Remember the cowboy hat wearing, plaid shirt sporting, gun toting Bundy Boy protesters who took over a Western public land reserve to show that they, as true patriots and anti-socialist Americans, should be able to use public land without having to pay for it while making a profit that would not be shared with the public whose land they used?

Remember how they vandalized the Park Service building and dug giant latrines and the roads to get to them, and in the process may have ruined animal habitats and the resting places of historic tribal artifacts while at the same time rummaging through artifacts claiming their doing so was their way of returning them to the tribes who were happy they were being carefully stored in a place that was safe until the Bundy crowd moved in?

Remember they claimed they would use weapons if necessary to defend those who were all in with this misguided protest that had as its aim their own benefit and not that of the American people?

Remember that this was the same crowd who had gathered at Cliven Bundy’s ranch to defend his right to use public land for free, and aimed their weapons at law-enforcement who were there to defend the rights of the American people who owned the land Bundy wanted to use for free, and are now the crowd who, in response to Black Lives matter, trumpet Blue Lives Matter while having no compunction about shooting at the Blue Lives if it suited their purposes, and in the Western park only left when one of them actually shot at one of the Blue lives and finally got arrested.

There was a very small number of people at the Bundy events making a lot of noise and getting a lot of attention for being selfish and a little stupid as they had forgotten that a long siege meant they would need supplies and were actually allowed to have some shipped in with the tacit blessing of the feds who did not stop them from doing it, and using Park Service vehicles to get their packages at the local U.S. Post Office.

These scofflaws were part of the 24 hour news cycle and omnipresent on the evening news. We watched their press conferences and self narrated videos, and their recordings of their destruction of public property.

They were somehow given legitimacy.

And then there’s this.

A Texas-based company, Energy Transfer Partners, is building the Dakota Access Pipeline which is a 1,170 mile long underground pipeline which will carry up to 570,000 barrels of fracked Bakken oil daily across four states to a market hub in Illinois. They claim it is a major step toward the United States weaning itself off foreign oil, bringing millions of dollars into local economies, and will be safer than trucks and train cars.

3,000 Native Americans, however, see it as a rape of the lands where generations of their ancestors hunted bison, gathered water, and were born and buried.

Unlike the publicity given the Bundy crowd, Native Americans have been gathering near Cannon Ball, North Dakota since April, and no media is covering the protest.

Also, unlike the Bundynista people where no arrests were made during their occupation while they had free access to public utilities, the local town, computers, and vehicles, more than 20 people have been arrested in North Dakota on charges including disorderly conduct and trespassing onto the construction site. The biggest offense has been throwing bottles and rocks at contractors’ vehicles.

Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier of Morton County, said that he had received reports of weapons and gunshots around the demonstration, but unlike at the Bundy protest where no actions had been taken even though the cowboys went no where without their guns,  this hear say reporting called for action.

Unlike the pictures of armed men aiming their guns at law officers at Cliven Bundy’s ranch, the Sheriff here is working on “reports” which could be coming from the construction company.

In contrast, leaders from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose reservation lies just south of the pipeline’s path, hold that the protests are peaceful, as weapons, drugs, and alcohol are prohibited from the protest camp.

Again, unlike the Bundy events.

As far as reports of pipe bombs being called for, demonstrators had been told to get out their spiritually important wooden Chanupa pipes, and pass them through the crowd.

Because the majority of the  pipeline runs along private land, but crosses bodies of water, federal rules come into play and federal approvals are required.
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The tribe is concerned that since the pipeline will cross under the Missouri River it could threaten its water supplies if the pipeline leaks or breaks. There is also the concern that the United States Army Corps of Engineers had failed to do proper cultural and historical reviews.

Referring to a bit of cultural insensitivity, Phyllis Young, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux, explained,

“This is our homeland. We are Dakota. Dakota means friend or ally. Dakota Access has taken our name.”

CJ Clifford, a member of the Oglala Lakota, sees the protests as part of a historical continuum reaching back to Little Bighorn.

Environmental activists and other tribes from the Dakotas, the rest of the Great Plains, and the Pacific Northwest have been arriving to the camp to join in the protests.

Unlike the Bundy crowds, instead of destroying property and misusing public equipment, protesters sleep in tents and tepees, cook food in open-air kitchens, share stories and strategies around evening campfires, and have day care and daily meetings.

Part of the motivation for the protests is reclaiming a stake in ancestral lands reduced by broken treaties since the 1800s.

“Lands were constantly getting reduced, shaken up,” said Dave Archambault II, the tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux. “I could give you a list of every wrongdoing this government did to our people. All of that is frustration pent up, and it’s being recognized.”

He added, “It’s a tipping point for our nations.”

Misinterpreting a Lakota gesture of introduction, sheriff’s officers retreated in the face of riders on horseback.

Because he feels the demonstration has become an “unlawful protest” and a “public safety risk”, Gov. Jack Dalrymple, declared a state of emergency last Friday.

Jon Eagle Sr., the historic preservation officer for the Standing Rock Sioux, has said,

 “They (the construction company) need to stay out. They don’t know where the burials are. They don’t know where the sacred sites are. I’m trying my best to keep the peace.”

The contrast is glaring.

Guys in cowboy hats carrying guns and destroying public property are left alone and become an every day news story with a touch of empathy added and somewhat encouraged by politicians and the media.

3,000 Native Americans are protesting the destruction of ancestral lands so that a private company can make a profit, and we hear nothing.