Photographs of Dakota Access Pipeline Protests in North Dakota
Collection
Call Number: WA Photos Folio 186
Description of Photographs
Photographs created by John Willis during six trips from September through December 2016 that document a resistance movement based near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, and eastern edge of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation protesting the Energy Transfer Partners project to construct a petroleum pipeline known as the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at the site and through North Dakota and South Dakota as well as across Iowa into Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe led the protest with support a grassroots resistance movement known as "Mní Wičóni" (Lakota for “water is life”) and NoDAPL (No Dakota Access Pipeline). Many images also appear in John Willis, Mni Wiconi - Water Is Life Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019).
Images printed as 224 inkjet color prints document spiritual ceremonies related to the water as well as resistance actions at the proposed drilling site as well as at Bismarck and Mandan in North Dakota. Additionally, many images document temporary camps established by protestors, chiefly the Oceti Sakowin camp (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ is Dakota for "Seven Council Fires" or peoples known by the exonym of Sioux), as well as portraits of activists.
Individual prints are 32.8 x 48.2 centimeters and 61 x 78.7 centimeters. Titled and signed and dated by the photographer on versos of prints. Dates indicate the time of image capture rather than physical creation of the print.
Titles in this guide are from the inscriptions by the photographer on versos of prints. Variant titles from Mni Wiconi - Water Is Life Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019) as well as from Willis' website, jwillis.net, accessed in April 2021.
Images printed as 224 inkjet color prints document spiritual ceremonies related to the water as well as resistance actions at the proposed drilling site as well as at Bismarck and Mandan in North Dakota. Additionally, many images document temporary camps established by protestors, chiefly the Oceti Sakowin camp (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ is Dakota for "Seven Council Fires" or peoples known by the exonym of Sioux), as well as portraits of activists.
Individual prints are 32.8 x 48.2 centimeters and 61 x 78.7 centimeters. Titled and signed and dated by the photographer on versos of prints. Dates indicate the time of image capture rather than physical creation of the print.
Titles in this guide are from the inscriptions by the photographer on versos of prints. Variant titles from Mni Wiconi - Water Is Life Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019) as well as from Willis' website, jwillis.net, accessed in April 2021.
Dates
- 2016
Creator
- Willis, John, 1957- (Photographer)
Conditions Governing Access
The John Willis, Photographs of Dakota Access Pipeline Protests in North Dakota are the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from John Willis on the Walter McClintock Memorial Fund, 2017.
Arrangement
Organized into two series: I. Inkjet Prints, 13 x 19 inches (32.8 x 48.2 centimeters), 2016. Inkjet Prints, 24 x 31 inches (61 x 78.7 centimeters), 2016.
Extent
26 Linear Feet (13 boxes)
39 broadsides
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
Photographs created by John Willis during six trips from September through December 2016 that document a resistance movement based near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, and eastern edge of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation protesting against the Energy Transfer Partners project to construct a petroleum pipeline known as the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at the site and through North Dakota and South Dakota as well as across Iowa into Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe led the protest with support a grassroots resistance movement known as "Mní Wičóni" (Lakota for “water is life”) and NoDAPL (No Dakota Access Pipeline). Many images also appear in John Willis, Mni Wiconi - Water Is Life Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019).
John Willis (born 1957)
John Willis is a documentary photographer and emeritus professor of photography at Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont. His monographs include Recycled Realities, co-authored with Tom Young (Center for American Places, 2002), Views from the Reservation (Center for American Places, 2010), and Mni Wiconi - Water Is Life Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019). Willis has photographs in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others. He is also a co-founder with Bill Ledger of the In-Sight Photography Project, a photography outreach project to youth in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards. For more information, please refer to the Beinecke Manuscript Unit Processing Manual.
Many discrete images share the same title throughout the collection.
Titled, signed, and dated by the photographer on versos of prints.
Titles in this guide are from the inscriptions by the photographer on versos of prints. Variant titles from Mni Wiconi - Water Is Life Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019) as well as from Willis's website, jwillis.net, accessed in April 2021.
Each folder in the collection contains a single inkjet print.
Many discrete images share the same title throughout the collection.
Titled, signed, and dated by the photographer on versos of prints.
Titles in this guide are from the inscriptions by the photographer on versos of prints. Variant titles from Mni Wiconi - Water Is Life Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (Staunton, Virginia: George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019) as well as from Willis's website, jwillis.net, accessed in April 2021.
Each folder in the collection contains a single inkjet print.
- Bismarck (N.D.) -- Pictorial works
- Cannon Ball (N.D.) -- Pictorial works
- Cannonball River (N.D.) -- Pictorial works
- Dakota Access Pipeline -- Pictorial works
- Indians of North America -- Pictorial works
- Indians of North America -- Political activity -- Pictorial works
- Indians of North America -- Portraits
- Inkjet prints
- Mandan (N.D.) -- Pictorial works
- North Dakota -- Pictorial works
- Petroleum pipelines -- North Dakota -- Public opinion -- Pictorial works
- Photographic prints
- Photographs
- Protest camps -- North Dakota -- Pictorial works
- Protest movements -- North Dakota -- Pictorial works
- South Dakota -- Pictorial works
- Standing Rock Indian Reservation (N.D. and S.D.) -- Pictorial works
- Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota -- Pictorial works
- Title
- Guide to the John Willis, Photographs of Dakota Access Pipeline Protests in North Dakota
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Matthew Daniel Mason
- Date
- April 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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