Protests mount, Native American student group rises in support

N.I.C.E. Instructor Harmon Maples works with students to pack up donations for protesters in North Dakota. Many are protesting the building of an oil pipeline.
Sebastian Becerra
N.I.C.E. Instructor Harmon Maples works with students to pack up donations for protesters in North Dakota. Many are protesting the building of an oil pipeline.

 

The Dakota Access Pipeline is expected to be ready for service by the end of 2016. According to the Dakota Access Pipeline’s website, the pipeline will enable oil to be transferred from North Dakota to other states more efficiently. The controversy behind this project is that it is extremely likely that the pipeline will spill, contaminating water that thousands of people rely on. Not only that, it passes through sacred Native American burial grounds, when it was originally meant to pass through the primarily white city of Bismarck, North Dakota, but it was deemed too dangerous. Because of this, people at Central are helping.

The Native Indian Centered Education Group, or the N.I.C.E. group at Central, sponsored by Harmon Maples, decided that in order to support protests in North Dakota, they will be making care packages for protesters.

“It (the packages) will probably have warm clothing and canned foods and things that will preserve through the winter time,” Maples said. Some protesters in Standing Rock are camping outside, and these packages are made to assist them.

Protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline have taken place all over the country.  N.I.C.E will be donating their care packages to the protesters specifically in North Dakota, where the pipeline is being built. Even though the pipeline is being built in another state, some native students here in Omaha are still passionate about it.

“It’s kind of ignorant that they’re going to do that (build the pipeline) and not seek permission and be responsible about it,” junior Austin Cantu said. The pipeline, despite months of protests is still scheduled to be up and running within a matter of months. Charities such as the Sacred Stone Camp have created legal funds to help raise awareness. Not only are charities and average citizens taking a stand, but so are celebrities.

“Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pharrell Williams, and Shailene Woodley have helped”, sophomore Haley Drown said. Drown’s mother is among one of the people helping N.I.C.E support protesters.

The celebrities involved have helped by raising awareness on their social media, to even being jailed, like Woodley. Because Woodley is famous and has a large platform, her jailing is being more publicized, but according to the New York Times, as many as 142 protesters have been charged and jailed due to ‘engaging in a riot and conspiracy to endanger by fire and explosion.’

The Dakota Access Pipeline makes protesters so passionate for several reasons. Because the pipeline passes over sacred burial grounds, they feel that human lives are being disregarded. It is the equivalent of something being built over a cemetery in Omaha, and the people buried there were completely ignored.

The pipeline is also being protested because of where it is being built. The original home of the pipeline in Bismarck was deemed too risky, but somehow it is not too risky to construct it in Native territory.

The main issue people have with the pipeline is water. They believe that there is a large possibility that the pipeline will spill, and if that happens, water contamination will be harmful.

Anyone wanting to help protesters in Standing Rock, contact Maples. Maples also said if anyone would like to help on a larger scale, donate to the Sacred Stone Camp’s gofundme, which is available on their Facebook. Without the help of ordinary people, the pipeline will go into service. If this happens, there is a large possibility of contamination, which will affect every single person at Central High due to reliance on the Missouri River.

“They’re putting profits before people, and they’re putting profits before the environment,” Maples said.