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CLACKAMA
STORY A N D PHOTO BY COLLIN BEREND
Vanessa Castle is a student at Clackamas Community College studying to be a lawyer. She left CCC during fall
term to protest and stop the Dakota Access Pipeline in Noth Dakota and returned for spring term. Castle served
as a water protector who endured harsh, cold winter nights and crowd-control chemicals like pepper
spray but also a community where many across the country were brought together.
The Clackamas Print: W hat was the catalyst th at m ade you decide to go to N orth Dakota?
Vanessa Castle: I left for North Dakota after seeing the October 27 north camp take over unravel
online. I specifically saw one o f m y friends on the frontlines, who I knew went out there from the Pacific
Northwest, get thrown down by the police and, you know , hurt and then seeing the police turn around
and release a statem ent saying that he attacked them w hen I watched it on live feed unfold.
TCP: How different was it from seeing it firsthand and w atching through a livestream?
VC: Night and day. W hen you watch things unfold online, you feel compassion and you feel the
sym pathy for those people, but it’s not like experiencing it in real life. Cam p was a very beautiful
and spiritual place, all o f the tim e and it w asn’t until we went to the frontlines that we made the
news, because we were getting hurt and we were getting shot at. But the rest o f that, the rest of
cam p, the beautiful ceremonies that were happening every day, the beautiful water ceremony
every m orning at m orning. W e would sing and do round dances every night. Then feeding
thousands o f people. There were multiple kitchens that would feed thousands o f people for free.
Everybody cutting firewood and pitching in to survive. Those are the things you didn’t see on
the news and online. So, it was a very spiritual thing thatyou could never teach anywhere. So,
I’m very thankful that I decided to leave and go there, even though, I gave up a lot by leaving.
TCP: The news outlets showed w hat looked like police firing w ater at protestors at
night. Were you there at that tim e?
VC: 1 w as, that was November 20. That was water cannon day and I’m actually writing
about that right now. W riting, for m e, is a form o f therapy. Getting it out and telling people.
Not being specific, but getting it out. But yeah, I was there and that’s the night that haunts
m e the m ost.
TCP: Has there been any form o f repercussion for the Morton County Police?
VC: Not as far as I know. The way that unraveled, the Morton County S h e riffs Department
had told us that they were going to open up that bridge for weeks if not m onths, and that it needed
to go through some structural testing with the department o f transportation to make sure the bridge
was structurally sound. But they stalled and stalled and stalled and they wouldn’t open it. And there
two burned vehicles on the bridge and a few water protectors took it into their own hands to remove
those burned vehicles from the bridge. You know, trying to speed up the process. OK, we’ll remove the
debris, you get the testers in here to test this and let’s getth is bridge open. Because it’s lim iting out
access to emergency services. W hen we had an emergency in camp, it would take an extra 40 minutes for
an ambulance to get there if Standing Rock wouldn’t send theirs, because it was out o f their jurisdiction.
TCP: W hat m ade you com e back?
VC: W e thought that things would change. There was a huge division in camp w hen the Standing
R ock Sioux Tribe decided to pull their support out after Decem ber 5 w hen the easem ent was denied
by the Obam a adm inistration. I originally m oved dow n here to help w ith m y sister and child , and
now that I ’m b ack, I can h elp.
This story was edited fo r clarity and space. Read the complete interview online at
www.theclackamasprint.com.
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