Faith Spotted Eagle

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carson reading

https://billmoyers.com/story/standing-firm-standing-rock-pipeline-protesters-will-not-moved/

The

first sign that not everything is normal as you drive down Highway 1806 toward the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota is a checkpoint manned by camouflage-clad National Guard troops. The inspection on Sept. 13 was perfunctory; they simply asked if we knew “what was going on down the road” and then waved us through, even though the car we rode in had “#NoDAPL” chalked on its rear windshield.

“What is going on down the road” is a massive camp-in led by the Standing Rock nation, aimed at blocking the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (the DAPL in question), which would carry oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota across several states and under the Missouri River.

What began with a small beachhead last April on the banks of the Cannonball River on land belonging to LaDonna Brave Bull Allard has expanded to both banks of the river and up the road, to multiple camps that have housed as many as 7,000 people from all over the world. Because of them, first the Obama administration and then a federal court stepped in to temporarily halt construction of the pipeline near the campsite. Still, the people of Standing Rock and their thousands of supporters aren’t declaring victory and folding their tents just yet.

We’re already winterizing in all aspects of the camp.

— Lay Ha

The legal struggles for a permanent shutdown of the pipeline construction continue: the people of Standing Rock have filed a lawsuit to halt construction, as has one of the South Dakota Native American nations and landowners in Iowa as well. As the lawsuits proceed, other members of the camp have been involved in nonviolent direct actions, locking their arms around construction machinery to prevent digging. Dozens have been arrested as part of those actions, including 22 people on Sept. 12, the day I arrived at the camp. That was days after the Obama administration’s call for a temporary halt to construction on the pipeline, and a stark reminder that the struggle was not over.

In addition to the legal battles and the direct actions, though, the people of the Oceti Sakowin and Sacred Stone camps were preparing for another challenge: a North Dakota winter. Already at night, the temperature drops to 40 degrees Fahrenheit; deliveries of blankets and warm clothing were constant, as was the chopping of wood for fires and discussion of what kinds of structures would allow the camps to stay in place through the bitter cold months ahead.

[pix: Oceti Sakowin camp seen from a hill on Sept. 14, 2016. (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com)

“We’re already winterizing in all aspects of the camp, young people working with the elders to find, whether it’s longhouses, whether it’s yurts, whether it’s any kind of structures that would keep us warm for the winter,” said Lay Ha, who traveled to North Dakota from the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in late August and became part of the camp’s youth council.

They’re staying partly out of suspicion: A temporary halt is, of course, just temporary. “As far as I can see, it’s just another way to lull us to sleep, make us go to sleep so we leave and then they’ll start again,” said Ista Hmi, an elder from Wanblee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation and a member of the Seven Council Fires. “The Missouri [River] here, it was poisoned already from the pesticides and all that but we were still able to clean it,” he said. “But those are just topical compared to this oil. The oil, if it gets in here, it will start destroying the ecosystem underneath; it’ll be dead water.”

[ pixFlags at Oceti Sakowin camp, Sept. 14, 2016. (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com)

“We’re protecting the water, we’re not protesters,” explained Lay Ha. To him, as to many others in the camp, that the action is led by Native people, that it is built around their belief in nonviolence and in the spirit of prayer, is vital. It is, to them, much more than a protest.

Ha is Arapaho and Lakota on his father’s side and Eastern Shoshone on his mother’s; he is part of what has become the largest coming together of Native people in, many said, more than 100 years. The flags that flap overhead represent something more than a fight for clean water — they are a powerful statement of solidarity, a declaration of common interest.

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The first camp you pass once through the checkpoint is a small one on the side of the road overlooking the construction site. Further along, signs, flags and banners hang from the barbed-wire fence along the road. A massive banner declares “No DAPL!” Spray-painted on a concrete barrier are the words “Children Don’t Drink Oil.” Then emerges the breathtaking sight of what is now called the Oceti Sakowin camp: Flags from well over 200 Native nations and international supporters line the driveway into the camp, flapping in the high plains wind. People ride through the camp on horseback. At the entrance, when you drive in, you are greeted by security and a man with burning sage to smudge your car. Just beyond, at the main fire, a microphone is set up for speakers and performers: When we arrived, Joan Baez sat by the fire, singing “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

An “updated” road sign. Behind, people march from the Oceti Sakowin camp to the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site, Sept. 13, 2016. (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com)

Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network was wearing a “No Fracking” T-shirt when I met her at the media tent, doing an interview alongside a delegation from Ecuador of indigenous people who have also fought the oil companies there. She is from northwestern North Dakota, the Fort Berthold reservation, and the oil that would travel through the Dakota Access Pipeline is extracted from her community. She came to Standing Rock for the formation of the original camp, known as the Sacred Stone camp, on LaDonna Allard’s land. At first, she remembered, the camp had anywhere from five to 30 people.

