All photos taken by Vanessa Teran.

The Standing Rock occupation is a movement based on presence. In taking space and time away from Energy Transfer Partners, from the Army Corps of Engineers, from Morton County, from North Dakota, from the United States of America, Standing Rock has come to embody the largest show of resistance in the United States since at least the Ferguson riots of 2014.

Like Ferguson, and before it the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973, the place itself has become shorthand for the movement: say “Standing Rock” and what comes to mind is encampments, lock-downs, blockades, and stand-offs aimed at preventing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Missouri River.

A New History

The now sprawling encampment of thousands, capturing the attention of millions around the world, had a fairly modest beginning. The Sacred Stone Camp was set up on April 1 by youth of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation as a prayerful vigil to watch for the beginning of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The tribe had already been involved in a lawsuit to prevent construction of the pipeline for close to two years.

This initial camp is located on the reservation itself, close to the intersection of the Missouri and Cannonball Rivers. The meeting of the two rivers used to create a whirlpool, producing a uniquely shaped stone, from which the Sacred Stone Camp takes its name. The Army Corps of Engineers later altered the route of the river itself in the 1940s, flooding a portion of the reservation, destroying the whirlpool and the sacred stone with them. Throughout the spring and summer, the Sacred Stone Camp served both a site of constant prayer and as launching pad for a series of symbolic actions aimed at preventing the beginning of construction.

In late July, as the first signs of construction in the area became visible, the Standing Rock tribe formally invited the Oceti Sakowin — the seven council fires of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota peoples — and in particular the warriors of the Oglala Lakota band from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to join them in their stand. Many came to Standing Rock with their extended families directly from their annual Sundance ceremonies, so had already been camping out for up to a month before arriving.

At this time, the Standing Rock tribe and the Oceti Sakowin also called on other native nations and non-native allies to join the encampment in solidarity. As supporters began flooding into Sacred Stone, the Rosebud Camp was started nearby, also on the reservation but right off of Highway 1806. As yet more people arrived, an “overflow” camp was then established on the other side of the Cannonball River, which soon became home to thousands, becoming the main Oceti Sakowin Camp. It is located off reservation, officially on Army Corps of Engineers land, and thus is an illegal occupation and a direct action in itself. This encampment has become a direct challenge to the numerous treaty violations that have limited the sovereignty of the Lakota people solely to their federally managed reservations.

At this point, direct actions became an almost daily occurrence, as water protectors would march the short distance from the Oceti Sakowin Camp to active construction sites and disrupt them. Using tactics inherited from the environmental movement, water protectors began performing “lockdowns” — locking or chaining themselves to construction equipment to prevent its use.

This summer witnessed a number of historic events. The Crows, as well as other indigenous nations who had been historic enemies of the Lakota, arrived in procession to offer peace and join together to fight the pipeline. Soon, close to 300 federally recognized tribes had sent delegations and formally declared solidarity. By the beginning of September, the occupation’s population reached a high point of around 5,000 people.

It was at this point that mounting tensions came to a head, thrusting Standing Rock into the national media spotlight. DAPL began hiring a private security firm to stand guard over the construction sites and prevent disruption. As the long-standing lawsuit finally neared a court decision, the Standing Rock tribe filed documentation of archeological sites, including ancestral burial grounds, that existed along the proposed pipeline route. The next day, September 3, construction workers bulldozed an ancient burial ground described in those court documents.

That afternoon, as hundreds marched along the highway to symbolically plant their respective nations’ flags on the proposed pipeline route, they found themselves confronted with the sight of this desecration. A group of women tore down the fence surrounding the construction site, and hundreds rushed in to block the bulldozers. As the construction workers retreated, the water protectors were confronted by a private security force. In the ensuing stand-off, water protectors were pepper sprayed, punched, tackled, and bitten by attack dogs. With the images that began to circulate, so eerily reminiscent of both the 1960s Civil Rights Movement as well as the 19th Century Indian Wars, all eyes were now on Standing Rock.

In the week that followed, the governor of North Dakota declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard, who began manning a militarized checkpoint on the highway from state capital Bismarck to Standing Rock. A judge finally made a decision on the years-old lawsuit, ruling against an injunction on construction. Hours later, several branches of the Federal Government, including the Army Corps of Engineers, released a statement asking for a temporary, voluntary injunction on construction within 40 miles of the river. A smaller Front Line Camp, known as Sacred Ground Camp, was established along both sides of Highway 1806 at the site of this recent clash, monitoring the construction crews and keeping vigil over the exposed burial sites which would be disturbed by the pipeline.

To maintain momentum, the camp has continually innovated their tactics. With construction now taking place much further away from the camp, they began to stage lockdown actions at these now remote locations. Due to their distance, the secrecy involved in planning, and the particular skill set required, these actions were such that only a small, specialized segment of the camp could participate in them. After one resulted in a mass arrest, they quickly lost favor, and there was a lull in action for nearly a fortnight. To recapture the mass participation of earlier actions, they began to organize caravans of dozens of cars, trucks and buses, with several hundred people gathered within them, to shut down active construction sites upwards of an hour’s drive from the encampments.

From late September to late October, these caravan blockades became a nearly daily occurrence. DAPL workers would leave the construction as soon as, if not before, protesters arrived. These protests revolved around ceremonies and prayers involving the planting of sacred corn or willow trees. They were tightly organized affairs, formally led by tribal elders, but with the full participation of the young and the old, men and women alike. The youth would be the first to arrive on the scene and would sometimes damage and spray paint construction equipment, before the elders arrived to command ceremony. As police began to respond in a more militarized way, and mass arrests began to happen again, the caravans began to simply drive slowly by construction sites, causing the workers to leave but without the risk of arrest.

Despite the constant interruptions of work, by late October DAPL construction was once again nearing the Missouri River, and was now almost complete. Citing the Fort Laramie treaties, the Oceti Sakowin declared eminent domain and occupied a stretch of the pipeline route. The Frontline Camp, located on what was officially DAPL property, was transformed from a small outpost to an encampment of hundreds. Barricades were put up on Highway 1806, and for nearly a week the eviction of the Frontline Camp seemed imminent. As tensions mounted, water protectors agreed to take down their barricades, but continued to maintain a check point along the highway.

On October 27, Morton County Sheriff’s Department, along with the National Guard and police departments from five other states, moved to evict the Frontline Camp. In a show of force, they arrived with armed vehicles, an LRAD sound cannon and riot gear. To block the police’s entrance into the camp, people abandoned their own cars in the middle of the street, slashed their tires and removed their license plates. Others locked themselves to a truck. Barricades were erected and set aflame on Highways 1806 and 134. As the camp was eventually raided, new barricades were set up at the intersection of the two highways and on a bridge further south. In the midst of the chaos, construction equipment and several police vehicles were torched.

In the weeks since, dramatic standoffs between water protectors and riot police deploying tear gas and rubber bullets have occurred regularly, as construction moves closer and closer to the river.