I had taken a back path that the deer, the wildlife, use and I entered from between two hills on a deer path. And I walked through the trees up along the fence and then from that point on ... there was flood lights, there was at least 40 floodlights on the north side of the river, about a quarter mile apart, along the entire path of that pipeline. So it's like moonlight... it's like daylight on the north side of the river. On the south side, not so much. And people had gathered there, they had... they were singing at the front line. They were playing music at the front line. They were chanting "Water is life."
By the time I had gotten there, people were coming back, soaked in water, and it was really cold out, and the wind had picked up. And truckloads of people with assistance had brought blankets and jackets, and water, and goggles and face masks. So when you entered the bridge you could look to your right and pick up a blanket, and pick up a goggle, and pick up a face mask, and you could walk further to where the encounter was taking place.
So, I kept to the right of the bridge, and I went down to where the razor wire is, because it's like a war zone there. I'm not kidding. They have floodlights, they have the tank right centered on the bridge, and there was no instructions. They ... had a water cannon there. I heard throughout the night that they had used seven fire engine trucks. They emptied seven of them. It was unbelievable. I didn't think that they would continue to water cannon people. And I asked them... I went to the front lines and said "Stop this... please go home. We're here praying for you. We'll find you new jobs. Pray with us, stand with us. We're protecting the water for millions."
And they didn't listen, they stood behind the barbed wire and they continued ... they would lift their rifles and they would pick out, literally pick out, individuals in the crowd and they would shoot them. And so water protectors had plastic container tops, and they were using those as shields. And they were protecting people whenever they could. I was on the front line. I was very, very lucky, because I didn't get shot. I got maced, I got peppered sprayed, I got water cannoned.
The force of a water cannon if you haven't had one... it knocks you off your feet. And we had built fires to warm up the people who were soaking wet, in the frigid weather, people are shaking, they were drenched in water and tear gas.
Our medics were out there in full force, doing what was necessary to keep people breathing. People were sharing their inhalers. Those who couldn't breathe... it was unbelievable. I didn't think that things would come to this end. But unless Obama stands up, unless people start calling their senators, our lives are in danger, not only the water, but our lives, are physically in danger. So, it hurts me to talk like this. But a call needs to be made. Hundreds of calls need to be made.
Our water needs to be protected. We need support up here. We need wool blankets. We need wool clothes. We need to replenish our first aid kits. We need more thermal blankets. We need batteries. We need jerky. We need those snack bars that you eat, when you're not able to eat a hot meal. Thermoses. We need... I think we need hundreds of thermoses, because we can't even carry hot water with us anywhere we go. It was just unbelievable. It was... between being shot with water and then dodging bullets, I'm trying to deliver a peaceful message, and saying prayer. It was hard.
I mean, I slid down the hill, I was knocked off the hill by a water cannon, people picked me up. There was a man standing right next to ... a military vehicle, without any face protection, without any blanket and he was singing. And he kept singing, and they just kept spraying him over and over. I picked up an army blanket, I covered him up with it. I stood beside him. We sang together, we prayed together. And they still shot at us, they still maced us, and they still used the water cannon on whoever they wanted to... on everybody that was within their reach, everybody.
And the fires that were started to protect everybody, to warm people up... those fires that were set to warm people up because there was no warming station at that site, were targeted by the police... were targeted by the water cannons. ["] The fires that were keeping us warm, they intended on [extinguishing the fires that were there for warmth] and that was their intent.
We didn't start the fires, only the warming stations. The fires that were started randomly out in the field those were by the tear gas canisters that they were shooting off there. They were shooting canisters at us, into the crowd, everybody at one point thought they were trapped on the bridge because lights were coming over from the south of us. And those turned out to be our own warriors, our own water protectors, our own horse riders to support us. They stood up on the hill, on both sides of the bridge, on the south end, and we were down at the bottom on the bridge, up against the razor wire. I asked them to stop, repeatedly, repeatedly. They wouldn't stop. They just kept going.
Activists gather in Seattle to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline, September 2016.
(Image by (John Duffy Flickr)) Details DMCA
But the thing that really hurt me the most, is when they were trying to put out the fires that were literally saving peoples' lives. I had got knocked down and was totally drenched in water, I walked over to the fire to warm up and I was only there long enough to empty the water out of my shoes and then they started targeting the fires. So the protectors put up a shield. And for thirty seconds they stood there with a continuous blast of water, and they were totally drenched. And then they all split. First the water hit the fire and there was so much steam and smoke that came out of there. We were blinded.
But there were two of us and we grabbed one of those Teflon, Mylar body armors, and we stretched it between us, and we knelt down on it, and held it between us, we crouched together, we covered one end of the fire. And we just sat there and we prayed. And they kept putting the water over us, until we were completely drenched, again, over and over.
And I could hear a young girl, when the smoke cleared, she was saying "grab the logs, grab the logs" and so people ran over, they grabbed the logs out of the fire and they ran a few yards south, put them together and started another fire, so people could warm up before they were taken to the medic tents. Because there were hundreds of people soaking wet. They weren't dressed in wool.
When I make a call out for clothing it's not for any cotton, it's not for polyester, it's for waterproof jackets and there's hardly any waterproof tents at all, snow pants, snow bibs, anything that's waterproof, and wool. We need wool sweaters, wool socks, wool gloves, wool jackets. Those are the things that we need right now.
I wish the Red Cross would show up. I really do wish that whoever has power to send the Red Cross over there [would]. We could do that because we are in a state of emergency. That's how it was on the front line.
DB: It's really important ... you sort of hit this really hard but just to underline it... because places like NPR and the local police are saying that they had the water there because you all were starting fires, and that you were throwing Molotov cocktails. That was the story that was coming out of the police, and the local press. You want to talk a little bit more about that?
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