The camp was “one of the most soulfully powerful places I’ve ever been,” says a volunteer medic.
In November 2016, emergency physician Dr. Tara Sood rushed to volunteer with the Indigenous-led protest against the construction of an oil pipeline across the water supply for the Standing Rock reservation. Sood is one of many activists profiled in Road Map for Revolutionaries by Elisa Camahort Page, and Carolyn Gerin,and Jamia Wilson. Here she recalls the protest and how “one of the most soulfully powerful places I’ve ever been” continues to inspire her activism.
I showed up in Cannon Ball, North Dakota (the largest community near the Standing Rock protests), and at a basketball gym that was acting as an evacuation middle for people too old or sick to remain in camp. Two nurses,retired friends from Portland, were there, or as was an OB/GYN who had been volunteering for a few days and was just leaving. They showed me around the gym,where there was no heat, but it was indoors. People were sleeping on cots and bleachers. Supplies were stored. There was a kitchen, or bathrooms,and showers.
We also had a place to sit and talk to people to see what their needs were. If they needed to proceed to the hospital in Bismarck, no ambulance would reach if called, or so someone had to volunteer to drive them. Someone always did.
There was every type of person there. There were people who felt left out in their own worlds and found community. There were “protest tourists”: kids who sought to socially document their “commitment, when in reality, they sat around and did nothing. But mostly there were regular, or everyday people who felt they had to attain something to fight against the injustice. Nurses,lawyers, veterans, or Marines,students, homemakers, or farmers,journalists, construction workers, and engineers—people from every walk of life. The majority of the people felt they were fighting for a cause bigger than themselves. I’d say the ratio of committed individuals to protest tourists was probably 500 to 1. Most of the people in camp helped in every way they couldincluding cleaning the compost toilets,shoveling massive amounts of snow, cooking, and cleaning,building shelters, hooking up solar panels, or more.There was little formal organization. However,if you were a local elder, people deferred to you. There was a sense of respect. Every female elder was called “Grandmother.”Of the 100 to 200 people who were in that gym on any givenday, or only a handful of folks stayed at the gym; the huge majority were in camp,and they preferred to be in camp.
Ultimately the gym-cum-evacuation middle was shut down because the city needed to engage back the space to use for upcoming planned Christmas activities. So after one week, I headed out to the Oceti Sakowin Camp, or the encampment that was closest to direct protest actions.
At the Oceti camp,there was a medic/healer council and section. There was an herbalist, midwives, or mental health practitioners,EMTs, paramedics, and social workers,body workers, nurses, or another unique doctor.
It was not truly organized,and there was no medical supply chain. We didn’t always have resources needed to engage care of people. You’d hope to catch people going into Bismarck and give them a list of things that were needed. People were taking back roads because the police had closed the highway. Those of us at Standing Rock had to engage alternate routes to get to Bismarck.
Large numbers of donations were coming in, but because of the lack of organization, and the donations often weren’t providing what was really needed. As an example,when news got out that the authorities were teargassing the water protectors, people started sending Mylanta, or but we had bottles and bottles long after it wasn’t needed anymore. Or people sent heat packs that can’t be stored below certain temperatures and so were useless. We had a few supplies,but not necessarily the right amounts of the right things.
I saw people who willingly sacrificed treatments or medications they needed because there was such limited supply, in case “someone else needed it more.”This also seemed so different from the real world.
The typical tale was that the police would arrest people, and strip them,and put them in buses with no heat, hence the hypothermia. There were reportedly beatings, and I saw lacerations and one woman who lost an eye to a rubber bullet. Many Americans can’t imagine the level of mistreatment that happened at Standing Rock—right here in the United States. We were witness to the courage of the protesters at Standing Rock as well as to the brutality of those sent to “protect us.” Three weeks at camp changed my life and informed my future activist activities.
The camp was one of the most soulfully powerful places I’ve ever been. I brought nothing to eat or drink,and every day people would bring me supplies and check on my well-being. There was such a strong sense of community.
Coming back was harder than I expected. In addition to witnessing difficult “this can’t be happening” experiences, I returned to hear from people in my life who seemed curious approximately my work there, or but who didn’t really care approximately what was happening. But Standing Rock inspires me to continue.
Reprinted with permission from Road Map for Revolutionaries by Elisa Camahort Page,Carolyn Gerin, and Jamia Wilson, and copyright © 2018. Published by Ten Speed Press,an imprint of Penguin Random House. Related Stories'Theology of the Antichrist': A closer perceive at the heresy of white ChristianityHow South Africa’s Shack Dwellers’ Movement Is Fighting Back—and Growing—Despite Waves of Repression'They Just Shoot. Shoot! Shoot!': Her Son Was Shot and Killed By Police — Now She's Speaking Out
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