Photo: Zoltán Grossman
The Tlingits have arrived! Doug Chilton and Deandre King brought the One Peoples Canoe Society canoe all the way to Standing Rock Reservation to support the water protectors resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Pacific Northwest and Alaskan tribes have a long history of resisting resource extraction industries which have threatened and in some cases wiped out entire salmon runs.
More great pictures of the canoes on the Missouri River here and here.
The Pacific Northwest came to the Northern Plains today, when canoes from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Minnesota, and Alaska landed at the Camp of the Sacred Stones. They had come for two days down the Missouri River from Bismarck, and arrived at the Cannonball River on the northern boundary of the Standing Rock Reservation.
It was a powerful show of solidarity from tribes that have also been opposing Bakken oil trains, and highlighted that “Water is Life” from the Pacific Ocean to the Missouri River. 18 canoes participated, including Nisqually, Puyallup, Quinault, Chehalis/Colville, Kalispel, Warm Springs, Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai, and Tlingit-Haida.
ICTMN article on Doug Chilton and Deandre King’s trip down from Alaska with the canoe.
On September 8th in Portland, Oregon the Cowlitz Tribe and the NAYA Canoe Family took to the heavily polluted Willamette River in a show of solidarity for the water protectors at Standing Rock. Pictures below:
