Shailene Woodley From Standing Rock: ‘Thanksgiving Was Founded On A Massacre’ [Video]
Shailene Woodley, star of the hit Divergent film trilogy, has become one of the most prominent faces of the ongoing Standing Rock protests.
As the Inquisitr previously reported, members of the Standing Rock Sioux, allied tribes, environmentalists, and other supporters have been protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline since April.
The 1,200-mile-long pipeline project will carry oil from the Bakken oil fields in Northwest North Dakota to oil facilities in Patoka, Illinois. The route of the pipeline runs across lands that are sacred to Native American peoples and cuts through the main water supplies of the Standing Rock Sioux and millions of other people in the region.
Shailene Woodley Breaks Down in Tears While Discussing Thanksgiving at Dakota Access Pipeline https://t.co/soWTEULknc via @YahooCelebrity
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) November 27, 2016
The standoff between police forces and the activists has intensified in recent days, with police dousing protests with water cannons in freezing cold temperatures in addition to the usual deployments of tear gas and pepper spray. Hundreds of activists have been hospitalized and jailed since the protests began.
Numerous celebrities have voiced their support for the Standing Rock Sioux. Susan Sarandon, Riley Keough, and Woodley stood with members of North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux outside a Washington, D.C., courthouse in August in a show solidarity, Reuters reported.
Katy Perry, Dave Matthews, and Neil Young have also spoken out in support of the Standing Rock activists, performed for them, or held concert fundraisers.
Mark Ruffalo, like Woodley, has been particularly outspoken in his support of the Native Americans and their activist allies. Ruffalo and his Avengers co-stars Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth all expressed their adamant opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline earlier this month, Entertainment Tonight reported.
Shailene Woodley offered perhaps some of the harshest criticism of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the social circumstances that gave rise to it and the protests against it over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Watch Shailene Woodley tell the real history of Thanksgiving at Standing Rock https://t.co/1Z9KPZys4s pic.twitter.com/wQMzdOXhLv
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) November 26, 2016
“Today is a day that many call Thanksgiving, and it’s a day where kids in elementary school in America are taught false narratives about our native brothers and sisters,” Woodley said in a teary-eyed interview with The Young Turks.
You can watch the full interview, which was filmed on the site of the Standing Rock protest camp, below.
“From the time we’re little kids, we cut out in cardboard paper pictures of pilgrims and feasts and turkeys, and yet none of our children know the truth about not only what happened to Native Americans when Westerners decided to colonize this country, but what is still happening to Native Americans,” Woodley said. “Thanksgiving was founded on a massacre and yet we’re here with cops and snipers with rubber bullets and I’m sick of it.”
Woodley spent Thanksgiving, along with actress and activist Jane Fonda, at Standing Rock, the Huffington Post reports. The two served meals to protesters as a show of thanks and support for their continued courage in the face of harsh weather and an overwhelming and often hostile police force.
Woodley has arguably been among the celebrities most dedicated to the cause. As the Huffington Post points out, she and 26 others were arrested for criminal trespassing back in October as part of the protests. She posted about her arrest on Facebook and has posted updates about the Standing Rock protests numerous times.
Many have criticized the Obama administration for remaining silent during the Standing Rock protests. Former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been one of the only national politicians to repeatedly and ardently speak out against the Dakota Access Pipeline in a show of support for the Standing Rock Sioux. Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has also been vocal in her support of the activists.
Shailene Woodley, Bernie Sanders, and the other celebrities drawing attention to this issue may be the Standing Rock Sioux’s only hope of attracting enough widespread support for their cause.
[Featured Image by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images]