Then, when Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, put out notification that it was going to begin construction, the camp swelled to 200, then 700. It spilled over the river, into what was at first simply called the overflow camp. But as that camp grew, the campers began to feel it deserved its own name. Oceti Sakowin is the name for the Seven Council Fires, the political structure of what is known as the Great Sioux Nation. “We had for the first time in 200 years or more, the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation coming together in one place to meet again,” Mossett said.

Faith Spotted Eagle is also part of the Seven Council Fires, from the Ihanktonwan or Yankton band.She too was there on what she remembered as a wintry, blowing day in April when the Sacred Stone camp first opened. An elder and grandmother, she had also been part of the successful fight against the KeystoneXL Pipeline, and pointed out that the networks activated by that fight were coming together again in North Dakota. In 2013, she said, a dream of her grandmother sent her to look at the 1863 treaty between her people and the Pawnee. On the 150th anniversary of that treaty, Jan. 25, 2013, those nations, along with the Oglala and Ponca, signed theInternational Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands Projects. “In that treaty, we declared that forevermore we would be allies to stop this extractive move to destroy Mother Earth from the Boreal forest down to the Gulf,” she said. Since that time, other nations have joined, and the treaty was renewed with prayers and a donation to the Sacred Stone camp.

We are 4 percent of the world’s population, but we are protecting more than 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

— Nina Gualinga

“A lot of those networks, it took years for them to come together. Standing Rock will do the same thing for the next one. It is a progressive healing and learning,” Spotted Eagle continued. In the unlikely alliances that came together, from the Keystone XL fight to Standing Rock, with farmers and landowners joining their actions, she noted, “That was where the power was.”

To Dave Archambault II, the tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, the struggle — and the response from indigenous people — is global. He greeted reporters Sept. 14 alongside the delegation from Ecuador. “We all have similar struggles, where this dependency this world has on fossil fuels is affecting and damaging Mother Earth,” he said. “It is the indigenous peoples who are standing up with that spirit, that awakening of that spirit and saying, ‘It is time to protect what is precious to us.'” Nina Gualinga, one of the Ecuadorian visitors, noted, “The world needs indigenous people. The statistics say that we are 4 percent of the world’s population, but we are protecting more than 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.”

In an age where courts have deemed corporate entities “persons” with legal rights, Spotted Eagle sees a certain symmetry in the encampment’s philosophy: “The corporations have become individuals, the privatization has given them rights of individuals to just go out and wreak havoc,” she said. “Well, the river has a right and that right is being infringed upon.”

[pix:

A press conference with (from left to right) Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II, Ecuadorian environmental and indigenous rights activist Franco Viteri, Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network and Ecuadorian environmental and indigenous rights activist Nina Gualinga, Sept. 14, 2016. (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com) ]

So do the people who live around it, she argues. “We are above all challenging the lack of consultation, of course, and the free prior and informed consent. Then, just our cultural freedom. We would never put a native pipeline underneath Arlington Cemetery,” Spotted Eagleadded. But, she noted wryly, “It’s always a risk when you go into the courts. These courts are the courts of the conqueror.”

A sign along the highway near the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site reads “Flint Stands with Standing Rock.” (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com)

Winter will be hard, Spotted Eagle concedes. She said she hopes “the outside world will help” with donations. But, she added: “The ones that will stay are really going to have to bear down and address their cooperation even deeper, because if you go wandering off by yourself, you can perish, literally, up here.”

[pix Kandi Mossett on a hill overlooking the Oceti Sakowin camp. (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com)

That outside support from individuals and environmental groups, she said, should respect the leadership of the Native people.” The message to the big greens is, stand by us, don’t co-opt us. And sometimes, they have to stand behind us, because 4,000, 7,000 Indians is a lot of Indians.”

Some of the campers were planning trips back and forth, while others were committed to staying. The nature of the camp has been to swell and shrink; on the weekends, Kandi Mossett said, it grows exponentially. The estimate of 7,000 at one time does not count all the people who have passed through briefly, bringing messages of solidarity from places like Charlotte, North Carolina and Flint, Michigan. “I have people calling me, emailing me every day: ‘I am going to be able to come out in two weeks, are you still going to be there?'” Mossett said. “I say, ‘Of course.'”

For those who can’t make it to the camp, Mossett noted, there are other ways that supporters have held actions in solidarity with the camps. “We are targeting the financers of this project: the banks,” she said.

click to view this map on LittleSis

There are petitions, Facebook pages for the Sacred Stone and Red Warrior camps, and a call for Barack Obama to visit the camp. “We will welcome you, we will greet you, we will feed you, we will put up a tepee for you,” Mossett said.

