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Standing Rock

June 14, 2019 By Lindsey Tarr 2 Comments

The Book is out!

What was it like at Standing Rock? Within these pages I’ve tried to capture the essence of that special place and time. What was it like? Did they really lock people into dog kennels? What now? 

I am happily, finally, releasing the Standing Rock book for purchase! It has been in the works for some time but I believe it is as relevant as ever and worth the wait. It’s been a process. There was a lot of getting things out and then putting it down for a bit, and so on. The most recent, great development has been the addition of a foreword by the legendary Long Walker and activist, Chief Goodwolf Kindness. We’ve just returned from another epic journey and are compiling that adventure as the next part in the Peace Standards series: Bee the Change.

Peace Standards was first inspired by the fire lit at Standing Rock. Please read and share with your *classrooms, your community groups and those you speak with who are feeling overwhelmed and disheartened. There’s hope for peace. 

Standing Rock is available in paperback and PDF; Bee the Change is coming soon!

*Please contact for Academic and Not-for-profit pricing.

There are also many other ways to support the mission, please do!

Our precious pollinators are leaving us. It’s been said that if they do, it will likely mark the beginning of the end for us… so how does walking save the bees?

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock, Support Tagged With: #noDAPL, Bee the Change, Chief Goodwolf Kindness, Climate justice, divest, Lindsey Lou on the Move, Lindseylouonthemove, Peace, Standing Rock

January 12, 2018 By Lindsey Tarr Leave a Comment

The Year After Standing Rock

One year ago I left my job to go to the pipeline protest that was taking place at Standing Rock, the ancestral homeland of some of the first Americans, the Lakota people. I was proud of them for taking a stand, as the Lakota people are part of my ancestry and I’m proud of that. I somehow feel the pain that has trickled down through the generations of a broken people though I don’t have the right answer for many who ask, “What percentage are you?” That question has only been asked of me before and after Standing Rock, I never heard it once at camp.

What I found there was life changing. I lived there from October through December 2016. I celebrated my 30th birthday there. I have no words to describe the place other than to say:

· I did try to do it justice and have completed a book, Peace Standards: Standing Rock, that I look forward to getting to you

· I knew there was no going back to life before Standing Rock; no going forward with eyes closed, now that they’ve been opened

· It’s driven me to spend 2017 learning what there is to do about it all, my part in it and how to do it.

Here are those lessons:

Mother Teresa has so sweetly summed up the internal journey that I continue to work at:

The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.

Yes, that speaks to the truths I saw, in practice, at Standing Rock and which have been my compass since. In 2017:

  • Spreading love through service kept me busy and travelling Texas, Utah, Florida, back to Texas, St. Louis, MO, Colorado, and back home to California.
  • Finding wisdom (the what and the how of my why!) and peace in solitude got me lost for many, many enlightening days in the great wilderness that, currently, struggles to remain protected across the states.
  • WWOOFing for the first time introduced to me to real life heroes who showed me that any and every adversity may be overcome and can be achieved through the vehicle of good business; mindful resourcefulness, neither losing sight of quality nor sacrificing the gifts of Mother Nature with frivolousness, despite success, growth, and the creeping effect of many years.
  • Divesting (the teaching of it) has and continues to be the most important flag that I can fly in the wake of the Standing Rock pipeline protest: we must stop buying into, and therefore perpetuating, the toxic aspects of our society. The possibilities are endless; the easiest way to start is by personally reassessing needs from wants… for example, can I curb the materialism of the holidays by choosing quality(time) over quantity? Do I need to use individually packaged coffees every day or is their a less resource-consuming solution? Can I get in the habit of carrying and using my reusable cups and grocery bags? Most powerfully, can I move my business from corporate banks to local credit unions? Our money is their wealth and their target, conversely the taking away of our money is their Achilles heal.
  • In feeling conflicted by the direction of that compass, presence of moment, anti-materialism, and simplicity against my forced engagement in the very social media which was the only channel allowing our voices from the ground in bloody, violent, DAPL-owned North Dakota to be heard … I learned to silkscreen (print) my own tshirts. With each step forward, like a highway billboard, Love or Happily Divested speaks across all of my clothes; I pass them out as I travel along.
  • I became a certified RAD Self-Defense instructor. This option brings practicality and affordability to defense education. Go to a class near you. 

For me it was a year of becoming lighter and feeling freedom as I’ve never known it. It has been the best year of my life and I look forward to all the rest, however many I’m gifted, topping it!

Check out the 2018 Tour of Hope!

Gofundme to launch soon 🙂

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock Tagged With: 2017, divesting, empowered, freedom, life lessons, Mother Teresa, RAD, screen printing, Self defense, Standing Rock, travel, wisdom, WWOOF

February 24, 2017 By Lindsey Tarr 1 Comment

Checking In – still on the move in 2017: Standing Rock, alternate facts and real progress!

Tell you what team – I left for an adventure to Standing Rock, October 2016, and it has changed my life!
For those who have been following, supporting, sharing, divesting (!) – Thank You! I’m proud of us, for myself and so many of you, for becoming more engaged than we have in our entire lives; it has been depressing at times, I know; and to keep paying attention is a daily struggle, I know. 

