Standing Rock and the Dakota Pipeline in The World of Darkness

[Lin Liren]

It was sadly inevitable that in spite of the peaceful, non violent intentions, the Wyrm-scum of the Oil Companies from *our* world still struck back with rubber bullets, tazers, clubs and high-powered water.

And yet it is heartening, that in all this pain and sorrow, that Veterans of the United States Army have gathered by the *thousands* to join the Lakota in preserving their Cultural Dignity, and quite movingly, knelt in apology for the atrocities committed upon Natives by their predecessors, building a bridge of reconciliation between Two Warrior Cultures.

Even though this tragic battle is far from over:

1) How would the Garou have reacted to this desecration of Sacred Lakota Land? Would they have struck out sooner and made mincemeat of the Oil Company's Wyrm-stooges?

2) In The World of Darkness, would the apology and reconciliation between Native and US Warriors have even happened, and be a turning-point of hope in these dark times? If yes, no doubt there would have been some Child of Gaia (even Salubri) involvenement that would have made it smoother?

[AnubisXy]

I think what happened in real life is a great example of the sort of thing the Children of Gaia fight for and is what a victory against the Wyrm led by the Children would look like.

Regardless in the WoD events would have been bloodier than they were in real life - there's no doubt Pentex's Endron subsidiary would have been behind the pipeline and they would have been willing to use fomori and banes. You would have had more violence, more injuries, etc. Still, thanks to the press (a fair amount of it international) and social media they would have largely had to keep the violence in the background, and the werewolves would have responded in kind. Even in the World of Darkness it's unlikely that you would have seen people end up dying or getting killed - Pentex would want the pipe built, but would also shy away from being overly confrontational when everyone is watching.

Rather than turning towards violence, I suspect Pentex's next step would simply be to begin lobbying the new president, EPA leader, congressmen, etc with with getting a federal decree ensuring that the pipe would go through - getting the "law" on their side so that when they confront the protesters next time, they have the authority to use violence to get them out of there.

[Yakecen-Sings]

Why wouldn't it be Uktena and/or Wendigo-led, when it's Indigenous-led IRL? This is actually a very important thing I'd ask to be considered, because it relates to colonized thinking, and a big part of Standing Rock is the issue of Native Sovereignty being disregarded and Native lives being considered less important than whites. Yes, obviously there can be Children of Gaia who are Native American, but speaking in tribal platitudes, that is not implied or inferred, and this started with the tribal youth and is happening on Lakota land. Why should peace and prayer be exclusive to one Tribe?

[Lin Liren]

Thank you for pointing that out; though in this case the peace-talks would more likely be Uktena led than Wendigo-led.

As it is currently written, the Wendigo (led by a Cannibalistic Totem of *literal* Ice-Cold vengeance) give off the impression of "Anti-White-Men Red Talons" who are not enthusiastic about olive-branches or cheek turning. Even in the Tribal Attitudes of Werewolf 20th Anniversary, the Wendigo's opinion of The Children of Gaia is chillingly summarized as:

"Too Little, Too Late."

But I agree: Particularly considering Multiculturalism/Multi-Racialism is the "hat" of the Uktena, they just as likely if not more-so than the Children of Gaia to be enthusiastic about building bridges and healing old-wounds.

[Yakecen-Sings]

Uktena are pretty good with non-violent/non-killing means of dealing with Wyrm-things, too. They have an entire camp specialized in that! They also tend to treat with spirits more across all Auspices than most Tribes, I'd say, so the concept of having to act and even think in a certain way to avoid feeding into Urges and either strengthening the Wyrm-spirits or offending the allied spirits you're trying to encourage to stick around is not a stretch for them. I do think Coggies, probably along with Bone Gnawers rabble rousing and Glass Walkers advising on the divestment aspects, would be all over the global coordination of getting the days of solidarity and prayer going.

I didn't think about this too much when I was there, but on the long drive there and back (during which my friends and I had to appease the spirits with some Bone Gnawer magic to keep our car roof of supplies from going all over the road instead) I thought about it a lot. Even when you factor in that the other side would have their own supernatural powers, I couldn't really get over how effective it would be just to use Jam Technology to force the machines to stop, and some Another's Moccasins for the humans.

I think the media and message aspect would be a lot harder than the ground work, in WoD. People are even more apathetic, information even more skewed. With more of a blackout and less social media going on (because who cares, Omni Television has a new must-see episode tonight! #KnightsOfAngst #OmniAndChill) there would have been opportunity for even more egregious and frequent violence. Of course, since it IS the WoD, maybe the company wouldn't care and they would just get ratings off the live streams of the brutality. Probably get kickbacks from the news outlets for the increased viewership, too. Feed it directly to the audiences à la Vicarious, and forcing the Shifters to divert their time and energy into maintaining the Veil.

[AnubisXy]

Why wouldn't it be Uktena and/or Wendigo-led, when it's Indigenous-led IRL?

I'm not saying it wouldn't be, just that the whole "nonviolent, peaceful protests until you get the general public on your side to stop whatever wrong is being committed," is the kind of the thing that is the the kind of alternative approach to battling the Wyrm that the Children of Gaia have been preaching for years.

So in the WoD whether the protests were led by the Uktena or whomever, it's the kind of example and resolution that the Children of Gaia would certainly point towards and hold up as an example to be followed by all of the tribes. Though I think if the Wendigo were leading the protests, the WoD version would have seen much more violence - the Wendigo are pretty much the most aggressive tribe second only to the Get of Fenris.

[The Laughing Stranger]

There are Native members of the Children, also. Not every indigenous-descended Garou needs to belong directly to the Uktena or Wendigo, and there could easily be multiple tribes involved. Perhaps the Wendigo are taking the fight to the legbreakers and oil-money goons, CoG do the coordinating and negotiating, and Uktena protect the river and land spirits from mystic threats.

