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- Hello. We would like
to

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acknowledge that this event
is being held on ancestral
lands

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of the Arikara, Iowa,
Missouri, Omaha,

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Otto, Pawnee, and Ponca
land, also later cared for

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by the Dakota, Ho-Chunk,
Illiniwek,

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Meskwaki, Nakota,
Potawatomi, and

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Sauk. We recognize
that these sovereign
nations stewarded

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the land through countless
generations and continue
to do so

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today, maintaining a
sacred relationship with
the land as a place of

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family, ritual, and
tradition. Consistent with
the University of

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Northern Iowa’s commitment
and inclusion, the
university begins an

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effort to acknowledge this
timeless connection to
the land as well as

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the trials of the past
500 years by honoring
the truth.

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Hello, my name is
Hugh Zehr and I am the

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UNI Student Government
Director of Sustainability.
A Native

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Iowan, Aldo Leopold is
widely known for shaping
modern

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environmental ethics. However,
what many are unaware of
is that during his

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nearly fifteen years in the
American southwest,
Leopold

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came into contact with diverse,
Native individuals, cultures,

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and land issues. These
interactions helped to shape
his

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development as a
conservationist and
and ethicist.

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Contemporary scholars
have noted the strong
connections between the

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relationship in Leopold’s
culminating vision of a land
ethic and the comparable

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visions traditionally
expressed by indigenous
peoples.

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The narrow focus on the
origins of the land ethic,
however, diverts

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attention from the far more
complex issue of how
Leopold’s thoughts

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and writings fit into,
as well as comment
upon,

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the history of the Native
American and Euro-
American views of the

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land. As part of the
Leopold Lecture Series,
it is important for us to

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explore these complex issues
through a diverse set
of perspectives such as

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will presented this evening.
Over the course of the
semester, we have had

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the opportunity to host
a brilliant set of guests
as they help frame many

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of our campus discussions
on these important issues,
culminating with this

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evening’s final presentation
for this fall. Our first lecture
of the spring

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semester will be on
February 26th at 7:00
PM in Bengston

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Auditorium in
Russell Hall, featuring
former US Representative

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Bob Inglis’ talk titled
“Can free enterprise
solve climate

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change?” Tonight’s
program was made
possible due to a

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partnership between the
Cornerstone Program,
UNI Sustainability Office,

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and the Aldo Leopold
Distinguished Lecture
Series. This evening’s

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presentation and following
question and answer session
will be recorded for posterity

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and made available to the
entire UNI community
through the Scholar Works

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Repository. In order to
create an accurate record
of this event,

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we ask that anyone with
questions, please wait until
the presentation has finished

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and make your way to
one of the microphones
that are available in the

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aisles and speak clearly
into the microphone so
your questions can be heard.

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It is not my pleasure to
welcome President Mark
Nook to the stage to provide

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this evening’s welcome.
[applause]

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- Welcome to the University
of Northern Iowa. It’s a
pleasure to have all of you

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here and to see this many
turn out for an Aldo
Leopold

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Lecture. It’s great to have
you amongst us. I want to
add just a couple of my own

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thoughts about this.
Recently, many of you know
that I joined this

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university just almost 2
years ago. Before that, I
spent

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2 and a half years in
Billings, Montana. Billings,
Montana is a very

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interesting community.
It’s 4% Native American,
as is most of the state.

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It sits very, very close
to 2 Native American
reservations. It’s within

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an hours drive of the
Crow reservation and
about a two hour drive

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from the Northern Cheyenne
reservation. It’s also
a city,

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a community that thrives
most of it’s economy,
drives most of it’s economy

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from oil and fossil
fuels. The coal strip,

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the coal plants that are
nearby and the oil
reserves of the Bakken.

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While I was there, there
were a few significant
events

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that shaped my thinking
around Standing Rock

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and the pipeline that was
supposed to cross that
piece of river.

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One of those was an
oil pipeline break

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underneath the Yellowstone
River at Laurel in 2011

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that dumped approximately
1,500 barrels of oil in

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the Yellowstone River and
really shut it down for a
very long period of time.

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There was a settlement,
in 2016 while I was
there, from the oil company

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for about 12 million
dollars in restitution.
They did all the clean up,

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but that was the restitution
to the state and to the local
community. That was in

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2016. The year before
that, in early January,

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the Senate passed the
Excel Pipeline Bill

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permitting the pipeline
to go through Standing
Rock.

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It was two weeks after
that that there was another
pipeline

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break in the Yellowstone
River at Glendale that
produced about 1,000

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barrels of oil spill into
the Yellowstone and
followed that

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community’s water. One
of the things that growing
up in Iowa, I didn’t 

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understand, but I think
it’s important for you to
think about tonight.

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We receive about 50
inches of oil, uh 50
inches of oil-

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50 inches of water a year
in the form of rain and
snow.

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In Billings, in western
South Dakota, North
Dakota, and eastern

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Montana, they might receive
12 in a year.

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Out there they talk
about water rights in a
way that we can’t understand

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because everything they
use to irrigate their crops

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to bathe, drink, comes
down from the mountains
and from the water that

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runs through those rivers
and through those streams.
Their understanding of the

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word “water rights” is
something growing up in Iowa
and living most of my

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life in the Midwest, I had
no concept of. So tonight,
as we hear from David

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and David it’s a great
honor to have you here
with us. As we hear from

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David, as we think about
it, remember the culture is
different. The scenarios

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around the people are
different. The environment
is very

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different and the things
that need to be thought
about and worked out to

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understand the issues
involved are things that
many of us haven’t had a

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chance or a need to spend
much time thinking about.

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So for me, it’s a great
privilege to have David
here tonight, to have an

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opportunity to think through
some those challenges that
all of us face

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as we look at our environment
and we look at the political
systems and the economic

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systems that run our
society and our world.
So thank

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you for being here tonight
to gain a little bit better
perspective

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of some of the things
that govern our society,

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keep it working and the
challenges that we face
to make

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sure that we have a
sustainable society. Thank
you very, very much and

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welcome to the University
of Northern Iowa.
[applause]

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Hoxjana pi.

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Hannah hinikaragi wina.

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Good evening. I greet
you all. My name is
Trisha Etringer.

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My Ho-Chunk name is
Cax-Sep-Gu-Wiga, which
means Eagles-That-

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Returns. My clan is
Eagles. I am an
enrolled

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member of the Winnebago
Tribe of Nebraska but
grew up in Waterloo, Iowa.

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I currently reside in
Cedar Falls where I
attend UNI as a

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Psychology Major.
On September 3rd,

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2016, my unborn daughter
and I stood on a frontline
together protecting

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the water and indigenous
land rights for not only the
Standing Rock Sioux

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Tribe, but for 18 million
others who relied upon
the same water and

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land for sustenance.
Unfortunately, we were
met with the Dakota

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Access Pipeline’s security
team who unleashed
unlicensed guard dogs and

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pepper spray on us. That
day, we stood together

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and we let them know
that we are still here and
we are not going anywhere.

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Our story is just one
ember out of the sacred
fire that was lit at

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Standing Rock. I carry my
fire wherever I go now.

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One day, my daughter
Ava will continue to carry
the same fire once

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I am gone. Tonight, I
would like everyone to
take a moment to

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honor the first medicine
that brought over 500
First Nations and allies

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together during the
Standing Rock movement.
There are two vases of

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water which were
collected from two separate
sites on the UNI campus.

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The Dry Run Creek watershed
is home to the UNI
campus

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and flows into the Cedar
River. From there, the
Cedar River flows

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into the Mississippi River
where it then finally
flows into the Gulf of

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Mexico. Just like the blood
that flows through our
veins,

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water is life. Ni na
wakacak sana!

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Min Wiconi! Pinagigi.
Thank you.

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[applause]

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[Introduction in Meskwaki]

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My name is Arianna
Sprague. My Meskwaki
name is [Meskwaki word]. It

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means eagle. My clan
is Thunder. I’m a proud
member of the Meskwaki

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nation in Iowa. I grew
up in the Tama area
along with the

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nation. I am now a UNI
student for Social Work
and Family Services.

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I will now read a welcome
from the Meskwaki nation.

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Good evening everyone
and welcome. I present

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this statement on behalf
of the Meskwaki Nation.
The Meskwaki Nation, also

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known as the Sac and
Fox Tribe of the Mississippi
in Iowa, is

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1,400 members large,
and we’re located just
48 miles south

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of UNI.

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We regret we can’t be
here tonight. We are
honored to have been

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invited to visit with such
a historic leader.
Throughout

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history we’ve had an
evolving relationship
with the

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Lakota/Dakota people that
could be described as a
love/hate relationship.

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We had a buffer zone
between the nations,
and this shared

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region included Northern
Iowa. At times we fought
and stole from

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each other. A Meskwaki
elder shared a story of
a great-grandfather’s

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unsuccessful attempt
to steal Lakota horses.
One by one

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he let them go as he fled.
In the ending, the Meskwaki
man made it home

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alive, but without any
of the stolen horses.
At other times, we were

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allies when we needed
to be. In 2016, it became
clear that unity

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is not just for us, but it’s
needed for the survival of
all

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things sacred, including
all of Mother Earth and
Creation. Our tribe

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adopted and submitted
a resolution in support
of the Standing

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Rock Sioux Tribe during
the Dakota Access

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Pipeline. We sent a
monetary donation to the
tribe, and

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some tribal members
resided at the Oceti

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Sakowin resistance
camp. What happened
at Standing Rock is

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part of a common
experience of Native
people across the Americas.

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We benefit by standing
as one voice and demanding
justice,

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demanding our human
rights, and asserting our
sovereignty as tribal

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nations. We also encourage
unity in protecting and
healing the Earth and all

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of her people. This is
essential for balance
among all of the world.

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With the emphasis of
unity, we welcome this

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exceptional visitor.
David Archambault

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we honor you for your
leadership during a time
that was a turning

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point for all humanity.
All our relations,

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We now thank David
Archambault for his
contribution and welcome

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him to Northern Iowa
territory.
David Archambault II,

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Lakota name Tokala
Ohitika,

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is the former tribal
Chairman of the Standing
Rock Sioux

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Tribe in North Dakota.
In 2016, Chairman
Archambault

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emerged as a global
leader for Indigenous
People’ rights as he led

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the opposition to the
construction of the Dakota
Access Pipeline. He

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continues to be the voice
for tribal sovereignty in
championing protection of

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tribal treaty lands and
natural resources.

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Archambault testified
before the United Nations,
led the Washington D.C.

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“Native Nations Rise”
march, and published
editorials in The

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00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:56,000
New York Times. Archambault
was recently named a
“Leading Global Thinker

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of 2016” by Foreign
Policy Magazine,

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and was given the
“Native American
Leadership Award” by

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00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:08,000
the National Congress of
American Indians, and
received a “Doctorate

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00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,000
of Law Honoris Causa”
from the Vermont Law
School. Please join me

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00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,000
in welcoming Dave
Archambault II to UNI.
[applause]

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00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:20,000
[applause]

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00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000
[applause]

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- Thank you.

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Thank you.

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00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,000
Thank you.

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Thank you for the
introduction.

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Mitakuyepi, Tokala
Ohitika emaciyapi.

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Inyan Woslal han
ematahan.

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So I said my relatives,
I greet you with a

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00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:04,000
kind heart and a handshake.
My name is Tokala

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00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,000
Ohitika. It means “Warrior
from the Kit Fox Society"

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and I’m from Standing
Rock and I live

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00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:16,000
in Cannon Ball, North
Dakota. I’ve lived in
Cannon Ball

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00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:20,000
the past 28 years now
and

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I was a former Chairman.

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So before I get
started

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00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,000
in the presentation,
I just kind of want to give
you some context on how

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indigenous peoples around
the world view

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Unci Makha, or view
Mother Earth.

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So if I was to stand
outside

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anywhere, I would say

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00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:52,000
Taku Skan Skan,
there’s something
moving.

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00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,000
And if I see something
moving, then in our
language, we would say,

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00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:00,000
as a Nagi. A Nagi,

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00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:04,000
to interpret it, it
means like a soul

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00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:08,000
or a spirit. So if you
see something moving
that has a soul or a

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00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:12,000
spirit. And this is the

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00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:16,000
teachings were shown
and given as I was

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00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:20,000
growing up on Standing
Rock on the Pine Ridge
Indian

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00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:24,000
Reservation and

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00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,000
it’s common whenever
I go visit other Indigenous
peoples

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00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:32,000
regardless of where they
are in

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00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:36,000
Brazil or in New
Zealand or in anywhere

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00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:40,000
in the world, the
Indigenous people have
a connection to the land

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00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,000
and it’s real simple.
It’s like if

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00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,000
it has a spirit, then we
will say Mitakuyasin.

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00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:52,000
And when I greeted
you, I said Mitakuyepi.
My relatives.

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00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,000
So if it has a spirit,
then

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00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,000
we are related.
Those are our relatives.