Thank you for your patience – this will be my return to posting since around the time I was arrested.  It is hard to describe how camp works exactly but to say it takes good intentions and a good bit of learning, humility and energy to figure out one’s place – is an understatement.  Anyway, I was just finding my niche around this time and it kept me so busy each day, before the sun rose to after it set that the daily trip to connectivity lost its priority; it felt amazing!

Then, if you keep up on the Transparency log, you will be able to track the expenditure of all your wonderful donations to the cause: driving elders, gathering winter supplies, and transporting new water protectors to camp!

Since that time:

  1. Thousands of Veterans arrived to camp to protect the water protectors from the Army Corps of Engineers’ December 5th, eviction notice.
  2. In response to the mobilization,  Obama ordered another halt on the project, required the Army Corps to stand down and enforce the completion of the Environmental Impact Statement (of which public comments are needed) – therefore No more impending doom for the winter!
  3. Most essential personnel stayed at camp through the harshest part of winter – awaiting Trump’s inauguration day and alternate facts.

I came home to California and knew my life would never be what it was before…

(How does one speak boldly without excluding someone?)

Friends, please know it is Very important to me that you know I support you just as you have supported me. I do not, I Cannot judge your lives or life’s work.  We each have a purpose the fulfilling of which is unique to each of us. In the case of differences – bipartisan, orientation, spiritual, etc. – differences of any nature, I can only be the best Me in trying to understand, and in trying to focus on commonalities and grow love from these.  Even of my enemies, I hope this from myself and others…

That said, thankfully my bogus Morton County Felony was dropped but… going forward, I will always be the person in your life who went to North Dakota and stood in civil disobedience against racism and numerous (and still counting) violations against humanity by “public servants” on the ground up to the highest offices of our country for the sake of profit and “progress”; and the saga continues. 

My eyes have been opened to many things – ultimately to the facts:

  • There are organized forces in this world operating in darkness under the prerogative that any means justify the ends and are operating by day in positions which control how and what media networks cover and what they do not, what airs and what does not, what is spoken about in Presidential candidate debates and what is not.
  • The rest of us work so much, so much more than the 40-hour-week we commute to, that doing anything else feels impossible. Keeping up with our family and closest relationships, our own health – outside of work (!) is hard enough.

Yet, We can sense the brokenness of it all (there is our common ground) – education, healthcare; our very own democracy and “American Dream” is no longer our freedom, it’s our debt!  Where do we begin with that?! It’s all so big.

My eyes have been opened and there Is hope (how about that #womensmarch; and the tallying wins as conveyed via the Resistance Report).


I knew when I began this journey not everyone would be able to come and I understand this. I understand the obligations you have to your families and I know they are not obligations at all, but Blessings… the joys of life.  It is the obligations we’ve built around these things that are illusions we’ve been marketed and it is upon all of us to open our eyes and acknowledge, disown, reject, organize, boycott and divest (how to do it and where to go) from the things that have become Unacceptable during our complacent time of abundance and comfort.  EXAMPLE of Unacceptable: CDC Knew Its Vaccine Program Was Exposing Children to Dangerous Mercury Levels Since 1999.

I’m uncovering things. This is the journey you have supported thus far.  What next?

I’ve written a book (!)…captured a piece of history that shall never be forgotten with inklings, how-to’s, of replicating the efforts of reclaiming our humanity from greed.

I’ll continue to go where not all can and to uncover buried things.  To further study my hunch about Reverse Progress, our most pertinent mission to go backward in order to go forward – like putting heart back into everything we do (as the Lakota have reminded me to do), like taking chemicals back out of food and water and clothing, like taking money back out of democracy; remembering what life once was and must always be: shelter, food, water and those yet unborn.

In all of my travels, tribulations, and simple joys – you, my family, all my relatives, are always with me. Me/We!

Cheers!

–

Z

Bug

Lindzo

Lindsey lou

 

As always, make sure you are divested from the Unacceptable things!

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock Tagged With: “American Dream”, #noDAPL, #womensmarch, 40-hour-week, abundance, alternate facts, Army Corps of Engineers, blessings, boycott, civil disobedience, comfort, complacent, Dangerous Vaccine, debt, democracy, disown, divest, divesting, education, Environmental Impact Statement, exposing children, family vacation budget, food, freedom, healthcare, hope, how to, Lakota, Lakota way, Me/We, Mercury Levels, Morton County, North Dakota, Obama, obligations, Oceti, organize, progress, public comments, Red Warrior, reject, Reverse Progress, Rosebud, Sacred Stone, shelter, Standing Rock, Transparency, unborn, Veterans, water, water protectors, We can

November 5, 2016 By Lindsey Tarr 1 Comment

195, Morton County Numbering System

This is the way it happened.

We woke at 4:30AM ready to pray the sun up.  It was early afternoon when they came.  I was in a group of about 50 who sat down together, in a circle, in the path of the pipeline to protect the water.

