Sociology
Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to provide you an opportunity to analyze the environmental justice conflict between the Standing Rock Sioux and Energy Transfer over the Dakota Access Pipeline. It will help you develop and sharpen your skills of analysis, assessment, and succinct writing, which are useful for classroom success and a variety of professional work settings.
Task: First, watch and read the following short videos and New York Times article. I recommend watching and reading them in the order provided. ( videos on youtube)
Mni Wiconi(video that focuses specifically on the conflict in Standing Rock)
Standing Rock and the Battle Beyond(video that explores not only the conflict in Standing Rock but how it connects to similar struggles other tribes face)
A Violation of Tribal & Human Rights by Democracy Now!(video of how tribal leaders and other responded to the Trump administration allowing the pipeline to continue construction)
Fortin and Friedman (2020).pdf (update from a few weeks ago on the pipeline’s status)
Then, in a logically organized and thoughtful response of 1-2 pages, approximately 300-500 words, answer the two parts of the prompt below. Read the prompt carefully and respond to each part of the prompt.
Prompt
This week, we have explored critical approaches to environmental justice. In particular, we have investigated how racial capitalism, critical environmental justice studies, and studies in settler colonialism conceptualize environmental injustice. Each of these perspectives, in distinct but related ways, pays special attention to the role of the state in the formation of environmental inequality. Indigenous populations pose a unique challenge for environmental justice studies, as they constitute a social category that is both racialized and colonized. The conflict over the Dakota Access Pipeline clearly shows how an industrial actor, Energy Transfer, is granted access to Native American treaty lands and sacred spaces by the settler colonial state. The conflict involved the massive mobilization of Native American tribes across the US and Canada, and non-Native allies. Militarized police activity continuously attempted to disrupt and control these Water Protectors and activists, who were fighting for sovereignty, water quality, and the preservation of sacred spaces.
In the first part of your response, consider how racial capitalism and critical environmental justice relate to the conflict in Standing Rock. In particular, pay attention to how the state and industry devalues Indigenous bodies, spaces, and cultural practices through the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Here are some guiding questions for this part of your response.
How does the conflict in Standing Rock exhibit aspects of racial capitalism? How are the Standing Rock Sioux devalued through the construction of the pipeline? How is the state implicated in these processes?
In the second part of your response, consider how settler colonialism informs our understanding of the conflict. Specifically, examine the conflict in Standing Rock through lenses pertaining to the political and cultural elimination of Indigenous peoples. Here are some guiding questions for this part of your response.
How does settler colonialism promote the discursive and political elimination of the Standing Rock Sioux through the conflict over the Dakota Access Pipeline? What role does the settler colonial state play in promoting this instance of environmental injustice? How does the state “perform” procedural justice with Indigenous groups?
Criteria for Success: You will be successful if you answer all parts of the prompt in a clear, organized, and concise way, with accurately referenced and applied evidence from course texts. Please proofread your paper for spelling and grammar.
Assignment Format: Please include your name at the top of your exercise. Please type your paper using Times New Romans, 12pt font, and double-spaced lines.
How to Submit your Exercise: Please submit your exercise in the Assignment section on the course Canvas page by midnight on Friday, August 7th.
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