We have talked with Joseph Hock, who has spent months at Standing Rock, has been arrested and defines himself a brother.
You and the other activists have been hit by tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and water cannons in freezing temperatures. What gives you the strength to resist such violence?
My strength comes from knowing that if I responded to violence with more violence, the paid police protectionists and DAPL mercenaries would know how to stop our movement. When the power of prayer is used, it leaves the oppressors unarmed and powerless.
What is the role of spirituality and nonviolence in your fight?
Spirituality is our movement… Prayer is our protection. On October 27th I was within an Aniipii (Sweet lodge), praying. The Morton County Sheriff Department along with DAPL mercenaries tore down my place of worship, while I was in a ceremony… I was pulled out after my church was pulled down. My religious relics were destroyed. It taught me everything I ever needed to know about them.
The resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, has been joined by members of 200 other indigenous nations from the United States and other countries, from Ecuador to Norway, by activists and veterans. How did you build this extraordinary alliance?
This alliance you speak of is our family, it’s our sisters and brothers.
Let me quote Aldous Huxley: “There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak.
Producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”
We have all seen the results of what Mr. Huxley talked about.
What did the veterans’ asking for forgiveness for the crimes committed by the U.S. army against the Natives mean to you and what was it like to meet them?
I was touched by their individual actions. However the government who committed these atrocities of genocide says nothing… It takes more land to be given to a private corporate entity, at the expense of the people.
On December 1st you launched a Global Month of Actions, targeting the banks behind the Dakota Access pipeline. What do you expect to happen at the end of this month?
We have individual as well as personal actions. People around the world suffer the results of corporate oppressors loosely disguised as their government.
How can activists and independent media in the U.S. and all over the world support your fight?
Activists and media can best help by addressing the True Axis of Evil…. Corporate Governance. It’s truly a lopsided deal based on infinite resources in a finite world. Unfortunately over 90 % of the world’s free media is controlled by just a handful of people. A free media is beginning to no longer exist.
How do you see the future of this fight, now that Trump has announced his support for the pipeline project?
There truly is no difference. A Bush or a Clinton has been in control of the highest offices of the United States government… Halliburton, Monsanto… Corporations rule… The TPP,TTIP, NAFTA, Tafta are all illegal treaties, corporate led government sponsored “u-approval” of democracy, with governments that approve what citizens disapprove.
Keep in mind, American politicians such as the Clintons stand to make billions from fracking and do so with Wesley Clark Senior, Dick Chaney and Halliburton, hold patent to Horizontal fracking methods and fuel transport. The Axis of Evil Is not a 3rd world country located halfway around the world. The Axis of Evil are the Corporations that run the world’s governments.
Mega-projects like pipelines, dams and mines involving pollution, deforestation and land grabbing are happening all over the planet with indigenous peoples fighting them at the front line. Can you envisage a more coordinated collaboration with regard to protecting our Earth for future generations?
We can vote with our wallets, we already march against Monsanto, we can open a bank account at a members owned credit union, grow food and not lawns, and purchase locally: this keeps your neighbor fed and your money in your community. We all have an illusion of wealth as defining our success in life, yet we don’t realize we have finite resources.
Be the change you want to see in this world. A new world is possible.