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00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,000
So when we’re related
to something,

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00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,000
or someone,

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00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:12,000
that relationship is
cherished. So

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00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,000
if we see something
moving and has a "Nagi" and
we know that's

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00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:20,000
our relative then we
treat it with respect the
same way that we

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00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:24,000
would want to treated.
So,

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00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,000
if the plants move,
they have a spirit.

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00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:32,000
If the animals move,
they have a spirit.
If the grass

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00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:36,000
moves, the trees move.
Everything has a spirit
and it’s connected and

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00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,000
that’s the philosophy or
concept throughout
Indigenous

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00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:44,000
world.

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00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,000
If something has a
spirit,

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00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:52,000
but it can’t speak
our language, then

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00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:56,000
we should speak for
them on their behalf and
that’s kind of what happened

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00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:00,000
at Standing Rock. There
were certain things that
were threatened at our

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00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,000
relatives that we wanted
to speak out for.

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00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:08,000
There are

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00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:12,000
scientists, and

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00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:16,000
I’m not getting into
a discussion or a
debate

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00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,000
about climate change or
anything, but scientists
today

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00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:24,000
are now starting to say,
hey, did you know that
everything on this world

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00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,000
is connected in one way
or another? They will
say

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00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,000
it’s related at the
molecular

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00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:36,000
level. At the cell
level. So in my
presentation I

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00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,000
try to make some things

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00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:44,000
that look like cells to
show that at a molecular

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00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,000
level, we are all related.
And

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00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:52,000
whatever we do to one
thing is going to impact
another.

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00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,000
I was just honored to
be here.

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00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:00,000
I’m thankful for the
students, for your

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00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,000
words and your stories
you’ve shared. We went
and ate

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00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,000
and they talked about
their experiences that
they had at Standing Rock.

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00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:12,000
So I want to share a
little bit before I get
into

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00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,000
the meat of the
presentation.

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00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:20,000
And I think it’s important
to know kind of

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00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,000
where I’m from as an
individual.

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00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,000
August 12th, I’ll
start here. The story
starts way

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00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,000
before then and I’ll pull
some of the stuff out in
the presentation,

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00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:36,000
but let’s say August
12th. I get arrested.

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00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,000
So, I get arrested and
I get taken to

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00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:44,000
Morton County Jail
and I’m sitting in jail

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00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,000
and I’m thinking
“Oh, man.

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00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:52,000
This isn’t bad.
This isn't

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00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:56,000
bad. This is a relief”.
And the reason why
it's

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00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,000
a relief is because there
wasn’t anything I could
do.

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00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,000
I couldn’t do anything
about what was

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00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,000
happening at Standing

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00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,000
Rock with the
threat to our

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00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:16,000
water with the
communities

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00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:20,000
and the issues that we deal
with on a daily basis.

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00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:24,000
I was sitting in jail
and I was thinking this
is

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00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:28,000
comfort. It’s strange, but

285
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:32,000
it kind of pulled me away
so I could think about

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00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:36,000
what was actually
happening, because I
didn’t know

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00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,000
what was happening.
When I came back
from jail,

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00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:44,000
there was a tribal leader
that came up to me

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00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,000
from another reservation
and he said,

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00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,000
“We’re sending 200
people tomorrow.” And
another

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00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:56,000
tribe leader said from
a different reservation,
he’s bringing 300

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00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:00,000
people. And one of the
tribal leaders was my
uncle from

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00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:04,000
the Ogallala Sioux Tribe
in that reservation and

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00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:08,000
he was excited. He
was excited that there's

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00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,000
gonna be a fight.
We’re going down and

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00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:16,000


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00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:20,000
so you can’t plan for
something like this.

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00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:24,000
We might want to call it
an event or we might
want call it

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00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:28,000
a moment in time, but
it's

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00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,000
not an event. This is
an event

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00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:36,000
tonight. We all
gather here tonight
and then

302
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,000
when this is over, it’s
over. What was happening

303
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:44,000
at Standing Rock was
that something was
growing and it was getting

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00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,000
bigger and bigger
and

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00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:52,000
I don’t know if there was
a way that you could
control it.

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00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,000
And for me, I always
like to have answers.
I like

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00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:00,000
to know the outcomes,
but I

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00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:04,000
didn’t know what was
happening and I didn’t
know what was gonna happen

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00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:08,000
and it was scary

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00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,000
I guess. So at
Standing

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00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000
Rock what we did was
we got some elders
together and in

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00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:20,000
our culture and our
belief systems and our
way of life, we

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00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,000
ask the creator. We

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00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:28,000
have a ceremony and
we ask the creator, how

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00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,000
are we gonna stop
this pipeline. And in
the ceremony,

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00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:36,000
and I’m not telling you
to believe in anything,
I’m just saying,

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00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:40,000
this is what was told
to us was that if you

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00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:44,000
fight

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00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,000
with violence, you’ll
lose.

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00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,000
But if you fight this
with peace and prayer,
you’ll win.

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00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:56,000
So from that moment
on, we

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00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:00,000
said we’re gonna make
this a prayerful and
peaceful

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00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,000
demonstration. So what
transpired was

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00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:08,000
we only had like, people
were welcome to come to
Standing Rock, to

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00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:12,000
come. As a tribe and as
a tribal leader, I never

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00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:16,000
told people to come,
but

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00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:20,000
when people came, we
wanted to welcome them
and we wanted to make sure

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00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,000
we accommodated them.
But there’s only four
things that we asked.

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00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,000
The first was no alcohol.

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00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:32,000
The second was no drugs.
The third was no weapons.

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00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,000
The fourth was no
violence. And if you’re

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00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,000
gonna come with your
prayer and share.

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00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,000
You’re more than
welcome. And 

334
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,000
it was probably one of
the most powerful things
that I ever

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00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:52,000
was a part of. It was
sacred

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00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:56,000
It was a moment where

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00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,000
there was some clarity
and it was a time where

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00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:04,000
for the first time, I
felt, in

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00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,000
500 years that our

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00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:12,000
people, our Indigenous
People, felt

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00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:16,000
a sense of liberation,
a sense of freedom.

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00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:20,000
We had control. We
had

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00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,000
say. And it was powerful.
And I remember,

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00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:28,000
so this was kind of like
my day.

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00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:32,000
I would get up at 6:00,
I would go to

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00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:36,000
work, go to the tribal
office about 30 miles
away,

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00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:40,000
be there by 8:00.
And by noon,

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00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:44,000
I left and I was at the
camp.

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00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,000
And there was always these
meetings like what are we
gonna do, how are we

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00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,000
gonna. We’re gonna set
up a council lodge. There’s
all these things, logistics,

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00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:56,000
and the port-a-potties,
the roll off dumpsters,

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00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:00,000
how many we need,
where are people gonna go.
So we would have these

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00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,000
meetings and how do you
get everybody information

354
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:08,000
on what’s gonna transpire,
what’s going on. So we

355
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:12,000
would eat and we would
meet and we meet and
we meet with elders

356
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:16,000
and they would talk in
our language and it
was powerful and we would

357
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,000
just sit there thinking
that

358
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,000
is this really happening?
Is this something that
is

359
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,000
here today and you got to
a

360
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:32,000
place where you didn’t
want to leave. I didn’t
want to leave the camp

361
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:36,000
so by the time it was 2:00,
3:00 in the morning, I would

362
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,000
still be down there and
would still be in meetings,
still be talking and

363
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:44,000
I would go home.
And when I’d go
home, there

364
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:48,000
would be people at my
house and they would be
waiting for me, so I have

365
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:52,000
to stay up and I’ll talk
to them. And then I would
lay down about 5:00

366
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:56,000
and my head’s spinning

367
00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:00,000
and I can’t sleep.
And then I get up and
I go to work and the

368
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:04,000
day goes the exact
same way for six days.

369
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:08,000
I didn’t sleep and I
didn’t

370
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,000
eat, I hardly ate.
And I was smoking
cigarettes like crazy.

371
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:16,000
It was like I was a
chain smoker. I don’t even
think I

372
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,000
touched the water. I
didn’t bathe or anything,

373
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,000
but it was a

374
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:28,000
challenge because

375
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,000
there were so many
different things coming
at you and

376
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:36,000
their suggestions and
everybody knew what to
do and how to do it and

377
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:40,000
what we were going to
do. So the first 6 days
was really

378
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:44,000
hard and it wasn’t
until

379
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:48,000
my wife,

380
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,000
we say Mahasanni,
and that means

381
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,000
“My other half”.

382
00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:00,000
It’s a real intimate term
to describe your
significant

383
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:04,000
other. So my Mahasanni
pulled me aside
and said,

384
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:08,000
“You have to pray.”

385
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,000
You have to pray. And
she was worried about me
because I wasn’t getting

386
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:16,000
sleep and she was
scared that I was gonna
get thrown in jail again or

387
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,000
she was scared that a war
was gonna happen and
they were gonna take me.

388
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,000
So she was really worried
about what was happening

389
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,000
and she wasn’t sleeping,
she wasn’t eating, and
she was spending time

390
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,000
looking for me. So
she says you have to

391
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,000
pray. And I remember
we had a

392
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,000
council set up. It was
3:00 in the morning,
and I was sitting

393
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:44,000
in the council lodge and
I’m listening to these
elders talk and they’re

394
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,000
speaking in the language
and it’s real

395
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:52,000
cool, but then there
was this energy that’s
saying what are we going

396
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,000
to do, and that’s why we’ve
formed a council lodge to
say what and how we're

397
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,000
gonna confront the oil
industry, the pipeline
industry, the federal

398
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,000
government, the state
governments. What are
our purposes?

399
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:08,000
So I’m sitting in there
and then

400
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,000
it’s like this younger group
is coming up and

401
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:16,000
they’re saying we gotta
fight.

402
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,000
We gotta fight and it's
almost where

403
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:24,000
you start to believe
that’s what you have to
do and that’s your purpose.

404
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,000
And so I didn’t know
at the time

405
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:32,000
my wife was sitting outside
the teepee and she was
listening to the conversations.

406
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,000
She pulled me in and she
said

407
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:40,000
“We have to go. We
have to go pray.”

408
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,000
So that night,

409
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:48,000
I went home. I fell
asleep and I heard
people talking

410
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:52,000
in my living room. My
wife got my mother. My
wife

411
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:56,000
got my sister. My wife
got my brother. She got
my auntie. And they're

412
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:00,000
all sitting there and they
were worried about me.

413
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,000
And they said you
can’t go to

414
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:08,000
the camp anymore by
yourself, you have to
go with somebody

415
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,000
and you have to eat
and you can’t stay out
there all night. So they

416
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:16,000
gave me all these rules
and then we have to go
to sweat, a sweat lodge.

417
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:20,000
A sweat lodge is a
purification ceremony
and

418
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,000
I didn’t know that at the
time, that I was carrying
so

419
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,000
much or know what I
was carrying. And I
remember

420
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,000
when we were in the
sweat lodge it was the
first time that I got to

421
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,000
talk about what was
happening and it was
the first time that I

422
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:40,000
cried and cried a lot.
And I

423
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:44,000
know when something is
sacred and something is
spiritual, emotions

424
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:48,000
come over you and you
can’t control it.

425
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:52,000
One time I was sleeping
in these first 6 days,
and I heard people

426
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,000
talking outside of my
window and they kept

427
00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,000
talking and

428
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:04,000
I woke up and I said
what is that?

429
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,000
I was still sleeping. I was
still dreaming and I went
to my window and there

430
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,000
was this streetlight on
the street and there was
people. This was before 

431
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:16,000
anyone came to Standing
Rock but there was people
all in the streets and they

432
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:20,000
were saying, “Dave, come
on. Come with us.
We need you,

433
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:24,000
get over here.” And I

434
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:28,000
froze up in my sleep
and I shook myself awake.

435
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:32,000
The next night, the
people were

436
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,000
inside of our house
in my dream. So I knew
that something

437
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:40,000
was happening and I knew
that something sacred,
something spiritual was

438
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:44,000
going on. And it’s the
connection that we
have. So when I start

439
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,000
say why? I start asking
questions why

440
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,000
is this happening?
Why me? Why is it here?

441
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,000
What’s gonna happen?

442
00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:00,000
And I used to love
math. Math was easy
for

443
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,000
me because I could
solve a problem.

444
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:08,000
And a lot of times it’s
just the formula. And this
formula comes like

445
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:12,000
it’s an if/then. And
if you look at if/then,

446
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:16,000
and it’s a function of
X. And if you have the
formula, you can solve

447
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:20,000
it. Whether it’s
calculus or trigonometry,

448
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:24,000
or algebra, if/then.
So you ask these
questions if/then.

449
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:28,000
So I start asking
if we did this,

450
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:32,000
then this happened.
If I did that, then what
would the result be?

451
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:36,000
If we went at this
with war,

452
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,000
then what would happen?
If we went at this with peace,
then what would happen? So

453
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:44,000
it’s always searching for
answers and that’s kind of
how I came up 

454
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000
with this presentation.