We had no weapons. We prayed all day without stopping for food, water, or even in hearing screams come from the road behind us as officers leveraged any number of the tactical weapons they had come with: batons, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and sound cannons.  At the sound of the chaos behind us on Hwy 1806 we leaned into each other tighter.  The chaos behind us was never intended; folks had gathered in ceremony their to protect the water and to protect us.  However some instigators within our own crowd, even some sold out natives, antagonized our young men and waved in the officers. Chaos. Fire, gas, rubber bullets, horses killed.

At a certain point, the officers reached us despite the efforts of our own protecters standing ground around us;  they looked at the officers in their eyes and spoke to them – about the fact that they need water too, their wives and daughters need water too.

Rather than sitting down to pray with us, they pushed forward… they pushed our protectors and media more than a mile away to the point that we sat in prayer, surrounded by them and alone; we were weaponless, yet surrounded by bearcats, armored personnel carriers and riot police.  It was all very eery feeling until the buffalo came over the hill, running toward us! Pilamaya Wakan Tanka.  Unfortunately, quite quickly, a helicopter swooped in front of them, scaring them into a tangential direction.

The officers picked us off one-by-one starting with the stronger looking males. Warriors; they held strong and were treated horrible for it – hog tied to the point of purple hands.

An officer bent over to my ear and said, ” You’re being arrested for trespassing; if you resist you’ll be charged with a second misdemeanor for resisting arrest.”

I stood and walked with him across 1806 to the embankment.  We waited there in our zip-tie cuffs as the chilly North Dakota, October sun set.  Just behind us, as our elders sat facing the burial grounds – DAPL couldn’t resist immediate continued construction/destruction.  Their tinted-window, 4-by-4’s lined the horizon, less than 50 meters away and they watched with smiles, IPhones pointing at us as their groms bulldozed the land in front of us and as they set night lights across 1806; they pointed and talked and smiled toward us and at the land across the road that we sat protecting all day, all fall, all summer; they pointed toward the tents and teepees and river beyond, alluding to their immediate plans for progression upon our departure to jail.

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DAPL employees

 

https://youtu.be/IaA8V7sbnmA

https://youtu.be/f-AYDtibV44

https://youtu.be/jeJPZu13vrw

There on the embankment we waited for more than an hour to receive the numbers, mine 195, that have so aptly been reminisced to atrocious times of the past. These numbers were written on a plastic bag that our personal property was taken and stored away in to. We boarded the bus at dusk.

Being the last group to arrive at Morton County Jail it was only a short time that we waited before continuing our in-processing – stripped down to one layer.  Important to note that in being stripped down to one layer, our clothes were stored away into a second plastic bag, a larger one in which the initial smaller, numbered bag with our personal property (for me, a bag with my cell phone and a disposable camera) was placed; it was then tied – Later, the bag of personal items would turn up “missing”. It somehow untied the larger bag it was in and removed itself to become missing.

Upon getting off of the bus I noticed the men had been placed into dog runs; the majority were in two and a third contained one person, a leader of the day; intimidation.

It was clear to me that the officers were frazzled at attempting to arrest all of us.

I sat in the dog run for merely a few minutes, ignorant to the hours of waiting and human rights violations that had occurred here for the many who had arrived before us.

I was called onto a white bus that took us to Cass County Jail.  We boarded, wearing but one layer, and froze for the 4-hour drive to Fargo. Upon arriving, about 1 or 2AM, the captain at Cass gave us a sack lunch and Gatorade, the first food and drink we had received and certainly the first we had eaten since beginning our day in protection around noon.  Eating with zip-tie cuffs, Fu@#%@#$ ridiculous – physically, and of course fundamentally, based on the conditions of our arrest.

It became clear almost immediately that the numbered bags that arrived with us didn’t match those written on our arms. We were in-processed… searched again, exposed to a PREA video for our safety, searched again – Strip Searched (!) – Yes! Had to undress in front of someone one, bend-over-and-cough searched ! Changed into oranges then, finally, sleep; or whatever takes place on a concrete bench with a 1-inch mat. 5AM by now. The gentleman’s bus came in after ours; I believe their day didn’t end until the sun had come up again.

Waited. Arraignment came – three blanket charges for all of us: misdemeanors for trespassing, inciting riot and a felony for conspiring to do harm with fire.

My actions throughout the day consisted of praying, weaponless.  I’ve never prayed so much in my life.

Some wonderful person came along with something like to $200,000 to cover all of our bails ($1500), as well as the cost of releasing all of our cars from impound (about $700).

That missing bag, containing my cell phone and a disposable camera was returned a few days after being released. It was missing the camera which the state defense has seized and is creating a warrant for, to keep the photos as evidence.  I’m one of the few lucky ones; others have damaged vehicles (mine was fine), destroyed teepees and tents (mine was the only one in perfect condition), broken chanupas and missing sacred items.

It’s as one of our legal representatives, who has spent a career practicing law in New York state, recently said to me, “… I’ve seen things in five days that I’ve never seen in my entire career.”