The long-term strategy, she said, is similar to that of the Keystone XL project. “They told us ‘You are crazy. It is a done deal.’ They told us that about the Keystone XL and they are telling us that now about Dakota Access, that it is a done deal. We respectfully disagree.” If the permit is granted, she said, they will continue to hold the space, to risk arrest, to halt construction. “Companies and shareholders, they only have so much patience and they are losing money,” she noted. “That is the bottom line: money. The more we can delay them, the more we can stall them, the more we know we are winning.”

The sentiments of Mossett and Spotted Eagle underscore what is perhaps most significant about the camps along the Cannonball River: What is happening here is something more than just a fight to stop a pipeline.

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The word I heard over and over again from the people I interviewed was “decolonize.”

In the speak-outs and prayer circles, speaker after speaker, from the Pacific Northwest and from the Amazon, from New York to Arizona recalled the historic violence committed against Native American people not far from where the camp stood.

Many recalled the Battle of the Greasy Grass,what is taught to schoolchildren as the Battle of Little Bighorn, which LaDonna Allard wrote was the last time the Oceti Sakowin came together. But for her and others, the massacres at Wounded Knee and Whitestone were closer to mind. It was the anniversary of the Whitestone massacre, where 250 women and children were killed by the US military, when private security guards turned dogs on the protesters at Standing Rock. It was Faith Spotted Eagle’s people, the Ihanktonwan, along with the Hunkpapa, that were killed there, and the use of police and security against peaceful protesters brought up those memories.

RELATED: Activism

What You Need to Know About the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest

BY Gail Ablow | September 9, 2016

The echoes of historic struggles were everywhere, and to Spotted Eagle, they were reminders that the fight for the water is just a part of the fight for an entire way of life that was nearly crushed. She was raised speaking Dakota, and counted herself lucky to have her language and the worldview that came with it. The grass-roots organizing that brought together the camp, she said, was helping the Standing Rock people and other tribal governments to look past the structures imposed on them by the process of colonization. “If we don’t stop and every single day examine how I have become like the colonizer, I asked my daughter, ‘What is going to happen someday if we lose our songs, if we lose our language and we no longer think like Natives?’ She said, ‘Then the colonization process is complete.'”

In the camp, they experimented with bringing back the long-ago structure of the Oceti Sakowin. “The second part of that struggle is to wade through the colonialism that has happened between then and now and to figure out, ‘What can we bring back with some modifications that will work for the people?'” she said. “There have been a lot of attempts to revive the Oceti Sakowin, but it hasn’t happened because we didn’t have a common focus.”

Did you forget we are sovereign nations? We are going to do this and make it happen.

— Kandi Mossett

The common struggle has in turn opened up a space for different people to come together and share their songs and dances, their prophecies and histories. The lack of good cell phone service, Lay Ha noted, forces people to be more present. “It just brings you back to the old days where you hear the language, you hear our culture, you get to see youth riding on horseback and it’s really a change, it’s really decolonizing ourselves.”

“We are at the right point in time,” Spotted Eagle agreed. “We are free at this space in time.”

Walking around the camp, you pass singing circles and the kitchen — Tuesday night the menu was moose, brought all the way from Maine by a visitor to the camp. A nurse from the medic tent made rounds, making sure that people knew that at night, the Standing Rock ambulance parked on the grounds would leave but the medics would be on duty. Young children played volleyball and posed for photographs, finished from their day at school — a fully recognized school that teaches both the core curriculum so children at the camp won’t fall behind their schools at home, and also teaches songs and dances, languages and history, about the treaties and the fight for the water.

At night, campfires burned and tepees glowed, lit from within, as the open mic for speak-outs gave way to singing and dancing.

“We have had a few growing pains, but that is to be expected when you go from 30 people to 1,000 people in two or three days,” Mossett said. “There are a lot of logistics behind the scenes, things that people don’t see. Where are people going to go to the bathroom? Bringing in porta potties. Waste disposal. It was a really beautiful thing to see the community step up on our own and say, ‘Did you forget we are sovereign nations? We are going to do this and make it happen.'”

The coming together of the nations was something Mossett wanted for as long as she could remember, and that more than anything helped her envision a victory, not just against the Dakota Access Pipeline, not just against the whole extractive industry but for something much bigger.

“This pipeline would have already been built if we hadn’t come out here, taken back the power for ourselves and said, ‘Hey, nobody is going to help us or protect us except for us,'” Mossett said. “I think it was the nonviolent direct actions. In fact, I know that it was the nonviolent direct actions that got us to this point.”

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Brave Heart Society

PO Box 667

Lake Andes,SD 57356

https://www.braveheartsociety.org/?fbclid=IwAR2WdL-FS0LDUI8v2H92SfPdZyPvL4KjZlTScSqv-g8eLKPY_r-BJWwCR24

https://www.braveheartsociety.org/contact

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https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/black-hills-heart-everything-wamaka-ognaka-ecante/

no lnx

https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/the-black-hills-the-heart-of-everything-that-is-wamaka-ognaka-e-cante-xwkxAMnbMkCJeKh2nBPOxw/

The Black Hills: The Heart of Everything That Is (Wamaka Ognaka e’cante)

Indian Country Today

Jan 19, 2017

President Obama, protect Paha Sapa, The Sacred Black Hills, by declaring it a National Monument of the Sioux peoples.