455
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,000
Why was there resistance?
Why did Indigenous People

456
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:56,000
stand up at Standing
Rock? So

457
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:00,000
I could talk about Standing
Rock because that’s who
I am

458
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,000
and that’s where I’m
from and I know the
history.

459
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,000
So first, like my name

460
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:12,000
is Dave Archambault and
I’m gonna talk a little bit
about the past, because

461
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:16,000
you have to understand why
there’s resistance.

462
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:20,000
I always like to say that
I am a recovering

463
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,000
Chairman. And I would
think it would cool if I
could get all the

464
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:28,000
Chairmans that were once
Chairmen in a room and we
get together and we could talk

465
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,000
and just kind of recover.

466
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,000
This whole- when
you think

467
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:40,000
about an event or a
moment,

468
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:44,000
there’s different
characters of there’s
different

469
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:48,000


470
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:52,000
I don’t know how to label
them. I’ll just say
characters.

471
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:56,000
And there’s three of them.
And in this event that
happened at Standing

472
00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:00,000
Rock, I’ll talk about the
past, I’ll talk about kind
of the present,

473
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,000
and then I’ll talk
about what I’m doing
now and the future.

474
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:08,000
Part of it is I work for
the First Peoples
Indigenous

475
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:12,000
Engagement Investment
Project.

476
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:16,000
and it’s continuing to
work from a First Peoples
World project which was

477
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:20,000
engaging tribes,
Indigenous communities
with corporations

478
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:24,000
when there’s a threat
to their ancestral lands.

479
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,000
So we’re continuing the
work that Rebecca
Adams

480
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:32,000
started. So that’s kind
of like the future.

481
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:36,000
What can we do?
What are we doing?
What am I doing?

482
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:40,000


483
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:44,000
But the three characters.
So, let’s say that you

484
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:48,000
watch a movie or you’re
a part of something, but

485
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:52,000
there’s always three.
There’s a villain,

486
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:56,000
there’s a hero, and
there’s a victim.

487
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:00,000
So there’s always these
three characters that you
end up

488
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,000
and you try to identify.
Well, which one is he,

489
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,000
what is she, or what’s
going on

490
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,000
here and I could tell you
through this whole

491
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:16,000
event, I was all three

492
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,000
of them. Sometimes
I was two at the same
time.

493
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,000
So I was considered a
hero. I

494
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:28,000
was a villain

495
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,000
to the pipeline. I was a
villain to the state and
the federal government.

496
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:36,000
I was a villain towards
the end towards the
people who once

497
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:40,000
supported. I was a

498
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:44,000
victim. Our lands

499
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:48,000
are being threatened.
Our water is being
threatened. Our people.

500
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:52,000
So if you think about it,
there’s always these
three characters

501
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:56,000
and I got to experience
all three and I’ll tell
you, they’re not

502
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:00,000
all that. So,

503
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:04,000
the past. I have to
back up

504
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:08,000
to share kind of how
we got to this

505
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:12,000
point in this moment and
this is what

506
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:16,000
they call the Doctrine
of Discovery.

507
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:20,000
In the 1400s, churches

508
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:24,000
came together with
states, or we would
call them kingdoms

509
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,000
in Europe and the
Roman Catholic

510
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000
Church, and I’m not
discrediting anybody’s
religion or anything, I’m

511
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,000
just saying this is what
was happening. The
Romans Catholic

512
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,000
churches were teaming
up with kingdoms

513
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:44,000
and states and that’s
where the power lied.

514
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:48,000
And when they came
together, they came

515
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:52,000
together for riches.
So the churches

516
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:56,000
said to the kingdoms
to go and discover

517
00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,000
new lands. And if you
go and discover new
lands,

518
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,000
the kingdoms come and
say what if there’s
people

519
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:08,000
there already? Well,
ask them if they believe
in God

520
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:12,000
and if they don’t believe
in God, then they’re less
than human and if they're

521
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:16,000
less than human, none
of the riches are theres.

522
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:20,000
It’s yours to discover
and you can christen it
with your sword.

523
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:24,000
And so when they came
across Indigenous
People,

524
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:28,000
to send a message they
would maim,

525
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:32,000
they would cut the hands,
cut the feet off, they would
cut the noses off.

526
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:36,000
It was just 

527
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:40,000
Christian dominion.
A dominance

528
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,000
over one race from
another

529
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:48,000
and that’s the origin

530
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:52,000
of what happened throughout
the world when

531
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:56,000
new lands were discovered.
It 

532
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:00,000
legitimized and legalized
Christian dominion.

533
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:04,000
So there’s Papal Bulls,
those sacred documents

534
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:08,000
that are still at the

535
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:12,000
Vatican today that say
it’s okay to do this.

536
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:16,000
Prior to anybody
coming

537
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:20,000
to America, this is

538
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,000
how the land was.

539
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:28,000
Let’s see if I can
point. This area

540
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:32,000
right here was where
my tribes are from.

541
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000


542
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:40,000
In 1784, was the first
time

543
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:44,000
that the country, the United
States, said we need to
identify

544
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:48,000
the lands of the Indigenous
People. So this

545
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:52,000
was what they said was
Sioux country,

546
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:56,000
or Lakota, Dakota,
Nakota. 

547
00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:00,000
The Sioux country,

548
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,000
it’s Dakota, Lakota, and
Dakota, The Great
Sioux Nation,

549
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:08,000
that make up The Great
Sioux Nation and they have
all of the Seven Council

550
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,000
Fires. You hear Oceti
Sakowin, that was the
name of the camp.

551
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:16,000
The camp was actually
called Seven

552
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:20,000
Council Fires. I am

553
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,000
from the Titunwan,
the Hunkpapa and

554
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,000
Ihanktonwan.

555
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,000
So those are like my
ancestors and I’m also
part Cheyenne.

556
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:36,000
But there were Seven
Council Fires

557
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:40,000
and the Titunwan had
seven bands and the
seven bands are what

558
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:44,000
make up a lot of the
tribes in South Dakota.
In 1812,

559
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:48,000
there was a war.

560
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:52,000
It was Americas versus
the British.

561
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,000
and in 1815, that was
the first treaty that the

562
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Yanktonai entered
into. So I only talk about
my tribe.

563
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:04,000
The Yanktonai entered
into a treaty and it
was a peace treaty. It was

564
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:08,000
a peace treaty with
American saying we

565
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:12,000
promise we won’t fight
against you anymore because
the Yanktonia teamed up

566
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:16,000
with the British in that
first war. So 1815, they
said we're

567
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:20,000
gonna promise under a
peace treaty that

568
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:24,000
we’re not gonna be
enemies with the
Americas. But by

569
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:28,000
1825, that was the
first treaty the

570
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:32,000
Yanktonai from the
Great Sioux Nation
entered into a

571
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,000
land boundary treaty,
saying this land

572
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:40,000
right here is where we

573
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:44,000
are occupying and

574
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:48,000
if you’re gonna come
through here, you need
to visit with

575
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:52,000
us. So there’s treaties.
Now if you think about
America,

576
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,000
America enters into a
lot of treaties with
different countries

577
00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:00,000
and they honor every
treaty they enter into

578
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:04,000
with other countries.
But when it comes to
treaties within

579
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:08,000
America, they haven’t
honored one.

580
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:12,000
If I were to try to talk

581
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:16,000
a little about treaties,
to me,

582
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:20,000
thinking about what is
a treaty? The treaty

583
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:24,000
was before the Constitution.

584
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:28,000
It’s the law of the land
and it would be
considered a

585
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:32,000
contract. So it’s a
contract saying

586
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:36,000
we agree on this.
Even though there was

587
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:40,000
language differences,
we agreed,

588
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:44,000
for the most part, on
a lot of the treaties.

589
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:48,000
In 1851,

590
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:52,000
so if you think about 1825,
1813,

591
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:56,000
1815, 1825 to 1851
what was happening in

592
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:00,000
America, there was
a Civil War that was
taking place.

593
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,000
So there wasn’t much
discussion or
conversation

594
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:08,000
about tribes or Indians
until

595
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:12,000
about the mid-1800s.
In 1851,

596
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:16,000
there was a

597
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:20,000
Fort Robinson Trail
that went through Nebraska

598
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:24,000
and it went all the way
to West Coast and so
as

599
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:28,000
there’s people
migrating to the West,
they’re running into

600
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:32,000
confrontations with
tribes. So, they
enter into treaties

601
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:36,000
with the tribes in that
area. The second one

602
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,000
that we got into was
in 1851 with the Great
Sioux Nation.

603
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:44,000
And that treaty

604
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,000
had over 60 million
acres of land and it

605
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:52,000
encompassed four
different states.

606
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:56,000
From 1851 to
1868,

607
00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:00,000
everything was good
until there was gold

608
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:04,000
discovered in
Montana. In Montana,

609
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:08,000
there was a route that cut
through by the North
Platte River

610
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:12,000
and went straight up
in here

611
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:16,000
for gold. They called
it the Bozeman Trail.

612
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:20,000
So before 1868

613
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:24,000
there was the Indian
Wars, they called it and
it was Chief

614
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:28,000
Red Cloud who stood up
and said you can’t come
through these lands. These

615
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:32,000
This area here is the
Rocky Mountains and
the Black

616
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:36,000
Hills. This area is some of
the most precious,

617
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:40,000
pristine land that the
tribes- hunting land

618
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:44,000
hunting grounds that
the tribes occupied.
And now they’re getting

619
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:48,000
threatened because there’s
a Bozeman Trail. So they
have these wars

620
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,000
and these forts actually
never did get set up.

621
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:56,000
Red Cloud came and he
burned a couple forts

622
00:41:56,000 --> 00:42:00,000
down. So, in

623
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:04,000
1877,

624
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:08,000
1874 there was this guy
named Custer.

625
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:12,000
Custer travelled through

626
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:16,000
the Black Hills on an
expedition to see if there
was gold in there.

627
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:20,000
So,

628
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:24,000
the 1876 Congress

629
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:28,000
takes preliminary power
over tribes. Now,

630
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:32,000
that alone is a violation
of the U.S. Constitution.

631
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:36,000
Congress should not
have preliminary power
over any citizen

632
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:40,000
of America, but yet,
they have it over tribes.

633
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:44,000
And every business
that has to be conducted
with tribes-

634
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:48,000
it was under the Department
of Defense, and they
moved it over to

635
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:52,000
the Department of Army
and then they moved it
over to

636
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:56,000
Congress. And Congress
starts setting up these
departments,

637
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:00,000
like Department of Interior
with the Bureau of Indian

638
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:04,000
Affairs. So, in 1877,

639
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:08,000
there’s an Act that was
passed by the government
and it was the

640
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:12,000
Black Hills Settlement
or the

641
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,000
Black Hills land was taken
out. So this is

642
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:20,000
where the Black Hills is,
and this is the Great
Sioux Nation

643
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:24,000
Boundary. It’s about
a third of South

644
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:28,000
Dakota. So the lands
start

645
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:32,000
by 1889,

646
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:36,000
this was the Great
Sioux Nation

647
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:40,000
and they start separating
the tribes. They put us

648
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:44,000
on each of our own
reservations. In 1910,

649
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:48,000
there was this land

650
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:52,000
grab, or, what do they
call it when the

651
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:56,000
Sooners went into
Oklahoma. The same thing
happened in South

652
00:43:56,000 --> 00:44:00,000
Dakota and North Dakota
where lands were for sale

653
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,000
pennies on a dollar
and it was

654
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:08,000
Indian lands within the
reservations. So what they
did in 1889

655
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:12,000
was they created, it
was called the Allotment
Act and they gave every

656
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:16,000
individual that was a
Native American, if
they were competent

657
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,000
enough, determined by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
and the Superintendent and

658
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:24,000
the way they would determine
it is if they could speak
English and if

659
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:28,000
they can, then they may
understand what land
ownership is.

660
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:32,000
You have to understand
that we never- how
can you own a

661
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:36,000
relative? We never had
a concept of ownership
and prior to

662
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:40,000
1889, everything was

663
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:44,000
shared. Everything
was communal.

664
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:48,000
You can’t give an
individual a parcel of land.

665
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:52,000
So, we didn’t understand
what was happening

666
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:56,000
and in 1910, the land
within the reservations

667
00:44:56,000 --> 00:45:00,000
was taken out of trust
status under federal

668
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:04,000
government and put into
fee status. So, by

669
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:08,000
1954, that's

670
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:12,000
Standing Rock. That’s
where I live. The land
in the yellow

671
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:16,000
is still in trust and there’s
different types

672
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:20,000
of land. There’s allotted
land and there’s tribal
land.

673
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:24,000
The tribe owns some land
but the majority of the land
is owned by individuals.

674
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:28,000
There’s 2.3 million
acres on Standing Rock.

675
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:32,000
Standing Rock startles
North Dakota and
South Dakota.

