[Oe List ...] Report fom North Dakota

[Ellie Stock via OE]

Thanks, Jann for the updates...so sad, tragic and unnecessary...

Ellie
elliestock at aol.com 



-----Original Message-----
From: via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
To: Oe <Oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Mon, Nov 21, 2016 12:08 pm
Subject: [Oe List ...] Report fom North Dakota



Posted by my friend Mia Beale.


Jann

John BraveBull
9 hrs · 


I'm sure you're reading a lot of stories about tonight... here's mine. I woke up in Rapid City, refreshed and bound for Standing Rock. It was a good day. I needed a break so I took a couple days. As we traveled north the mood got somber. We live on edge there, fear some where deep inside the brain things are going to get bad.
Tonight they did. As we crossed the border onto our reservation the live feeds of an action started chirping in our notifications. They were from a distance and all we could hear was chaos. So I stopped at moms to tell her I loved her and that I was going to the front. Not to worry cause I heard it was a prayer gathering and I'd be home soon. We met at the casino and geared up. As I gathered goggles and face shields I was a little embarrassed that I was going to be over dressed for a prayer... but I didn't know what I was walking into. I wanted it to be just a prayer circle but I was hearing whispers it was so much more.
Oh shit. After we parked and headed to the bridge, people were being walked out with injuries. Where are my friends? Just turn around John but we both know I can't. First person I saw was Tito, he gave me an update as I watched the police spray a water cannon into the crowd in sub freezing weather after dark. He said tear gas and my focus was back on him. What the... no words. I choked up. I got scared and then I shook it off cause it was time to go to work. I could see people hurt and needing help.
Chad Charlie... damn good to see his face. We caught up and watched. Watched as tear gas containers exploded mid air raining down smoking fragments that were still burning. Watching as people were being soaked with a water cannon. Shots. Some one was hit we ran to her scooped her into our arms and ran her back to medics. This was our role for the next five hours, pulling about forty people out. Some cause of shock. Some cause of breathing issues from the gas. Some just because they needed someone to tell them it was ok to pull back. Five will stay with me forever. The first was a young lady that was unconscious as we carried her. I didn't even realize she was out. I hope she is ok. I worry for her family. The second was a lady that was shot in the leg and told us she was ok as we carried her out and that she didn't want to take away from some one who needed help. As we carried her the crowd in front of us flinched and looked like they were watching a foul ball. We stopped, crouched down and protected her as a tear gas canister blew up behind and above us and we both got hit in the shoulders. Instant anger in both of us but we had to get this lady to a transport so we kept going. The third was a young man shot in the back. Before that happened though I caught a ricochet that hit me in the hip and was grazed with another behind the knee. I was pissed and marched up to the line to find out who the fuck shot me... but I couldn't walk so good. So Chad pulled me back and this young man had been hit square in the kidney so we picked him up and carried him out. The fourth was a man whose arm was broken being walked out by my friend Charlie Plenty Wolf and was in complete shock. We had trouble getting him to a vehicle to get him to the E.R. The trauma in his eyes... the fifth and most haunting was a man who was shot down below on the western line. We jumped the guardrail and ran down the hill to extract him. He was yelling at the cops who shot him. Holding them accountable and refusing to leave. They shot a shield as we were trying to take him out and my left eye stung. We literally pulled this man up the hill and over the guardrail when we realized he was shot on the top of his head and bleeding. Chad demanded he go to medics but he refused. I looked into his eyes and told him he was shot in the fucking head. Four of us carried him out. As the medics took over I washed his blood off my hands. Think about that. I'm standing on the prairie in the freezing cold, wet and hurting washing a mans blood off my hands. Oh shit I remembered I got hit in the eye. Medic!!! A lady named Victory took care of me. Something was in there but they got it out. So so much more shit happened tonight but that's all I got right now.
Except that Chad never left my side. That's important for you to know cause we didn't know each other four months ago and we had each other's backs like we were childhood friends. Johnny, Načá Wakíš'aka Wiŋ and Khannie were our base camp taking care of us as we needed all night. I felt like I was putting them in harms way though and I can't shake that.



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