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  • 2 months later...
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Hello there. I just finished reading your article. I was a Project Manager on the DAPL last year, and I must say that your article is very well researched and well written.

There are some areas that could be greatly expanded upon. First and foremost is the violent behavior of some of the so-called "protestors." This behavior ranged from criminal mischief and animal abuse at its best, to intimidation, felony arson, attempted murder and terrorism at its worst. Also, the Standing Rock Sioux/"Water Protector" bloc is treated as a unified entity in your article. This is FAR from the case. Chairman David Archibald enjoys a majority of tribal support, but there is a significant pluarility of the tribe members who are strongly against his leadership in general, and were specifically against his decisions over the past couple years with regards to the DAPL. One should not ignore that the entire controversy served to enrich Archibald personally---ammong his other ventures, he owns the only gas station in town, and he was the primary beneficiary of the 100+-fold increase in local traffic as well as the accompanying demand spike in fuel and propane that resulted from the DAPL "protests." To say that there was internal resistance to the official tribal policy(and who it benefitted), is an understatement.

Futhermore, there existed an even greater resentment between the Standing Rock Sioux and those who had traveled from other parts of the countryto take part in the "protests." Many of the SRS viewed these travelers as unwelcomed invaders who had only come to participate in a kind of Woodstock or Burning Man festival--a mockery. The tourist "protestors" left more than a bad taste in the mouths of many SRS. Currently, the developing issue at Cannonball is the environmental disaster that these fair-weather activists left in their wake. As Spring is upon us, the Cannonball Ranch is transitioning to its seasonal floodplain stage--threatening to wash literal tons of trash and human waste into the selfsame watershed that all of these jill Stein-led out-of-towners were ostensibly trying to protect from pollution. (Oh the irony....) The cleanup efforts are under way, as I type. 

Anyway, those are my intial critiques. All in all, you wrote an extremely great article, and my critiques are somewhat tangential, as they serve to dispute neither the spirit nor of the letter of your writing. 

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