A line was crossed the night they cut loose with water cannons up at Standing Rock, drenching unarmed protesters in below freezing wind chill. If I have to explain to you what that line was, don’t bother wondering whether you are a fascist. You are.
What isn’t understood, even by most of the water protectors, is President Barack Obama has the power as commander-in-chief to end all of this with an executive order. He can just order the National Guard away, order law enforcement away (because he is also in control of the Department of Justice), and he can also order DAPL off Army Corps of Engineers land.
But he calculates politically.
Al Franken had no problem releasing his condemnation statement, but this president, he has so many super important considerations to consider that rube Minnesota Senator Franken could never understand, that we could never understand. The weight and responsibility of office seems to have boxed him up tight.
One would almost think he wasn’t in charge, that maybe he is a fake president, controlled by powerful special interest, billionaires corporately manipulating outcome, controlling the Congress with lobbyists, controlling the State Department and the Pentagon, Homeland Security, FBI, CIA. Were that the case, then we should apologize to him for his indifference.
Maybe he’s sitting at home, muttering something like, “Michelle, I have to do something about this!” And maybe she is saying, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could? If they would let you order those people out of there and we wouldn’t have to just sit here and watch people get tear gassed, attacked by vicious police dogs, shot with rubber bullets, drenched with water cannons?’ And his answer to his wife very well may be: “Yeah, but I asked and they said no, so I guess I’ll leave this whole mess to Trump.”
The Oceti Sakowin are talking to the wrong guy. Obama can’t do anything. The new plan must be to talk to his masters. To the rich and powerful men controlling our government: “Please stop. Please allow Obama to order the DAPL people out of the area.”
That is a direct appeal that eliminates lackey middlemen, but is it going to work? Nope.
Still, it at least identifies the real enemy. These people have no problem with that water cannon in principle. Their only concern is how does the use of such raw force against unarmed protestors play in the national media. Oh, I forgot to mention they also control the national media. What about foreign media…well, to be on the safe side, keep as many media folks out of there as you can so they don’t sympathetically chronicle abuse of the protestors and turn world opinion askance.
The plan is a simple one, just keep this thing on the back burner. Flood the media with images of those Oregon militiamen seizing federal property, keep that in the news cycle for weeks and weeks - that doesn’t fundamentally threaten their power, but keep those crazy Indians off the TV and out of the newspaper.
Because if these Indians win this conflict, they will set a precedent, a precedent for the entire Oceti Sakowin to get behind. They can fight the government and win, and that they have a just cause people can rally behind in even greater numbers, perhaps challenge treaty rights, perhaps demand return of lands, monetary compensation for lands wrongly taken, before and after the reservations came into existence.
Beyond all of that, these Indians may say to the federal government, we are a sovereign people, we want our own country, we want a nation reflective of the 1851 Treaty boundaries. In that nation White folks are welcome to stay, we won’t throw them off the land, but they will now be citizens of the Oceti Sakowin nation, subject to Oceti Sakowin law and authority.
It will be a different society, one sure to have some burp and hiccup growing pains, but one where people will be honored and respected as individuals, one where Wasicu concepts of power and control do not corrupt tribal administration. But most importantly, one where the officials won’t be blowing their whistles every two seconds on every Lakota ballplayer.
That is the outcome the true power in Washington, D.C,, fears the most. — Those pesky Lakota ballplayers! Yes, the ruling elites have short term objectives: The promises to DAPL executives to keep a day-to-day system to manipulate their unfair advantage; along with keeping those pesky Lakota ball clubs from routinely beating corn-fed rivals. It’s not an easy task, no, not at all — in fact, it’s all very difficult, time consuming, resource-sapping work, but they are not blind to long term threats. Should the Oceti Sakowin ever figure out they have the power to challenge Wasicu authority, not through protest, but through acquiring the knowledge and professional expertise necessary to beat the Wasicu at his own game, that is the aboriginal enemy the rich and powerful truly fear.
Those water cannons are a cold-blooded expression of ugly power; and they are a reminder tent encampments aren’t the answer, they remind us we must start now, educating and empowering the next generation so that he and she can defeat the Wasicu on their own ground, a battle won long before water cannons are turned on Lakota protestors.
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ABOUT THE GUEST AUTHOR: James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe. He just won best columnist award from the Native American Journalists Association and was selected as best general interest columnist and best sports columnist by the South Dakota Newspaper Association in 2015. He currently writes for Native Sun News, a Lakota owned and operated newspaper from Rapid City, S.D.