Upon our release we’ve been interviewing with representatives from the UN, and members of larger media outlets such as the Associated Press and Al Jazeera.  I’ll send along these links as I get them.

The story is finally getting out, what has taken so long?

Obama said he’ll see how protests over the next few weeks plays out, what is taking so long?

 

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock

November 4, 2016 By Lindsey Tarr Leave a Comment

Letter From Cass County Jail

For those of you who know me… jail?! Felony?!  I myself had not planned on engaging in the activities of a felon when embarking on the journey to observe and support the efforts of those gathered in opposition of the “black snake”.   From day one until now, I have yet to act a felon!

In fact, from the first protector demonstration I observed in Palm Springs, California, up to now, I continue to find inspiration in the protectors as they are – prayerful and fearless mothers, grandmothers, women and children, and men who have chosen to abstain from alcohol, drugs, and violence.

The young men have had the most difficult time rejecting the inflammatory, aggressive and instigative actions of law enforcement/hired Blackwater-esque securit, understandably so. I’ve seen them misstep; the whole world is watching and has seen them misstep.  And yet, I’ve seen those same young men return to camp after tear gas, rubber bullets and jail with a sorrowful acknowledgement and humility over those missteps and their return to ceremonial discipline and respect toward their elders.

It is as clear to me in hindsight as it was in the moment – jail is nothingness, a great waste of humanity and resources.  I’m pleased to have read in a local printing that even Colby Braun, Warden of the North Dakota State Penitentiary, agrees that the back-end investment of corrections is reactionary, misplaced; it should all be invested on the front-end of society in social and cultural programs.

On the bright side, while imprisoned, I did have time to read HG Wells’ War of the Worlds.  So timely.  The book in its entirety illustrates the human races absolute helplessness against Martians that have come to Earth with clear intentions to take it as their own. Absolute devastation, only one Martian defeated by accident… a pitiful, hopeless fight.  Finally, and in a matter of ten concluding pages, upon the main characters acceptance of his fate, the Martians die – victims of an unseen force; they succumb to bacteria. They were absolutely  defenseless to this invisible thing that humans have spent centuries building immunity to.

How explicit and relevant our own present day David vs. Goliath saga.  The centuries old Lakota Way exists quiet, strong, and unbending. DAPL, Energy Transfer Partners, Enbridge, cannot win.  Everything that is within their nature to do takes them closer and closer to their own destruction. A few clear examples that their sole interest is in their own profit:

  • Pipeline route plan first called for crossing north of Bismarck
  • Pipeline Company Desecrates Graves On Sioux Sacred Land
  • Dakota Access Pipeline Company Attacks Native American Protesters with Dogs and Pepper Spray
  • Opposition arrests journalists, elected officials, clergy and Lindsey!
  • DAPL continues construction despite executive order from Army Corps of Engineers and Departments of Justice and Interior to halt construction within a 20 mile radius of Missouri River cross point.
  • Shooting, hurting, destroying anyone and anything in the way.

Mni Wiconi!

smartselectimage_2016-11-04-00-41-30

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock

October 17, 2016 By Lindsey Tarr 2 Comments

ALDER KEMBLE’S BLOG – HOW I SPENT MY VACATION

Hey all, the following account continues to shed light on the oddities of what is happening right now in our own country.  I’ve highlighted pieces which should make each of you feel as weird as I do here on the ground:
ALDER KEMBLE’S BLOG

HOW I SPENT MY VACATION

October 15, 2016 4:10 PM

Dear Friends and Constituents:

I’m writing to let you know how I spent my mini-vacation last weekend and the early part of this past week – the first vacation my husband Adam and I have taken in 14 months. You will understand why I’m telling this personal tale on my official Alder blog as the narrative unfolds.

The first leg of our journey took us to Chaska, MN, where we celebrated my Uncle Jim’s 90th Birthday party. He is the eldest of 5 brothers, and they were all able to make the party. It is truly a blessing that they are all still with us and were able to make the journey. We enjoyed visiting with cousins and other extended family members, catching up on family news and enjoying many laughs. When Uncle Jim blew out his birthday candles he said, “In 10 years we’ll REALLY have a party – Pete will be 89 1/2!”

Five Kemble Brothers
Front: Jim and Tom Kemble
Back: David, John and Peter Kemble

Sunday morning Adam, our dog Makwa and I began the second leg of our journey to North Dakota, where we planned to bird watch along the Missouri River, and deliver Madison’s resolution “Expressing Solidarity with Indigenous Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline” to the Standing Rock Tribal Chairman, David Archambault II. This resolution was passed unanimousy by the Common Council and signed by the Mayor on September 20, 2016. It describes the the value of sacred sites, government-to-government relations with Tribes, and the vital importance of protecting the water, and calls for more public education and for the US Army Corps of Engineers to halt all permitting processes until robust, free and informed consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been conducted.

Because our city is located on the traditional homelands of the Ho Chunk people and the region is defined by water – Dejope or 4 lakes – with the highest concentration of Late Woodland effigy mounds on the continent, we have a special appreciation for these issues. For the past several decades City and County elected officials have worked to build formal relationships with the Ho Chunk Nation government in a good way. We have a long way to go yet, but we are doing our best to educate the public and build trust with the Ho Chunk Nation.