I was dropping my daughter off at the airport when I received shocking news. According to the reporter who had just called me, I had become the first Native to receive an electoral vote in the history of the United States. My father’s and grandfather’s teachings came into my mind – there are no accidents with God, the Creator. So, what was America trying to say? How could I help to provide a response that would honor the prayer that was in the heart of the person who cast this vote? How could I best serve those in our country who are deeply concerned about the future of Grandmother Earth and the next seven generations?

My name is Faith Spotted Eagle, and I am of the Dakota and Nakota Nations within the Oceti Sakowin, otherwise known as “The Great Sioux Nation.” I have been described as many things, such as “activist,” “pipeline protester,” “elder,” even “general hell raiser.” To those who know me, I am a mother, grandmother, and a woman who strives to protect the sacred, whether it is through my work on the Ihanktonwan Treaty Committee, my commitment to those suffering from PTSD and generational trauma, or through the Brave Heart Society, a traditional circle that seeks to “enhance and preserve the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota culture for coming generations.”

I would like to begin by first saying, Wopida, (the greatest of thanks) to President Obama for a decision that I believe has impacted Native Nations forever. On December 3, 2016 the easement for the DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE (DAPL) was denied. If this decision is respected by the Trump administration, it will prevent Energy Transfer Partners from drilling under the Missouri River, a vulnerable river body that provides drinking water for over 17 million people. Furthermore, in an answer to the prayers of our water protectors, the Army Corps announced that an EIS or Environmental Impact Statement would be mandated. For the first few minutes after the announcement, the 10,000 + people at the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) camp, were in shock. Then drums began to pound with reserved celebration, spreading prayers throughout the Cannonball River Camps. We were each aware that this announcement was merely a respite in a battle that is being fought in communities around the world. For those few days however, Ina Maka, Mother Earth donned her white shawl of snow, and a blizzard celebrated along with us for four sacred days. With this decision, federal agencies have chosen to acknowledge that Native Peoples are still intact and that our ability and commitment to protecting sacred sites helps to strengthen relationships with the natural world for all Peoples. This includes, of course, protection of the first medicine of life … Mni Wiconi, the water of all life.

There is one decision that remains to be considered by a brave President of United States history. The spiritual homelands of the Oceti Sakowin, the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota Peoples, are in the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, known to us as Paha Sapa. As has been acknowledged by the Supreme Court and is known by international governments throughout the world, the U.S. government illegally seized the Black Hills, our most holy of places. We have watched with tears in our eyes as this sacred mountain range and the surrounding lands have been cracked open and “resources” extracted. We have cried as generations have become sick from the poison that is being extracted from these hills.

President Obama, we understand that you can protect Paha Sapa**, The Sacred Black Hills, by declaring it a National Monument of the Sioux peoples, as defined in the Ft. Laramie Treaties of 1851, 1868, and the Great Sioux Nation.* Monument status would not change the status of Treaty or unceded lands, as those rights would be retained and respected. In doing so, President Obama, the consistent, steady process of decolonization and deconstruction can begin to be reversed. When this occurs, true healing will begin, not just for our own Peoples, but for the United States of America and for the world. Any potential “resource revenue loss” to the state and federal governments will easily be exceeded by the tourism dollars of visitors from around the world who will come to experience our culture and traditions, as we have been taught by our Elders and Ancestors to always share our traditions and teachings with those who come to us with an honest and sincere heart. President Obama, The Black Hills contains our “cante,” or our heart. Long before the settlers came, the Oceti Sakowin* knew that The Black Hills were made in the shape of a heart. NASA later verified this with satellite imagery. President Obama, please help to restore our heart.

Faith Spotted Eagle, Tunkan Inajin Winya, (Dakota/Nakota) is a mother and grandmother. She is committed to her work on Ihanktonwan Treaty Committee, leading the Brave Heart Society and counseling people suffering from PTSD.

may 2018

https://indianyouth.org/news/detail/women-of-running-strong-for-american-indian-youth-faith-spotted-eagle

"My name is Faith Spotted Eagle, and I am of the Dakota and Nakota Nations within the Oceti Sakowin, otherwise known as ‘The Great Sioux Nation.’ I have been described as many things, such as ‘activist,’ ‘pipeline protester,’ ‘elder,’ even ‘general hell raiser.'

