01.541 --> 00:23:04.821 who broke into Enbridge's stations and shut down manual valves. 00:23:04.821 --> 00:23:08.680 This happened once in so-called Quebec, and twice in so-called Ontario. 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:12.981 Activists used a similar tactic to simultaneously shut down five Tar Sands pipelines 00:23:12.981 --> 00:23:15.710 coming into the US, in a coordinated action 00:23:15.710 --> 00:23:18.911 carried out in solidarity with water defenders in Standing Rock. 00:23:18.911 --> 00:23:23.130 Since they cover huge tracts of land, pipelines are extremely vulnerable to sabotage. 00:23:23.130 --> 00:23:28.370 Between 2008 and 2009, Encana pipelines in and around the towns of Dawson Creek 00:23:28.370 --> 00:23:32.790 and Tomslake, in so-called BC, were targeted by a series of bombings. 00:23:32.790 --> 00:23:37.920 Earlier this year, someone used heavy machinery to dig up a section of pipe in so-called Alberta, 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:39.911 causing about half a million dollars in damage. 00:23:39.911 --> 00:23:42.971 Oil infrastructure has also been a choice target for armed rebel groups, 00:23:42.971 --> 00:23:46.730 such as the ELN, and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, 00:23:46.730 --> 00:23:48.230 or MEND, in Nigeria. 00:23:48.230 --> 00:23:52.881 Of course, when taking action against existing pipeline infrastructure, it's incredibly important 00:23:52.881 --> 00:23:55.921 that people know what they're doing, and are fully aware of all the risks involved. 00:23:55.921 --> 00:23:59.620 States go to extreme lengths to criminalize people they catch messing with the flows of 00:23:59.620 --> 00:24:02.940 crude and natural gas, and will try to deter activists with the threat of 00:24:02.940 --> 00:24:04.680 extremely long prison sentences. 00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:08.890 And it should be obvious, but it's worth stressing that the whole point of shutting oil pipelines 00:24:08.890 --> 00:24:10.320 is to avoid environmental damage. 00:24:10.320 --> 00:24:14.260 So it's vitally important that anyone carrying out these types of actions take all the necessary 00:24:14.260 --> 00:24:18.501 precautions to ensure that they don't accidentally end up causing a leak or spills themselves. 00:24:18.501 --> 00:24:21.321 That said...we're in for a long fight with high stakes. 00:24:21.321 --> 00:24:26.050 What looks like a defeat can also be a chance to regroup, reflect on how things went down, 00:24:26.050 --> 00:24:29.930 and figure out how to adapt our strategies and tactics as necessary. 00:24:32.209 --> 00:24:38.640 What I learned from here is that, going home and working with our community and Nation, 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:44.669 we really have to set out some type of template or way to organize that's going to respect 00:24:44.669 --> 00:24:48.339 the whole range of diversity of tactics. 00:24:48.339 --> 00:24:51.379 And I believe that it's going to take education 00:24:51.379 --> 00:24:55.349 and y'know... it's going to have to take leading by example, 00:24:55.349 --> 00:24:59.030 because we can't have history repeat itself. 00:24:59.030 --> 00:25:02.030 There is just regrouping that needs to happen. 00:25:02.030 --> 00:25:06.810 Recollectivizing. And the biggest part, that comes back to what we've been talking about 00:25:06.810 --> 00:25:10.239 is trying to get either the peace police out of here 00:25:10.239 --> 00:25:14.599 or have them be accountable for their actions, so that they can see that what they're doing 00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:17.849 is really negative to the struggle as a whole. 00:25:17.849 --> 00:25:21.709 And it's negative to community building, and that they are not protecting the community. 00:25:21.709 --> 00:25:23.429 They're endangering the community. 00:25:23.429 --> 00:25:27.220 They think they're protecting the community from the cops and the military "coming in." 00:25:27.220 --> 00:25:29.550 But the fact is, they're already here. 00:25:29.550 --> 00:25:31.419 They're gonna build this thing. 00:25:31.419 --> 00:25:35.419 It'll eventually break, rupture, what have-you, and then it will hurt 00:25:35.419 --> 00:25:36.779 and destroy the community more. 00:25:36.779 --> 00:25:40.840 So, like, regardless of what inter-conflicts that may or may not be happening in camp, 00:25:40.840 --> 00:25:44.479 or that the people on the "other team" the cops and the police are creating, 00:25:44.479 --> 00:25:49.149 - - if we can remember that what they're doing is gonna cause more harm than anything, 00:25:49.149 --> 00:25:52.929 it can help us make better decisions as a radical resistance. 00:25:52.929 --> 00:25:58.589 And it can also help us understand like, what kind of help to ask for. 00:25:58.589 --> 00:26:02.439 And if we don't need help, where to send other people so that they can be more effective 00:26:02.439 --> 00:26:06.760 so that more of these encampments can keep popping up in other places in the United Snakes, 00:26:06.760 --> 00:26:08.100 cause that's the idea. 00:26:08.100 --> 00:26:11.240 Like this happened here, why can't it happen somewhere else? 