This week examines the recent developments in indigenous resistance through the lens of decolonial theory. In 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was approved by the North Dakota Public Service...

This week examines the recent developments in indigenous resistance through the lens of decolonial theory. In 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was approved by the North Dakota Public Service Commission. Intended to channel oil from the Bakken oil fields to an oil tank farm some 1200 miles away in Illinois, the DAPL project was met with resistance from a number of social movements and indigenous organizations. The permanent camp of resistance at Standing Rock of the Sioux attracted particular attention. In this module, we will look at the resistance against DAPL and how that became conducive to a number of different articulations of environmental justice related to water.

Your paper should identify and discuss the particular configurations of resistance to the pipeline amongst the Sioux and other Native Americans whose land and water would be negatively affected. Describe the ways in which we can understand the environmental racism (as per Bullard) as related to the persistence of internal colonialism. Connect the dots to how recent theorizations of the relationship between a settler-colonial state (such as the US, Canada, and Australia) and the peoples inhabiting these territories prior to the arrival of the settlers and the consolidation of the nation-state work.

Your paper must meet the following requirements:

• Your written paper should address the assignment instructions and be 3-5 pages in length not counting the title and reference pages, which you must include.


• Use terms, evidence, and concepts from class readings.