I am trying to understand why people are so taken with the Native American-led protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. There have been countless worthy Native American protests over the years that have received only limited, local attention, including battles across the country to protect Tribal homelands. Last year while constructing an environmentally destructive, far-larger-than-necessary highway bypass around the city of Willits, CA, only a few miles north of Redwood Valley, Caltrans bulldozed a known Sherwood Valley Pomo cultural site, identified by archaeologists as CA-MEN-3571. An official Caltrans statement in November, 2015 reads, in part, "The site has, over the last four months, been severely impacted by the removal of topsoil and the installation of 1400-1500 wick drains. What little, if anything, remains of CA-MEN-3571 is now inundated with 3 feet of fill." (http://www.savelittlelakevalley.org/2013/09/22/2079/). The immediate reaction was strong, but though the battle for the Tribe's rights continues, the public's attention has failed. And a week ago, three days before the event in Redwood Valley, Caltrans held a celebration to mark the opening of the Willits Bypass.
At the gathering in Redwood Valley, I listened while a Native American activist told us that opposition to DAPL shouldn't be about moving the pipeline off-rez. It should be about an end to pipelines. It should be about the shift we need to make to alternative energy. No doubt nationwide support of the protest at Standing Rock is a complex, multi-faceted reaction. And no doubt it has something to do with the courage of Native people who are standing up to "big petroleum" in an era of growing consciousness and fear of climate change. Maybe we are, at long last, witnessing a dawning consciousness that there is something crucial to be learned from First Nations, a spark of recognition that the people who occupied this continent for twelve or fourteen thousand years without harming it may just have something to teach us about living well on this planet.
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