I AM STANDING WITH STANDING ROCKBRIGHT

I AM STANDING WITH STANDING ROCK

 .

The thread that ties me to the Dakota pipeline is historically thin and weak.  It starts in the summer of 1861.  The Arkansas Mounted Rifles recruited my great-grandfather’s brother, Wiley Clark Eppler a farmer and saddle maker, at gunpoint.  Arkansas, ramping up its military in preparation for the Civil War, needed to” tack up” many additional horses.  While working on his farm, that summer, Confederate “recruiters” compelled Wiley to ride off with them, without even allowing him to return home for his coat.  That winter, while attacking a band of pro-Union Cherokee, Wiley took a musket ball in the chest that punctured his lung and fractured two or three of his ribs.  It is hard to see Wiley as a victim sense his unit left no trace of Chief Opothleyahola’s band…men, women, or children.  Wiley did survive, but now one hundred fifty-five years later, his great-grandnephew, in my small way is offering support to the Sioux of South Dakota at Standing Rock.  

.

The Standing Rock issue began when concerns over an oil pipeline contaminating the water supply of the North Dakota capital of Bismarck caused its redirection through Standing Rock.  A leak along there would ruin the tribal nation’s aquifers and rivers.  In the words of a local assistant principal, “... it would be a death sentence."

.

My great granduncle’s foe, represented by the Cherokee Nation’s Principal Chief, Bill John Baker, made the following declaration in August.

.

“The Cherokee Nation stands in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its effort to halt the development of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and I applaud our Tribal Council for showing the support of the legislative body of the Cherokee Nation as well.  The Standing Rock people have an inherent right to protect their homelands, their historic and sacred sites, their natural resources, their drinking water and their families from this potentially dangerous pipeline.”

.

Chief Baker updated his commitment in a statement in response to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer, November 15, 2016.

.

“The camp is prepared for a long winter and ready to peacefully protect the water that sustains many communities.  I remain hopeful that the Army Corp of Engineers will render a decision that will take into account tribal concerns.  We pray that the well-being of the community will be prioritized ahead of profit and corporate interests.”

.

As for me, I am a sailor, and no activist, yet I cannot help being sympathetic to the injustice imposed, again, on these ancient indigenous people.  That is why, in solidarity with them my wife, two sons, my daughter-in-laws, and grandchild helped Café Gratitude serve free Thanksgiving meals in a fundraiser to support their resistance.  My lack of sympathy for Wiley’s injury, in light of the murderous offense of his unit, causes me to wonder about how my progeny will judge the causes I support.  What causes do I stand for today might generations tomorrow judge valueless, or even harmful in the future? 

.

Thanksgiving at Cafe Gratitude

Like other Western families, unavoidable changes have disrupted the Eppler family unity over the ages.  Changes come not just from family relationships, but also from advances in technology, science, economics, theology, politics, philosophy, or culture.  However, that does not kept us from fully committing life, limb, and property to causes that later are judge unworthy of devotion.  The commitments held with such confidence today are often the ones we opposed twenty or thirty years later.  Nonetheless, disruptive change propels families and the human race onward, whether toward a better future or a bitter end.

.

The classic view of change claims there are certain elements that persist eternally unchanged, with few notable exceptions.  The opposing view is that the foundation of reality rests on eternal and universal change.  By standing with the Standing Rock people rather than my ancestors, I maybe yielding to the irresistible forces of universal change or standing for an enduring unchangeable principle.   

.

Whatever the case, with the 2016 election we have all been given a heavy dose of those two conflicting points of view.  The USA is split between the classic view of change and a process view of change.  The classic view is that our national greatness is an enduring condition that must be sheltered and occasionally restored.  The process view is ours is a growing greatness, which becomes ever greater with change.  The election results tilt us toward the classic view.  

.

Dominated by the politics of restoring USA greatness, the Standing Rock Resistance has little, if any chance of success.  I am proud to stand with those at Standing Rock even though in doing so it shows disrespect for the wounds of my great granduncle.  Unfortunately, the Standing Rock cause demise will contribute another blow to indigenous populations in the name of the fantasy of Yesterday’s greatness.  The question is, are we restoring greatness or restraining growing greatness?