Oklahomans Gather In Downtown OKC In Support Of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

A group of Oklahomans gathered at downtown Oklahoma City’s Kerr Park to show support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Local Standing Rock tribal coalition, Oklahoma Supports Standing Rock, organized a demonstration Thursday morning in downtown Oklahoma City. About 50 Oklahomans gathered at 9 a.m. at Kerr Park located at the corner of Robert S. Kerr Avenue and North Broadway Avenue.

Organizers accepted supply donations to be delivered to Standing Rock. The group said it will continue to call for an end to the violence and excessive force at the site where the Dakota Access Pipeline is under construction.

One of the protest speakers was Alecia Onzahwah, a member of the Absentee Shawnee Nation, who recently returned from the Standing Rock encampment.

"Any state's failure to grant equal protection of civil rights such as freedom of speech and the right to peacefully assemble should be alarming to us all," said Onzahwah. "We all share the same world and the same water."

Oklahoma City Ward 2 council member Ed Shadid recently returned from his visit to Standing Rock. Shadid encouraged Oklahomans, "to witness a historical event and to learn how to lead a disciplined nonviolent resistance campaign which is so desperately needed here."

At the Kerr Park demonstration, protesters called on members of Oklahoma City's financial district to divest from the Dakota Access Pipeline.