Then the White House Intervenes

and through the Corps of Engineers, tells the pipeline construction company to back the fuck down.

Which... they may or may not do, depending on what they think they can/will get away with. Initial reports were confused, to say the least, as the intervention from On High was not expected once the court denied the temporary restraining order. Obviously, however, the White House and the Corps were prepared with a counter-move should the court deny the request for a halt to construction.

I haven't read the court's order, but reports of what was in it struck me as condescending and deliberately inflammatory. North Dakota's governor probably got a heads up as did the White House and so the National Guard was activated as a back up in case those Indians got more unruly than they already are. The white folks who run things up there are clearly scared to death of the Indians, and they are preparing to do battle, just like in the Old West when it was so necessary for the good of white folks to kill off the savages in their multitudes and to confine whatever remnants that might survive to prison camps called "reservations."

Sigh.

What wasn't expected at all was that the White House, though the Corps, would essentially call a halt to construction until certain unresolved issues could be hashed out. The initial confusion was over just  what had been ordered and what had been requested. Apparently the pipeline route is supposed to tunnel under the Missouri River just north of the present Standing Rock Sioux Reservation boundary. The Corps controls the river access and Lake Oahe at that point. The Corps has apparently been directed to refuse to issue required easements for the pipeline crossing until additional environmental studies are considered (not necessarily undertaken) and Native issues addressed. Then in the fall, the Corps is supposed to convene a meeting or meetings with interested Indian Nations to see how they would like to proceed on these matters -- given current legislation -- and to find out how the Corps can consult with them better in the future.

The Corps has requested that the pipeline company cease construction within 20 miles east and west of the river crossing, but it is powerless to order cessation.

This intervention has nothing at all to do with the cultural sites, burial grounds and so on that are said to be in the path of construction or have already been destroyed by the bulldozers. Apparently the court ruling dismisses those concerns. The environmental issues, however, have been a stronger argument against the pipeline all along, specifically with regard to the potential hazards to drinking water for millions should there be a break in the pipeline in or near the Missouri River.

There are thousands of Indians and allies gathered in the vicinity of the Standing Rock Reservation, and it is clear that the North Dakota authorities simply want them to go away. They are an impediment to the Advance of Civilization. As they have always been since the first White Man set eyes on Dakota Territory.

It appears that the white rulers of North Dakota are unable to get over theit essentially fearful and contemptuous point of view. Indians are still in the way of Progress, regardless of whether that so-called Progress has any utility in the vast eternal scheme and regardless of any ultimate disaster(s) that Progress may cause.

It's not so much a matter of agreeing with the Indians as it is respecting them and their point of view.

Too many white folks in positions of power simply aren't ready to do that or possibly they're not capable of doing that, though in this case, the Indians seem to be doing everything in their power to induce a white Awakening.

It's really been remarkable to watch. The Indians have the high road and they know it. In a way, it doesn't matter what the white rulers do. They're fundamentally in the wrong, and their errors will simply compound if they don't change their ways. The Indians are trying to bring them to consciousness -- nonviolently -- and they know the struggle may be futile, but it must be undertaken.

So we have what we've seen, a huge encampment, growing daily, of Indians and allies from all over North America, engaged in spiritual warfare with an enemy that is basically "unconsciousness." It's not against white people, in other words, as many of the allies encamped in North Dakota are white. It is against the unconsciousness of so many white people (and others, it's not just them) in power.

To my mind, it's a brilliant strategy.

What I've read says that the Indians intend to press this struggle no matter what the eventual outcome
of the pipeline issue. It is bigger than the pipeline and necessary.

So far, they seem to have "awakened" quite a few otherwise somnambulant Americans.

Good.