First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March
One of the most significant experiences I’ve had related to decolonization was participating in the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March. At the beginning of the March, one of the Native people called this our sacred journey.
The March began in Des Moines, Iowa, and continued 94 miles to Fort Dodge, along the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The March was organized by Ed Fallon of Bold Iowa and Christine (Sikowis) Nobiss, who was part of Seeding Sovereignty at the time and later founded Great Plains Action Society (GPAS).
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was significant for several reasons. There is a Lakota prophecy of the ‘black snake’ that would slither across the land, desecrating sacred sites and poisoning the water. DAPL is seen by some as the fulfillment of that prophecy. This demonstrates the fundamental differences of how the resources of Mother Earth were seen by Native versus non-Native peoples. Many non-Native people see the resources of the earth as commodities that could be bought and sold with no regard for the damage done. Sikowis Nobiss said we don’t know what spirits there are beneath the ground.
The pipeline damaged the earth as it was built. We saw the scars on the land. We saw water standing in the fields because the topsoil was mixed with the underlying clay when the trenches were refilled, inhibiting the absorption of the water from the rains. The DAPL construction companies had said they would preserve the topsoil, putting it back on top of the clay. One of many broken promises.
Almost two million acres of Boreal forest have been destroyed to uncover the tar sands. The huge tailings ponds used to hold the wastewater from the tar sands extraction are leaking toxic chemicals into the Athabasca River in Northern Alberta. Tar sands mining is incredibly inefficient, with significant energy required for the process. There are increases in cancer rates among those living near the ponds and along the river.
There will be damage to the earth and water when the pipeline leaks. They always leak. And there will be all the fossil fuel emissions when the oil is burned.
The purpose of the March was to create opportunities for a small group of Native and non-Native people to spend an extended time together, to begin to get to know and develop trust among ourselves so that we could work together on issues of common concern. Our small group, comprising approximately fifteen Native and fifteen non-Native individuals, walked and camped together for eight days, from September 1 to 8, 2018. The many hours of walking down empty gravel roads allowed us to share stories with each other. There was an intentional effort by each of us to eventually spend some time with every other person on the March.
We are a tribe
Helping each other through the challenges we faced built solidarity among us. The physical effort involved in walking such distances was created deliberately. We faced several days of walking in the rain for hours. The first night, the winds from a severe thunderstorm were so strong they pushed the sides of the tent in on me. There was so much rain that several of the sites planned for us to spend the night at were underwater. At one point, my friend Donnielle Wanatee said, “We are a tribe.”
As I reflect on the March, I feel so blessed I was led to participate in it, because it changed my life, and made everything I’ve done since then possible. The March was very successful in creating the beginnings of friendship and trust among us. I’ll be writing more about some of the things we’ve done together since.
It concerns me because this reinforces one of the things I learned on that journey, that non-Native people cannot begin to understand and work authentically with Native people until they’ve had similar experiences. How can we create such opportunities for non-Native people that don’t require such an investment of time and struggle? Because facing the hardships together was key to developing solidarity and friendships among us.
This is a link to a video my friend Matthew Lone Bear created about the beginnings of the March: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10156842165052122
