News flash...before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, this land was already inhabited by many tribes and nations of people. We call them Native Americans, or American Indians. They called themselves by such names as Cherokee, Sioux, Cheyenne, etc. Some estimates have the Native American population as high as 12 million around the time Columbus first set foot on American soil. About 75%-90% of them died from diseases (smallpox, influenza, whooping cough, etc.), for which they had no immunity, brought here by the European settlers. Many were murdered. Many more died during long, perilous journeys as they were continually pushed westward while white people took over more and more of their land. By the turn of the 19th century, there were only around 250,000 Native American people living in America. The United States government has entered into more than 500 treaties with Native Americans, and has either violated in some way or broken every single one. Today there are around 5.2 million Native Americans in the U.S., and about 22% of them live on reservations in third-world-like conditions.
In July 2016, approval was granted for the construction of an oil pipeline that would stretch from North Dakota to southern Illinois. The pipeline would cross the Missouri River only half a mile upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation boundary. This obviously creates the potential to destroy the Standing Rock Sioux nation's water supply in the event of a spill. Furthermore, the construction crew bulldozed through one of their sacred burial grounds. The Standing Rock Sioux have been protesting and blocking construction since July, along with the support of many Americans of all ethnicities from all over the United States. Many protestors have been arrested by local law enforcement, and some have been shot, or attacked with dogs by private security forces.
Why does corporate profit always take precedence over human well-being? Why doesn't our federal government step in and rectify this situation?
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