To those who know me, I am a mother, grandmother, and a woman who strives to protect the sacred, whether it is through my work on the Ihanktonwan Treaty Committee, my commitment to those suffering from PTSD and generational trauma, or through the Brave Heart Society, a traditional circle that seeks to ‘enhance and preserve the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota culture for coming generations.’"**

Faith Spotted Eagle (Tunkan Inajin Win – Standing Stone) was born in Lake Andes, South Dakota in 1948 at a time when opportunities for Native women were practically nonexistent.

But Faith had faith that she could make a significant improvement in the lives of her fellow members of the Yankton Sioux Nation by attending American University in Washington DC, and earning an MA in Educational Psychology and Counseling from the University of South Dakota.

To really make a difference for her people in the local, state and federal levels, she was not satisfied simply being an activist fighting for Native rights from the outside, she strived to do so from inside government by running for a seat in the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2006. She placed third in the Democratic Party primary out of three candidates, winning the most votes of any candidate in the majority-Native American Buffalo County in the district.

In the 2016 presidential election, Faith received one electoral vote for president of the United States, becoming the first Native American to receive an electoral college vote for president. She and Hillary Clinton are the first two women to receive such a vote.

Today, Faith is running for the District 21 seat of the South Dakota House of Representatives.

She is also a strong protector of the environment working strongly to block development of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Her ties to Running Strong for American Indian Youth®, as a founding grandmother of our longtime partner the Brave Heart Society, are strong and deep.

The Brave Heart Society was formed with the mission of bringing back traditional knowledge by “calling home the spirit of the culture.” Brave Heart grandmothers believe that culture is medicine, and the success of their many projects show the true strength of their culture.

Among those projects is “Isnati Awica Dowanpi” a coming-of-age ceremony for teenage girls, and one of the society’s greatest accomplishments. The once-forbidden and nearly lost ceremony had been forced underground, if not completely extinguished, before the 1978 American Indian Freedom of Religion Act.

As one of the seven sacred rites of the Lakota, the purpose of the Isnati is to teach young women to respect themselves, their roles and their bodies through the instruction of elder women.

Other projects of the Brave Heart Society include its “Calling Back the Spirit” healing retreat which aims to heal the traumas of abuse and addiction; the “Good Heart” garden which provides the Yankton Reservation community a place to learn practical gardening skills; and the Waterlilly Storytelling Institute, an annual gathering which provides an audience of all ages to share in the rich cultural knowledge passed down through generations.

Faith told manrepeller.com in an interview in 2017 that she didn’t wake up one day and decide she was going to be an activist.*

“Actually, growing up we didn’t even have the word activist in our vocabulary,” she said. “That’s an English word. We just had a word that means to help people in our family

systems.”

And that is exactly what she has been doing throughout her life – and all of us here at Running Strong are proud to be affiliated with such a strong, remarkable woman.

*A Native American Activist Speaks Candidly About What It’s Like by Jackie Homan

**The Black Hills: The Heart of Everything That Is (Wamaka Ognaka e’cante) by Faith Spotted Eagle

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ref

https://www.manrepeller.com/2017/09/faith-spotted-eagle-activist.html

An increasing number of young people are identifying as activists, but to call this a new trend would not only be naive, it would also be a missed opportunity. Older generations offer an important perspective on what it means to be politically and socially active. In an effort to soak up their knowledge, we’re speaking to activists who have been doing this work for decades. We’ve previously learned from 74-year-old Sally Roesch Wagner, 66-year-old Jackie Warren-Moore, and 71-year-old Felicia Elizondo. Today, we speak with 68-year-old Faith Spotted Eagle.

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When I asked Faith Spotted Eagle about her day-to-day life as a 68-year-old elder of the Yankton Sioux Nation in Lake Andes, South Dakota, she told me she “keeps busy.” That’s a humble understatement. In addition to her well-documented leadership in the Keystone XL Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline protests, Spotted Eagle works to combat sexual violence and assault and serves as a post-traumatic stress disorder therapist. (She has her MA in Educational Psychology and Counseling from the University of South Dakota).

She is also a founding member and leader of Brave Heart Society, a group that’s responsible for safekeeping the environment and sacred sites, in addition to reviving traditional Native American language, culture and ceremonies. We spoke as she was en route to a treaty meeting — she’s also Chairperson of the Ihanktonwan Treaty Steering Committee, where she works to protect the people on treaty lands. On top of that, she’s a mother to two children and a grandmother.

Last year, Spotted Eagle made history. When a faithless elector wrote-in her name on his ballot during the presidential election, she became the first ever Native American to win an electoral college vote for president.

Below, a conversation with Spotted Eagle on environmental activism, intergenerational challenges, Native and non-Native collaborations, and what it’s like to work tirelessly for rights and respect.

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What was your experience growing up in Lake Andes, South Dakota?

It was about community. The way we’re raised is that when you introduce yourself, you introduce your nation first: where you’re from, where you live, your family, and lastly, yourself. We are also place-based societies. When we’re indigenous to a place, a lot of our knowledge is intricate and long-standing. We know these lands, and that gives us, I believe, moral authority in a pre-colonial sense. Throughout the years, I’ve been involved in a number of efforts to defend our lands. It’s a lifelong process.

