The Black Snake

The story of the Dakota Access Pipeline is a long and difficult one to tell. On its face it is the story of the hundreds of Native American tribes that have have moved into camps just outside of Cannonball, ND in a show of solidarity and to protest the pipeline. These high profile protests, however, are a small part of a much larger issue. The pipeline brought to a head conflicts about disputed treaty lands, historical treatment of Native Americans by the Federal Government and the changing relationship between the predominantly white towns of Bismarck / Mandan to the north and the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to the south. “The Black Snake” focuses on the people involved in the decision making process, the elders who’ve lived the Tribe’s history and the younger generation of Sioux who will continue to live and raise their families next to the river after the dust has settled.