Documenting conflict, solidarity and snow at Standing Rock
Glenn Scott, 60, a member of the Chippewa tribe and a Vietnam veteran, participates in a march of over 2,000 veterans from the Oceti Sakowin Camp to the police road block on Backwater Bridge on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Thousands of veterans deployed to Standing Rock to support the protest movement, offering to act as a human shield against police force. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
In August, the seven bands of the Sioux gathered at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers outside the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and lit the Seven Council Sacred Fire for the first time since the Battle of Little Big Horn. It marked the formation of the Oceti Sakowin Camp which, along with several smaller surrounding encampments became the hub of protest actions against the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile underground pipeline expected to transport crude oil from the Bakken region in North Dakota to an oil tank farm in Patoka, Illinois.
Stanley Perry (center), 53, from the Navajo Nation at the front of a protest march along Highway 1806 with over 700 water protectors on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. The march covered the 2 miles between the Oceti Sakowin Camp and a sacred burial site, which is slated to be destroyed by the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Horses lead a march of 700 protestors North along Highway 1806 in Morton County, North Dakota on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. The march covered the 2 miles between the Oceti Sakowin Camp and a sacred burial site which is slated to be destroyed by the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A man rides his horse up a hill overlooking the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Marley Brown, 5, and her mother Tiffany Baker, 32, of Standing Rock Reservation take their horse, Pony Boy, for a walk along the Cannonball River in the Oceti Sakowin Camp on the outskirts of the Standing Rock Reservation on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. Thousands of people, including Native Americans from over 280 tribes, have come to Standing Rock to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile underground crude oil pipeline which is expected to transport the oil from the Bakken region to an oil tank farm in Patoka, Illinois. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
An unidentified man at the front of a protest march of over 700 water protectors on Friday, Sept., 2016. The march covered the 2 miles between the Oceti Sakowin Camp and a sacred burial site, which is slated to be destroyed by the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A group of dancers from various indigenous backgrounds perform a Mexicoto dance around the sacred fire at the Oceti Sakowin camp on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. Thousands of people, including Native Americans from over 280 tribes, have come to Standing Rock to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile underground crude oil pipeline which is expected to transport crude oil from the Bakken region to an oil tank farm in Patoka, Illinois. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Dried sage, which plays an important role in Native American spirituality, hangs on a fence post on the banks of the Cannon Ball River overlooking the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A rock formation, believed to be a sacred cairn signifying a burial site, is seen in front of Dakota Access Pipeline construction on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe claims that the 1,172-mile underground crude oil pipeline will disturb sacred sites and has the potential to contaminate the Missouri River. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Royrie Scott, 7, of the Lakota Sioux Tribe plays on a hill overlooking a tributary which runs in to the Missouri River on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. The electrical poles on the horizon mark an existing utility corridor, which the Dakota Access Pipeline will follow through the region. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline continues west of St. Anthony, approximately 20 miles north-west of the Oceti Sakowin Camp. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline continues west of St. Anthony, approximately 20 miles north-west of the Oceti Sakowin Camp. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Luvenna Azure, 10, a Dakota Sioux from the Spirit Lake Nation, plays on cement barriers used to block roads during construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. Thousands of people, including Native Americans from over 280 tribes, have come to Standing Rock to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile underground crude oil pipeline which is expected to transport crude oil from the Bakken region to an oil tank farm in Patoka, Illinois. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A group of jingle dancers conduct a ceremony near the Backwater Bridge, a short walk north of the Oceti Sakowin Camp, on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A light fog is seen on the Cannon Ball River as the sun rises over the Oceti Sakowin Camp on the outskirts of the Standing Rock Reservation on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. Native Americans from over 280 tribes have gathered to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Missouri River and over sacred burial sites. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A group of Native American men on horseback enter the Oceti Sakowin Camp ahead of a group of youth, who ran approximately 300 miles from the Pine Ridge Reservation to join the protest movement at Standing Rock on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016. Thousands of people, including Native Americans from over 280 tribes, have come to Standing Rock to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile underground crude oil pipeline which is expected to transport crude oil from the Bakken region to an oil tank farm in Patoka, Illinois. