Jewish woman injured at Standing Rock protests, could lose her arm

Protesters say New York native, 21, was hit by police percussion grenade, but police say activists were making bombs

Solidarity protest against the Dakota Access Pipleline near Standing Rock Indian Reservation in San Francisco, California, on November 15, 2016. (CC-BY-SA/Pax Ahimsa Gethen/Wikimedia Commons)
Solidarity protest against the Dakota Access Pipleline near Standing Rock Indian Reservation in San Francisco, California, on November 15, 2016. (CC-BY-SA/Pax Ahimsa Gethen/Wikimedia Commons)

A Jewish woman could lose her arm after being seriously wounded during protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near the border of North and South Dakota.

Activists said Sophia Wilansky, 21, of New York City was hit Sunday night by a police percussion grenade used for crowd control. But law enforcement officials said that protesters were making explosives out of propane bottles when one of them exploded.

This is reportedly the most serious injury since the protests began.

Wilansky was taken on Monday to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, according to Reuters, where she underwent surgery in an attempt to save her arm.

Photos distributed by the activists showed Wilansky with a large, gaping wound in her left arm.

Sophia Wilansky being evacuated to the hospital after being injured during a protest at Standing Rock on Noivember 21, 2016. (Courtesy)
Sophia Wilansky being evacuated to the hospital after being injured during a protest at Standing Rock on Noivember 21, 2016. (Courtesy)

Over the weekend, law enforcement had used water cannons to disperse the protesters, despite sub-freezing temperatures.

The Native American-led protest is trying to stop an oil pipeline that would run near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation on the border of North Dakota and South Dakota. Thousands of anti-pipeline activists have gathered at the reservation since mid-September.

Wilansky, a 2016 graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, had been at the protest site for three weeks when she was injured. She had planned to remain there.

Her father told a Minneapolis television station that most of her radius bone is missing, her arteries are gone, and the main nerve and about 80 percent of the muscle on her forearm were blown away. He told reporters at the hospital that doctors said she will need as many as 20 surgeries in the coming months in an attempt to save her arm and her hand.

Earlier this month another Jewish woman, Erin Schrode, 25, a self-described citizen activist and journalist, appeared to have been shot by a rubber bullet while conducting an interview with a Native American man on the sideline of the protest.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their supporters gathering to voice their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, September 3, 2016 (DAPL). (AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECK)
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their supporters gathering to voice their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, September 3, 2016 (DAPL). (AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECK)

 

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