‘The cavalry’s coming!’: Indigenous activism from 1492 to Standing Rock

Famed Indigenous activists like Leonard Peltier and Madonna Thunder Hawk and younger activists shared their thoughts with ICT about the evolution of Indigenous activism from the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s to Standing Rock and beyond.

by Kevin Abourezk, May 11, 2026

#CannonballND – "The field is serene. The blades of brown grass, not yet awakened by spring rains, sway gently. In the distance, the #MissouriRiver cuts a blue streak across the unbroken plains. The silence is punctuated only by the sound of passing cars and the low hum of rushing water in nearby #CannonballRiver.

"But if you listen carefully, you can hear defiant voices shouting and then screaming.

"Ten years ago, this land exploded.

"For nearly a year, from April 2016 to February 2017, thousands of people stood strong against #MilitarizedPolice, #FederalTroops and #PrivateSecurityForces [#Blackwater] hired to protect the 1,176-mile #DakotaAccessPipeline. They gathered to resist a private corporation’s efforts to build a pipeline less than a mile from the #StandingRockSioux Reservation near the #NorthDakota-#SouthDakota border.

"In the end, they were forced to evacuate their camps as authorities quieted, but never fully extinguished, the uprising. Some would say the fire that ignited at #StandingRock was lit decades earlier by #NativeActivists who fought oppression and violence in the 1960s and 1970s.

"While Native people have resisted #colonization and its impacts since 1492, the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s marked a turning point in the efforts of Native people to join together and speak in one voice. That torch of resistance was carried all the way from places like #AlcatrazIsland and #WoundedKnee to a field near the Missouri River in 2016.

"The #NoDAPL movement reached its height on Nov. 20, 2016, when hundreds of water protectors gathered on a bridge to clear two burned-out trucks that impeded a public roadway that provided access to the pipeline drill site and to the camp. The confrontation was the most violent clash between water protectors and authorities during the protest and led to nearly 200 people being injured, some seriously."

Read more:
https://ictnews.org/news/the-cavalrys-coming-indigenous-activism-from-1492-to-standing-rock/

#USPol #NativeAmericanActivism #StandWithStandingRock #NativeAmericanHistory #Resistance #IndigenousResistance #Colonialism #CorporateColonialism

‘The cavalry’s coming!’: Indigenous activism from 1492 to Standing Rock

Famed Indigenous activists like Leonard Peltier and Madonna Thunder Hawk and younger activists shared their thoughts with ICT about the evolution of Indigenous activism from the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s to Standing Rock and beyond.

ICT

“For instance, financial flows from poorer to richer nations are “approximately three times as much as development aid,” according to the latest World Inequality Report. And 3.4 billion people live in countries whose external debt service exceeds health or education spending. This isn’t a moral form of “aid.” It’s staggeringly self-serving. And since it perpetuates avoidable suffering, it isn’t really benevolent.”

#climatejustice #colonization #famine #freemarket

https://www.inoreader.com/article/3a9c6e76c515460a

Sign in

Sign in to your Inoreader account to access a personalized newsfeed and articles. Stay informed and save time with our powerful features.

Inoreader

“For instance, financial flows from poorer to richer nations are “approximately three times as much as development aid,” according to the latest World Inequality Report. And 3.4 billion people live in countries whose external debt service exceeds health or education spending. This isn’t a moral form of “aid.” It’s staggeringly self-serving. And since it perpetuates avoidable suffering, it isn’t really benevolent.”

#climatejustice #colonization #famine

https://www.inoreader.com/article/3a9c6e76c515460a

Sign in

Sign in to your Inoreader account to access a personalized newsfeed and articles. Stay informed and save time with our powerful features.

Inoreader
#Colonization Sorry Britts, you have probably been the best example …🤔🫣😉🤣 www.facebook.com/share/v/1BRc...

facebook.com/share/v/1BRcWS...
1M views · 40K reactions | I still don’t understand colonization… | Trevor Noah

I still don’t understand colonization…

Ainu Group Demands Return of 279 Remains Held by Japan’s Government

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://unseen-japan.com/ainu-remains-upopoy-lawsuit-sapporo/

Ainu Group Demands Return of 279 Remains Held by Japan's Government - Unseen Japan

The lawsuit, the first of its kind, argues that Ainu burial tradition vests the right to manage their remains in the kotan (community).

Unseen Japan
SpaceX nears $1.8T IPO amid Mars colonization debate, reveals $1.29B Bitcoin stash
https://atlas.whatip.xyz/post.php?slug=spacex-nears-18t-ipo-amid-mars-colonization-debate-reveals-129b-bitcoin-stash
<p>SpaceX&#039;s IPO and Bitcoin holdings highlight the growing intersection of space exploration
#colonization #bitcoin #spacex #debate
SpaceX nears $1.8T IPO amid Mars colonization debate, reveals $1.29B Bitcoin stash

SpaceX's IPO and Bitcoin holdings highlight the growing intersection of space exploration ambitions and financial market dynamics. The post SpaceX nears $1.8T IPO amid Mars colonization debate, r...

“Microsoft's massive Kenya AI data center would require switching off 'half the country' to meet power requirements, government says — $1 billion project stalls over capacity disagreements and lack of infrastructure“

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/microsofts-1-billion-kenya-data-center-stalls-over-disagreements-on-power-capacity

#Microsoft #Microslop #AI #Colonization #Extraction #HumanRights #Africa

Microsoft's massive Kenya AI data center would require switching off 'half the country' to meet power requirements, government says — $1 billion project stalls over capacity disagreements and lack of infrastructure

“We would need to switch off half the country for the data center to be powered."

Tom's Hardware

@Libby_ good, all for justice for these _living_ victims of #colonisation in the final years of Belgian #Congo.

#Belgian Congo is notorious for its horrors of its predecessor Congo Free State under Leopold II, so bad even contemporary colonisers were abhorred by it and forced to act, whose victims are no longer among the living.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_State

#colonization

Atrocities in the Congo Free State - Wikipedia

EDIT: I was kindly notified that the previous link I posted was to a page using AI for illustrations.
No AI with me so here's a new link to a proper website.
And the article's better anyway.

In case you need sources about homophobia being the result of colonialism:

https://www.aaihs.org/did-europe-bring-homophobia-to-africa/

#lgbtq #africa #christian #colonization

Did Europe Bring Homophobia to Africa? - AAIHS

Recently at a public forum, someone asked me if “same-sex relations in Africa [are] un-African?” While answering the question, another interjected, “all these foreign White man’s practices [are] forced on us,” evidently alluding to the fact that same-sex relations is inherently a “western import,” foisted on Africans by European colonizers. Indeed, few issues are

AAIHS - African American Intellectual History Society
Nederland en andere landen boos op Israël om 'mensonterende' aanpak activisten Gaza-vloot

De Italiaanse premier Georgia Meloni eist excuses voor de slechte behandeling van de opvarenden. Nederland noemt de aanpak ontoelaatbaar.