676
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:36,000
2.3 million acres within
the exterior boundaries

677
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:40,000
of the reservation
and

678
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:44,000
of the 2.3 million, I
would say 1.3

679
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:48,000
is in trust still, so
over half. So we went
from

680
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:52,000
60 million acres in

681
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:56,000
1851 to less

682
00:45:56,000 --> 00:46:00,000
than 2 million acres.
That’s what our

683
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:04,000
tribe looks like today.
The green is allotted,

684
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:08,000
which means individual
tribal members own the land,
and the white

685
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:12,000
is it’s no longer in trust.
It’s owned by non-Indians

686
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:16,000
and the yellow is tribal
and the red is tribal,
tribal fee,

687
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:20,000
Meaning that the tribe
bought back some land

688
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:24,000
from individuals. So
the land status, there’s
different jurisdictions and

689
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:28,000
different issues that we
have to deal with when it
comes to managing

690
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:32,000
government. So,
those

691
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:36,000
were some of the land
takings and you think that

692
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,000
the land taking would end.
You’d think there’s no way

693
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:44,000
they’re gonna be able
take any more land.
We’re actually getting land

694
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:48,000
back. We’re buying land
back. In 1944, there was
an act, it was called the

695
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:52,000
Pick-Sloan Act. The
Pick-Sloan was a project,

696
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:56,000
infrastructure project that
built 7 dams and it was
the largest

697
00:46:56,000 --> 00:47:00,000
dam project in the world
at that time and

698
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:04,000
everywhere these dams
were placed, they were
placed strategically

699
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:08,000
so they’ll take the most
precious lands that

700
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:12,000
tribes have and that’s
the land along the river.
So if I back

701
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:16,000
up here, and if you look
where the tribes

702
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:20,000
are on Standing Rock,
this is at

703
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:24,000
Grand River, wherever
there’s water, that’s
where we

704
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,000
chose the land. And
this out here is a lot of
fee land,

705
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:32,000
but that’s agriculture
land, that’s flat

706
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:36,000
prairie. This didn’t
have any use to us but

707
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:40,000
the land with the water,
the land with the woods,
the land with the game,

708
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:44,000
the land with the fruit,
was the land that we
wanted to occupy.

709
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:48,000
So let’s build some dams.

710
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:52,000
and let’s take those lands.
This is a chairmen from the

711
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:56,000
3 affiliated tribes. His last
name was Gillette,
first name Russell.

712
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:00,000
and at the signing of this
dam project,

713
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:04,000
he’s crying because
he knows what’s coming for
his people.

714
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:08,000
Here’s Fort Peck Dam.

715
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:12,000
Three Affiliated's Dam.
Standing Rock’s Dam
with

716
00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:16,000
Cheyenne River, Lower
Brule, Crow Creek,
Yankton. Seven tribes

717
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:20,000
their land was taken.
We didn’t have say.

718
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:24,000
We didn’t get consulted.
They just came in with
this infrastructure project

719
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:28,000
and what this infrastructure
project does is it brings

720
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:32,000
electricity and it manages
flood control. So the
states that

721
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:36,000
are below, in Missouri,
they can still run barges.

722
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:40,000
I just, I gave this

723
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:44,000
pictures because the
land that bares a lot
of the fruit

724
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:48,000
is now 55,000 acres
were taken from

725
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:52,000
Standing Rock.

726
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:56,000
That infrastructure
project there had an

727
00:48:56,000 --> 00:49:00,000
impact on our lives.
We had to relocate from
the river bottom

728
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:04,000
to high land and

729
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:08,000


730
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:12,000
a lot of people didn’t want
to leave, so they stayed
and they saw the water

731
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:16,000
rise and sweep away
their house, sweep away
their goats

732
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:20,000
and that was in

733
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:24,000
1956. So there are
still people today

734
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:28,000
on Standing Rock who
can remember when the
flood waters came

735
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:32,000
and when they took
our lands. So this

736
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:36,000
is another infrastructure
project and probably the
first infrastructure that

737
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:40,000
had a negative impact
on who we are.

738
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:44,000
It’s a railroad system.
The railroad system

739
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:48,000
came through, and in
our treaties, there’s some

740
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:52,000
language in there that
says that without

741
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:56,000
permission, not one
non-member of

742
00:49:56,000 --> 00:50:00,000
the tribe can cross
through our lands,
but

743
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:04,000
there’s another article
in there that says if

744
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:08,000
we’re gonna build
infrastructure projects,
then you have to allow us.

745
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:12,000
The railroad system
came through

746
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:16,000
and what it did,

747
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,000
so, to help you understand

748
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:24,000
prior to the railroad
system, we have a
creation

749
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:28,000
story. Our story is
that we came from
Wind Cave

750
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:32,000
in the Black Hills
and a man

751
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:36,000
came out of the cave
and his

752
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:40,000
tribe was waiting for
him. When he came out,

753
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:44,000
he saw that it was cold,
he saw there was no food,
and so he asked the

754
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:48,000
Creator if he can help
his people. And so the
Creator

755
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:52,000
turned him into a buffalo.
He was the first to come
out and he became

756
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:56,000
a buffalo. And so
we always say that

757
00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:00,000
the buffalo is our relative
who gave

758
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:04,000
himself for us. In

759
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:08,000
1801, it was said that
were 70 million buffalo
that roamed the

760
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:12,000
plains. It was like
a black sea and

761
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:16,000
by 1889, there were
less

762
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:20,000
than 100 head of
buffalo running wild
on the plains.

763
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:24,000
So the buffalo was

764
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:28,000
our home, our teepee.
A buffalo had

765
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:32,000
all of our tools, with
the bones, the meat.
The buffalo

766
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:36,000
was our economy,
wherever the buffalo
went. And it was a

767
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:40,000
system and a cycle
that replenished and
gave to

768
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:44,000
all the relatives.
And it was

769
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:48,000
who we are and we
call came from the
same place.

770
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:52,000
Now the railroad system
comes in and they shoot

771
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:56,000
for sport. They start
killing buffalo.

772
00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:00,000
In less than 100
years, they almost
make the

773
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:04,000
species go extinct.
They had to go out into
the prairies

774
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:08,000
and pick up buffalo
skulls, buffalo bones.
There was mountains

775
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:12,000
of buffalo skulls.
Mountains of hides.
That’s the only thing

776
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:16,000
they wanted but they left
everything.

777
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:20,000
And it changed

778
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:24,000
our way of life.
We used to be nomadic.
We would follow the

779
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:28,000
buffalo wherever it
went, and now the buffalo
are not there, so it changed

780
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:32,000
us.

781
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:36,000
So this is just a picture
of the railroad systems

782
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:40,000
in 1870, and as it
starts to expand. And I

783
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:44,000
just want to make note
like right here, this is
the Great Sioux Nation.

784
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:48,000
Those are the railroad
systems. There’s now a
railroad system that's

785
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:52,000
cutting through the heart
of our Great Sioux
Nation. This

786
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:56,000
right here is the Great
Sioux Nation with this
infrastructure project.

787
00:52:56,000 --> 00:53:00,000
These are automobiles.
This is another infrastructure.
This is what happened.

788
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:04,000
In 1907, this is just
an interstate system

789
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:08,000
and this is where we
start to see, there were
different prophecies in

790
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:12,000
our history by

791
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:16,000
different médecine men
and they’re saying there’s
gonna be a ‘black snake’.

792
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:20,000
This was the first black
snake in the service and
it’s gonna be like a

793
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:24,000
spider web over the land.

794
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:28,000
In a short period of time,
that’s what the insterstate
system

795
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:32,000
looks like now and it
goes throughout the
United States.

796
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:36,000
That infrastructure
changed who we are.
This is another

797
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:40,000
infrastructure project.
These are gas pipelines

798
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:44,000
and I want to show
you right here, this is

799
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:48,000
This is the Great Sioux
Nation yet.

800
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:52,000
These are oil spills since- 

801
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:56,000
this made was pulled
in

802
00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:00,000
2010. These are all
the oil spills in 2010.
Over 2,000

803
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:04,000
oil spills from pipelines.
There’s no oil

804
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:08,000
spills in the middle
of where Great Sioux
Nation is.

805
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:12,000
So now I’m trying to catch
you up on why is there
resistance at Standing

806
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:16,000
Rock. They’re gonna
build a pipeline and it’s
gonna

807
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:20,000
cut 500 feet from our
existing reservation

808
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:24,000
along the Missouri
River. So,

809
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:28,000
I ask, I say, ‘Why do
you need to

810
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:32,000
pipeline?’. In my
capacity as a chairman,
I was able to

811
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:36,000
talk to Congress,
senators, congressmen,
governors,

812
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:40,000
of the state, the Army
Corps of Engineers, the
Secretary of

813
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:44,000
Department of Army
Assistant

814
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:48,000
Secretary Jo-Ellen
Darcy. I asked all of
them, why do you need

815
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:52,000
this? Why do you have
to put it here? Well,

816
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:56,000
we need it for energy
independence. We need
it for economic

817
00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:00,000
development, and we
need it for national
security.

818
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:04,000
So then I have to stop
them and I say, ‘Hold on
now.

819
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:08,000
Look at what you’re
telling me and think
about what

820
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:12,000
the Indigenous People
paid for, throughout

821
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:16,000
the inception of this
great nation.’

822
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:20,000
This right here is the

823
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:24,000
Black Hills. This is
where our creation story

824
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:28,000
comes from. There’s
certain ceremonies that
we follow and we follow

825
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:32,000
the stars with this

826
00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:36,000
land,

827
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:40,000
the Black Hills. The
first one takes place on
the highest

828
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:44,000
peak. We welcome
back our Wakinyans,
our

829
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:48,000
Thunder Beings, because
they bring life with
water, but they also

830
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:52,000
can bring destruction,
so we ask them to have
pity on us.

831
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:56,000
Then we go 28 days
after that. 28 is a significant
number

832
00:55:56,000 --> 00:56:00,000
for our tribe. It has a

833
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:04,000
number 4, it has a
number 7. There’s
4 cardinal directions

834
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:08,000
There’s 7 directions
in

835
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:12,000
spirituality. There’s

836
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:16,000
28 days in a woman’s
cycle. There's

837
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:20,000
28 ribs in a buffalo.
So 28 days after we

838
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:24,000
welcome the Wakinyan
back, we go to Phesla,
there’s a bald spot

839
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:28,000
and it’s where animals
congregate and we give
thanks

840
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:32,000
for the animals that
give

841
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:36,000
themselves so that we
can live. 28 days after that,
we go to

842
00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:40,000
Bear Butte and we
hamblecha.

843
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:44,000
A hamblecha is kind of
like a vision quest.
28 days after that,

844
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:48,000
we go to Grey Horn
Butte which is

845
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:52,000
Devil’s Tower and we
have our

846
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:56,000
Wiwanyag Wacipi, or
sun dance, and these
are things that the

847
00:56:56,000 --> 00:57:00,000
Creator showed us
where the buffalo went,
and the

848
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:04,000
things that were happening
in the stars. It’s not just

849
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:08,000
Mitakuyepi, our relations
here on this planet, it’s the

850
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:12,000
connectivity that we
have from the center
of the Earth to the universe

851
00:57:12,000 --> 00:57:16,000
and the stars tell us when
we do things and how
we do things

852
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:20,000
and it’s Wakhan,

853
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:24,000
it’s a great mystery.
It’s spiritual.

854
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:28,000
This is the Black Hills.
Remember in 1874

855
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:32,000
this cat named Custer
came in and

856
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:36,000
found gold in there.

857
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:40,000
Gold was used for national
security, to back

858
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:44,000
the US currency. We
already paid for it. You

859
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:48,000
took the most sacred
places that we ever
had,

860
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:52,000
the most sacred places
that we cherished,
you took them from us.

861
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:56,000
In 1877 with the act
that said we weren’t
even humans. We

862
00:57:56,000 --> 00:58:00,000
weren’t even citizens of
the country and Congress
was passing acts on our

863
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:04,000
behalf. In

864
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:08,000
1889, they put us on

865
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:12,000
reservations. In
1910, they

866
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:16,000
sold on our lands on the
reservations for pennies
on the dollar and we

867
00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:20,000
didn’t have say.
We weren’t even citizens
in 1910.

868
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:24,000
They did it for economic
development.

869
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:28,000
I don’t know if there’s
any crops that grow here,

870
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:32,000
but usually when there’s
crops that can grow in a
state, it’s the number one

871
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:36,000
economic driver and
they were taking it
from us

872
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:40,000
for economic development.
National security,

873
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:44,000
economic development,
we paid for it. The
Missouri River

874
00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:48,000
with this dam project.

875
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:52,000
They use it for
hydro electricity,
hydro power.

876
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:56,000
So we’re paying for that.
We’re paying so that
this great

877
00:58:56,000 --> 00:59:00,000
nation can share in
a federal project and
who

878
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:04,000
pays the costs? Who
benefits? We pay
the costs,

879
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:08,000
Every day there’s
trauma

880
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:12,000
from when the lands
were taken when the
waters flooded and

881
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:16,000
we see what river
bottom we used to have,
now we don’t have

882
00:59:16,000 --> 00:59:20,000
because it’s a lake.
They call it Lake Oahe,
not Missouri River.

