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Water Protector tells about being shot in the eye near Standing Rock. The shot is believed to have been fired by Bismarck ND police. They accused him of resisting arrest when he was coming in and out of consciousness from blood loss and pain. An officer from the Morton County Sheriff’s officer laughed at the injury, shocking the paramedic. Watch the video and read the statements below.
From “Jamarkis Athabaskan
On the morning of January 19, 2017, the day before Trump’s inauguration, I was shot in my left eye by police at the Backwater Bridge on Highway 1806 just north of the Oceti Oyate Camp outside of Cannonball, ND.
The impact from a “non-lethal bean bag round” shattered my cheek bone and orbital wall next to my eye, resulting in loss of my vision, hearing, sense of smell, taste, and touch on the left side of my face.
The police officer that shot me was aiming directly at me with the intention to cause serious harm. This video was taken on January 21, after I was found in the hospital in Bismark, ND.
My location or news of my injury was not released by the Morton County Sheriff’s Office or the hospital “due to security reasons,” – I believe that the police and hospital were intentionally trying to hide my injury from the public. At the hospital I was handcuffed to the bed after surgery to remove metal pellets from my eye, denied calls to my family, denied water, and kept under armed guard.
After my relatives found me, I was immediately release from custody and allowed visitors. The day I was discharged from the hospital, Morton County issued a warrant for my arrest.
Under legal advisement, I chose not release this video due to my warrant until I received necessary medical care and my health recovered.
As my relatives and Indigenous People from across Turtle Island are traveling to march on Washington D.C., I believe that now is the time to share my story because we must not be afraid and we must share the truth about what this country is doing to Indigenous People and our precious mother water for the existence of next 7 generations. Our struggle is not over, it is just beginning. #WaterisLife #NoDAPL” https://www.facebook.com/marcus.mitchell.9803/videos/1346569088742988/?fallback=1 (Emphasis added.)
A Witness Account of the Day:
“This is an update from a Standing Rock volunteer. It’s not pleasant. Please use your platform to bring awareness to this tragedy.
Friends,
I have returned from Standing Rock with my mind blown, my heart broken and my spirit troubled with foreboding of a deepening tragedy. Volunteering as a legal observer with the Water Protector Legal Collective I witnessed several confrontations between Water Protectors (WP) and law enforcement: national guard, sheriffs and private security (LE).
1/18/17 – 1/19/17 I observed WP with their hands in the air chanting “hands up don’t shoot” being fired upon at a range of 10 to 15 feet. Tear gas canisters and rubber bullets ( rubber bullets are regular bullets covered in rubber) were used against unarmed WP who had been singing and praying. I observed national guard chasing WP off the Backwater bridge, firing at people running away. I heard people choking and gagging from tear gas. I saw access to the WP medic vehicles being blocked. I spoke with medics and WP who described bullets penetrating flesh and causing terrible injuries, including to one media person who nearly lost his finger when his camera was targeted.
talked with a media person and was told of 4 media people on the bridge that night, 3 had their recording devices shot and the 4th, his hand. I saw a photo of a sheriff aiming a rifle directly at a media woman who was standing apart from the crowd. I heard testimony of the back of the medic pickup truck being awash in blood after evacuating wounded.
I watched, and then, inadvertently became a part of, WP being forced off the bridge by national guard who were hiding behind WP vehicles parked along the road and firing rubber bullets at fleeing people. Many people were shot in the back, the neck, the head. When LE fired at people at close range, many were shot in the genitals or in the face. I received information about DAPL security breaching the short wave radio channels of the WP with taunts such as ”come out and fight like men you faggots or we will come to Camp and fuck your women.”
There are some young warriors, who, without the support of their elders, many who want the camps cleared to mitigate the economic and social damage being suffered by the local community in having the bridge closed, have vowed to not leave the camps or to let the last section of pipeline be built.
Driving away from the area on Monday I saw a convoy of construction vehicles heading to the drill pad. Last night an indigenous website live streamed reports of drilling and construction noises coming from the drill pad.
Without the eyes of a free press these attacks and trespasses continue, with the human rights and sovereignty of indigenous peoples denied.
The UN Committee on Transnational Corporations and Human Right Abuses was in Standing Rock this week to take testimony of the many transgressions against people: crop dusters spraying poison pesticides and fertilizers on the camps; hair samples indicating the presence of these chemicals; people who have been injured, beat up, arrested, strip searched; media and medics being targeted by snipers; (one medic told me he stopped wearing his Red Cross vest due to medics being targeted); praying people being attacked and the refusal of DAPL and our government to abide by the Rule of Law.
We need to stand up for our brothers and our sisters, for their way of life and, I believe, for our social contract as a democracy which is now threatened.
Please share this so word gets out what is happening, thank you.
Deborah MacKay
This is copy-pasted. If you choose to share, please do the same.” https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158176794225716
Emphasis our own. Also found here: https://itsgoingdown.org/raid-standing-rock-support-needed/ We don’t know if Deborah MacKay posted it to facebook or was the author.
Rubber bullets were developed for use against the natives in Britain’s colonial settler state which pre-dated the American colonial settler state – Ireland: “Such “kinetic impact munitions” are meant to cause pain but not serious injury. They are expected to produce contusions, abrasions, and hematomas.[6] However, they may cause bone fractures, injuries to internal organs, or death. In a study of injuries in 90 patients injured by rubber bullets, 2 died, 18 suffered permanent disabilities or deformities and 44 required hospital treatment after being fired upon with rubber bullets.[7] Rubber bullets were invented by the British Ministry of Defence for use against rioters in Northern Ireland during The Troubles,[8] and were first used there in 1970.[9]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_bullet
Mining Awareness + 