This year, as Americans picked their turkeys and counted their blessings, members of the Sioux nation in Standing Rock North Dakota, have reported being attacked with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons in freezing temperatures and they protest an oil pipeline that threatens to contaminate their water and disrupt their sacred sites.

The pipeline could potentially contaminate the local tribe’s source of fresh water, violating a treaty signed by the US government in 1851. The clash between protesters, who call themselves “water protectors” and the North Dakota law enforcement have reached a boiling point where what started off as a peaceful protest turned to protesters fighting for their lives.

The 1851 treaty signed by the US government ceded portions of five states to the Sioux and agreed to strict rules preventing outsiders from accessing Sioux territory. In 1877, when gold was discovered there, Congress broke its end of the bargain by seizing the black hills of South Dakota in 1877. In 2016 we see the government’s land grabs continuing.

The Sioux- who have long suffered economically –  are trying to protect the land and water that have sustained them for centuries. Thousand of water protectors are being joined by many non-Native allies. All are concerned that a leak could contaminate the Missouri river. In recent months, many have been arrested after using their bodies to block construction of the pipeline and to protect the sacred sites. The movement has spread across the country and the world, as protesters have held demonstrations and banks funding the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sadly, the movement has been ignored by national corporate media, and hundreds of protesters are still being arrested.