LaDonna Brave Bull Allard: Matriarch of DAPL struggle

FORT YATES, N. D. – As Standing Rock Sioux water protector LaDonna Brave Bull Allard began her journey to the Spirit World on April 10, Native youth carried on the crusade to defend treaty land from pipeline construction, which she inspired when she established the Sacred Stone Camp near here five years ago.

“A matriarch in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline,” the Standing Rock Youth Council called her. “We will continue to stand,” the group posted on social media. Participants in the council, headquartered at Fort Yates, joined other Native pipeline fighters from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, as well as from the Three Affiliated Tribes, in an April 9 rally for the pipeline’s shutdown.

The rally took place at the headquarters of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation in New Town, N.D. It carried on the widespread grassroots support initiated at Sacred Stone Camp for tribal governments’ lawsuits against the pipeline’s permit. Some of the rally participants were fresh from a journey to Washington, D.C. to demand U.S. President Joe Biden stop, not only DAPL’s flow, but also Enbridge’s Mountain Valley, Line 3 and Line 5 construction.

At the Washington event, held April 1, participants stressed Biden’s fulfilled campaign promise to withdraw the Keystone XL Pipeline permit. They requested the president follow suit with the other pipelines, in the interest of climate justice. At New Town, youth asked MHA Nation Tribal Business Council Chair Mark Fox to honor his campaign commitment to protect the water. Voters remember Fox stumping for office with a poster saying, “Water is more valuable than oil!!!”

Fox addressed a March 23 letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, requesting “immediate consultation on the alternatives being considered regarding continuity of operations of the Dakota Access Pipeline” while the permit is under court-ordered review.

Fox notes in the letter that more than half of the oil produced on his Ft. Berthold Indian Reservation goes to market via DAPL, making the Three Affiliated Tribes “unique among other tribes in our region.”

Standing Rock Youth Council participant Love Hopkins, 10, — dressed in a green ribbon skirt and black t-shirt — addressed the MHA Tribal Business Council through Fox when he came outside of its chambers to meet the delegation. “The Army Corp has been playing with First Nation peoples and we are tired of it,” she said. “The government needs to start taking us seriously. They do not have the right to make moves on our land and without our say.”

Fox agreed, but he pointed out that two thirds of the revenue generated by the leased oil sent through the pipeline accrues to individual tribal members. For that reason, he said, they have elected a council that is “choosing to develop our trust resources.” He added, “We believe we can develop energy responsibly and still have a place to live.”

Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member Morgan Brings Plenty, 26, said, “I am here to change you guys’ minds. You need to understand that you are destroying our water. What are you going to do whenever that oil is in our water?”

Fox responded, “I understand where you’re coming from. There is no doubt, the pipeline was wrongly placed there.” The DAPL crosses the Missouri River just upstream from Standing Rock’s drinking water intake from the Oahe Reservoir. He recalled that he met with Standing Rock elected leadership during the 2016-2017 militarized police siege of the resistance camps that joined Sacred Stone. The MHA Nation acted in solidarity by sending part of its corn harvest to the thousands of campers on the banks on the Cannonball River, he noted.

MHA tribal member Kandi White said the reason some people want fracking is fear of the unknown options. She called for community education and workshops. An organizer for Indigenous Environmental Network, she asked for the release of studies the tribe has undertaken on health and environment, and a promise to shift away from oil dependance to renewable sources of energy.

Fox admitted that negative impacts likely outweighed positive ones in the history of oil development on the tribes’ share of the petroleum rich Bakken Formation. “I don’t make promises, but I promise you we know that renewable is the way to go,” he said.

What’s more, he said, “I will never ever change my position that water is more valuable than oil.” He also pledged to release requested documents.

Lisa DeVille, another citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation, said she hails from Mandaree, the community on Ft. Berthold with most oil extraction. Her grassroots Protectors of Water and Earth Rights, POWER, predates the Fox Administration, advocating since 2010 to protect water, land, and air. She thanked Standing Rock youth for joining in.  “No pipeline is safe,” she said.

The Standing Rock youth returned home to the news that Brave Bull Allard’s funeral would be held within a week. “Sending our thoughts and prayers to the family of LaDonna Tamakawastewin Allard,” the youth council said.

Tamakawastewin, or Good Earth Woman, was 64 and suffered from brain cancer. DaWise-Perry Funeral Services is overseeing arrangements. Anyone who wants to “help out” can deliver blankets, star quilts or food to 202 Main St., or P.O. Box 670, Fort Yates, N.D. 58538, her son Freedom McLaughlin said.

“We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support, care and concern, for our mother, teacher, sister, and friend Ladonna Brave Bull Allard,” he posted on the Sacred Stone Camp social media channel. “She lived life courageously and humbly as she pointed towards new possibilities through her way of life and commitment to the land.”

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.net)

The post LaDonna Brave Bull Allard: Matriarch of DAPL struggle first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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