#TodayInProtestHistory: Violent Attacks on Water Protectors at Standing Rock 🧵👇 On November 20, 2016, police violently attacked Indigenous Water Protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation during the Indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. #ProtectTheProtest

As protectors gathered at Backwater Bridge to clear a road for emergency access, law enforcement blasted them with water cannons in below-freezing temperatures, tear gas, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades. Hundreds were injured.

That night became one of the defining moments of the #NoDAPL movement. It exposed the scale of state violence used to protect fossil fuel interests.

The attacks came after months of peaceful encampments, prayer actions + frontline leadership from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Their resistance inspired worldwide solidarity, as millions watched Indigenous youth, elders + allies defend land, water + treaty rights against militarized police forces.