Close quarters: Disagreements over protocol, security and entertainment at Standing Rock
Camping out in the cold in North Dakota is not all fun and games. Thousands of people from around the world have spent time in Standing Rock. At any given time there are up to 1500 people sharing space on the land and tensions are bound to rise.
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The main camp at Standing Rock is a gathering site for people from all over the world. (Erica Daniels/CBC)
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Unreserved6:04Close quarters: Disagreements over protocol, security and entertainment at Standing Rock
Camping out in the cold in North Dakota is not all fun and games. Thousands of people from around the world have spent time in Standing Rock. At any given time there are up to 1500 set up in tents, trucks and teepees.
With that many people sharing space, tensions are bound to rise,
Josh Dini Senior, works security for the main camp at Standing Rock, Oceti Sakowin. He said some non-Indigenous people are at Standing Rock for different reasons.
Josh Dini Senior, works security for the main camp at Standing Rock, Oceti Sakowin. (Erica Daniels/CBC)
"I do believe they are here for, like [a] Woodstock, Burning Man type thing. We are a prayer camp, and not a social camp, where you come and meet people and have a festival," Dini Senior said.
The different camps set up at Standing Rock have regular meetings, where people can bring up their concerns. But as LaDonna Brave Bull Allard explained it's just the nature of a large camp, everyone comes with different ideas of what rules should be followed.
Although the Sacred Stone camp is set up on Allard's property, she recalled having an issue after being gone for a few days.
"I went to speak at the UN, so I was gone, and when I was gone a whole group of people came ... [and] they appointed themselves in charge."
The Sacred Stone camp sits on LaDonna Brave Bull Allard's land. (Erica Daniels/CBC)
Upon her return, the new security team didn't want to let her in.
"So I had to sit everyone down and they said, 'We assumed that there was nobody in charge, so we set up committees ... that's how our culture does that.'"
Allard said she had to explain that everyone holding positions there are all Native, "because they understand the protocols, they understand the laws, and they understand how things function."
