Stand with #StandingRock

The Dakota Access Pipeline Protest (#NoDAPL) began in early 2016 in reaction to the approved construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Local native American and environmentalists were gathered at both Standing Rock and #StandingRock on Facebook to express their deep concerns.





Created by Yuanyuan Tian, Yingqi Tang From Oregon State University
























Location

Standing Rock

Population

8,217

Native American Pop.

6,414

Check-in

337,589

Above are basic information about Standing Rock.

According to Google Trends, the term "Standing Rock" was frequently searched on Google Search engine starting from November 2016.

























Standing Rock

Located in North Dakota (ND) and South Dakota (SD), The Standing Rock Indian Reservation is occupied by ethnic Hunkpapa Lakota, Sihasapa Lakota and Yanktonai Dakota, it includes Sioux County, ND, Corson County, SD, plus slivers of northern Dewey and Ziebach, SD, along their northern county lines at Highway 20. Standing Rock ranks the sixth largest Native American reservation in land area of U.S.

Reservation Land


The Proposed Pipeline

The pipeline is to be built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and is designed to transport as many as 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota to Illinois. This Pipeline has drawn parallels to the Keystone XL pipeline. Opposition to that project, which Obama eventually rejected, became a litmus test in the eyes of some activists for public officials to show their commitment to addressing environmental issues. But at the same time significant differences remain. Perhaps most importantly, Keystone crossed into Canada, making it an international issue that gave authority over its final approval to the State Department. The federal government has the authority over the Dakota Access Pipeline because it crosses interstate waterways. Stopping the project would be challenging for any administration.

The protest was caused by issues related to the protection of water, land, and religious/spiritual sites sacred to indigenous peoples of the Americas. Despite the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers claim that the pipeline will not cross the Standing Rock area, people still worry that a leak from the pipeline could contaminate local water sources and damage local agriculture. We must ask: which is more important, water and food security, or energy security?

Aquifer


River


Reservation Land


Pipeline


Protest Camp

In April, Standing Rock Sioux elder LaDonna Brave Bull Allard established Sacred Stone camp as a center for cultural preservation and spiritual resistance to the pipeline. Over the summer the camp grew to thousands of people. Later, two more camps were established at the area. People gathered at the camps to show their support.

The Sacred Stone Camp was erected since April 2016 and grew dramatically in its scape. It has played a major role in protecting the site.


The Oceti Sakowin Camp is a historic gathering of native tribes. This camp is a world stage for environmental awareness and will act as a future indigenous meeting center.


The Frontline Camp was erected in path of the Dakota Access Pipeline.


Aquifer


River


Reservation Land


Pipeline


Spoofed Check-in

In response to a viral post claiming that doing so would help protect activists in North Dakota protesting against an oil pipeline from police surveillance More than 1 million people have checked in on Facebook to the Standing Rock Indian reservation in response to a viral post claiming that doing so would help protect activists in North Dakota protesting against an oil pipeline from police surveillance.





Why Thousands Are Facebook "Checking In" At Standing Rock, ND from Youtube.

Why Spoofing?

Why did Facebook users spoof their check-ins?
Hover on the Facebook icon to get some clues.

To understand the context of spoofed check-ins at Standing Rock, we crawled 1,858 spoofed check-ins. The word cloud illustrates all the relevant topics around the keyword "Standing Rock", and the map shows the spatial distribution of all spoofed check-ins.

# Check-in per Hexagon: low high



Due to the fierce local conflict triggered by the proposed pipeline, environmental protesters were forced to leave their camping area at the Standing Rock. Today, it has become nearly impossible for people to access the former camping area. Even though, an increasing number of social media users still stand with #StandingRock via spoofing their check-ins on Facebook.




Created by Yuanyuan Tian, Yingqi Tang From Oregon State University