Tara Houska, Honor the Earth/Indian Country Media Network/Huffington Post/The Guardian joins Thom. Picture the scene… peaceful protesters are practicing their constitutionally guaranteed right to organize and protest when they’re set upon by thugs with pepper spray and dogs who snarl at them and bite them. No – this didn’t happen 50 years ago in Birmingham – Alabama. It happened over the weekend near Cannon Ball, North Dakota – where thousands of activists remain camped out in one of the largest Native American political actions in decades. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its allies from other indigenous nations are protesting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Once finished – the pipeline will bring oil almost 1200 miles from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota all the way to Illinois. The brutal scenes we saw this weekend occurred when some protesters tried to protect their sacred burial grounds and were instead attacked by oil company mercenaries. And those protestors aren’t just up against the oil companies – they’re also up against the courts. On Tuesday – a federal district court halted construction on some parts of the Dakota Access pipeline project – but not the areas that the Standing Rock Sioux hold sacred. The fight goes on.
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