Native American Water Protectors- unravelling the past while trying to grasp the future
Author
Markussen, Camilla Kjærulf
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2019
Submitted on
2019-06-13
Pages
51
Abstract
Specialet undersøger, hvordan koloniale diskurser om Nordamerikas oprindelige folk er blevet skabt, opretholdt og udfordret, med Standing Rock Sioux’ modstand mod Dakota Access Pipeline (2014–2016) som hovedcase. Det stiller tre centrale spørgsmål: hvordan selvidentifikationen som Vandbeskyttere og brugen af (sociale) medier skabte opmærksomhed; hvordan sprog og lovgivning (bl.a. Indian Removal Act, Pick-Sloan Act og forfatningsmæssige rammer) har formet forestillinger om formynderskab og svækket suverænitet; og hvordan konfrontationer mellem lovhåndhævelse, privat sikkerhed og demonstranter afspejler historiske mønstre af kolonial magt og ekspropriation. Analysen bygger på en dekoloniserende metodologi (med afsæt i Linda Tuhiwai Smith) og kritisk diskursanalyse (Norman Fairclough) og sammenholder historiske tekster med samtidige beretninger fra #NoDAPL. Specialet peger på flytningen af rørledningen fra det overvejende hvide Bismarck til området ved reservatet som et udtryk for institutionel/miljøracisme og viser, at protesterne – trods den fortsatte anlæggelse – skabte et håbefuldt skifte: rebrandingen som Vandbeskyttere åbnede en ny diskursiv vej, udfordrede koloniale logikker om land og ressourcer, bidrog til at samle Seven Council Fires og styrkede fokus på hukommelse, identitet og afkolonisering i fremtiden.
This thesis examines how colonial discourses about Native Americans have been produced, sustained, and challenged, using the Standing Rock Sioux’s resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (2014–2016) as a focal case. It addresses three questions: how self-identifying as Water Protectors and the use of (social) media built public awareness; how the language of U.S. law and policy (including the Indian Removal Act, the Pick-Sloan Act, and constitutional frameworks) has constructed Indigenous peoples as wards and undermined sovereignty; and how confrontations among law enforcement, private security, and demonstrators reflect longer histories of colonial power and dispossession. The study applies a decolonizing methodology (drawing on Linda Tuhiwai Smith) and Critical Discourse Analysis (Norman Fairclough), reading historical texts alongside contemporary accounts from #NoDAPL. It argues that the pipeline’s relocation from majority-white Bismarck to near the reservation exemplifies institutional/environmental racism and that, despite the pipeline’s completion, the protests catalyzed a hopeful shift: rebranding as Water Protectors opened a new discursive path, challenged colonial logics governing land and resources, helped reunite the Seven Council Fires, and reinforced the role of memory and identity in imagining decolonized futures.
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