We arrived in Standing Rock territory around 7:30 pm on Sunday. Since we could not immediately locate the people to whom we were to deliver the carload full of donations (tools, kitchen utensils, food, as well as tobacco, cloth and hemp cord for prayer ties), we decided to head down the highway to the Prairie Knights Casino to take in the Packers game.

Dog is my Co-pilot
Dog is my Co-pilot

Standing Rock is on the border of Vikings and Broncos territory, so we were a little nervous about how we would be received as Packers fans. I’m happy to report that we were greeted warmly, albeit with a healthy dose of good-natured ribbing, and enjoyed the Packers’ win over the Giants.

We arrived back at camp a little after midnight and parked the car next to the Legal tent, where our friend, Madison attorney Patricia (PK) Hammel was camped out as part of the legal team. Amazingly, folding down the back seats of a Prius and rolling out a futon makes a very comfortable sleeping arrangement. We set up our little camper – Makwa slept on the front seat – and went to sleep shortly before 1am.

I had set the alarm on my phone for 5:45 am in order to attend a sunrise prayer ceremony organized by Lakota Canupa (sacred pipe) carriers. The alarm never sounded due to the cold and the constant searching for a non-existent signal. (Note to self: switch phone into airplane mode when there is no signal.) Luckily, PK was up and awoke me with her flashlight.

On that morning of October 10, Indigenous Peoples Day, temperatures were in the 20s, so I put on as many layers as I had carried. Long underwear weather to be sure. A pickup truck drove around camp with someone with a megaphone – sounding very much like a Pow Wow announcer cracking corny jokes – called campers to rise and shine and head toward the river.

PK and I joined over 100 other people from all over the world on the northern shore of the Cannonball River. Before the ceremony, which included smudging and songs for the pipes, the directions, the water and unity of the people, several young people circulated throughout the gathering with offerings of “cowboy coffee” and sliced oranges and apples.

When the ceremony concluded, it was announced that there would be an Eagle and Condor ceremony based on the Incan prophecy somewhere along the route of the pipeline. We were to meet at the south gate of the camp and convoy to the undisclosed site.

Sunrise over the Missouri River
Sunrise over the Missouri River

PK went as part of the legal team and I grabbed my camera bag and tagged along, leaving Makwa and Adam – who had done all of the 800+ miles of driving – to enjoy their much needed sleep.

The sun had just crested the eastern horizon revealing a million shades of brown and green, casting long shadows of mesas, hills, barns, fences, bison, cattle and horses on the earth. I responded to the spectacular beauty of the place by pulling out my video camera, capturing images of the countryside as we followed the line of 60 or so vehicles to the pipeline site. PK’s car was the second to last vehicle in the convoy.

As we pulled onto Highway 6, we began to hear the sound of a helicopter. PK had mentioned that Energy Transfer Partners, the second largest “Master Limited Partner” in the country that shares ownership of the Dakota Access Pipeline project with Enbridge Energy Partners and whose sub-shareholders include Donald Trump and North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple, had scrubbed the identifying registration numbers from the helicopter on previous occasions. I then focused my camera on the helicopter to see if we could identify it.

When we got to the site, PK put on a neon green hat with black embroidered lettering: “National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer.” Several years ago I received legal observer training from the ACLU and understood the role and responsibility of the position. The NLG Manualdefines it this way:

The primary role of the Legal Observer is to be the eyes and ears of the legal team–to observe and record incidents and the activities of law enforcement in relation to the demonstrators. This includes documenting, for example, any arrest, use of force, intimidating display of force, denial of access to public spaces like parks and sidewalks, and any other behavior on the part of law enforcement that appears to restrict demonstrators’ ability to express their political views. This documentation needs to be done in a thorough and professional manner, so that lawyers representing arrestees or bringing an action against the police generally will be able to objectively evaluate the constitutionality of government conduct. Information gathered by Legal Observers has contributed to an extremely successful track record in defending and advancing the rights of demonstrators, including in criminal trials and several major lawsuits against Federal and local governments for their unconstitutional actions.

I then switched my hat out for a lime green legal observer hat and internally prepared myself for the work, which involves simply observing and not participating in any activities or speaking with anyone in the crowd or with police unless absolutely necessary. Most of all, my job was to not get arrested and to maintain control of my camera.

I stayed on the outskirts of the crowd as it assembled alongside of a tipi frame that had been woven around with long strings of prayer ties. A group of indigenous youth from Argentina, representing the Condor from the South, performed several dances. They were followed by a man and a woman from the Arctic Circle, representing the Eagle from the North, drumming and keening a deeply moving, mournful song about their journey to that place.

I did not record the ceremony. My camera was trained on the rural road to the south where more than a dozen police vehicles were traveling east at high speeds toward Highway 6. As they approached I moved father away from the tipi and closer to the road so as not to interfere with the movements of the crowd or of the police.