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A small group of protesters face off against police as a road block is constructed by the Backwater Bridge on Highway 1806, just a day after police cleared the northernmost protest encampment on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. The roadblock on Backwater Bridge has become a key point of conflict as protestors state it blocks access for emergency responders. Police argue that the bridge is unsafe and that it’s essential to separate protestors from pipeline security and construction workers. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Smokey White, 18, is shot with a sponge grenade and tazed off his horse as riot police move through a camp set up by protestors in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline near Standing Rock, North Dakota, on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. “This is modern war,” said Smokey. “The only difference is we don’t have assault riffles – our weapon is our prayer.” (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Riot police use pepper spray on a mostly Native American group of peaceful protesters near the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Police moved in to clear protestors out of a camp set up directly in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A man, identified only as Mekasi, issues orders to fellow protesters as riot police move in to clear people out of a camp set up in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Riot police conduct mass arrests as they clear the northernmost protest encampment, which was built directly in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Car headlights illuminate fog surrounding a tepee at the Oceti Sakowin Camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Lance King, an Oglala Lakota man from Pine Ridge, sits by the Sacred Fire at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
People struggle to walk during a snowstorm on Highway 1806, outside the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
A protester removes a flag from his campsite before leaving the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. Thousands left the protest camp after blizzard conditions swept through it.(Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
Glenn Scott, 60, a member of the Chippewa tribe and a Vietnam veteran, participates in a march of over 2,000 veterans from the Oceti Sakowin Camp to the police road block on Backwater Bridge on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Thousands of veterans deployed to Standing Rock to support the protest movement, offering to act as a human shield against police force. (Photo by Angus Mordant/GroundTruth)
The Standing Rock Sioux has opposed the $3.78 billion project since 2014. Protesters have used the Lakota phrase “Mni Wiconi,” meaning “Water is Life,” to bring attention to their treaty water rights and the environmental impact a pipeline leak would cause. By early September, the area was reportedly home to a historically unprecedented 300 tribes and grew to more than 20,000 protestors by December.
Approximately 30 miles of the pipeline cuts through contested Sioux territory. The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie outlined a contiguous Native American territory across six states. By 1868, the treaty lands were redefined, pushing the Sioux nation entirely within South Dakota and, in 1889, Congress divided the Great Sioux Nation into six separate reservations which remain intact today. Although granted by the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie and never ceded by the Sioux, the treaty has been largely ignored by the government ever since. The deeds were lawfully purchased by the oil company, who now owns the rights to build on a section of the land.
Peaceful protest actions were routinely met with riot police armed with military vehicles, tear gas, less-than-lethal rounds and tasers. During a confrontation on a freezing November evening, police attempted to disperse protesters with a water cannon. Confrontations with law enforcement have led to more than 500 arrests. Many allege not being read their Miranda rights and inhumane conditions while being held in police custody. Police allege that officers have been spat on and attacked with rocks, water bottles, sticks, bows and arrows, and molotov cocktails.
The number of protestors at the camps has steadily declined after the Army Corp of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners an easement for the pipeline to cross the Missouri River in December. Protesters say they are determined to return if Energy Transfer Partners wins its federal court case to overturn the Army Corp’s denial. Energy Transfer Partners criticized what it described as a political decision by the Army Corp and is committed to finishing construction. The incoming Trump administration has also vocalized its support of the Dakota Access Pipeline and protesters remain wary that the current stalemate is only temporary.
Photographer’s note
I have been following the situation in Standing Rock since August. I was interested in the unprecedented gathering of Native American tribes – a historic event in its in its own right. I slowly began making plans to document it.
On Sept. 3, I watched reports of private security using attack dogs against peaceful protesters while construction workers allegedly desecrated sacred sites. Unsure of the exact situation on the ground and determined to learn more, I booked my first flight and arrived at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Sept. 6.
On my third day at the camp, I met Stanley Perry, a 53-year-old Navajo man who said, “We are a nation within a nation, on the reservation, who need salvation.”
I soon came to the realization that this wasn’t simply a gathering of tribes or just another environmental protest. The excessive response by the private security team on Sept. 3 was not only symbolic of the centuries of abuses against Native Americans, but also reflected the ever-increasing show of force throughout this movement. On Oct. 26, I watched a Facebook live feed of police approaching the northernmost encampment, known as Treaty Camp, to inform protestors that the camp would be forcefully evicted. Not taking any chances, I booked a flight and, 8 hours later, touched down in Bismarck, North Dakota. The following morning, I photographed riot police, who were using tear gas, sponge grenades and tasers to clear hundreds of protesters from the path of the pipeline. It is a day I am glad to have documented and one I will never forget. The burning smell of tear gas mixing with the crisp prairie air is a smell that will never leave me.