New Brunswick woman comes home with lessons from Standing Rock

When Annie Clair of Elsipogtog, N.B. first arrived at the Standing Rock protests in North Dakota, she noticed people working together using traditional ways and protesting peacefully.

"I was really emotional because it's very inspiring and there is a lot of people there, not only Native but non-Native as well,"said Clair, who drove to the protest in North Dakota with a friend from Nova Scotia.

She spent a week there to offer her support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and learn more about the dispute involving the Dakota Access Pipeline project in order to tell her community about the experience.

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The project proposes to build a pipeline to transport oil from a Bakken oilfield to Illinois.

Since returning home this weekend, Clair has been telling people about thepeaceful aspects to the protest beyond what is portrayed in the news. Those peaceful aspects include working together and traditional ceremonies such as singing and dancing, sweat lodges and talking circles.

She said some of lessons she learned in Standing Rock could apply to Alton Gas protesters at the Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia.

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"It's the power of the people gathering together as one and fighting this together," she said.