LaDonna Brave Bull Allard Extended Biography
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Tamakawastewin)Extended BiographyYou may wish to share this biography with students, or just to read it for your own information.LaDonna Brave Bull Allard was born on June 8th some time in the mid-1960s. Allard’s real name differs from her given name and is actually Tamakawastewin, which means “her good earth woman.” She traces her lineage through the Ihanktonwan (Yanktonai) and Dakota Sioux. She is in a good position to do so because she is the historian and genealogist of the Standing Rock Sioux. The Standing Rock Sioux rose to international prominence for their fight against an American corporation, Energy Transfer Partners, to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. The protests reached their height from 2016-17 and were based on concerns that the pipeline threatened tribal sovereignty, water quality, and burial grounds. International news outlets began to cover the protests which pitted self-labeled “water protectors”, engaged in non-violent tactics including prayer, against law enforcement and private security, who employed riot control tactics including pepper spray, tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, dogs, and physical subdual. Although she credits the youth as the real activists behind efforts to protect water and territorial claims, Tamakawastewin (LaDonna Brave Bull) became famous for leading that fight. The fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline, both in the courts and on the ground, was emblematic of larger questions about which communities matter in a global economy. Was it the international tribal confederation organized in support of the Sioux or Energy Transfer Partners investors? Was it indigenous leaders all over the world or business leaders and consumers? Was it drivers and plastic users or water drinkers and land owners? Was it the veterans who joined the protest or the veterans who worked for law enforcement and private security companies tasked with breaking the protest? As you can see, these categories sometimes overlapped. But one of the things that matters a lot to Tamakawastewin is one of the best things available for thinking through these questions: history. The deeper history of U.S.-Native American relations in general and the Dakotas in particular was very much alive during the protests. Recalling the violence that accompanied the suppression of the protests, Tamakawastewin said “every incident that happened, with the police and military actions, happened on [the] event of something that [had] already happened in Indian country.” One event that stands out is the Whitestone Massacre of September 3, 1863. This took place at Whitestone Hill, about 170 miles east of Standing Rock, on land claimed by the Sioux at the time. There U.S. soldiers squared off with a Sioux encampment with orders to surround the camp and secure the surrender of the inhabitants. In the morning a party of warriors attempted to leave the camp and in the chaos that followed 22 soldiers were killed, some by friendly fire, the camp was burned to the ground, and as many as 300 civilians were massacred. One of the survivors of Whitestone Hill was Tamakawastewin’s grandmother. On September 3, 2016, construction workers bulldozed sacred sites at Standing Rock and private security released dogs and pepper sprayed protestors. Thankfully, there was no massacre on the 153rd anniversary of Whitestone Hill. But the parallels were clear to Tamakawastewin who considers herself a living continuation of the survivors of Whitestone Hill. The gravesites of some of those survivors were destroyed at Standing Rock. Once again, control of land and resources was backed with violence over the objections of the Sioux. The battles in the courts and use of eminent domain echoed the treaty negotiations and Indian removal of previous centuries. But there were new distinctions to the similarities as well. Like Whitestone, the protestor camps were set on fire. But this time it was
2LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Tamakawastewin) - Extended Biographydone by the protestors themselves, as part of a leaving ceremony, rather than by U.S. soldiers, as part of a scorched earth campaign. This time 400, 000 pounds of bison meat was not destroyed and survivors were not left starving. One final piece of history present at Standing Rock was a Sioux prophecy about a black snake. Tamakawastewin remembers “our grandmothers used to talk about this Black Snake that would be coming to destroy the earth.” At the time her elders speculated that it might be in reference to the interstates covered in black tar. But the prophecy re-emerged as the black snake became associated with the Dakota Access Pipeline. Alongside Tamakawastewin, it became emblematic of the #nodapl movement appearing in everything from graffiti art to t-shirts and posters. According to Tamakawastewin, “the prophecy says that when the Black Snake comes we will stand up and stop it.” She concludes “people may think that is a far-fetched idea. But it is a reality because we must stop destroying what gives us life.”