I heard the MC of the ceremony let people know that the police were arriving, and that if they were not prepared to be arrested they should return to the road and the public right of way. He mentioned that some people had planned to sit and pray inside the tipi frame and were willing to face trespassing charges. He reiterated that this was a peaceful ceremony and that people should disperse peacefully. He also mentioned that the group had a designated police liaison who would be communicating with the commanding officer to let them know that people were dispersing. I found out later that the police liaison was among the first people to be arrested that day.

I continued to remain silent on the sidelines, focusing my camera on the lines of police walking down to the site in formation. There were multiple groups of 12-15 officers (totaling more than 60 officers) from many different jurisdictions throughout North Dakota and Wisconsin. I personally saw officers from Marathon County and the Wisconsin State Patrol. Other reports and photos from that morning show Rock and Dane County deputies on site as well.

A group of a dozen or so officers placed themselves shoulder to shoulder across the path that had been excavated for the pipeline just in front of the tipi where 16 people had entered, including a Lakota Grandmother Canupa carrier who began conducting pipe ceremony. I backed up to get out of their way, expecting that they would begin arresting the tipi people.

All of a sudden, the commanding officer in the line shouted, “If we touch you you’re under arrest!” I backed up as much as I could, but I was hemmed in by the pipeline pipes that were sitting on the ground. He then lunged at me, went straight for my arm holding the camera and yanked my hands behind my back. I kept a hold of my camera, and behind my back tried to close the viewfinder to protect the camera from damage. That’s when he yelled, “now I’m arresting you for destruction of evidence and criminal trespass” and grabbed the camera away from me.

When another Deputy grabbed me and began to push me across the excavated path, I said in a very calm voice, “I will comply peacefully with your verbal commands. You don’t have to push me.” Later I saw the camera lying on the ground 20 feet away from where I was initially accosted by the officer. 

In addition to the 16 people sitting in the tipi, 9 other people (including me), were handcuffed and lined up against a pipe while the arresting officers filled out their affidavits. We were all transported to the jail in Mandan, ND. While we were in the garage of the jail awaiting processing, actress Shailene Woodley was escorted in by two officers. Apparently she was arrested as she tried to get into her vehicle to leave the scene.

I spent the night in jail and was bonded out the next day.

As far as I know, of the people arrested on Monday I am the person with the most charges: the two that everyone else received (criminal trespass, inciting a riot), and also resisting arrest and destruction of evidence. My camera was seized as evidence and may have been damaged or destroyed given that the last time I saw it it was lying on the ground far away from the place where it was last in my posession. 

My court date is on January 12. I will be fighting the charges.

The first thing I did after my release from jail, after eating a slice of pizza and thanking the people who were waiting outside the jail for support, was to drive down to the administrative offices of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in Fort Yates to speak with somebody about how to deliver the City of Madison’s resolution. The administrative assistant in the Chairman’s office told me that there would be a Tribal Council meeting the next morning in the village of Cannon Ball, and suggested I show up there and speak with the Chairman.

Adam and I attended the six hour long special meeting, which was called to discuss whether or not to move the camp south of the Cannonball River onto reservation land for the winter. We listened to many people in the community share their concerns – including the ongoing struggle for compensation by the US Army Corps of Engineers for bottom land lost along the Missouri River when the Corps built a dam and created Lake Oahe, and the housing crisis faced by many tribal members. An employee of the school district talked about how their student athletes are harassed when they go outside of the reservation for athletic competitions, requiring the escort of tribal police.

After the meeting I was finally able to accomplish my mission: to deliver the framed parchment signed by Mayor Soglin to Standing Rock Tribal Chairman David Archambault II.

Presentation of Resolution
Alder Rebecca Kemble presents resolution to
Standing Rock Tribal Chairman David Archambault II

During my brief time visiting Standing Rock territory I witnessed and felt the depths of the human rights crisis facing their community. The day that we left, a Standing Rock woman was arrested at a traffic stop, taken to jail and strip searched in front of four male Deputies. 

Divisive forces are pushing hard to break the resolve of the Standing Rock people and other water protectors from across the world. I remain more commited than ever in support of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s sovereignty and rights to clean water and self-determination.

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock Tagged With: #noDAPL, Dakota Access Pipeline, Dalrymple, Enbridge, Energy Transfer Partners, Shailene Woodley, Trump

October 16, 2016 By Lindsey Tarr 2 Comments

Small-batch, 100% Herbal Cough Syrup – Oceti Sakowin Blend

All things are connected – are they not?

Here we are digging into a North Dakota winter to fight the black snake.  The black snake – the Dakota Access Pipeline, a.k.a. Big Oil, a.k.a Big Money. Anyway, cold weather inevitably leads to cold and flu season. North Dakota seems a bit more frigid and bone-chilling than cold season in San Diego, my most recent residence – none the less, winter drives all of us to the store for big bottles of bright, traffic-signal colored liquids.  They are usually wrapped in plastic by two’s, daytime/nighttime. Ingredients include:

  • Acetaminophen: Pain relief and fever reduction
  • Dextromethorphan: Cough suppressant
  • Doxylamine succinate: Relief of allergic rhinitis symptoms such as runny nose and sneezing.
  • Guaifenesin: Expectorant
  • Phenylephrine: Nasal decongestant
  • Oxymetazoline: Nasal decongestant

 

Big words, a.k.a Big Pharma, a.k.a Big Money.  Instant relief, but no future for us 99%…

Happy to report our sister, Anne Whitehat, a beloved warrior of the Oceti Sakowin Camp and member of the Sicangu Lakota, has taught us a new way to go forward.

