Standing Rock: The Enduring Power of the Human Spirit, and Grassroots Radio

Standing Rock: The Enduring Power of the Human Spirit and Grassroots Radio

Today we honor grassroots radio as a marker in history, and the Native youths and brave women, the Water Protectors of Standing Rock

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Oct. 16, 2025

The day was August 22, 2016, and the place was Standing Rock. Govinda arrived from the west, and Michelle Cook arrived from Arizona. Govinda, in a borrowed van, and Michelle, with a ragged tent, together produced the first sounds of Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio.

Amazingly, the first broadcasts are still preserved, and we share three women's interviews, and the Tlingit Water Song, live from those first broadcasts. From the barrio house, with surveillance circling, I saved those live broadcasts, and shared those with radio stations around the world. They played on radio stations coast to coast, and in other countries.

Today, we honor the beginning, the enduring power of the human spirit and the enduring power of grassroots radio, with the voices of Native youths and women.

Naelyn and Baase Pike, Apache, Oak Flat https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/08/oak-flat-resistance-live-standing-rock.html

Debra White Plume, Oglala Lakota https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/09/listen-lakota-debra-white-plume-red.html 

Dr. Michelle Cook, Dine', https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/08/dine-michelle-cook-on-standing-rock.html 

Tlingit Water Song, with messages from Oceti Sakowin Camp https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/08/listen-standing-rock-resistance-radio_24.html