In LOVE with Humanity

Hero #006: American Horse
Dale ―Happy‖ American Horse Jr. is a Native American (Lakota Sioux) activist
who gained notoriety by being one of the first Dakota Access Pipeline protestors (known
as Water Protectors) to engage in an act of open civil disobedience for that cause …
On August 31, 2016, after people from all over the United States had gathered in
southern North Dakota to support the Standing Rock Sioux and their fight against Energy
Transfer Partners (who were trying to build a pipeline through unceded Indian lands, including
through and under burial grounds and other Lakota Sioux sacred sites), Dale ―Happy‖ American
Horse chained himself to a backhoe at an active pipeline construction site. For the next six
hours, police could not remove him from the digger, and construction was completely
halted for the day. American Horse remained peaceful yet resolute for the duration of his
nonviolent action, mostly remaining silent, and yet regularly chanting ―Mni Wiconi‖ – the
main rallying cry for the Water Protectors – a Lakota phrase which means ―Water is Life.‖
In the end, he was removed and charged with criminal trespass, obstructing
government, and resisting arrest. Also in the end, a combination of massive police
brutality and political corruption saw the pipeline completed some eight months later – but
not before that same police brutality and that same governmental corruption were exposed
for all to see; and not before hundreds of thousands of people all over the world were
inspired to join the fight against Native American discrimination, pipeline construction
projects, and the fossil fuel industry in general.
―All this just for clean water. Why does it have to come down to this?‖
~ Dale ―Happy‖ American Horse
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