Following is the recipe for your family, camp, or tribe to survive and thrive this and all future cold seasons.  In case you find yourself caught up in a winter movement similar to ours, the equipment and ingredient kit items are also listed.

Oceti Sakowin Cough Syrup

Small-batch, 100% Herbal

Recipe

36-48 12oz Jars

  1. Bring to a boil, then simmer 30-45 minutes
    • ¾ full water in a big pot
    • 4 Tbls. Slippery Elm Bark (powder form, more concentrated)
    • 1 Whole Garlic, crushed (remove only outermost shell)
    • Handful Cinnamon Sticks
    • 2 Apples, cut up
  2. Take off heat to add/stir in:
    • 4 handfuls:
      • Rosemary
      • Echinacea
  3. Strain into second large pot (cheesecloth ideal), rinse boiling pot; strain once more into boiling pot
  4. Add (2) 5 lbs jugs of honey
  5. Stir, bottle!  Warm shooter if you are anything less than 100%

Kit for winter-long, group quantity production:

(best if just for medicine)

  • 2 Large pots
  • Strainer (cheesecloth best)
  • Funnel
  • Wooden Spoon
  • Ball Jars

Bulk Ingredients (from Frontier)

  • 1 lb of each herb: Slippery Elm Bark, Rosemary, Echinacea
  • 10 lbs honey
  • Cinnamon Sticks
  • Garlic string
  • Apples

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Can be done over the campfire.

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Bring to boil and simmer.

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Add herbs, stir then strain; Breath it in, sooooo good!

 

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Second strain, back into boiling pot.

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Bring on the honey!

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Rinse honey jars with warm syrup to get every drop!  It’s expensive, you know!

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Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock Tagged With: cold season, cold/flu, cough syrup, dayquil, herbal, medicine, small batch

October 15, 2016 By Lindsey Tarr 2 Comments

Birthday 30 from Oceti Sakowin, Standing Rock

Of course, we existed long before modern showers were available in most housing – but here I am, Birthday 30 – experiencing something therapeutic about my birthday real shower!  We are living in North Dakota, in October; we sit in meetings for hours listening to each other and taking ownership of our fate; we wake to frost; we feel Absolutely violated by drones, intimidating road blocks, and of course illegal construction [which has continued even beyond executive order to “halt” construction] and cavity searches.

All the more profound to say quite decidedly, I am exactly where I want to be.

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My birthday wish for you ALL –

First: Please write a letter to Mr. Obama – flood his office requesting him to deny permits for the final section of the pipeline and to Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. If you don’t feel you know enough please spend 10 minutes researching any of the following sources that are reporting the truth:

  • Tom Goldtooth and Dallas Goldtooth
  • Veterans for Peace
  • Amy Goodman
  • Bernie Brigade

Second: If you’ve been waiting to come or to support… there will be some KEY moments to step up in the next 30 days.  I will call for your action and simply ask that you to act.

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Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock

October 14, 2016 By Lindsey Tarr 2 Comments

What’s REALLY Going on at Standing Rock

10/13/2016 10:14pm

If yesterday was a horrible day, emotionally, for the community – today was Amazing.

Such defeat yesterday. The urgency of Winter is coming; it’s weighing heavily on all. Additionally, the forces that we’re up against is putting all efforts into making us rip apart from the inside.

In addressing challenges, really big challenges, such as those posed by Winter Coming, we’ve been stalled in converting our thoughts as a community into unified, cohesive action. Everyone wants to be heard and to contribute with their own skills – but deciding how to share resources and progress Together is the Challenge [we all face right now in the world]. This, I’ve realized today, is one thread of what it is all about.

Sensing the need for a morale boost, as great leaders do, Dennis Banks spoke to us today in the modest setting of a green army tent, bursting at the rolled up walls while the weather gave us a break and the sun smiled upon us. He spoke profoundly at times and with levity at others, as comedic a storyteller as I’ve read Lincoln was (effective as ever for bringing together many and building bridges where no one could see how) to remind us Why we are here: For a reason; An Important Reason; and No, we will not back down, we will not retreat, we will not welcome the dogs that attack our women and children; we will go forward because that is what we do.   All of us who have come, are here because this is about protecting our precious water and air and land. It’s about resisting ways that have shown to be the wrong ways – ones that benefit few, at the sacrifice of many. It’s about remembering what has always been taken.   Because of what is happening here, Standing Rock will stay in the hearts of each of us who have heard the call to come, though none of us have been paid to do so. We will stay and finish our work here and then meet as protectors again if we are given the days to do so. For now we will go forward one day at a time.   We all have great, powerful ideas and we will each be heard. We will do so without labels. We will think and act cohesively with peace and prayer and continue to get stronger in non-violence each day.