883
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:24,000
It’s for hydro electricity.

884
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:28,000
You would think the
takings are done.
And this is

885
00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:32,000
something that I always
have to say.

886
00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:36,000
A lot of times people
say, ‘Why don’t you
just get over

887
00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:40,000
it? Why are you

888
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:44,000
complaining about
this? I didn’t do that to
you. I didn’t do that to

889
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:48,000
your people. It was
our ancestors that
did that

890
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:52,000
to your ancestors and
it’s time to move on.’
It’s hard

891
00:59:52,000 --> 00:59:56,000
to move on when it
continues to happen

892
00:59:56,000 --> 01:00:00,000
and it’s still
happening today.

893
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:04,000
This was the

894
01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:08,000
pipeline, Dakota
Access Pipeline.

895
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:12,000
We had to do something.

896
01:00:12,000 --> 01:00:16,000
What do you do?
What can you do to
try to build awareness

897
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:20,000
and try to start to have
a quiver there?

898
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:24,000
Because there’s always
different ways to use

899
01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:28,000
the tools or weapons
that you have and if you
use

900
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:32,000
more, that one way’s
easier to break, but
if you have

901
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:36,000
more than one way,
like a quiver of arrows,
it’s hard to break.

902
01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:40,000
We came at this

903
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:44,000
politically, we visited
and I

904
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:48,000
listed a lot of the
activities that we did,
starting from

905
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:52,000
2007 when we first
passed resolutions on
our nation stating

906
01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:56,000
that we don’t want
pipelines. We don’t
want

907
01:00:56,000 --> 01:01:00,000
fracking to take place.
All the way

908
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:04,000


909
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:08,000
to when we had to-
I tried to meet with Trump-
all the way

910
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:12,000
to when I tried to meet
with Trump. Even today
what’s happening

911
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:16,000
with voter rights
with Native Americans.

912
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:20,000
So there’s a lot of
things that we can do
politically and that

913
01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:24,000
basically is getting
meetings in front of people
in the capacity I had, like

914
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:28,000
senators, Congressmen,
governors. And when I
met with them

915
01:01:28,000 --> 01:01:32,000
and who I met with.
Legally, we

916
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:36,000
went to court. We
did everything, we

917
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:40,000
exhausted everything
that we could in federal
court.

918
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:44,000
In the introduction,
the young lady said
that

919
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:48,000
I have a Doctorate in
Law

920
01:01:48,000 --> 01:01:52,000
honoris causa.
It’s an honorary degree
that

921
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:56,000
that I was given. I
didn’t know anything
about law. I was just the

922
01:01:56,000 --> 01:02:00,000
chairman for Standing
Rock and

923
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:04,000
next thing you know,
we’re going to court.
I had to learn

924
01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:08,000
what a preliminary
injunction is, executive
summary,

925
01:02:08,000 --> 01:02:12,000
all of this stuff. It
all started coming

926
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:16,000
and arguments,
getting in front of the
judge.

927
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:20,000
During this time when
we went to

928
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:24,000
our first court hearing.
It was in Washington
D.C.

929
01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:28,000
and I went and my wife
came with me. But
before

930
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:32,000
she came, she asked
to wear

931
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:36,000
a dress and I thought
she was just wearing
a regular dress.

932
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:40,000
And we get to D.C.

933
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:44,000
and then she’s putting
on this elk tooth

934
01:02:44,000 --> 01:02:48,000
traditional dress.

935
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:52,000
Prior to that, when I
was coming, my uncle

936
01:02:52,000 --> 01:02:56,000
in the council lodge
said, when you go to

937
01:02:56,000 --> 01:03:00,000
D.C., you need to wear
feathers, you need to
wear at least two feathers

938
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:04,000
to show that you’re
still here. So I
had these two

939
01:03:04,000 --> 01:03:08,000
feathers that I had to
wear like this and my
wife was gonna wear a

940
01:03:08,000 --> 01:03:12,000
dress and I didn’t know
what kind of dress she
was gonna wear until we

941
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:16,000
got there and I actually
saw the elk tooth dress.

942
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:20,000
And it wasn’t a good
day in court, I would
say. I wasn’t too happy

943
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:24,000
with what happened in court,
but we were able to come
out of that

944
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:28,000
courthouse with, I had
moccasins on,

945
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:32,000
I was kind of dressed
like this with two feathers
and my wife had her

946
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:36,000
moccasins and her elk
tooth traditional dress
and she had an eagle

947
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:40,000
plume on and we came
out and there was
people

948
01:03:40,000 --> 01:03:44,000
that were supporting us
and they were

949
01:03:44,000 --> 01:03:48,000
saying ‘You have to
go say something to them.’
I didn’t know what to say

950
01:03:48,000 --> 01:03:52,000
but we had to go, and

951
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:56,000
it was probably one of
the most powerful
things that I saw but

952
01:03:56,000 --> 01:04:00,000
it wasn’t powerful
because of what I did,
it was more powerful

953
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:04,000
when I asked my wife,
‘Why did you have to
wear that

954
01:04:04,000 --> 01:04:08,000
dress?’ and she said
‘Because,

955
01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:12,000
Indigenous women
are left out. Indigenous

956
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:16,000
women are forgotten, and
if they’re forgotten,
Indigenous nations will

957
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:20,000
be forgotten, so we
have to remind the
world that Indigenous

958
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:24,000
People are here’. And
Indigenous women, more
importantly, are still here.

959
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:28,000
And it was

960
01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:32,000
significant when that
happened. And I don’t
know, I don’t

961
01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:36,000
have a picture of what
she was wearing, but
that's one thing I remember

962
01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:40,000
about the court. And the
other things that we were
doing was demonstrations,

963
01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:44,000
activities on ground.
We had youth that
were running

964
01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:48,000
from Cannon Ball, from
my community, all the
way to Omaha

965
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:52,000
to the Corps of Engineers.

966
01:04:52,000 --> 01:04:56,000
District Office, and then
they made another
journey to Washington

967
01:04:56,000 --> 01:05:00,000
D.C. and they delivered
a petition of 165,000
signatures

968
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:04,000
saying don’t allow the
Dakota Access

969
01:05:04,000 --> 01:05:08,000
Pipeline to cross under
the Missouri River. And
this was all led by youth.

970
01:05:08,000 --> 01:05:12,000
Our youth were doing
this. And so, one

971
01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:16,000
one of the things that
I learned as a Chairman
is that when our youth speak,

972
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:20,000
you have to acknowledge
and you have to recognize
them and you have to give

973
01:05:20,000 --> 01:05:24,000
them a platform. And
so we did then best that
we could to

974
01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:28,000
give them a platform,
and it was a social media
platform. And it blew up.

975
01:05:28,000 --> 01:05:32,000
It got big. It got big.
So I always try to

976
01:05:32,000 --> 01:05:36,000
acknowledge and credit
to the youth, not just at
Standing Rock,

977
01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:40,000
but the youth throughout
Indian country came together
and said

978
01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:44,000
‘We’re gonna stand
together. We’re gonna
stand up with tribes.’

979
01:05:44,000 --> 01:05:48,000
So these are just some
of the things that are

980
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:52,000
kind of like actions

981
01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:56,000
or activities that were
taking place. And I
wasn’t 

982
01:05:56,000 --> 01:06:00,000
responsible for all
of them.

983
01:06:00,000 --> 01:06:04,000
I always say I’m
Ikce wichasa.

984
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:08,000
I said that in my
introduction. Ikce means common.

985
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:12,000
I’m a common man.
I’m not greater and I’m
no less.

986
01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:16,000
I’m same as everybody
else in this room, so

987
01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:20,000
I know in the introduction
it says a global leader
or a global thinker,

988
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:24,000
I’m not any of that.
A lot of this happened
from grassroots people

989
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:28,000
coming together and
believing and these are

990
01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:32,000
a lot of the activities
that were done and I
didn’t do a lot of it,

991
01:06:32,000 --> 01:06:36,000
but I saw and I knew
exactly what was
happening.

992
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:40,000
So here’s the Dakota
Access Pipeline.

993
01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:44,000
Cannon Ball’s right here.
This is the pipeline.

994
01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:48,000
There was another
proposed route north
of Bismarck. Bismarck's

995
01:06:48,000 --> 01:06:52,000
the capital of North Dakota.

996
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:56,000
They chose this route
and their reasoning is
there’s already a natural

997
01:06:56,000 --> 01:07:00,000
gas pipeline that went
through there.

998
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:04,000
When they proposed this
route though, they
completely

999
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:08,000
omitted that Standing
Rock even existed.
So when

1000
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:12,000
you see that first
draft, and that’s what
I got,

1001
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:16,000
what do they say about
us? And

1002
01:07:16,000 --> 01:07:20,000
our ask from the
beginning was you
need to

1003
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:24,000
do an environmental
impact statement
on this project,

1004
01:07:24,000 --> 01:07:28,000
not just an environmental
assessment to get your
permits,

1005
01:07:28,000 --> 01:07:32,000
to cross the Missouri
River, you need to do an
environmental impact

1006
01:07:32,000 --> 01:07:36,000
statement. An environmental
impact statement takes a
long time. But what it

1007
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:40,000
does is it looks into how
a community

1008
01:07:40,000 --> 01:07:44,000
or a people is gonna
be impacted by a
project.

1009
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:48,000
And sometimes there’s
good and sometimes
there’s bad.

1010
01:07:48,000 --> 01:07:52,000
Good impacts and
bad impacts, but it
needs to be understood

1011
01:07:52,000 --> 01:07:56,000
what’s gonna happen.
And the only reason we
ask that is because if you

1012
01:07:56,000 --> 01:08:00,000
look at all the infrastructure
projects that took place
in the past, 100 years

1013
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:04,000
had a negative impact,
200 years, had a

1014
01:08:04,000 --> 01:08:08,000
negative impact on
our people. Now if you
look at

1015
01:08:08,000 --> 01:08:12,000
Standing Rock

1016
01:08:12,000 --> 01:08:16,000
the dark green
represents

1017
01:08:16,000 --> 01:08:20,000
poverty. So,

1018
01:08:20,000 --> 01:08:24,000
what we try to show
is environmental
injustice

1019
01:08:24,000 --> 01:08:28,000
when a pipeline
chooses a route where

1020
01:08:28,000 --> 01:08:32,000
there’s higher rates
of poverty. When
you look at Standing

1021
01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:36,000
Rock, we have two
counties. Sioux

1022
01:08:36,000 --> 01:08:40,000
County and Corson County.

1023
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:44,000
And if you look at the
Great Sioux Nation,
we have the Ogallala Sioux

1024
01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:48,000
Tribe, the Rosebud Sioux
Tribe, Cheyenne River
Sioux Tribe, Standing

1025
01:08:48,000 --> 01:08:52,000
Rock. Five of the
top 10 poorest

1026
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:56,000
counties in the nation.
Five of the top ten

1027
01:08:56,000 --> 01:09:00,000
poorest counties in
the nation are from
the Great

1028
01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:04,000
Sioux Nation and that’s
not because we want
to be,

1029
01:09:04,000 --> 01:09:08,000
it’s because of all the
wrongs that have been
committed to us over time

1030
01:09:08,000 --> 01:09:12,000
that put us in this
situation. And it was
because we were

1031
01:09:12,000 --> 01:09:16,000
most defiant to the
federal government
with our

1032
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:20,000
Indian wars. So,
I just wanted

1033
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:24,000
to share this, like
what happened after the

1034
01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:28,000
demonstration in the
state of North Dakota.
I’m not saying all

1035
01:09:28,000 --> 01:09:32,000
states are good or bad,
I’m just saying

1036
01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:36,000
this is kind of a form
of punishment by
the legislators

1037
01:09:36,000 --> 01:09:40,000
who want to see this

1038
01:09:40,000 --> 01:09:44,000
fossil fuel developed
and exploited and

1039
01:09:44,000 --> 01:09:48,000
revenue generated for
the state. Oil becomes
the number one economic

1040
01:09:48,000 --> 01:09:52,000
driver for the state
of North Dakota and how
dare those Indians

1041
01:09:52,000 --> 01:09:56,000
say ‘We don’t want this
pipeline here’.

1042
01:09:56,000 --> 01:10:00,000
So they start passing
these state bills. Not
all of them

1043
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:04,000
passed, and I wouldn’t
even be able to tell you
which ones did,

1044
01:10:04,000 --> 01:10:08,000
but this one made me
laugh. They

1045
01:10:08,000 --> 01:10:12,000
wanted to outlaw
face masks. So
basically,

1046
01:10:12,000 --> 01:10:16,000
they’re outlawing
Halloween.

1047
01:10:16,000 --> 01:10:20,000
This one, they wanted
to have

1048
01:10:20,000 --> 01:10:24,000
sanctions on our gaming
revenue.

1049
01:10:24,000 --> 01:10:28,000
There was one where
they made it okay to
have firearms.

