the Standing Rock / Dakota Access protests were "the first time in more than a century that 'all seven nations of Dakota-, Nakota-, and Lakota-speaking peoples' had gathered in one place to work toward one goal" (Beck 489, quoting Nick Estes)
Estes: "At its peak, the camp was North Dakota's tenth-largest city. Its population surpassed 10,000 people, possibly reaching as many as 15,000"
"The people who lived at Oceti Sakowin fed thousands every day, handed out clothing, prayed together, provided medical treatment to the injured, trained new arrivals in protest tactics, and even established a school for children" (489)
"The government's response to Standing Rock was overwhelming. The last time the State of North Dakota had mobilized so many law enforcement and militaruy personnel, it was to massacre nearly three hundred Lakota at Wounded Knee in 1890"