This is what we are doing here! (Re)learning ourselves how to build the type of community in which we see each person and hear each voice; and respect ourselves And Mother Earth who can’t speak for herself against the one-sidedness of greed but who Gives Us Life!

I see Dennis Banks so coolly addressing tension and answering HUGE Why’s with stories that make us laugh as one.

I see our cooks give us everything – most of their waking hours – trying to perfect their gift to us the in most difficult of conditions.

I see our wellness guide lead with more patience than I’ve seen from any human, personally.

I hear and sit with our morning rooster, JD a local tribesman, who manages to call us awake despite the frost on our blankets – “The sun is greeting you, wake up – we need your prayers!” and we do.

I see our young men getting firewood for us Every Day.

I see our protectors securing us from the devious outsiders who are coming into camp to steal the truth of what’s happening here – and who are literally stealing our wood stoves and generators.

I see our legal aids who are teaching us our rights.

I see our medics and herbal clinicians who save us without cost.

I see people taking in each solo warrior arriving, winter ready or not, to sleep and eat.

I see our camp director, a Standing Rock tribesman, whose heart is as big as the Money against us and who tells us what Cannonball thinks is going on here, what the tribes concerns are and what Chairman Archambault is doing for/with us.

I see you, indigenous folks up from New Orleans who get us all eating Buffalo Gumbo, dancing and learning to cook our own herbal cough syrup late into the night – late into this night in which we watched the Aurora Borealis from the opening of the 40-foot-teepee they’ve opened to the thousands of us who have dug in for the winter.

Early in the day, we lamented over the defeats of yesterday – then we celebrated, because we know Why we are here, that we are here together, and that we are going to win.

I no longer need to believe it can only be what They have always told us is the way it is.

Given this new and unexpected beginning (at least unexpected to me, not so for the indigenous who are seeing prophecies fulfilled right now in our lifetimes !), I’m seeing it unfold differently every day.

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock

October 12, 2016 By Lindsey Tarr Leave a Comment

First Words from Camp

 

Hard to know how to capture everything.

The Basics 

I’m good. Yes, very cold. Food, good.  Company, great.  Very tough to keep devices charged and to even have service in places of “service”.  So here you are, a start:

First and foremost, much happened upon first arrival – the injunction to stop construction failed.  How disappointing.  Shortly after, 28 people were arrested on the front line – I was sleeping after our long drive.  They were subject at the jailhouse to a full cavity search; this is an illegal protocol for which local authorities will be sued.


On another note –

My good friend, Chief Kindness, has been nothing but kind to me.  We rode the night together – me staying on the road and him sharing the many lessons of a lifetime in service to his Oneida tribe, the American Indian Movement, and the many causes needing support in this world.  Upon arrival we set our tents together, no fear now of the snow to come.  Matter of fact… the process took long enough that we had to break for a walk around the camp and some food.  This will be chiefs fourth visit – he watched from the front line as they brought dogs upon a peaceful group including women and children, a memorable hate in their eyes.  Three women and a child, attacked. It is just hard to believe.  Check out this gem and watch for the next: http://www.sundance.org/blogs/native-filmmakers-fighting-the-dakota-pipeline-at-standing-rock. 

We ate after waiting for the elders to be delivered their plates and the spirits to receive theirs; the Most amazing food I never expected, having walked through the truest thing to a refugee camp I’ve ever been in. Moose taco meat and greens.


So tired, I went to sleep before the sun set and then woke up to my alarm – weirdest felling of nostalgia ever.  Made myself layer up then complete my morning jumpstart: 50 pushups, 50 situps, some sun salutations, 10 jump squats. Water, first bottle freezing, second not so bad after filling up with hot water from main fire. Food, coffee.  Felt great.

Went on to meet JD, a Standing Rock tribesman with the voice of Johnny Cash. Says we’ll win.  “How?”, I asked. “Prayer, a lot of prayer.”  So I ran onward to try to catch up to the ladies headed toward the river singing the water prayer. They walk and sing the prayer across the states in gratitude of our sacred water.  Instead I ran into a local religious leader and Cannonball local. First opinion of the day in favor of moving this camp to tribal land.  How will we survive the winter otherwise? The injunction has failed. The Governor of North Dakota has personal investment in this pipeline.  The port-o-potty servicing company is receiving threats for providing for us.  The water that is currently being sent will freeze as the camp is set now.  All electoral candidates say they would negotiate with the tribe on this matter; the current government structure refuses to negotiate with the tribe. Such dismal news seemed to have brought on a dismal drop in temperature and I thought for the first time, one day in, I might not make it.

RAN back to the car, layered up even more, friends were awake now – felt right again!

Next posts to include the truth of what is going on in camp and on the front line, community building 101.  My trip to the front line. And my very own October 14th birthday request of you all!

There’s something special happening here in Standing Rock, the whole world is watching, wondering what we we’ll do next.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Standing Rock

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