THE NATIVE UPRISING

A little bit about me. Passing me on the street, one would see me as an older white lady. I am, but I am also an enrolled citizen of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.I have always lived on the west coast, but my mother grew up on the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota. She made sure her children became enrolled tribal members, and she made sure we children were well aware of the conditions of poverty which she and her siblings grew up with as a mixed blood family in South Dakota.

I always have been proud of that special percentage of me that is Native American. I have deep respect for the tribal members whose families never left the reservations, and thus lead much more challenging lives than mine.

In April of this year LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a Sioux historian whose work I have read online, became alarmed when it became apparent that construction of a crude oil pipeline was coming very close to her home and possibly through sacred grounds. The pipeline was also slated to run beneath the Missouri River, the most important water source for the region. LaDonna used social media in July to call out to any Native Americans who could, to come camp by the Cannonball River and try to get the pipeline company to reroute, as the company had done for the city of Bismark to the north.

First a trickle, then a deluge of people from tribes throughout the nation arrived. With thousands of campers it became the largest gathering of Native Americans in at least 100 years if not more. Each tribe flew its flag. It became the United Nations of the First Peoples. 

When one considers the true history of Native Americans in North America, that they were often sworn enemies, this confluence becomes doubly beautiful. And many socially aware groups from around the world have made known their desire to "Stand With Standing Rock". Called Water Defenders, the activists have sworn to keep things nonviolent. As of this writing, they have encountered state militia, private security thugs with attack dogs, road blocks stopping delivery of camp supplies, mass arrests, and now that fall has arrived on the prairie, they were struck by water cannons in below freezing temperatures.

The first blizzard of the season has come through, and I don't know how the campers can remain without casualties. What I do know is that whatever you want to call the descendants of the indigenous tribes of North America - Indians, Native Americans, First Peoples, Natives, or by their tribal affiliation - they have joined and they have risen and they will never be again relegated to a footnote in history.

A COMMONER'S OBSERVATIONS

I assume no one wants to hear yet another set of theories about what the hell just happened, but I want to lay this out at least for myself.

There are times that the President's actions do directly, and sometimes existentially, effect our lives. For this reason I always watch the presidential campaigns carefully.

Elements of Hillary's Loss

• Misogyny, both unconscious and overt. This is still ingrained in our culture, even though some strides have been made.
• Ageism. Overt. Not only was she a female, she was an older female. I could tell that some of the former-Bernie/never-Hillary young adults who were posting on social media saw her as the stern mother or grandmother (whether they realized it or not).
• Long History. This woman was a politician, either directly or by association, from her college years to the present. With politics being so sketchy and dirty, no one can come out clean as a whistle after that many years and that many positions served. The target on her back was her long history of public service, both triumphs and warts. Being female made that target even bigger.
• Over Confidence. After all, the U.S. had just twice elected a black man as President. It may have been presumed that this paved the way now for a woman President. 
• Blindness to The Shrinking Middle Class. I think she didn't see the full picture of the massive festering negativity of the lower middle class who never fully recovered from the Great Recession. Those people are probably the largest demographic that turned against her.
• Bernie's Millennials. In their youthful ideal hearts, they could not accept that Bernie did not win the nomination. In a tantrum, they didn't do what Bernie next asked for them to do - vote for Hillary.
• The OJ Effect. I realize that this is is a controversial statement from me. President Obama practically begged people of color to honor his legacy by voting for Hillary. It turned out they did not vote for her in the numbers that they had for him. I think it was a lack of enthusiasm for her based on her race as well as her gender.
• Cuba. The elder Cuban Americans in south Florida did not like one bit the normalizing of relations with Cuba, having spent their lives hating the Castros, and so they kept their votes Republican.
• Dislike of Them Both. Counties were reporting that there were thousands and thousands of ballots where the voters voted for everything else but for President. Compounding that was the percentage of eligible voters who didn't vote at all, which was disappointingly and embarrassingly high.
• Diminished Voting Rights Act. It has been reported that there were over 800 LESS polling places in the South.
• The Electoral College System. Historically this system was established as a buffer between the real voices of the citizenry and the federal government status quo. There is no reason for this system to remain today. Twice now in 16 years it has awarded the Presidency to the person with less actual votes. This demonstrates that it is no longer a fluke event. In the name of Al Gore, we can't let this issue just slide away once again. It must be eliminated.
• Enthusiasm. The haters really, really hated. I watched the Republican convention and it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. The mob type hatred mentality displayed by the whole crowd as well as the speakers made me think of Germany in the WWII era. 
• Campaign Rallies. Trump held many more rallies than Hillary did and they were big, loud, and hateful. There was one long weekend when she announced that she was going to take a break to do some fund raising. Trump doubled up on his rallies during that time.
• Unfettered lying. Her opponent with no hesitation lied as big and as often and as ugly as anyone ever has in history. The great mystery is why so much of the population either didn't realize he was lying, or didn't care that he was lying.

Not a list of excuses, but ingredients in a horrific stew we must all now eat.

2017 UPDATE:

• I stand by all of the above, but I didn't realize at the time of writing it that Putin had also been so vigorously stirring the election pot. I now see that this Russian input, along with the laptop e-mails being announced so late in the race, gave the final momentum to push her campaign over the cliff.