Neil Young Protests Dakota Access Pipeline With ‘Indian Givers’ Video

OHMYGOSSIP – Neil Young joins the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline with his new song and video for “Indian Givers.” The video combines footage of the recent protests against the pipeline with footage of Young singing the track while driving in his car.

“There’s a battle raging on the sacred land / Our brothers and sisters have to take a stand,” Young sings on the track. “Against us now for what we all been doing / On the sacred land there’s a battle brewing.” 

The rocker also refers to “Big Money” as “Indian Givers” for their determination to feed an oil pipeline through land given to the Native Americans.

Young wrote the track in the past two weeks as it mentions Dale “Happy” American Horse Jr., a Native American protestor who was arrested August 31st after chaining himself to pipeline construction equipment for nearly six hours. “Saw Happy locked to the big machine / They had to cut him loose and you know what that means,” Young sings. “That’s when Happy went to jail / Behind big money justice always fails.”

Throughout the summer, the people of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the organization ReZpect Our Water have protested the expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, leading to multiple arrests. In early September, protesters clashed with the private security firm hired to protect the Dakota Access Pipeline, resulting in numerous injuries. The Obama administration stepped in to suspend the construction of the pipeline as of September 9th.

Young has long advocated against the construction of intrusive, environment-altering pipelines, previously penning the Storytone track “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?” as a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline in 2014. Young and Willie Nelson also staged a Nebraska concert in 2014 lobbying against the Keystone expansion.

Check out the lyrics to “Indian Givers” below, via Stereogum:

There’s a battle raging on the sacred land
Our brothers and sisters have to take a stand
Against us now for what we all been doing
On the sacred land there’s a battle brewing

I wish somebody would share the news

Now it’s been about 500 years
We keep taking what we gave away
Just like what we call Indian givers
It makes you sick and gives you shivers

I wish somebody would share the news

Big money going backwards and ripping the soil
Where graves are scattered and blood was boiled
When all who look can see the truth
But they just move on and keep their groove

I wish somebody would share the news

Saw Happy locked to the big machine
They had to cut him loose and you know what that means
That’s when Happy went to jail
Behind big money justice always fails

I wish somebody would share the news

Bring back the days when good was good
Lose these imposters in our neighborhood
Across our farms and through our waters
All at the cost of our sons and daughters

Our brave songs and daughters
We’re all here together fighting poison waters
Standing against the evil way
That’s what we have at the end of day

I wish somebody would share the news