Behind Dakota pipeline protest: Native American religious revival

CANNON BALL, N.D. – With night falling over the sprawling town of tents and teepees here, BJ Kidder describes Sitting
Bull massing his forces in this very same spot, at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers, before the Battle of Little Big Horn.

This time, thousands of Native Americans haven’t come to wage war. They have come to protest through prayer.

Here at the front lines of protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, every movement is weighted with the indigenous history of the region – a tragic history that’s reflected in Mr. Kidder’s own life story. Born and raised in the neighboring Standing Rock Sioux reservation, he describes being beaten as a boy by priests at a Catholic school, and watching as the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee energized and united Indian country like never before.

Now looking out over the main Oceti Sakowin camp – an ancient collective name for seven Dakota peoples and now home to the largest gathering of Native Americans in modern history – he sees signs of change and progress for his people…

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