1050
01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:36,000


1051
01:10:36,000 --> 01:10:40,000
Here’s one. A
pedestrian bill.

1052
01:10:40,000 --> 01:10:44,000
It was okay to strike
a pedestrian if they
blocked the road.

1053
01:10:44,000 --> 01:10:48,000
This one right here,
in Charlottesville,
North Carolina, there

1054
01:10:48,000 --> 01:10:52,000
was somebody that
lost their life because
of that, but the state of

1055
01:10:52,000 --> 01:10:56,000
North Dakota was trying
to make it legal. To carry

1056
01:10:56,000 --> 01:11:00,000
concealed weapons
permit. And then we

1057
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:04,000
think about what
happened in Vegas and
with all these mass

1058
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:08,000
shootings in stuff. So
the state is standing
up, saying

1059
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:12,000
you guys better not
anymore. But a lot of

1060
01:11:12,000 --> 01:11:16,000
the bills didn’t pass,
but it was just kind of
interesting to see the

1061
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:20,000
residual effects of
what happens. There’s
another pipeline that's

1062
01:11:20,000 --> 01:11:24,000
coming out. It’s called
the KXL Pipeline. It’s
a pipeline.

1063
01:11:24,000 --> 01:11:28,000
In 2013, Obama,
President Obama

1064
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:32,000
at that time said he’s not
gonna sign off on it,
and they need a

1065
01:11:32,000 --> 01:11:36,000
presidential signature
because it crosses
international lines.

1066
01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:40,000
So it pretty much died
in 2013.

1067
01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:44,000
Now it resurfaced with
the new president.
So this

1068
01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:48,000
KXL, Keystone
Pipeline. Remember

1069
01:11:48,000 --> 01:11:52,000
those maps I was
showing you that there’s
a hole there?

1070
01:11:52,000 --> 01:11:56,000
That's Great Sioux
Nation lands. This
pipeline is crossing

1071
01:11:56,000 --> 01:12:00,000
right down the middle
of our Great Sioux
Nation

1072
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:04,000
of our 1868 treaty lands

1073
01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:08,000
that we never ceded,
we never

1074
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:12,000
agreed to any treaty
violations or breaking
of treaties

1075
01:12:12,000 --> 01:12:16,000
It’s just acts of Congress
with the preliminary power
kept breaking them.

1076
01:12:16,000 --> 01:12:20,000
So, I kind of

1077
01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:24,000
wanted to go over a
lot of that. History

1078
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:28,000
to help people
understand that we
have a right,

1079
01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:32,000
Indigenous Peoples
have a right to stand up.
Indigenous People have

1080
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:36,000
a voice and our youth
are starting to

1081
01:12:36,000 --> 01:12:40,000
stand up, and it’s not
just Indigenous Peoples
youth, there’s youth

1082
01:12:40,000 --> 01:12:44,000
across America who are
starting to say ‘Something’s
not right and we're gonna

1083
01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:48,000
start letting our voice
be heard.’ A lot of this,

1084
01:12:48,000 --> 01:12:52,000
and when I said I like
math, a lot of

1085
01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:56,000
it was kind of challenging
for me because

1086
01:12:56,000 --> 01:13:00,000
there was good and
there was bad

1087
01:13:00,000 --> 01:13:04,000
with everything. So,
this

1088
01:13:04,000 --> 01:13:08,000
was something that
came up when I

1089
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:12,000
start saying if/then,
so if, then

1090
01:13:12,000 --> 01:13:16,000
and it’s a formula
and so if you have a

1091
01:13:16,000 --> 01:13:20,000
formula, you can make
a parabola, you can make
a bell curve, you can have

1092
01:13:20,000 --> 01:13:24,000
lines, parallel lines,
you can have a straight
line.

1093
01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:28,000
So I’m trying to find
an answer to what’s
happening because there

1094
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:32,000
was this beautiful time

1095
01:13:32,000 --> 01:13:36,000
and it kind of got really
challenging.

1096
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:40,000
So there’s 500
years of wrongs.

1097
01:13:40,000 --> 01:13:44,000
500 years there’s
another

1098
01:13:44,000 --> 01:13:48,000
prophecy that says
‘In the 7th generation,
the tribes are gonna

1099
01:13:48,000 --> 01:13:52,000
learn a lot of those things,
their culture,

1100
01:13:52,000 --> 01:13:56,000
their language, it’s
gonna start coming back.’
At the 7th generation, and

1101
01:13:56,000 --> 01:14:00,000
that’s where we are.
So a generation is
about 70 years

1102
01:14:00,000 --> 01:14:04,000
So 70 years,

1103
01:14:04,000 --> 01:14:08,000
7 generations back,

1104
01:14:08,000 --> 01:14:12,000
that’s 490 years ago.
So I just say about 500

1105
01:14:12,000 --> 01:14:16,000
years before Europeans
were here

1106
01:14:16,000 --> 01:14:20,000
and then 500 years ago,
this is

1107
01:14:20,000 --> 01:14:24,000
how much we knew
and this is our
relationship that

1108
01:14:24,000 --> 01:14:28,000
we had with Unci
Maka, Mother

1109
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:32,000
Earth. This is what
it was like to live.

1110
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:36,000
So I call this blue
line “Euphoria”.

1111
01:14:36,000 --> 01:14:40,000
Extreme happiness.
Extreme excitement.

1112
01:14:40,000 --> 01:14:44,000
So we’re going along
and this could be

1113
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:48,000
a time. And time,

1114
01:14:48,000 --> 01:14:52,000
a lot of people think
it’s linear. I’ll say
it’s

1115
01:14:52,000 --> 01:14:56,000
circular. You can see
the past. You can live
in the moment and you

1116
01:14:56,000 --> 01:15:00,000
can change the future.
It’s all a circle. If we were
looking

1117
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:04,000
at a big circle, this
would just be a blurp
on that circle.

1118
01:15:04,000 --> 01:15:08,000
Some time, in let’s
say

1119
01:15:08,000 --> 01:15:12,000
2016, right there,
something happened.

1120
01:15:12,000 --> 01:15:16,000
We said no alcohol, no
drugs, no violence,

1121
01:15:16,000 --> 01:15:20,000
no weapons. We said
we’re gonna come
together and we’re gonna

1122
01:15:20,000 --> 01:15:24,000
unite and we said we’re
gonna do this in a
peaceful and prayerful

1123
01:15:24,000 --> 01:15:28,000
way. Now can you
imagine

1124
01:15:28,000 --> 01:15:32,000
if everybody walked

1125
01:15:32,000 --> 01:15:36,000
in that manner? No
violence, no weapons,

1126
01:15:36,000 --> 01:15:40,000
no alcohol, and
no drugs.

1127
01:15:40,000 --> 01:15:44,000
and you had prayer
in your life. Can you
imagine

1128
01:15:44,000 --> 01:15:48,000
the outcome? It
was felt. It was

1129
01:15:48,000 --> 01:15:52,000
beautiful. 

1130
01:15:52,000 --> 01:15:56,000
It was hard for me
to get away from it.

1131
01:15:56,000 --> 01:16:00,000
These right here are
values that,

1132
01:16:00,000 --> 01:16:04,000
in the first generation,
were passed down.

1133
01:16:04,000 --> 01:16:08,000
Even in our schools we
say wisdom, generosity,

1134
01:16:08,000 --> 01:16:12,000
bravery, fortitude,
these things are

1135
01:16:12,000 --> 01:16:16,000
how Indian, Native
American, or American
Indian, or Indigenous

1136
01:16:16,000 --> 01:16:20,000
Person, these are
what they carry. You’re
a sponge. You want to

1137
01:16:20,000 --> 01:16:24,000
learn all you can.
Fortitude, you do
things that you don’t

1138
01:16:24,000 --> 01:16:28,000
want to do, but you do
anyway. Respect,
you respect

1139
01:16:28,000 --> 01:16:32,000
all your relatives.
So these are values
and we learn them

1140
01:16:32,000 --> 01:16:36,000
but it’s really hard to
understand what they
are.

1141
01:16:36,000 --> 01:16:40,000
There was a time,

1142
01:16:40,000 --> 01:16:44,000
and I have this line
here with the 7th
generation,

1143
01:16:44,000 --> 01:16:48,000
where we got to
experience

1144
01:16:48,000 --> 01:16:52,000
what that was. We
got to see

1145
01:16:52,000 --> 01:16:56,000
what it meant to
be generous. We got

1146
01:16:56,000 --> 01:17:00,000
to feel what it meant
to even heal. We’ve
been

1147
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:04,000
going through so many
wrongs that we’re
traumatized

1148
01:17:04,000 --> 01:17:08,000
and how do we let
that go?

1149
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:12,000
Trauma gets passed
for each generation.
So,

1150
01:17:12,000 --> 01:17:16,000
right here at this

1151
01:17:16,000 --> 01:17:20,000
time, there was
so much

1152
01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:24,000
good and you could
feel it

1153
01:17:24,000 --> 01:17:28,000
and it was sacred.

1154
01:17:28,000 --> 01:17:32,000
And then, this is
when I say change.

1155
01:17:32,000 --> 01:17:36,000
An article came out.
This article came
out and it said

1156
01:17:36,000 --> 01:17:40,000
there’s donations coming

1157
01:17:40,000 --> 01:17:44,000
to the camp. There’s
money coming to the
camp.

1158
01:17:44,000 --> 01:17:48,000
The tribe got this much.
This organization got
this much

1159
01:17:48,000 --> 01:17:52,000
This organization got
this much. So instead of
people coming and saying

1160
01:17:52,000 --> 01:17:56,000
‘What can I do?
Where can I help?’

1161
01:17:56,000 --> 01:18:00,000
the language started to
change and it started to
say ‘Where can I get

1162
01:18:00,000 --> 01:18:04,000
mine?’ And we start
to drift away

1163
01:18:04,000 --> 01:18:08,000
from this and it starting
being more

1164
01:18:08,000 --> 01:18:12,000
about money, greed,
fame,

1165
01:18:12,000 --> 01:18:16,000
power, and it was

1166
01:18:16,000 --> 01:18:20,000
the same time that we
got a new president.

1167
01:18:20,000 --> 01:18:24,000
Now,

1168
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:28,000
this isn’t political
or anything, okay,

1169
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:32,000
I’m just saying that
there’s different ways
that leaders

1170
01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:36,000
have, different styles
and

1171
01:18:36,000 --> 01:18:40,000
it reminds me of
when the

1172
01:18:40,000 --> 01:18:44,000
Roman Catholic
Church joined forces
with the statehood, with

1173
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:48,000
the government, with
the kingdom. We have
the same thing happening.

1174
01:18:48,000 --> 01:18:52,000
Now we have a corporate
industry, corporate
world over here,

1175
01:18:52,000 --> 01:18:56,000
and we have a federal
government. What happens
when they

1176
01:18:56,000 --> 01:19:00,000
come together? What
becomes more
important

1177
01:19:00,000 --> 01:19:04,000
than humanity?

1178
01:19:04,000 --> 01:19:08,000
If it starts to become
more about money or
more about 

1179
01:19:08,000 --> 01:19:12,000
deals on how to get
more money, sometimes

1180
01:19:12,000 --> 01:19:16,000
it’s good. For the most part

1181
01:19:16,000 --> 01:19:20,000
in my experiences,
it’s been bad. From
our tribal,

1182
01:19:20,000 --> 01:19:24,000
Indigenous People,
it hasn’t been good.
And it creates division

1183
01:19:24,000 --> 01:19:28,000
So we’re living right here
in a moment where the

1184
01:19:28,000 --> 01:19:32,000
intersection. Indigenous
People are gonna start

1185
01:19:32,000 --> 01:19:36,000
saying ‘What can we
do to stay united to
get

1186
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:40,000
the 14th generation,
7 more generations
from now

1187
01:19:40,000 --> 01:19:44,000
in a place where they
can live like this every
day

1188
01:19:44,000 --> 01:19:48,000
or at this intersection,
are we gonna do
nothing

1189
01:19:48,000 --> 01:19:52,000
and see what happens
in the next 500 years?'
So it takes

1190
01:19:52,000 --> 01:19:56,000
a look at the past, the
present, and the future.

1191
01:19:56,000 --> 01:20:00,000
This is something that,
like

1192
01:20:00,000 --> 01:20:04,000
the three characters,
the three villains.
I’m kind of sharing with

1193
01:20:04,000 --> 01:20:08,000
you the things that go
through my head.

1194
01:20:08,000 --> 01:20:12,000
When we had that
ceremony, we asked how
are we gonna

1195
01:20:12,000 --> 01:20:16,000
fight this? And we
were told ‘with peace

1196
01:20:16,000 --> 01:20:20,000
and safety’. There was
another option where
we could go to war.

