Here is part 2 and my apologies for taking this long to write this. Shortly after writing part 1 I got really ill and was away for a while as a result. Following that I had an important concert that was taking up every moment of my free time, followed by a visit from my good friend Dibs. In any case here I will continue, and keep in mind a lot has happened in Standing Rock since part 1 and I will be talking about such things in this journal.

Part 2:

As I mentioned, I wanted to bring forward what needs to be learned in Standing Rock. One of the big things I took away from this, that I feel has already changed my life is actually quite simple. It is prayer. Every action and activity that happens at Oceti Sakowin is done in a prayerful way. They emphasize this to us that even something as simple as eating and cooking, all the way to going to the front lines to face the militarized police should be done in a prayerful manner. The entire camp and all it is doing is considered a ceremony, thus we are required to conduct ourselves in such a manner that reflects that. That has lingered with me now that I'm no longer there. It was something I was beginning to forget, what I feel I used to know well when I still lived back home and could go see my grandfather and my elders on a regular basis.

Another thing I can definitely say I felt is that besides going back to living in a very indigenous way of life, we went back to feeling like humans again, seeing each other's humanity, valuing each other to the fullest. We all have value and that is something American society has forgotten long ago, rejecting those we see as disposable. You didn't have to be in the front lines here to be valued. But we valued people even beyond the Oceti Sakowin camp. We also valued the lives and humanity of those beyond our community, most importantly the lives of those who have been terrorizing us and inflicting violence upon us, and desecrated the sacred lands of the Standing Rock nation: the militarized police forces. It was very much an anti-us-vs-them mentality, which American society has tended to do with immigrants from certain countries and people of other religions. And speaking of which, I wanted to point out something important: there were not just Native people at Standing Rock, there were people of all sorts of ethnicities there to help. They were thoroughly welcomed and their help appreciated, yet there was an excellent clarification in the fact that we all had to adhere to the laws set by the council of elders there at Standing Rock. These rules include me too actually. I may be Native myself but I was just as much a visitor there as a white ally. Those lands were Standing Rock Nation's lands, not my own ancestral lands back in Arizona.

I have to thank the Standing Rock Nation for all of what they have done. They have done something I truly did not believe was possible. They united Native people in a way that hasn't happened before. Tribes that historically were at odds with each other, even at war with each other were all there working together. We found our strength again and we found our power, and we found it through our own values, our own cultures, and our own ways that have led us for thousands of years. We are united, mind you not uniform, still many diverse Indian nations, but united, against a common enemy. And that common enemy is more than a pipeline, it is against a mindset, a culture that believes you can take forever without receiving, that you can prioritize personal gains over our most basic resources. It is that which we are trying to heal, such beliefs, and bringing people back to remembering where their resources at stores come from, they don't magically generate. It is also an assertion that we as Native people are not going to continue to be walked all over as those in power expect they can still do. Standing Rock isn't the end, Standing Rock is the prototype for what you are going to see from Native people from here forward. We are going to stand our ground for our lands and our resources. We know we can and we know it is our right. We are doing this for the well being of ourselves, our tribes, and for our descendants who have yet to come into this world. This is what warriors used to fight for, and we are warriors, not in taking up arms, but instead in standing on our own grounds and fighting with prayer. This is not a cliché or a metaphor, the council of elders understand things the world needs to hear, and this prayer will heal.

Between the time I wrote part 1 and this part, the Dakota Access Pipeline was denied easement. It is an amazing victory for us. However, we are still vigilant. We have no doubt they will attempt to build the pipeline even without the proper permissions, after all this time being told that we are the law breakers and trespassers (ironically, since it's on Fort Laramie Treaty land). We will continue to take any means necessary to defend ourselves, both on the ground and in court. We unfortunately can not depend on courts who have constantly ignored our rights and made rulings devastating our agreements with the federal government; therefore we must also be prepared on the ground, as we will be. Natives, we have overcome a continuous attempt at genocide against us, we are managing to survive and thrive despite it and are still fighting for ourselves, and we will continue to do so. Expect to continue to see us.