With helicopters circling overhead, I interview protestors at the increasingly turbulent Standing Rock Indian Reservation, currently the center of a dispute over an intersection of land rights and environmental concerns. “The non-natives, they’re in it too, so I’m surprised that their congresspeople are not trying to stop it,” says one Native protestor who selects to remain anonymous. That shows you what big money does.” The water protectors put their bodies on the line in the face of the hostile, disturbing and violent presence of military and police forces, eschewing anything that might be obtusely labeled as “identity politics” in favor of ideologically-based inclusivity. “It doesn’t matter what color you are or where you come from,” says one speaker. “If you are understanding of the movement that we are partaking in, then you are family just like the rest of us.”

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Many farm workers and owners count themselves as part-time upstate residents, commuting each weekend from Manhattan and Brooklyn, in some cases, to sell their produce to Catskill locals. Speaking to the farmers responsible for everything from Long Eddy’s Eminence Road Farm Winery to Franklin’s Sherman Hill Farmstead Cheeses, I gather perspectives on the importance of local farming, underlining the crucial nature of sustainability and how purchasing food from a “family operation,” as Sherman Hill’s Linda Smith puts it, is a relatively easy way to bolster the local food economy and up the ante in one’s kitchen at the same time.

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Joan Wulff. In tracing not only the story of the fly fishing tradition as it pertains to Roscoe but the history of the region itself, as well as some of its local idiosyncrasies, it becomes abundantly clear that the small upstate town has come to define fly fishing as much as the sport has defined it.

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“It would destroy everything,” says one Callicoon, New York farmer of the potential presence of fracking in the Catskill mountains. “One contamination and that’s it.” Despite the vastly disparate geographic differences in the respective places they reside, one thing uniting this diverse group of people is a shared understanding of the havoc drilling not only on their own land, but surrounding areas would wreak. However, this anxiety is not limited to a strictly environmental context — as one Nigerian citizen alarmed by the uptick in drilling in Baldwin Hills, California, says, gas-related development in his home village left in its wake “no safe drinking water, no light, no streets [and] no housing.”

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conversations that I then shared with video pieces and a 3 part radio series. In this segment I gather the thoughts of First Nation Water Protectors who were generous enough to take time from their constant onsite activism to share their perspectives. “It doesn’t matter where a Sioux is from — they’re still Sioux,” one Protector put it. “I believe that the people that step up and fight with us are the lost ones that were killed in genocide and reincarnated.”

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as well as the American populace and citizens of countries around the world who might find their daily lives affected by a foreign leader. “I think everybody’s still somewhat appalled with the results,” says Jahaira, a young woman who considers protesting Trump something of a no-brainer. “I’ve been [protesting] today, tomorrow, and the day after.” Many of Jahaira’s fellow protestors have similarly persistent mindsets, digging into the sidewalks outside Trump strongholds such as the tower in Columbus Circle for what is beginning to feel like something approaching the long run. For these citizens, vocal dissent is the best weapon against the potentially overwhelming notion of a near-half decade spent in a Trump-led country.

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“I can’t just sit in my room and be sad,” one young woman rooted firmly outside Trump Tower says. “I have to be an activist now.” Indeed, many of the people assembled this afternoon may have not considered themselves activists, but the election of Trump has effectively and rapidly inspired them toward action. With an emphasis on accountability — “there is no one to blame here but us,” says a megaphone-aided protester — concerns and anger regarding a Trump Administration’s potential policies and the effect they might have on already-marginalized groups of people are voiced. However, fierce, action-based optimism also shines through. “Another world is already being born,” says another protestor. “And we the people can see it clear.”

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“The non-natives, they’re in it too, so I’m surprised that their congresspeople are not trying to stop it,” says one Native protestor who selects to remain anonymous. That shows you what big money does.” The water protectors put their bodies on the line in the face of the hostile, disturbing and violent presence of military and police forces, eschewing anything that might be obtusely labeled as “identity politics” in favor of ideologically-based inclusivity. “It doesn’t matter what color you are or where you come from,” says one speaker. “If you are understanding of the movement that we are partaking in, then you are family just like the rest of us.”

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We have to do it…looking ahead seven generations.” Thank you for inviting me to your sacred camp. I will continue to stand with you and share your voices as you protect your water and tribal lands from destruction. Please continue to stand with the Sioux Nation Water Protectors at standwithstandingrock.net and sacredstonecamp.org, as well as indigenous 1st Nations communities on the front lines through out the USA confronting extreme energy and environmental justice assaults.

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