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:19.670 The skillsets that were brought in by folks who had been training to fight pipelines 00:26:19.670 --> 00:26:21.090 was crucial. 00:26:21.090 --> 00:26:25.819 In many of these coming fights, we're gonna see communities who are standing up 00:26:25.819 --> 00:26:29.639 as they get fed up with how the oil companies and gas companies, 00:26:29.639 --> 00:26:31.389 and mining companies treat them. 00:26:31.389 --> 00:26:35.219 But they don't have the skillsets with them to necessarily bring 00:26:35.219 --> 00:26:37.860 a solid resistance to those things. 00:26:37.860 --> 00:26:43.760 While these legal machinations are going on, while the public comments are going on, 00:26:43.760 --> 00:26:48.510 we can't continue to have faith that the process will work 'cause the process is rigged. 00:26:48.510 --> 00:26:50.659 We must go in tandem. 00:26:50.659 --> 00:26:56.870 And we can hope and we can pray that the easier paper route will get a project stopped. 00:26:56.870 --> 00:27:01.950 But we also need to prepare ourselves and prepare our youth in the tactics that they'll 00:27:01.950 --> 00:27:07.250 need to successfully fight these pipelines rather then when all the paper fight is done, 00:27:07.250 --> 00:27:10.320 all the public comment is done and the thing gets approved. 00:27:10.320 --> 00:27:13.510 That's not the time to start bringing people in to get trained. 00:27:13.510 --> 00:27:15.959 That's the time when you gotta start your attack. 00:27:15.959 --> 00:27:23.479 We have to completely look at ourselves as as our whole life is dedicated to the movement. 00:27:23.479 --> 00:27:27.709 To spark this whole revolution so we can fight for our freedom, so we can fight and have 00:27:27.709 --> 00:27:32.039 what we're fighting for: our land, our water, our territory. 00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:37.829 So we can live where we want, hunt where we want, swim where we want, 00:27:37.829 --> 00:27:41.009 like our ancestors before white man came. 00:27:41.009 --> 00:27:42.409 That's why we're here. 00:27:46.209 --> 00:27:50.730 On January 24th, Donald Trump signed an executive presidential order approving the remaining 00:27:50.730 --> 00:27:52.570 construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. 00:27:52.570 --> 00:27:56.690 With the same stroke of the pen, he also gave the go-ahead to the Keystone XL pipeline, 00:27:56.690 --> 00:28:01.050 which had been shelved by the Obama administration in 2015 following a multi-year fight 00:28:01.050 --> 00:28:03.470 by anti-pipeline activists and environmental groups. 00:28:03.470 --> 00:28:08.029 On Thursday February 22nd, an army of state and county police, flanked by members of the 00:28:08.029 --> 00:28:12.279 National Guard and Department of Homeland Security, cleared out the last remaining pockets 00:28:12.279 --> 00:28:16.750 of resistance at the Oceti Sakowin camp, bringing a bitter end to the NoDAPL encampment. 00:28:16.750 --> 00:28:20.240 As we enter into a new phase of struggle against ramped up fossil fuel production, 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:23.020 and even more unrestrained militarization of policing, 00:28:23.020 --> 00:28:27.520 the dynamics that played out at Sacred Stone camp can provide valuable lessons moving forward. 00:28:27.520 --> 00:28:31.210 These are lessons that our movements must learn and properly internalize 00:28:31.210 --> 00:28:33.619 in order to better prepare us for the battles yet to come. 00:28:33.619 --> 00:28:36.470 With that said, I hope you enjoyed this first episode of Trouble. 00:28:36.470 --> 00:28:38.059 Stay tuned for more to come. 00:28:38.059 --> 00:28:42.000 These short films are intended to be watched in groups and to be used as a resource to 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.409 promote discussion and collective organizing. 00:28:44.409 --> 00:28:46.509 Interested in running screenings in your area? 00:28:46.509 --> 00:28:47.759 Become a Trouble-Maker! 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:51.190 For 10 bucks a month, we'll hook you up with an advanced copy of the show, 00:28:51.190 --> 00:28:54.599 and a screening kit featuring additional resources and some questions you can use 00:28:54.599 --> 00:28:55.979 to get a discussion going. 00:28:55.979 --> 00:28:58.759 If you can't afford to support us financially... no worries! 00:28:58.759 --> 00:29:05.020 You can stream and/or download all of our content for free off our website: sub.media/trouble. 00:29:05.020 --> 00:29:08.929 If you've got any suggestions for show topics or just wanna get in touch, drop us a line 00:29:08.929 --> 00:29:11.339 at trouble@submedia.tv. 00:29:11.339 --> 00:29:15.500 We produced this documentary with the generous assistance of the West Coast Women Warrior 00:29:15.500 --> 00:29:17.959 Media Cooperative and Mutual Aid Media. 00:29:17.959 --> 00:29:20.129 Now... get out there and make some trouble!