On Oct. 10 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lakeland campus center a screening of Shannon Krings documentary film End of the Line; The Women of Standing Rock was premiered. The documentary was shown in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day. Although Kring herself is not an Indigenous person, she has stood at the forefront of indigenous rights around the world, a self-proclaimed ally to the worlds forbidden and forgotten. As a graduate of Lakeland University Kring had spent time in what was the murder capital of the world Honduras, as well as Helsinki Iceland. However, she always came back to her roots of Northern Wisconsin. As she herself put it “Indian Territory.” The Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, who were the tribes present at the protests, believe that when danger comes around like a buffalo, they should charge headfirst towards it. So, it only made sense for Kring herself to also charge straight into the danger that was the Standing Rock protests. Shannon Krings documentary in turn also has plenty of danger to charge at.
The protests at Standing Rock were against an oil pipeline that would have run underneath a stretch of the Missouri River on Lakota land remains a defining event in the ongoing fight of Indigenous rights around the world. Plenty has been written and seen about the events that took place but Kring through her film brings up one of the most neglected topics outside of the Lakota community, the women who stood on the front lines to protect the water.
Many students and community members were present for the screening. However, what seemed to have the most impact was the Q&A afterwards with one of the stars of the film, lawyer and Water Protector (protestor) Waste Win Young. All of the questions came from students wondering how to make changes in their communities. Waste’s answers revolved around young people getting involved in their communities. The evolution of the talk surrounding race in America as well as the post-traumatic stress by the protestors at Standing Rock. The documentary is available on Krings website as well as further information on all the women featured in the story.
