Vic Mensa: I Saw ‘Chemical Warfare’ Against U.S. Citizens at Standing Rock

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Tens of thousands of people have used Facebook to “check in” at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in recent week, but Chicago rapper Vic Mensa actually visited North Dakota last week to participate in ongoing efforts to protect the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe from potential contamination by the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The DAPL, if you don’t know, is a $3.8 billion, 1,134 mile-long pipeline that would run oil underground from North Dakota to Illinois. The conflict over the pipeline is because it’s set to be constructed just north of Sioux land and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, which is home to just over 8,000 people.

For months, the Standing Rock Sioux have objected to the pipeline due to its potential hazards and encroachment on their land. They’re asking that Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind DAPL reroute the pipeline or halt its construction altogether. They’re also asking for the U.S. federal government’s assistance in resolving the matter.

So far, there hasn’t been much attention to the situation at Standing Rock, despite what seem to be human right violations by law enforcement agencies that are policing the construction site. Law enforcement has firing rubber bullets at “water protectors,” deployed tear gas, and sprayed water cannons at them in freezing temperatures in recent weeks. And just Friday, the Army Corps of Engineers issued a statement to those at Standing Rock telling them that they had until December 5 to leave.

Mensa spent the weekend after Thanksgiving standing in solidarity with water protectors from all over the globe who are attempting to block the construction of the DAPL and, despite the ultimatum from the Army Corps, he plans to return December 4 to continue the fight. Complex caught up with Mensa after he returned from his trip Standing Rock to find out what he heard, saw, and felt.

COMPLEX: What made you want to go to North Dakota to join in the direct action at Standing Rock?
What’s going on in Standing Rock is an extreme human rights violation and I feel that as a black man in America, a member of a very oppressed group, it’s important to show solidarity with other oppressed groups. And Native Americans are arguably the most impoverished and disenfranchised group in this nation.

We have a situation here that is basically like Flint, Michigan before the water was poisoned with lead, so we have an opportunity to preemptively defend the human rights of people that have an inherent right to this land. That inspired me to go to Standing Rock.

How did you learn about the situation there? Most news outlets haven’t exactly covered it a lot, so how did you first find out about what’s going on?

I found out through a friend. Like you said, the media has almost blockaded the coverage of Standing Rock.

You have big oil money interests funding so many different parts of this system. The media being a major one. I think that’s why the media’s been so absent in the situation and why the government’s been so absent in the situation, because our nation is not really controlled by politicians, it’s controlled by the corporations. They lobby and propose a lot of the laws that oppress people nationwide for their gain. That’s why it’s important that we use our alternative platforms to publicize what’s going on.

The destruction of native people has been going on since before this was even a nation—since Christopher Columbus first landed on this side of the world. You’re not dealing with the same type of invisible people anymore. And now that we have the ability to broadcast what’s happening in our communities, with or without mainstream media support, we have to do just that.

How long were you in North Dakota? How did you get there?
I was in North Dakota for three days. I’m back in Los Angeles now and planning a trip back for the weekend. I got there on a plane, drove a couple hours to the camp. Now they’re saying it’s a lot more difficult to get into the camp because the governor shut off all emergency and municipal services for they’re not plowing the roads anymore—you have a huge conspiracy in the political system to protect the oil interests. We’re still working around it, though.

What was the experience like?
The experience was very profound. There are some people with incredible resolve down there, weathering the blistering cold and snow to defend the livelihood of the native people. There are just generations of warriors from the native tribes that are there—all the way from 15-year-old kids who’ve been wrongfully charged with felonies for nothing more than trying to defend their land and water source to 60-year-old women who have been fighting for these things for decades.

It’s very peaceful. They’re essentially just organizing in numbers and just praying. There’s a lot of praying going on. So it’s crazy when they’re depicted as violent and being disruptive and starting riots because they’re literally praying in the face of heavily armed militarized police and actual U.S. Army soldiers. It’s domestic terrorism 100 percent by the United States government. It’s complete domestic terrorism and its environmental racism. The pipeline was originally supposed to be run through an area near Bismarck, North Dakota which is a primarily white area and it was deemed as too dangerous for the natural resources of those people and so they moved it to Indian Country because America doesn’t value those people or doesn’t value the Native Americans. So that’s why we’re saying no, this is wrong. And as the people of this nation, were not going to stand for that.