1197
01:20:20,000 --> 01:20:24,000
It was real. I don’t
think

1198
01:20:24,000 --> 01:20:28,000
a lot of people realize
or know that

1199
01:20:28,000 --> 01:20:32,000
there was a lot of
activity that could
have

1200
01:20:32,000 --> 01:20:36,000
transpired into an
actual

1201
01:20:36,000 --> 01:20:40,000
war and it was

1202
01:20:40,000 --> 01:20:44,000
a lot with the law
enforcement

1203
01:20:44,000 --> 01:20:48,000
and the security

1204
01:20:48,000 --> 01:20:52,000
and it was real nerve
wracking to see what are
we going to do to get

1205
01:20:52,000 --> 01:20:56,000
us into war or what
are going to do to stay

1206
01:20:56,000 --> 01:21:00,000
out of war and it wasn’t
easy. So,

1207
01:21:00,000 --> 01:21:04,000
this is a target and
this is something that
we did

1208
01:21:04,000 --> 01:21:08,000
in my office, as
a Chairman. We

1209
01:21:08,000 --> 01:21:12,000
want to know what’s
a distraction. It’s
gonna pull us away

1210
01:21:12,000 --> 01:21:16,000
from fighting this.
What are we fighting
for first?

1211
01:21:16,000 --> 01:21:20,000
We want to make sure
that we’re gonna protect

1212
01:21:20,000 --> 01:21:24,000
the river, because it
provides for the future

1213
01:21:24,000 --> 01:21:28,000
of our people. When
something happens to
this pipeline,

1214
01:21:28,000 --> 01:21:32,000
who’s gonna be the
first impacted? Who’s
gonna pay the cost?

1215
01:21:32,000 --> 01:21:36,000
So we have to make
sure that we’re
protecting it and we

1216
01:21:36,000 --> 01:21:40,000
also are going to
protect the sacred places
that are around the

1217
01:21:40,000 --> 01:21:44,000
water with our culture,
with our understanding.
And we’re gonna do it

1218
01:21:44,000 --> 01:21:48,000
in prayerful, but man,
every day

1219
01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:52,000
there’s distractions
and

1220
01:21:52,000 --> 01:21:56,000
sometimes I call them
political distractions
where they pull you

1221
01:21:56,000 --> 01:22:00,000
away from what you’re
actually doing. We
could’ve spent

1222
01:22:00,000 --> 01:22:04,000
all our time on

1223
01:22:04,000 --> 01:22:08,000
camp rules. We
could’ve talked about
racism. We could’ve

1224
01:22:08,000 --> 01:22:12,000
talked about protectors
or trespassing or
treaty lands or

1225
01:22:12,000 --> 01:22:16,000
the tribal police, the
BIA police, the low
flying planes every day

1226
01:22:16,000 --> 01:22:20,000
there’s low flying
planes. The Chairman
was on

1227
01:22:20,000 --> 01:22:24,000
a power trip. There
was all kinds of things
that were money,

1228
01:22:24,000 --> 01:22:28,000
distractions every day
and

1229
01:22:28,000 --> 01:22:32,000
I could focus on every
one of those distractions
and that’s all I would

1230
01:22:32,000 --> 01:22:36,000
focus on. Or, I could
say, we have to maintain

1231
01:22:36,000 --> 01:22:40,000
our position on what
we're doing and how
we're gonna do it.

1232
01:22:40,000 --> 01:22:44,000
So this actually was-
I was talking at

1233
01:22:44,000 --> 01:22:48,000
another university and
they had a leadership
class that

1234
01:22:48,000 --> 01:22:52,000
wanted to know how we
made decisions, so I
pulled this

1235
01:22:52,000 --> 01:22:56,000
chart up and I said,
basically you know
where you’re gonna go

1236
01:22:56,000 --> 01:23:00,000
and you have to know
and understand the
distractions, but don’t

1237
01:23:00,000 --> 01:23:04,000
spend your time on all
the distractions.
So now what?

1238
01:23:04,000 --> 01:23:08,000
It’s been two years
since

1239
01:23:08,000 --> 01:23:12,000
Standing Rock and

1240
01:23:12,000 --> 01:23:16,000
I would say that the
pipeline is in now

1241
01:23:16,000 --> 01:23:20,000
and there’s oil flowing
through it. It’s still a

1242
01:23:20,000 --> 01:23:24,000
threat to our tribal
nation.

1243
01:23:24,000 --> 01:23:28,000
The latest thing that
happened

1244
01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:32,000
in the court was in August
this year, where the judge,
Judge Boasburg, the federal

1245
01:23:32,000 --> 01:23:36,000
judge ruled in favor of
the Corps of Engineers

1246
01:23:36,000 --> 01:23:40,000
and what we did was
we said,

1247
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:44,000
‘Here’s a lot of technical
concerns

1248
01:23:44,000 --> 01:23:48,000
we have.’ We had
over 380 pages of issues

1249
01:23:48,000 --> 01:23:52,000
that we have with
pipelines. There’s a
reason why, in 2010, over

1250
01:23:52,000 --> 01:23:56,000
2,000 pipeline breaks
happened, so let's

1251
01:23:56,000 --> 01:24:00,000
get our experts and
let’s find out what those
are. And we put

1252
01:24:00,000 --> 01:24:04,000
380 pages and this is
why you should take
a closer look,

1253
01:24:04,000 --> 01:24:08,000
stop the flow, and so that
was our argument in

1254
01:24:08,000 --> 01:24:12,000
court. Well the Corps
of Engineers came back
with one page,

1255
01:24:12,000 --> 01:24:16,000
one paragraph saying
there’s nothing to
worry about.

1256
01:24:16,000 --> 01:24:20,000
And so the judge rules
in their favor. So that
was the last.

1257
01:24:20,000 --> 01:24:24,000
There’s the KXL Pipeline.

1258
01:24:24,000 --> 01:24:28,000
Right now it’s on
hold because the
federal judge in Montana

1259
01:24:28,000 --> 01:24:32,000
said that they have to
take a further look.

1260
01:24:32,000 --> 01:24:36,000
They have to take a
closer look at what’s
gonna happen to the

1261
01:24:36,000 --> 01:24:40,000
communities and the
people. So that pipeline
has stopped for now.

1262
01:24:40,000 --> 01:24:44,000
Not that I’m in the
business

1263
01:24:44,000 --> 01:24:48,000
of stopping pipelines.
What I am doing is trying
to

1264
01:24:48,000 --> 01:24:52,000
make sure that if you’re
gonna build infrastructure
projects, what impact

1265
01:24:52,000 --> 01:24:56,000
is it gonna have and
how is it gonna change
our lives. If it changes

1266
01:24:56,000 --> 01:25:00,000
our lives, it’s gonna
impact you eventually,
and we have to start

1267
01:25:00,000 --> 01:25:04,000
changing the conversation
to ‘us'

1268
01:25:04,000 --> 01:25:08,000
and ‘them’. We have to
start talking in

1269
01:25:08,000 --> 01:25:12,000
we have to start making
a change. We have to
start doing things

1270
01:25:12,000 --> 01:25:16,000
different today.
So, I want to try to

1271
01:25:16,000 --> 01:25:20,000
memorialize this
experience that we had.

1272
01:25:20,000 --> 01:25:24,000
Part of that is, one day
I want to write a book.

1273
01:25:24,000 --> 01:25:28,000
I can’t get there right
now because it's

1274
01:25:28,000 --> 01:25:32,000
hard. It’s hard for me
to reflect

1275
01:25:32,000 --> 01:25:36,000
but in time, I want
to memorialize what
happened, but I think

1276
01:25:36,000 --> 01:25:40,000
everybody who was
a part of this movement
should

1277
01:25:40,000 --> 01:25:44,000
memorialize it in any
way. There are a lot
of battles that are coming

1278
01:25:44,000 --> 01:25:48,000
and it’s important that
we stay together and we
stay united.

1279
01:25:48,000 --> 01:25:52,000
The KXL Pipeline
is

1280
01:25:52,000 --> 01:25:56,000
and example of another
battle, and I think that

1281
01:25:56,000 --> 01:26:00,000
that pipeline cuts
through the heart
of our

1282
01:26:00,000 --> 01:26:04,000
Great Sioux Nation
and what happened
at Standing

1283
01:26:04,000 --> 01:26:08,000
Rock is going to be mild
to what could come

1284
01:26:08,000 --> 01:26:12,000
at the KXL Pipeline.
So,

1285
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:16,000
when I say there’s
many battles ahead,

1286
01:26:16,000 --> 01:26:20,000
what happened,
this started way
before

1287
01:26:20,000 --> 01:26:24,000
Standing Rock. This
started during the
civil rights movement,

1288
01:26:24,000 --> 01:26:28,000
in the 60s. In the
late 60s, early 70s,
we had an

1289
01:26:28,000 --> 01:26:32,000
American Indian
movement and the
residual outcomes of

1290
01:26:32,000 --> 01:26:36,000
the American Indian
movement, I would
say one,

1291
01:26:36,000 --> 01:26:40,000
is Standing Rock.
We don’t know what the
residual outcomes

1292
01:26:40,000 --> 01:26:44,000
are gonna be of Standing
Rock, but there’s
gonna be some more

1293
01:26:44,000 --> 01:26:48,000
and in time,

1294
01:26:48,000 --> 01:26:52,000
and this was a prayer or

1295
01:26:52,000 --> 01:26:56,000
or this is a hope that
Indigenous Peoples
have

1296
01:26:56,000 --> 01:27:00,000
the same rights as
everybody else, in
time.

1297
01:27:00,000 --> 01:27:04,000
And it’s a similar thing
that happened in the
women’s movement.

1298
01:27:04,000 --> 01:27:08,000
In the 1900s, women
started standing up and
saying we should have

1299
01:27:08,000 --> 01:27:12,000
equal rights. We should
have say.

1300
01:27:12,000 --> 01:27:16,000
And it didn’t in the
early 1900s.

1301
01:27:16,000 --> 01:27:20,000
It almost took a
half a century before
women started

1302
01:27:20,000 --> 01:27:24,000
to see a change, and
that’s what the residual
outcomes

1303
01:27:24,000 --> 01:27:28,000
are coming. There’s
many battles ahead and
it’s our choice how we

1304
01:27:28,000 --> 01:27:32,000
stay together and
how we make
something happen.

1305
01:27:32,000 --> 01:27:36,000
We continue fighting
in court if there’s an
opportunity.

1306
01:27:36,000 --> 01:27:40,000
And then this Pope,

1307
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:44,000
he’s pretty cool.
He has a Harley

1308
01:27:44,000 --> 01:27:48,000
and I think that if
we could get him

1309
01:27:48,000 --> 01:27:52,000
to, see this Doctrine
of Discovery

1310
01:27:52,000 --> 01:27:56,000
is something that

1311
01:27:56,000 --> 01:28:00,000
shaped Indian
property rights, Indian
land.

1312
01:28:00,000 --> 01:28:04,000
In 1823,

1313
01:28:04,000 --> 01:28:08,000
Chief Justice Marshall
ruled

1314
01:28:08,000 --> 01:28:12,000
in the court case and
it set precedence for
decades,

1315
01:28:12,000 --> 01:28:16,000
centuries, and that
was

1316
01:28:16,000 --> 01:28:20,000
okay. There’s two
parties.

1317
01:28:20,000 --> 01:28:24,000
They’re in a disagreement.
One party says this is
my land.

1318
01:28:24,000 --> 01:28:28,000
The state gave this
piece of parcel to me.
The other party is saying

1319
01:28:28,000 --> 01:28:32,000
that’s my land. I
occupied that land
from the

1320
01:28:32,000 --> 01:28:36,000
beginning of time.
My ancestors lived
on that land. How can

1321
01:28:36,000 --> 01:28:40,000
you say that’s your
land? So, in 1823,

1322
01:28:40,000 --> 01:28:44,000
they go to court.
Chief Justice Marshall
rules in

1323
01:28:44,000 --> 01:28:48,000
favor of the land that
the state gave

1324
01:28:48,000 --> 01:28:52,000
and he based his ruling
on the Doctrine of
Discovery.

1325
01:28:52,000 --> 01:28:56,000
and the Papal Bulls.
So that

1326
01:28:56,000 --> 01:29:00,000
sets the precedence
for federal law,
federal land

1327
01:29:00,000 --> 01:29:04,000
for today, for our issue
at Standing Rock.
Now,

1328
01:29:04,000 --> 01:29:08,000
if we get this Pope
to revoke, and it’s
real political,

1329
01:29:08,000 --> 01:29:12,000
but if we get him to
revoke the Papal
Bulls, then that

1330
01:29:12,000 --> 01:29:16,000
puts a question to
the ruling that Chief
Justice Marshall

1331
01:29:16,000 --> 01:29:20,000
gave.

1332
01:29:20,000 --> 01:29:24,000
We have to be conscious
of our behavior.

1333
01:29:24,000 --> 01:29:28,000
What happened at
Standing Rock is a
result of our own

1334
01:29:28,000 --> 01:29:32,000
consumption. It’s
what we do. And it
impacts

1335
01:29:32,000 --> 01:29:36,000
us, all of us.