I didn’t wake up one day and decide I was going to be an activist. Actually, growing up we didn’t even have the word activist in our vocabulary. That’s an English word. We just had a word that means to help people in our family systems.

What aspects of your work are you most proud of?

In 1977, I was a founding member and president of White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, the first Native American women’s shelter in the nation. I realized the need for this shelter when I was a community college instructor. I saw girls come to class with black eyes and injuries, and they said that they just fell down the stairs.

I’m also a survivor of violence. I know what it takes to recover and to fight for your wellness. The statistic now is that three out of five Native American women will be assaulted in their lifetime. So I talked to two women who worked for Indian Health Service and I said, “This is not okay. We need to start some kind of society or something to stop this violence by our own people against our own people.” The shelter still exists today on the Rosebud Reservation.

Some of your work has focused on the connection between violence and oil, relating to pipelines that attempt to cross through your land. Can you explain that connection?

When a pipeline is created, temporary construction camps, known as “man camps,” are built. They’re large groups of men who are without their wives and families, and they often prey on Native American women. This has happened before, and it’s similar to what happens in any war. It’s sexual colonization, and it has an impact.

I spoke with somebody in one of the pipeline companies, and I said, “This is unconscionable to hold this threat to our people when it’s happened before.” He replied, “We’re only going to be there about six months or a year.” But if someone gets raped, it doesn’t affect them for six months — it affects them for life. It’s also a downstream effect in reservations because our men have been colonized to do what white men have done to us. When you have a culture that is bombarded and everything is taken, pretty soon the patterns of the oppressor begin to appear in that dehumanized population too, because the culture is eroding.

The pipelines also affect your land, water and sacred sites. How has your community come together to protest that destruction?

The protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock last year was a unifying call for all tribal people to come together as nations and talk to each other. The pipeline threatened our lifeline, which is the Missouri River. We’re a community that takes water from that river, so if that water is polluted, it will be like what happened with Flint, Michigan. It’s a human rights issue. Standing Rock was an opportunity for 12,000 people to stand up and say, “We don’t want this development.” It was an amazing social experience.

But even though it was beautiful to have so many people come together with the intent to stop the pipeline, there were also some issues that arose. By the end of the camp, probably 90 percent of the protestors were non-Natives. A lot of the white people who came to protest put themselves at the center rather than respecting our culture first. Eventually, the protests sucked the resources from the community. The roads were blocked, so businesses were suffering. When the community said, “It’s time to go home now,” most of the Native people of other communities respected that decision and left, but a lot of the non-Native people stayed.

When I debriefed with people afterwards, the majority said they learned about themselves. They learned about being challenged. They learned about how they could withstand cold weather. They learned about their own discipline or lack of it. They learned about cultural sensitivity or lack of it. They learned about what happens when violence and injury come. I think many people underwent a process of healing while learning to work with all different types of people.

There were also a lot of young people at the protests at Standing Rock. What was that like?

I think it was a learning experience for them. There were some young people that actually said they wouldn’t listen to elders, which was a big shock for us, culturally. To manage the intersection between elders and youth, my daughter Brook and I facilitated women’s groups. We asked questions: Do you feel safe here? Did you come here for a role — what is your role? How can women support each other? We also tried to culturally sensitize some of the white women and women from other races, and we talked about why the elders didn’t want violence because it was a ceremony.

In December, we were joined by U.S. military veterans — estimates of 2,000 to 4,000 — and many of them were young. I was very involved in the facilitation with the veterans as an elder because I’m also a post-traumatic stress disorder therapist and know how to work with soldiers. I relished that opportunity to work with younger veterans because I know that when you are a soldier, you have had to attain a certain amount of discipline. In a time of conflict, which we were in with DAPL, it was like veterans’ sixth sense came into play, and I really appreciated that. A lot of the young soldiers respected my role as an elder, and they looked to me for guidance and were willing to do whatever needed to be done to make the situation safe. I truly believe the veterans had an influence on the Department of Justice.

How did you spend your time after the long protest at Standing Rock was over?

When it got violent on the other side, we said, “They aren’t going to kill us. We’re going to continue in court and in ceremony and in prayers because there are other battles beyond DAPL.” I always call it “the list of 100.” So when the DAPL camp closed and everyone asked me what I was going to do now, I told them, “I’m going to go back to the list of 99 other things that are equally important that we need to stand up for.”

There are so many other issues: sexual violence happening all over because of colonization, continued pollution of the Missouri River, our healthcare rights, the state government continually infringing on our tribal jurisdiction — we have every right to live and have human rights, but they constantly push us and try to take our rights. Our country honors treaties with other governments, but it won’t honor treaties with its own nation. We have given up millions of acres of land in agreements, and they’ve polluted it, they’ve treated us badly, and they’ve denied that they made those agreements.

