Help Out the #NoDAPL Protestors This Black Friday With a Few Donations and Calls

If you’re looking for a good cause to back this holiday season (aren’t we all), then maybe you should think about donating to the #NoDAPL protestors. Here are just a few ways you can help out from home.

• The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have set up a donation page if you wish to donate money directly to them. If you want, there’s even a PayPal link set up to receive donations, as well.
• They also have a page with more information on how to stand with Standing Rock, including links to a petition and a suggestion to leave a call with President Obama.
• There’s an Amazon wish list of items that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe need on the front lines at the protest. Given that they’re about to enter into a pretty harsh winter, a lot of these items aren’t exactly wishes so much as they’re necessities for the thousands who now fill the ranks of the protestors.
  • Pro-tip: remember to use smile.amazon.com to make these purchases. If you do, Amazon donates to a charity of your choice. That’s like bonus points.

As I said, we’re heading into the winter months, and the law enforcement has resorted to using incredibly dangerous, life-threatening tactics including spraying the protestors down with water. It’s a real ironic move, given the fact that the #NoDAPL protestors are trying to protect their water, not to mention the fact that Flint, Michigan still doesn’t have a clean water source themselves. But that’s cool, go ahead and use all the clean water to spray down protestors.

The temperatures have dipped to below 25 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, so being soaking wet risks hypothermia, pneumonia, and other sicknesses. The Standing Rock medics and healers have already appealed to law enforcement to stop spraying them down, as the risk for loss of life has begun to increase.

For four months now, the #NoDAPL protestors have been working to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would channel oil through public lands around Lake Oahe. The local Native American/First Nations tribes in the area are blocking the pipeline because of worry that the construction could interfere with sacred lands and carries with it a risk of contaminating the lake, which has been a source of water for the nearby tribes.

Thus far, construction on the pipeline has ceased, despite contractors often threatening to “go rogue” and just begin construction anyway. President Obama hasn’t commented on the situation directly, and he hasn’t intervened in anyway thus far, despite numerous appeals from various sources. While his silence is more than just disconcerting and may very well be a blemish (among others) on his otherwise highlight of a presidency, the swearing-in of President-elect Donald Trump will likely make a bad situation worse for the protestors and tribes involved. Trump owns stock in the Dakota Access oil pipeline, which is just one of many conflicts of interest that cast doubt on his ability to be an effective president.

In an interview roundtable with the New York Times, he’s all but straight up promised that he’d be keeping his businesses and things while occupying the Oval Office. “The law’s totally on my side. The president can’t have a conflict of interest,” said Trump, when questioned whether he’s worried about any possible conflicts between the office and his dealings as a business owner. It’s disconcerting because he believes the office truly is above the law, that there aren’t laws even a president has to abide by.

This is to say that Trump will likely push forward as strongly and forcefully as he can here, and he doesn’t believe he’ll have to answer for his conflict of interests in the end.

All of these words are just a long way of me saying that you should absolutely help here while you still can. You don’t have to drive out to the front lines yourself (though you should if you want to and have the skills/knowledge to help), and things like donating or buying items off of a wish list can go a very long way to helping them fight the truly good fight.

(image via Flickr/Leslie Peterson)

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