We are here, close to Bismarck, caught in a snow storm and forced to spend the night at a Ramada Inn. We drove for more than 24 hours straight, thru Pennsylvania, Ohio, across Indiana to Chicago, followed by Wisconsin, and then through St. Paul, Minnesota, to North Dakota and beautiful sounding names like Absaraka and Spiritwood. We hadn’t gone far when we started getting calls and texts from friends telling us about how the US Army Corps of Engineers had denied an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, after 6 months of resistance by the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies. We decided to continue. After hundreds of years of broken promises, constant infringements on indigenous sovereignty, land and resources and the violation of some 500 treaties, it makes sense to take government concessions with a healthy dose of skepticism. The demarcation between what is supposed to be the US government and big business is not so clearcut anyway.
Sadly, we were welcomed by a huge snow storm as soon as we hit North Dakota.
The landscape was visually bewitching throughout. There were the frost-covered golden fields of Minnesota, where dark trees break up vast horizontal lines and stick out of the earth like candelabras feeling the magnetic pull of the sky. The snow in North Dakota was heavy, the roads sometimes barely plowed. Sue continued to drive, straining to see where we were going. I don’t know much about Harry Potter but Sue told me the scene reminded her of King’s Cross Station and its symbolism in the book, a crossroad between what is real and otherworldly, between life and death. Utility poles were somewhat visible and lent some interest to an otherwise blank canvas. Most lovely though, was the dried-up grass along the sides of the road. It tried to poke thru layers of snow, creating lines and lines of mysterious calligraphy. A brand new script just for us.
We are here. We cannot wait to go to Standing Rock tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be daunting – snow, wind and freezing temperatures. Our hotel is fully booked so we will have to make a move. Hope it’s to Oceti Sakowin camp.