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Dakota Pipeline Movement Vs Indian Civil Rights Movement

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Over the past hundreds of years we have been persecuting Native Americans, or making drastic changes to their way of life. Whether it be changing where they live during the Trail of Tears, or our government and society treating them differently and not giving them the same civil rights as other Americans. Ever since the Mayflower landed in America our government has had problems with keeping treaties with the Native Americans. In my eyes the government has never had respect for Native Americans and their way of life. In history Native American protests try to gain the same thing, they want the respect, rights, and land they deserve. The two I will be focusing on are the Dakota Pipeline protest in 2016, and the Indian Civil Rights movement …show more content…

In both of these protests the Native Americans move from their reservations and suburbs to stand up for their heritage and what they believe they own. As for the numbers of people showing up for each of the protests it's fairly equal. “In 1961, more than 400 members of 67 tribes gathered in Chicago” (Brinkley 849). This was at the beginning of the Indian Civil Rights movement. “ In November, 1972 nearly a thousand demonstrators, most of them Lakota Sioux, forcibly occupied the building of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington for six days” (Brinkley 849). As for the Dakota protests numbers, they were fairly large as well. Their is no exact number but the news described it as “The largest gathering of indigenous nations in modern American history” (“Dakota Pipeline…” …show more content…

They were worried that the pipeline could contaminate water, as well as destroy sacred land. Other Native American tribes also realized that “the Standing Rock Sioux had not been adequately consulted about the route of the pipeline” (Hersher 2). The next problem arrived after President Trump was elected. The Native Americans were relieved when Obama ended the project, but weeks into Trump's’ presidency he re-opened the project. This problem was the end. The pipeline was completed without another protest. “Now, the protest camps are gone and, as environmentalists feared, the Dakota Access Pipeline has already leaked”(Hersher

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