Recording History at the Dakota Access Pipeline with Camille Seaman

To see more of Camille’s photography and coverage from North Dakota, follow @camilleseaman on Instagram.

Camille Seaman (@camilleseaman) has her #EyesOn the Dakota Access Pipeline. “The message I heard over and over when I was growing up was any harm you do to the environment, you’re doing to yourself,” the California-based photographer says. “I felt called to come not only as an indigenous person, but as a recorder of history.” Camille arrived in North Dakota nearly a month ago, but since April, there have been times when thousands of people gathered near the town of St. Anthony in response to the construction of the pipeline, a means for transporting crude oil out of the state. “From the point of view of the people standing up here, they are calling themselves protectors. They see themselves as not just protecting their own access to water, but the access for those 18 million Americans who also rely on that water,” Camille says. Earlier this week, an appeal to halt the project was struck down in court; the pipeline has permission to continue construction. “This is a huge, global call to stand and say that not only is clean water essential and important, a sacred thing, but it’s time to draw the line in the sand and say enough,” says Camille.