1336
01:29:36,000 --> 01:29:40,000
The way we consume
food,

1337
01:29:40,000 --> 01:29:44,000
as an individual.
So at an individual
level, and this is

1338
01:29:44,000 --> 01:29:48,000
something that I did.
I went in my house and
I took all the lightbulbs

1339
01:29:48,000 --> 01:29:52,000
out and I put
incandescent lightbulbs.
Individual,

1340
01:29:52,000 --> 01:29:56,000
that’s not enough.
You’re gonna start seeing

1341
01:29:56,000 --> 01:30:00,000
communities change
on sustainability

1342
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:04,000
and there’s gonna be
private industries that
evolve

1343
01:30:04,000 --> 01:30:08,000
and it’s the beginning
of

1344
01:30:08,000 --> 01:30:12,000
the third industrial
revolution. So you
have,

1345
01:30:12,000 --> 01:30:16,000
we’re in the second
industrial revolution.
You have three industrial

1346
01:30:16,000 --> 01:30:20,000
revolutions. The first
industrial revolution,
for industrial revolution to

1347
01:30:20,000 --> 01:30:24,000
happen, there has
to be something

1348
01:30:24,000 --> 01:30:28,000
happening in unison
with energy, transportation,

1349
01:30:28,000 --> 01:30:32,000
and communication.
So the first indstrial

1350
01:30:32,000 --> 01:30:36,000
revolution, electricity
came from steam

1351
01:30:36,000 --> 01:30:40,000
engines. Steam engines
helped us transport
with railroad systems.

1352
01:30:40,000 --> 01:30:44,000
The steam helped us
print books

1353
01:30:44,000 --> 01:30:48,000
publications, newspapers.

1354
01:30:48,000 --> 01:30:52,000
Second industrial
revolution, we became
dependent on fossil

1355
01:30:52,000 --> 01:30:56,000
fuels and the way
that we use transportation
is with automobiles.

1356
01:30:56,000 --> 01:31:00,000
And the way we
communicated, we could
call someone up on the

1357
01:31:00,000 --> 01:31:04,000
telephone and we could
talk to them 100 miles
away, 200 miles away

1358
01:31:04,000 --> 01:31:08,000
on the other side of the
state through telephone
lines. We’re on a

1359
01:31:08,000 --> 01:31:12,000
cusp of the third
industrial revolution
and it’s our choice

1360
01:31:12,000 --> 01:31:16,000
if we’re gonna do
something. We have to
retrofit the systems

1361
01:31:16,000 --> 01:31:20,000
that we depend on. We
 have to de-centralize.
And you’re starting to see

1362
01:31:20,000 --> 01:31:24,000
a generation move
in that capacity.

1363
01:31:24,000 --> 01:31:28,000
The American dream
used to be

1364
01:31:28,000 --> 01:31:32,000
rags to riches.

1365
01:31:32,000 --> 01:31:36,000
Today the American
dream is ‘I want
to be

1366
01:31:36,000 --> 01:31:40,000
self-sustainable’.
I don’t want to depend

1367
01:31:40,000 --> 01:31:44,000
on someone for
electricity. I want to
build a house that is

1368
01:31:44,000 --> 01:31:48,000
passive-energy or
net zero.

1369
01:31:48,000 --> 01:31:52,000
I want to grow my own
food. I want to have
aquaponics.

1370
01:31:52,000 --> 01:31:56,000
You see a lot of the
millennials

1371
01:31:56,000 --> 01:32:00,000
saying we’re gonna make
this happen. We’re moving
at a different-

1372
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:04,000
Even with transportation.

1373
01:32:04,000 --> 01:32:08,000
You see the millennials
asking questions. Why
does grandpa have

1374
01:32:08,000 --> 01:32:12,000
three cars and a
camper? You're starting

1375
01:32:12,000 --> 01:32:16,000
to see share riding.
You’re starting to see
public transit. You're

1376
01:32:16,000 --> 01:32:20,000
starting to see less need
for automobiles. As long
as there’s cars

1377
01:32:20,000 --> 01:32:24,000
and vehicles, there’s
gonna be a strong
dependency on fossil

1378
01:32:24,000 --> 01:32:28,000
fuel. But you see,
we’re shifting away
from it. And even

1379
01:32:28,000 --> 01:32:32,000
the way we communicate.
One of the-

1380
01:32:32,000 --> 01:32:36,000
my feeling on one

1381
01:32:36,000 --> 01:32:40,000
topic is Facebook.
I don’t have Facebook.
I hate

1382
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:44,000
Facebook. It permeates
a lot of negative
energy

1383
01:32:44,000 --> 01:32:48,000
and so I choose not
to have it because

1384
01:32:48,000 --> 01:32:52,000
I don’t want to know
what people are
thinking, but it also is

1385
01:32:52,000 --> 01:32:56,000
good because it’s
a vehicle, a medium
to communicate, and

1386
01:32:56,000 --> 01:33:00,000
people communicate
with our phones now.
We could have a

1387
01:33:00,000 --> 01:33:04,000
house that generates it’s
own power, charges our
cell phone, and we could

1388
01:33:04,000 --> 01:33:08,000
talk to everybody and
we could grow our
own food. And we

1389
01:33:08,000 --> 01:33:12,000
de-centralize, and what
that does is it changes

1390
01:33:12,000 --> 01:33:16,000
this corporation
or corporate world

1391
01:33:16,000 --> 01:33:20,000
and the government
and that has

1392
01:33:20,000 --> 01:33:24,000
to happen if we want
this planet to have
a fighting chance.

1393
01:33:24,000 --> 01:33:28,000
And I’m not talking
climate change or
anything, I’m just saying

1394
01:33:28,000 --> 01:33:32,000
that this planet will
always recover, but if
we

1395
01:33:32,000 --> 01:33:36,000
continue to do the
things that we do,

1396
01:33:36,000 --> 01:33:40,000
we’re going to
create an environment
where

1397
01:33:40,000 --> 01:33:44,000
we can no longer
occupy it and there’s
gonna be a

1398
01:33:44,000 --> 01:33:48,000
change in the species
that evolve on this
planet.

1399
01:33:48,000 --> 01:33:52,000
The planet will always
be here. Mother Earth
will always recover.

1400
01:33:52,000 --> 01:33:56,000
What do you buy?
What are you eating?
Where do you get your

1401
01:33:56,000 --> 01:34:00,000
power? Continue to
build awareness.

1402
01:34:00,000 --> 01:34:04,000
A lot of the funding for
infrastructure projects,

1403
01:34:04,000 --> 01:34:08,000
I do some of this work.
I go and I talk with banks
and I talk with corporations

1404
01:34:08,000 --> 01:34:12,000
and our financial
institutions and I say,
‘What impact are you

1405
01:34:12,000 --> 01:34:16,000
going to have on an
Indigenous community
if you’re on or near'.

1406
01:34:16,000 --> 01:34:20,000
And it could be around
the world. But

1407
01:34:20,000 --> 01:34:24,000
just building awareness
does a lot.

1408
01:34:24,000 --> 01:34:28,000
Public reform on
policy.

1409
01:34:28,000 --> 01:34:32,000
We were saying in
our argument

1410
01:34:32,000 --> 01:34:36,000
with the Corps of
Engineers is that we
were not consulted.

1411
01:34:36,000 --> 01:34:40,000
But this is a government
system, and the federal
government in the United

1412
01:34:40,000 --> 01:34:44,000
States in a developed
country has laws, and
one of the laws say

1413
01:34:44,000 --> 01:34:48,000
you should consult.
You should consult.

1414
01:34:48,000 --> 01:34:52,000
And so, financial
institutions and lenders
and banks,

1415
01:34:52,000 --> 01:34:56,000
funders of these
projects, they automatically
assume

1416
01:34:56,000 --> 01:35:00,000
that the federal agency
is consulting

1417
01:35:00,000 --> 01:35:04,000
and so they fund
the project. What I was
saying

1418
01:35:04,000 --> 01:35:08,000
we don’t need to be
consulted. We need to
be treated like the rest of

1419
01:35:08,000 --> 01:35:12,000
the world where they
actually get consent
to

1420
01:35:12,000 --> 01:35:16,000
develop an infrastructure.
Getting consent is something
that’s important,

1421
01:35:16,000 --> 01:35:20,000
especially if it’s gonna
change the way you live
or impact the way your

1422
01:35:20,000 --> 01:35:24,000
life is.

1423
01:35:24,000 --> 01:35:28,000
There’s the Federal
Permitting Improvement
Steering

1424
01:35:28,000 --> 01:35:32,000
Council. This was
something that the
President Obama

1425
01:35:32,000 --> 01:35:36,000
Administration did.
They streamlined the
permitting process. So

1426
01:35:36,000 --> 01:35:40,000
there’s different policies
and different ways that
we can start to address and

1427
01:35:40,000 --> 01:35:44,000
look at to try to make a
change for the future and
those are the other battles.

1428
01:35:44,000 --> 01:35:48,000
Now, I sit on a board
and the residual outcome

1429
01:35:48,000 --> 01:35:52,000
of Standing Rock was
the NDN Collective

1430
01:35:52,000 --> 01:35:56,000
and it’s an organization
that just started

1431
01:35:56,000 --> 01:36:00,000
to try to consolidate
a lot of the Indigenous
efforts

1432
01:36:00,000 --> 01:36:04,000
in North America
and it’s

1433
01:36:04,000 --> 01:36:08,000
helping tribes understand
how they can defend
their lands,

1434
01:36:08,000 --> 01:36:12,000


1435
01:36:12,000 --> 01:36:16,000
what decolonization means,
and helping tribes
understand if there's

1436
01:36:16,000 --> 01:36:20,000
development opportunities,
what they can do.
Another

1437
01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:24,000
organization that I
work with is the University
of Colorado

1438
01:36:24,000 --> 01:36:28,000
and all I do there is
to help corporations and
tribes

1439
01:36:28,000 --> 01:36:32,000
engage. If
there was early

1440
01:36:32,000 --> 01:36:36,000
engagement at
Standing Rock, I’ll
tell you a story. Again,

1441
01:36:36,000 --> 01:36:40,000
another story but,
real quick. In
December

1442
01:36:40,000 --> 01:36:44,000
2016, I met with

1443
01:36:44,000 --> 01:36:48,000
the CEO of Energy

1444
01:36:48,000 --> 01:36:52,000
Transport Partners,
Kelcy Warren.

1445
01:36:52,000 --> 01:36:56,000
He came to Bismarck
and 

1446
01:36:56,000 --> 01:37:00,000
both of our reasons
for meeting was simple.

1447
01:37:00,000 --> 01:37:04,000
My reason was I don’t
want anybody

1448
01:37:04,000 --> 01:37:08,000
to get hurt. There’s no
reason to use

1449
01:37:08,000 --> 01:37:12,000
weapons, whether
they’re percussion
weapons or

1450
01:37:12,000 --> 01:37:16,000
rubber bullets or
guard dogs.

1451
01:37:16,000 --> 01:37:20,000
There’s no reason for
that. We’re not doing
anything that warrants

1452
01:37:20,000 --> 01:37:24,000
that kind of treatment.
And he was saying
I don’t my employees hurt.

1453
01:37:24,000 --> 01:37:28,000
So, there’s a common
ground of safety. We
want to

1454
01:37:28,000 --> 01:37:32,000
be safe. We want
everyone to be safe, but
we want our voices heard

1455
01:37:32,000 --> 01:37:36,000
and we want to try to
do something. He’s

1456
01:37:36,000 --> 01:37:40,000
trying to do something.
So to come to the
common ground, we

1457
01:37:40,000 --> 01:37:44,000
start talking. Now, I
share with him
everything that I shared

1458
01:37:44,000 --> 01:37:48,000
with you guys about
why we’re resisting and

1459
01:37:48,000 --> 01:37:52,000
he tells me, ‘If
I knew this a year ago,

1460
01:37:52,000 --> 01:37:56,000
we wouldn’t be here.’
So, from that

1461
01:37:56,000 --> 01:38:00,000
statement, I figured
that if we could get

1462
01:38:00,000 --> 01:38:04,000
the conversation
going to help understand

1463
01:38:04,000 --> 01:38:08,000
if there’s opportunity,
if there’s 

1464
01:38:08,000 --> 01:38:12,000
resistance, why?

1465
01:38:12,000 --> 01:38:16,000
So that’s what I do
with

1466
01:38:16,000 --> 01:38:20,000
First Nations and
also informing
shareholders

1467
01:38:20,000 --> 01:38:24,000
of organizations.
But,

1468
01:38:24,000 --> 01:38:28,000
that’s pretty much the
whole presentation

1469
01:38:28,000 --> 01:38:32,000
and I don’t know how
much time we have
and I hope it was

1470
01:38:32,000 --> 01:38:36,000
worth something.
[applause]

1471
01:38:36,000 --> 01:38:40,000
[applause]

1472
01:38:40,000 --> 01:38:44,000
[applause]

1473
01:38:44,000 --> 01:38:48,000
[applause]

1474
01:38:48,000 --> 01:39:11,723