Dakota Access Pipeline workers bulldozed sacred sites and graves in North Dakota on Sunday, and I found out today that one of those graves belonged to one of my relatives…
I’m not even from Standing Rock and they desecrated a grave of my family member, Charles Picotte. He isn’t just a long dead man people have forgotten about, this was the grave of a man whose face I know, who I have pictures of in family albums. A family member that lived through the transition to reservation life. I’m upset. I’m angry. I’m shocked right now because it hits home. He was a translator and one of the signers of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, a treaty that 3 of my relatives signed, a treaty they are breaking RIGHT NOW with this pipeline.
I’ve never set foot in Standing Rock, I don’t even know anyone from Standing Rock. But this has affected me all the way over here in Washington, and this is an attack on the rights of native peoples. People need to share what’s happening right now, how they’re desecrating these sacred sites, hiring paramilitary, unleashing dogs and tear gas on protesters defending the health and future of their community, plus their treaty rights, because the media is ignoring all of this. Sign the petition to stop it, send donations to the Sacred Stone camp, raise awareness. This is about the interests of a corporation being put before indigenous peoples rights and health.