Amber Bracken, Canada

Standing Rock

"For nearly ten months, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their allies have been camped in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing their land and water. The estimated $3.78 bill project is nearly complete, crossing almost 1,172 miles. But the resistance has stalled development at the Missouri River.

Although on it's face, the issue is the pipeline, the conflict runs much deeper and is steeped in generations of violent history. These are the people of the Battle of Little Big Horn and of Wounded Knee, who were driven to starvation by the loss of the buffalo and away from their sacred Black Hills.

Police treatment of water protectors hasn't been out of step with this history. In military vehicles and body armour, police have indiscriminately used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, percussion grenades and water canons in sub-zero temperature.

Despite all of this, the pipeline is still unresolved and water protectors are still on the land. But wether the pipeline is completed or not, the groundswell created for this resistance will certainly have reverberations for industry and indigenous people alike.

I spent a month and a half, over three trips with the people in the camps. "