Back in November, the standoff in North Dakota between “water protectors” and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, set a tense backdrop to the national election. Law enforcement was growing more aggressive towards the protesters, and it looked like things might reach a bloody conclusion — until the Army Corps of Engineers abruptly denied ETP the permits needed to drill below the Missouri River.

Many were overjoyed at the announcement. But with Donald Trump headed for the White House, activists dug in for the winter. Signs on camp lavatories listed the symptoms of hypothermia — the day of the Army Corps announcement, water protectors faced 37 MPH winds and snow heavy enough to collapse all but the soundest structures. Still, they persisted. “We should all stay until it’s over,” said Standing Still of the Ojibwe tribe. “It starts here and it should stop here. If it goes past this river, it’s going to affect 18 million people down the Missouri river.”

The harrowing conditions at Standing Rock can be seen as a metaphor for the Left’s arduous task over the next four years. Fortunately, social movements seem to be responding with similar determination. The week after the election, tens of thousands took to the streets, many of them middle- and high-schoolers. The largest student walkout occurred in Seattle, where five thousand students from twenty middle and high schools took the streets; they were joined by students in Portland, San Francisco, Maryland, and Los Angeles (where they chanted “Undocumented and unafraid” and “No papers, no fear”). In Boston, students briefly occupied City Hall in an attempt to deliver their demands, which included making Massachusetts a “sanctuary state.”