Red Warrior Society brings DAPL stories, strategies to Taos

More than 100 people gathered in the high-ceiling showroom of Taos’ FaraHNHeight Fine Art Jan. 31 to hear about the ongoing resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) from the Red Warrior Society.
The Red Warrior Society is a coalition of water protectors formed in the belly of the on-the-ground, monthslong resistance near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Representing 27 tribal nations and 10 countries, the society is group of people dedicated to nonviolent direct action as a primary tool to “kill the black snake.”
The evening event was part of the “Resistance Ride,” a tour to the communities that sent folks to the Red Warrior Camp in “so-called North Dakota.” They shared stories, songs and strategies to fuel the movement.
“A lot of meaning went into just that name,” said Orion Nightwalker, a member of the society from Navajo Nation. “Red is the color of resistance, the color of our Indian skin … the color of blood spilled to protect water.”
Like the “NoDAPL” movement at large, youth have also been at the center of activity and motivation for the Red Warrior Society.
It’s young people and “your unborn children we were out there taking rubber bullets for,” said Olowan Martinez, who is from “POW Camp 3044, aka Pine Ridge Reservation” and has been a prominent matriarchal leader of the movement.
“We really are powerful beyond measure,” said Emileah Lujan, an organizer of the Pueblo Water Protectors. The group of local water activists hosted the “Resistance Ride.”
The camps at Standing Rock were not and are not uniform. While many used prayer as their main tool of resistance, the Red Warrior Society primarily used nonviolent direct action to the point of “turning it into an art form,” Martinez said.
In September, both Martinez and Nightwalker were arrested for chaining themselves to heavy machinery in order to halt construction of the pipeline.
Some members spoke to the spraying carried out over the camps. “When they spray things in the air and everyone at the camp is sick the next day … it’s not just a conspiracy theory we’re making up,” Martinez said.
Should anyone have a question about whether or not the government would use chemical weapons against its citizens, especially Native Americans, “just go back to the blankets,” said another member the Red Warrior Society.
But the night also looked to the future.
Society members pushed the audience — which included many Anglos — to not only be allies, which implies passive support, but to be active “accomplices” in the resistance.
“The basics” of being an accomplice of white skin starts with acknowledging that “as settlers, you’re on stolen land,” said a presenter. That’s a daily practice, they said.
Divesting money out of the banks supporting the DAPL and other pipelines is a significant way to participate in the movement, they said. But so is “putting your body on the line,” especially “when [white] police are less prone to knock out people who look like them.”