The Trump administrationhas exacerbated the already high amount of racism and bigotry that exists for Native people. A lot of white males are afraid of losing their identity, which is their power. An animal is most dangerous when it’s dying, and that’s how a lot of white males feel and are behaving in this country. It is a very dangerous time for everybody.

Because of your work as an activist, you received an electoral vote for president from a faithless elector. What was your reaction to that?

When I first heard about it, I was taking my daughter to the airport. I got a phone call, and it was the Los Angeles Times asking me what I thought about my electoral vote. I said, “Let me call you back.” My daughter checked online and found out it was true. Within those first three hours, I got about 25 calls from media all over asking me what I felt. I told the Los Angeles Times that after all the years of standing up for the water and land and all my people, it felt like I got a bouquet of roses.

I called the faithless elector [Democratic Washington state elector Robert Satiacum], and I asked, “Why did you do that?” He said that he had heard me talk at Standing Rock and how I didn’t talk about me, I talked about we. He said, “I heard you as a voice of the people.”

What advice do you have for non-Native people who want to work with you to protect your land and people?

I think our alliances that we’ve created with non-Native people need to grow because when they heal, we heal. They have to realize that they’re impacting this land they’ve taken through violation of treaties and that they can give back. A lot of white people we work with have a sense of guilt, and the way to overcome that guilt of their ancestors is to accept that this happened and that they need to take accountability for their ancestors. Now it’s a different era, and we can stand together as partners in defending the earth that we live on — it’s all we have.

819 ew

A Nebraska court has granted a victory to the owner of the Keystone XL pipeline, removing one of the last major challenges in the project's way.

The state's Supreme Court on Friday ruled unanimously that the state's Public Service Commission had acted in the public interest in approving an alternate route for the pipeline in November 2017. Challengers to the project say that the approval of an alternate route did not include appropriate input from landowners and tribes, who filed a motion with environmental groups to intervene.

"The Nebraska decision to approve the KXL route is not a surprise, but we had hoped they would be courageous to protect the earth, water, and wishes of the indigenous people and our allies," Yankton Sioux member Faith Spotted Eagle said in a statement released by 350.

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Spotted_Eagle

Faith Spotted Eagle (Dakota: Tunkan Inajin Win^[1] or Tȟuŋkáŋ Inážiŋ Win pronounced [tˣuŋkáŋ ináʒiŋ win] "Standing Stone"; born 1948) is a Native American activist and politician. She is a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation who attempted to block development of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline.^[2]

In the 2016 presidential election, she became the first Native American to receive an electoral vote for President of the United Statesas well as one of the first two women to receive an electoral vote for President of the United States.^[3] Spotted Eagle's single vote came from Robert Satiacum Jr., a faithless elector in Washington, who cast it for her instead of Hillary Clinton.

Background

Spotted Eagle is from the village of White Swan, now beneath 140 feet of water at the bottom of Lake Francis Case, a reservoir created by the Fort Randall Dam.^[4] She still lives in the area at nearby Lake Andes, South Dakota.^[5][6] She attended the American University in Washington, D.C., and Black Hills State College in Spearfish, South Dakota, and holds an MA in Educational Psychology and Counseling from the University of South Dakota. Her time as a student included an internship for then-senator George McGovern.^[1]

Spotted Eagle is a native speaker of Lakota, and learned English in school.^[7]

Career

Activism

Spotted Eagle has been a private consultant in PTSD counseling for veterans, as well as a school counselor and principal, and a Dakota language teacher at Sinte Gleska College.^[6][1] She is a founding member of the Brave Heart Society, an organization for teaching girls about traditional culture,^[8] chair of the Ihanktonwan Treaty Committee, and the manager of Brave Heart Lodge in Lake Andes^[6] which seeks to preserve Dakota cultural beliefs for the future.^[1] Spotted Eagle served as a delegate of the Treaty Committee NGO at the United Nations.^[1]

Spotted Eagle criticized President Donald Trump following his use of the term "Pocahontas" to refer to Senator Elizabeth Warren. She referred to the incident as an "emotional assault" that "carries as much weight as a physical assault," and said, "He can phrase it and twist it and distort it any way he wants, the fact remains: That name does not belong in his mouth."^[9][10]

Politics:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

2006 state house candidacy:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Spotted Eagle ran for a seat in the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2006 for the 21st district, which comprises Brule, Buffalo, Charles Mix, Jones, and Lyman counties. She placed 3rd in the Democratic Party primary out of three candidates, receiving 735 votes overall. Spotted Eagle won the most votes of any candidate in majority-Native American Buffalo County.^[11] She had been convinced to run for the seat, but did not actively campaign.^[7]

2016 presidential election

Robert Satiacum Jr., a faithless elector in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, cast his vote for Spotted Eagle

Spotted Eagle received one electoral vote for President of the United States from Robert Satiacum Jr. of Washington, a faithless elector during the 2016 presidential election.^[12]Satiacum explained that Clinton had failed Native Americans, especially regarding the pipeline issue.

