 |
LaDonna Tamakawastewin (Good Earth Woman) Brave Bull Allard June 8, 1955 – April 10, 2021 |
Censored News
LaDonna Tamakawastewin Brave Bull Allard, founder of Sacred Stone Camp at Standing Rock, passed to the Spirit World on Saturday, April 10. LaDonna offered her land at Standing Rock for the movement that inspired a global revolution and a new generation of Water Protectors who stood for the water. She died after suffering from brain cancer.
LaDonna's son, Freeland McLaughlin, said, "She lived life courageously and humbly as she pointed toward new possibilities through her way of life and commitment to the land."
LaDonna said, “I was asked, 'When do you consider this pipeline issue to be over?' I said when every pipe is out of the ground and the earth is repaired across the United States. I am not negotiating, I am got backing down. I must stand for our grandchildren and for the water.”
LaDonna passed to the Spirit World one day after the Biden administration announced on Friday that it would not halt the flow of crude oil through the Dakota Access Pipeline, during the court-ordered environmental review.
With the words "Mni Wiconi, Water is Life," now heard around the world, and the reminder that "all pipelines break," it has been five years since the movement to protect the water of the Missouri River began at Sacred Stone Camp in the spring of 2016.
Freeland said in keeping with his mother's wishes, those who want to donate, Pendleton blankets, star quilts and food can be donated at 202 Main Street, Fort Yates, North Dakota, at Standing Rock, PO Box 670, Fort Yates, North Dakota 58538.
Funeral arrangements:
 |
| LaDonna's husband Miles Allard passed to the Spirit World after suffering from a heart attack on Feb. 8, 2018. |
Remembering LaDonna in her own words
In the long fight to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline, which continues to threaten the Missouri River and the drinking water of the masses, LaDonna said in 2017:
"This movement is not just about a pipeline. We are not fighting for a reroute, or a better process in the white man’s courts. We are fighting for our rights as the indigenous peoples of this land; we are fighting for our liberation, and the liberation of Unci Maka, Mother Earth. We want every last oil and gas pipe removed from her body. We want healing. We want clean water. We want to determine our own future."
"Each one of us is fighting for our grandchildren, and their grandchildren, and for our relatives who cannot speak or fight back. Imagine if we had stood together on October 27, the day police pushed us out of the Treaty Camp we built in the very path of the Black Snake—our most powerful position in this entire struggle. What if our own people had not negotiated away our power? What if our people had not opened the roads and then turned to march against us with outstretched arms, in line with the riot police and armored vehicles? Why pass resolutions calling federal agents to attack our people and evict the camps as the drill digs beneath our sacred water? How powerful could we be if we agree to stand our ground on our treaty land where we have laid thousands of prayers?
"Each one of us is fighting for our grandchildren, and their grandchildren, and for our relatives who cannot speak or fight back. Imagine if we had stood together on October 27, the day police pushed us out of the Treaty Camp we built in the very path of the Black Snake—our most powerful position in this entire struggle. What if our own people had not negotiated away our power? What if our people had not opened the roads and then turned to march against us with outstretched arms, in line with the riot police and armored vehicles? Why pass resolutions calling federal agents to attack our people and evict the camps as the drill digs beneath our sacred water? How powerful could we be if we agree to stand our ground on our treaty land where we have laid thousands of prayers?
"Our ancestors did not abandon the Pȟežísla Wakpá (the Little Bighorn River), when we last unified the Oceti Sakowin and defended our land from the Seventh Calvary; we too must not abandon Mni Sose (the Missouri River). We must not sell our people’s blood, land, and water to uphold the dysfunction we live under now. We have no choice but to break the cycle of trauma so our future generations can have a better life. I believe it starts with the water and ends with the water. Water is life. Will you stand with us?"
 |
After Sacred Stone Camp was bulldozed, and Oceti Sakowin Water Protectors Camp destroyed by the U.S. government and militarized police in February of 2017, LaDonna was a member of a delegation of Native women to Europe in the fall of 2017. The delegation, organized by Divest, Invest, Protect, and WECAN International, urged financial institutions to divest from Dakota Access Pipeline and fossil fuels. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2017/10/indigenous-womens-delegation-pursues.html At Censored News, we offer our sincere condolences to her family and all those who loved her. -- Brenda Norrell |
No comments:
Post a Comment