Created by Yuanyuan Tian, Yingqi Tang From Oregon State University
Located in North Dakota (ND) and South Dakota (SD), The Standing Rock Indian Reservation is occupied by ethnic Hunkpapa Lakota, Sihasapa Lakota and Yanktonai Dakota, it includes Sioux County, ND, Corson County, SD, plus slivers of northern Dewey and Ziebach, SD, along their northern county lines at Highway 20. Standing Rock ranks the sixth largest Native American reservation in land area of U.S.
Reservation Land
The pipeline is to be built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and is designed to transport as many
as 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota to Illinois. This Pipeline has drawn parallels to
the Keystone XL pipeline. Opposition to that project, which Obama eventually rejected, became a litmus
test in the eyes of some activists for public officials to show their commitment to addressing
environmental issues. But at the same time significant differences remain. Perhaps most importantly,
Keystone crossed into Canada, making it an international issue that gave authority over its final approval
to the State Department. The federal government has the authority over the Dakota Access Pipeline
because it crosses interstate waterways. Stopping the project would be challenging for any administration.
The protest was caused by issues related to the protection of water, land, and religious/spiritual sites
sacred to indigenous peoples of the Americas. Despite the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers claim that the
pipeline will not cross the Standing Rock area, people still worry that a leak from the pipeline could
contaminate local water sources and damage local agriculture. We must ask: which is more important,
water and food security, or energy security?
Aquifer
River
Reservation Land
Pipeline
In April, Standing Rock Sioux elder LaDonna Brave Bull Allard established Sacred Stone camp as a center for cultural preservation and spiritual resistance to the pipeline. Over the summer the camp grew to thousands of people. Later, two more camps were established at the area. People gathered at the camps to show their support.
The Sacred Stone Camp was erected since April 2016 and grew dramatically in its scape. It has played a major role in protecting the site.
The Oceti Sakowin Camp is a historic gathering of native tribes. This camp is a world stage for environmental awareness and will act as a future indigenous meeting center.
The Frontline Camp was erected in path of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Aquifer
River
Reservation Land
Pipeline
In response to a viral post claiming that doing so would help protect activists in North Dakota protesting against an oil pipeline from police surveillance More than 1 million people have checked in on Facebook to the Standing Rock Indian reservation in response to a viral post claiming that doing so would help protect activists in North Dakota protesting against an oil pipeline from police surveillance.
Why Thousands Are Facebook "Checking In" At Standing Rock, ND from Youtube.
Why did Facebook users spoof their check-ins?
Hover on the Facebook icon to get some clues.
To understand the context of spoofed check-ins at Standing Rock, we crawled 1,858 spoofed check-ins. The word cloud illustrates all the relevant topics around the keyword "Standing Rock", and the map shows the spatial distribution of all spoofed check-ins.
# Check-in per Hexagon: low high
Due to the fierce local conflict triggered by the proposed pipeline, environmental protesters were forced to leave their camping area at the Standing Rock. Today, it has become nearly impossible for people to access the former camping area. Even though, an increasing number of social media users still stand with #StandingRock via spoofing their check-ins on Facebook.
Created by Yuanyuan Tian, Yingqi Tang From Oregon State University