[Yakecen-Sings]

Of course, I mentioned that too. Considering the demographic and Kinfolk of that Tribe, it seems far more likely it would originate with Pure Tribes - it's very much "their thing" and so if it is being organized or put forward as someone happening on a Tribe level, rather than just "this particularly influential member is a Child of Gaia" I think that is important to reiterate. The Pure Tribes, on a Tribe level, keep same traditions and ways as their human Kinfolk. The Children of Gaia, on a Tribe level, do not. That's the distinction, and part of why I wanted to stress it is that it very much relates to conversations and issues going on right now around Standing Rock (and elsewhere) of outside cultures, groups, and people looking to be saviors and leaders. Peaceful ways of dealing with problems can be found within Indigenous traditions, so it can be inferred they can also be found in Pure Tribe traditions. If you don't have to go far for them, then why go outside of it? Does it enrich it do so, or does it make it stronger to build upon the foundation already there? Not trying to be aggressive or contentious, just trying to explain why I brought it up in the first place. I didn't want to derail the topic with it, though, so this is probably the last I'll speak on it. Hopefully I presented it better this time.

I can easily see Black Furies having a strong showing as well, to carry on. Much of the movement is woman-led; Iŋyaŋ Wakháŋagapi Othí (Sacred Stone Spirit Camp) was started and is led by a woman, many of the prayer actions have been woman-led, and there has been a lot of discussion and demonstration relating to justice for women and children as they are even more impacted. The construction camps for the pipeline workers moving in means increased risk of basically all of the terrible things that happen to women, which already happen to Indigenous women twice as often as any other demographic. "How much for the little girl?" is literally something that real Water Protectors, a mother and her daughter, were harassed with by a worker and were fortunate (?) enough to get as evidence on the video they were taking of the prayer demonstration they were on. And that's mild and not at all new as far as the harm the 'man camps' do. Right up the alley for Furies as well.

On 2.) I think the apology and reconciliation could have happened in WoD. Things like this are incredibly galvanizing, and the WoD isn't 100% terrible or really it would all be over already. Especially if there are supernaturals in the mix, calming egos and fostering the spiritual environment, the kind of healing and unity that is going on could absolutely translate - and like the bad things being worse, the good things could be even stronger as well, just taking other kinds of work to maintain them against supernatural predation.

Also, if anyone hasn't seen what Lin was talking about there, here's a short clip of it.

[Lin Liren]

Sigh... Now that the dreaded inevitable HAS happened (Oils Spill into a nearby drinking water resevoir), *before* the Pipeline has been completed no less, two quick relevant questions.

1) Oil Spills in the World of Darkness would no doubt turn the surrounding Umbra into a spiritual wasteland: And while it has been proven that Oil Spills even in OUR world can be cleaned up (even if not perfectly), but is it possible to clean it on a *spiritual* level, to make the land of the catastrophe "Of Gaia" rather than "Of The Wyrm" once more?

2) Since Petroleum came into being from the natural process of decomposed dinosaurs (and other extinct multicellular organisms) compressed under high pressure, it's reasonable to assume NOT all Petroleum is in and of itself "of the Wyrm" on a spiritual level now, is it? Since it is the result of a natural rather than unnatural process.

Surely a Glass Walker or Two out there would also agree, since they have considered Petroleum and Diesel Engines as "spiritual natural and alive" as any Gaian creation since the Industrial Revolution....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

2) Since Petroleum came into being from the natural process of decomposed dinosaurs

Actually, it's plant matter from the Carboniferous, which ended about a hundred million years before dinosaurs really took off, and it didn't decompose very well; animals tend to lack the sheer mass and concentration of organic matter to give rise to fossil fuels, unless it's through marine plankton, and decomposed organic matter would lack a lot of the required carbon. However, there are a few dinosaur fossils with uranium-enriched structures, and a lot of radioactive mineral deposits actually date back to the late Mesozoic. As for the process being "of the Wyrm" or not, probably not, though it does concentrate some radioactive minerals and heavy metals in various fossil fuel types, such as coal, so the end result can still not be very pretty, as far as Sense Wyrm is concerned.

[idpersona]

1) Oil Spills in the World of Darkness would no doubt turn the surrounding Umbra into a spiritual wasteland: And while it has been proven that Oil Spills even in OUR world can be cleaned up (even if not perfectly), but is it possible to clean it on a *spiritual* level, to make the land of the catastrophe "Of Gaia" rather than "Of The Wyrm" once more?

Gurahl have a few Rites to do just this. Rite of Healing Winds (level 2) and Rite of the Pure Land (level 3) both cleanse an area of pollution/toxins/wyrm taint.

[Lin Liren]

That Wyrm-scum Trump actually up and did it

Not one WEEK into its presidency, it has actually signed an Executive Order for its precious pipeline to be forcefully built over Standing Rock, meaning it can send MILITARY GRADE Firepower on protestors if it wants to.

https://news.vice.com/story/trump-is...tone-pipelines

Oh God, why are The Garou fiction when they are needed the MOST...

[Prince of the Night]

Am I a bad Person because I find Myself attaching -ithkya to trumps name?

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Am I a bad Person because I find Myself attaching -ithkya to trumps name?

That would have required him to be a werewolf, as opposed to an empty shell that wants people brown-nosing him day-in, day-out. Also, given that VP Pence is basically from an apocalyptic fertility cult branch of Christianity, he's probably a shoulder on which at least some blame can rest.

[Fat Larry]

Is Kellyann Conway Zhyzhak?