Environmental Justice and Civil Disobedience

The 7th grade Social Studies are ending on all different places within the Civil Disobedience unit. Some classes were canceled more than others, plus their pace of learning is either faster or slower. For the kids who have finished their Final Project on Taiwanese Civil Disobedience, I still have one more lesson up my sleeve.

Reading: The North Dakota 南達科他州 Pipeline

review words: Climate change (from our refugee unit on Human Migration)
Video: Chinese Americans Protest Oil Pipeline, 川普撤銷油管停工令 UN力挺蘇族權益 
Introduction: Who are the Sioux? Where do Native Americans Come from?

Listen and Write, then highlight the vocabulary and write the Chinese meaning.

Vocabulary: Pipeline管線, reservation (place)保留地, Sioux蘇族 , Native American美國原住民, sacred神聖, veteran退伍軍人, unarmed非武裝的

Protester vs Protector?

People in the U.S. state of North Dakota are angry because an oil company is building a giant pipe near their land. The oil company wants to build the multi-billion-dollar oil pipeline under a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The Sioux people are Native Americans who have been on the land for thousands of years. The Native Americans have been joined by many protesters. They are all trying to stop the $3.8 billion pipeline from passing near Sioux land. They say it will dirty their drinking water and make it undrinkable. They also say the pipeline will damage sacred Sioux sites. A Texas-based company, Energy Transfer Partners, owns the 1,885-km pipeline project. It is almost complete.

They were recently joined by veterans from the U.S. military. These are retired soldiers, sailors and members of the air force. The veterans have built the protesters shelters to keep warm in the freezing winter. There has been violence between the protesters and police. A North Dakota spokesman said some of the protesters were "frightening". He said: "It's time for them to go home." However, Coast Guard veteran Ashleigh Jennifer Parker said: "We will be unarmed, completely prepared for peaceful protest. We don't even like the word 'protest'. We're there to help the water protectors."

1. About which American state is this news article?
2. What is the name of the Native American people?
3. How much money did the pipeline cost?
4. What do people think will become dirty because of the pipeline?
5. How long is the pipeline?
6. For how long have the protesters been on the site? April 2016 – February 2017
7. What did veterans build for the protesters?
8. What has broken out between protesters and police?
9. What did Ashleigh Jennifer Parker use to belong to?
10. What word don't the protesters like?

PROTEST (Group Activity): How would you protest against these things? How angry would you be? Talk about this with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.

• Oil pipeline
• Tax increases
• Your country going to war
• Religious intolerance 宗教上的不寬容
• Racist government
• Government corruption 腐敗