Spotted Eagle said that she was surprised when she learned that she received this vote. She said she hoped the vote would increase awareness of the environmental dangers of the Keystone XL project, and that she was now considering running for state office.^[13]

Spotted Eagle is the first Native American to receive an Electoral College vote for President,^[3][14] and she and Hillary Clinton are the first two women to receive an electoral vote for president.^[15]

2018 state house candidacy:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Spotted Eagle ran for District 21 of the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2018 to succeed retiring Democrat Julie Bartling.^[16] She lost the Democratic primary.^[17]

References

===

Robert Satiacum (born 1959/60) is an American political and environmental activist and member of the Puyallup tribe of Washington. He served as a Democratic presidential elector for the 2016 election. By voting for Faith Spotted Eagle, the first Native American to receive an electoral vote for president, Satiacum did not vote as pledged, and as such is regarded as a faithless elector.^[1]

Biography:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Satiacum is the son of the late Robert Satiacum Sr., an advocate for Native fishing rights whose arrest resulted in the landmark Boldt Decision. His wife, Elizabeth, served as an elector for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. In 2010, he served as an officer for the Democratic Party for Pierce County.^[2] Satiacum was a delegate for Bernie Sandersto the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and was nominated as an elector by Patsy Whiteout. Prior to the election, he publicly stated he might not vote for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.^[3][4][5]

Electoral College:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

When the Electoral College voted on December 19, 2016, Satiacum voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American activist from South Dakota for President, and Winona LaDuke, an environmentalist and former Green Party vice presidential candidate from Minnesota, for Vice President. Spotted Eagle and LaDuke became only the second and third Native Americans to receive electoral votes, after Charles Curtis who was elected Vice President in 1928, and made Spotted Eagle the first Native American to receive an electoral vote for president^[1] and LaDuke the first Native American woman to receive an electoral college vote for vice president.^[6] After the Electoral College vote, Satiacum explained that he was prepared to vote for Sanders, but at the last moment was inspired to vote for Spotted Eagle when a fellow elector and Native American, Dan Carpita, started playing a ceremonial song on the flute.^[6]

Satiacum was one of four 2016 faithless electors from Washington, and one of seven total.^[7] He was fined $1,000 after the election.

Personal life and other work:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Robert and Elizabeth Satiacum have six children and ten grandchildren.^[5] He hosts a radio show, Tribal Talk, which airs on KLAY in the Tacoma, Washington area,^[3][8] and founded the cultural activist coalition Full Circle.^[9] He also co-starred in the 2007 film Rain in the Mountains, in which he portrayed a tribal police officer.^[10] Starting in 2010, he has led an effort to officially re-name Mount Rainier.^[9][11][12]

Satiacum advocates for the sweat lodge ritual and mentors others on the red road, a moral path based on traditional native values.^[9]

References:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Satiacum_Jr.#cite_ref-brunner_1-1) Brunner, Jim (December 19, 2016). "Four Washington state electors break ranks and don't vote for Clinton". The Seattle Times. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
^ "Pierce County Democrats, Republicans choose leaders - Political Buzz". Tacoma News Tribune. Archived from the original on 2017-02-03. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Satiacum_Jr.#cite_ref-:0_3-1) Cheney, Kyle (October 12, 2016). "Democratic elector says he may reject Clinton". Politico. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
^ Brand, Natalie (November 4, 2016). ":{'}:Stand up for yourself': WA Democratic Elector won't vote for Clinton". King 5. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Satiacum_Jr.#cite_ref-brunner2_5-1) Brunner, Jim (November 4, 2016). "1 Washington state Democratic elector won't support Clinton, another won't commit". The Seattle Times. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Satiacum_Jr.#cite_ref-Native_6-1) "How Faith Spotted Eagle became the first Native American to win an electoral vote for president". LA Times. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
^ Boccagno, Julia (December 21, 2016). "Which candidates did the seven "faithless" electors support?". CBS News. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
^ "Sense and Sustainability". Daily Kos. August 15, 2011. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Satiacum_Jr.#cite_ref-:1_9-1) ^c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Satiacum_Jr.#cite_ref-:1_9-2) "Puyallup Tribe member wants Mt. Rainier renamed". The Seattle Times. 2010-05-30. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
^ "Independent film tells story from a Native American perspective". Tacoma Weekly. 28 March 2007. Archived from the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
^ "Tribal Alliance Seeks To Restore Native Name For Mount Rainier". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
^ "Tribes embrace native names to preserve culture". azcentral.com. Retrieved 2017-05-01.

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