Recently there has been an increased dialogue surrounding the demonstrations, protests and other events happening in Standing Rock, North Dakota, where the Standing Rock Sioux and numerous other tribes and allies have come together to protest the North Dakota Access Pipeline or DAPL.
Through chants and protests – as well as tweets and the #NoDAPL hashtag – people are making their concerns about the partially completed pipeline known.
Indigenous peoples in the region state that the current trajectory of the pipeline disturbs sacred sites and threatens to pollute the drinking water of the people living there.
Protesters are facing stiff resistance from law enforcement and private security hired by Dakota Access, LCC and Energy Transfer, the companies building the pipeline who claim that the protestors are trespassing.
As the situation becomes increasingly tense, recordings and claims of protesters being mistreated and abused continue to arise. The topic continues to demand more attention from the public at the national and sometimes global level and many have already pledged solidarity with the protestors.
This is what the reporters of The kNOw Youth Media had to say about the DAPL.
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
