If you only read three items this weekend, make them these:
1. On the history behind the Standing Rock defense of the Missouri River and water supply in Illinois, Iowa, and the Dakotas
I don’t understand why we are expendable in America.” —LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, tribal historian of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Standing Rock Sioux Historian: Dakota Access Co. Attack Comes on Anniversary of Whitestone Massacre
Allard spoke with Amy Goodman at Democracy Now last weekend and her account of the Standing Rock nations, the United States military, and the Native intentions for the land are quite, quite powerful.
2. On the distraction and erasure of mass media reporting on #NODAPL
All Native struggles in the United States are a struggle against erasure.” —Kelly Hayes, Transformative Spaces, Chicago
Erased By False Victory: Obama Hasn’t Stopped DAPL
Hayes analyzes the patterns of media attention about the gathering of more than 100 Native tribes at Standing Rock. Social media energy has been building, and the conventional press is noticing. But, Hayes, argues, that just means the status quo moves to defuse activist concern: “This isn’t the victory it’s being billed as.”
3. Meanwhile, at a different scale: On the nourishment that devoted companionship can offer at life’s end
‘I’ve been coming here twice a day to be with my wife for nine years,’ he said. ‘She had a brain hemorrhage and hasn’t been communicative since then.’
I swallowed a lump in my throat thinking of that sort of love and devotion. Nine years. And while she might not be verbal anymore, the love and contentment she felt with him was clear from her body language.” —Daneen Akers, co-producer of Enough Room at the Table
Every so often, Daneen writes an email to the community that has supported her recent film projects (she’s been much better about this than I’ve been this year).
Her latest message reflects on the power of family and companionship to nourish someone through severe medical illnesses and the end of life stage—and ways our religious teachings make these periods unnecessarily complicated.