Part II of a III Part Series By Abel M. Salas Photo by Estevan Oriol Sometime near midnight, the two-lane highway in the middle of Wyoming is shrouded in a ghostly dark. Four of us are traveling in a pair of import pick-ups loaded with winter clothing, medical supplies, non-perishable food, sleeping bags, tarps and more. Standing Rock, North Dakota looms like a mythical destination still roughly 12 hours away.  In the distance, a field of tiny red lights flash on and off in rhythmic synchronization with each set of lights arranged along a vertical axis. I imagine they are radio antennas at first. When our route brings us closer to the low rolling hills where they stand, it dawns on me, finally, that they are beacons affixed to the upright columns which support an armada of wind turbines. Maybe they twinkle with a regularity that says there is enough winter wind in these wide-open Wyoming prairies to generate a steady flow of electricity. Or perhaps they are simply meant to a...

 By Alci Rengifo While most of the country remained distracted by the antics of the presidential election over the past few weeks and suddenly a bombing colored by implications of terrorism in New York, a very serious repeat of the darker side of American history took place in North Dakota. After discovering the details on July 26th, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, with other Native American and social activist groups in solidarity, began a series of protests against plans by Dakota Access to build a massive, 1,172-mile oil pipeline through much of their sacred territory including Lake Oahe and the Missouri River. Among the various environmental hazards that would come with the pipeline, the most worrying for the Lakota Sioux and other local communities is the potential contamination of the Missouri, which serves as a prime source of water irrigation. The project, which according to Dakota Access, would cross another 209 rivers, was going to produce hefty profits for the En...