The largest protest camp at Standing Rock was cleared on Wednesday (2/22) after the governor of North Dakota ordered the evacuation of people who had occupied the land for months.

By: Nick Cote, Niko Koppel, and Kaitlyn Mullin

Read the story here. 

Native Americans fear that the Dakota Access oil pipeline – a $3.7bn project that would carry crude oil from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to a refinery in Patoka, Illinois – would contaminate sacred lands and their water supply from the Missouri river. 
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Here, protesters at a camp near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation give their views on what the election of Donald Trump might mean for their campaign.

The Guardian 

It may seem at times like there’s a thousand movements to be a part of, a thousand and one tragedies in the news. How do we keep ourselves accountable to the communities we truly care about? Is "diversity" enough? And how do we stop ourselves from panicking? Our guest this week, celebrated journalist and author Jeff Chang takes on some of these questions. According to Chang, hope isn’t yet lost and really, we’re going to be alright -- if we work together. 

Standing Rock Youth and Chairman Archambault Respond to Obama at the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington DC on September 26th, 2016

Video footage / editing by ICTMN's Vincent Schilling

Assistance by Alex Hamer 

Song and Lyrics by Lyla June at Johnson, protesting #NpDAPL. Motion graphics by Danica D'Souza.

Part 1 of our field reports from the Seven Council Fires Community, at #StandingRock in Cannonball, North Dakota. Representatives from over 200 nations have travelled to #StandingRock to defend their right to clean water, and more, to preserve their sovereignty against a state that has illegally decided to take this land. They are protectors, not protesters. Their historic effort is bringing attention to a long struggle against environmental racism, indiscriminate raids, and genocidal erasure. 

We follow the story and the story of how these communities, Standing Rock Camp and Red Warrior Camp, have come to be entirely sustainable.

Featured in this documentary are a group of indigenous leaders working with the community: Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara – North Dakota); Phyllis Young - former councilwoman for O?héthi Šakówin (Lakotah, Woman Who Stands By The Water), Cody Hall, media spokesperson for Red Warrior Camp (Sioux), Michelle Cook - Legal Counsel for O?héthi Šakówi? camp (Diné - The One Who Walks Around You Clan), and Terrell Iron Shell of the International Indigenous Youth Council (Oglala Lakotah, Eastern Band Cherokee). 

“We’ve been here. We know how to take care of the land. Just listen to us.”

Destroying the Rainforest, devastating the climate, deadly for indigenous peoples. Join the movement athttp://amazonwatch.org/endamazoncrude.

When most people think of where we get our oil, they primarily think of the Middle East. The tar sands of northern Canada or domestic fracking also come to mind. But drilling for oil in the Amazon? Not likely. Surprisingly oil extraction in the Amazon is rampant, and expanding. And it’s the worst possible place to be drilling. But who’s consuming the oil produced there? We are. Amazon crude is coming to California and the rest of the United States in record levels.

Amazonian peoples, many of whom consider oil to be the blood of Mother Earth, have long called on governments and corporations to keep it in the ground. Now scientists are catching up with their calls, stating that we need to keep 80% of fossil fuels in the ground in order to have a good chance of averting catastrophic climate change. As our planet’s most important carbon sink, the home to over 400 distinct indigenous peoples, and the world’s most biodiverse rainforest, it is urgent that we keep the oil in the ground in the Amazon. 

Amazon Watch is committed to supporting and amplifying the calls and proposals of our indigenous allies from the Amazon by ensuring that global governments and corporations respect their rights and territories. Based on the findings in our report FROM WELL TO WHEEL THE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND CLIMATE COSTS OF AMAZON CRUDE, we call upon companies, universities, and governments to heed their call and change their vehicle fleets to Amazon-free fuel sources. By keeping the oil in the ground in the Amazon, we can contribute to the protection of the Amazon rainforest, indigenous peoples territories, and our global climate.