The only difference is which god? In this case, the Dollar Almighty.

It isn’t. Laws aren’t worth anything if no one enforces them. This is analogous to lynching in the Jim Crow years.

The ONLY coverage I have seen in on Buzz Feed. It is about time Jezebel covered it. I keep expecting Slate to pick it up, but they haven't. Unlike those assholes in Oregon, these people in North Dakota have a legitimate, legal claim to the land, and they are fighting to protect that land from a highly damaging…

This project will contaminate their water. That’s not an “if” scenario.

Doubt it. If it was white kids from Oberlin being bitten by attack dogs, it would have been all over the news. It changes the calculus when a story will actually get mainstream attention, which is why it’s so important that mainstream venues like Jezebel are covering it.

It’s complex, but yes. There definitely have been concerns over water quality and part of the protest action is about defending the tribe’s rights to clean water (something many feel will be threatened by the pipeline). But the other side of it, practically speaking, was the concern over the sacred sites. The tribe…

I have no doubt that some of the security personnell wielding dogs enjoyed it. Maybe not everyone who is in that line of work enjoys that sort of thing, but some do. The corporate decision to push forward regardless of the protestors and to employ security to make it happen?

So basically the policy of fuck them continues unabated? Just...

Sitting out the national anthem? TREASON!!

Reservations are marginal land, by definition. When they find resources there or need allowance for industry or whenever there is any value in the land, somehow or another its legal status changes.

Nope. The Standing Rock Sioux have been protesting the pipeline for a while now, and have been joined by hundreds of other tribes in what is the largest protest gathering by Native American/First Nation peoples in over a century. This was a deliberate “fuck you” to all of them.

It’s funny how religious extremism and corporate ambivalence about negative externalities to their profit seeking decisions can look surprisingly similar.

Maybe. But we have a long history of treating Native Americans like shit. Wouldn't surprise me if someone enjoyed it, especially because they had been protesting.

On Democracy Now there’s a video, where the dog’s mouth is covered in blood, and the “handlers” (hired goons?) clearly have no idea what they are doing. It’s an absolute shit-show, because these people are Native and apparently everyone just shrugs when you abuse them.

Especially disgusting that they used “private security” to use attack dogs and pepper spray. We’re used to cops, but, apparently, corporate mercenaries are now allowed to assault and batter.

A friend of mine was out west already when the protests started. She joined them about two weeks ago.

It isn't about how hard it would be to go around it. It is about power, status and deliberately showing disrespect for these people and their heritage.

So, in a lot of ways, these people are no better than ISIS. Destroying cultural heritage sites is despicable and unforgivable.

They did this on a reservation legally owned and governed by the Sioux? Not that I’d expect the Federal Government to break their streak of failing to honor a single treaty with various Native American tribes, but I thought reservations were at least some space of dignity and autonomy for Native Americans. Just…

America: treating ethnic minorities like crap since 1776....