As of right now, people are outraged with the treatment of the natives, in relation to the Dakota access pipeline. Americans are rushing to their social media accounts and writing long paragraphs in defense of the natives, accompanied with #NODAPL.

People are going to the site and physically standing in solidarity with the native peoples as they fight for their land and their water.

But this is nothing new.

The history of Indigenous Americans since this country’s inception has been a series of “deals” that were largely for the U.S.’s benefit and to the detriment of many tribes.

After being greatly diminished in numbers by disease received from contact with Europeans, indigenous Americans were in no position to bargain for their right to live in their homes when encroachment began.

Every single inch of land was fought for, not a single bit of this country was taken without resistance, and once this country had manifested, many of the original people of this country had been forcibly moved out of their lands and forced to settle on land that nobody else wanted.

Then, it was not guaranteed that these lands would not eventually be taken away, reduced, or exploited.

The Sioux people that live in and around the Standing Rock Reservation, where the pipeline is being built, have seen this happen time and time again.

In 1868, The Great Sioux Nation  had its land reduced to the east of the Missouri to the western border of South Dakota.

In 1874, General Custer found gold in the Black Hills, lands sacred to the peoples in the area, prompting the US government to come in and forcibly take the land, resulting in The Great Sioux War of 1876.

The war led to even more land being taken away from the Sioux, including the entirety of the sacred Black Hills.

And it still continues.

Examining history makes it clear that the Dakota access pipeline is not a new issue for the Sioux people, but just another in a long line of infringements of the lands and rights.

And as all the times before, the Sioux, and indeed many unrelated Native Americans, are resisting by protecting against and protesting the placement of an oil pipeline this pipeline could directly contaminate Standing Rock’s only source of clean water, resulting in the largest gathering of Native peoples since the waning years of their initial resistance to government encroachment.

It should be noted that this pipeline’s construction could also destroy recently discovered sacred sites and burial places.

Needless to say, it’s time to get involved.

If you want to be a part of the resistance, go to Standing Rock.

If you want to go, but are unsure of where to get started, email our Editor-in-Chief, Sarah Spoon, and she will get you in contact with a group of student going to Standing Rock on Thanksgiving Day.

If you can’t physically be there, work from home and send supplies to the people there.

There are plenty of things you can do, even as college students, to stop this from happening. It’ll take some sacrifice, but it must be done.