THE BITE OF THE BLACK SNAKE FOR "DER SPIEGEL"

For almost a year hundreds, even thousands of natives and so called waterprotectors gathered at Standing Rock fighting against the Dakota Access pipeline. Once constructed, this pipeline will cross the Missouri River a few miles north of the Standing Rock reservoir in North Dakota. For many of the old Sioux living on the Standing Rock reservation this pipeline represents the fulfillment of an old prophecy – warning them of a Black Snake coming to their territory and finish the existance of the world. In his first week of inauguration President Trump signed an ordere to restart the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline which Obama had just stopped months before. In February 2017 the camps at Standing Rock were evicted by the police. The protest camp, which had started with just a few young people participating, occurred in the context of a history of broken promises and centuries of suffering for Native Americans.