WOMEN The Heart of the Movement

By Yo'Nas Da LoneWolf Hill | Last updated: Oct 13, 2016 - 7:59:41 PM

Greetings Relatives,

We are at war!! As a woman, a mother and your sister in the battlefield, this is not going to be an easy fight.

I just came back from Standing Rock, North Dakota, to stand with my sister tribe The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Myself being Oglala Lakota and African American I felt it was my duty to fight for Mother Earth that the Army Corps of Engineers and over 50 major banks are financing— an oil pipeline that will be built along the Missouri River.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe were very instrumental in mobilizing for the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March: Justice or Else! They reached out and invited me to assist them on bringing awareness and to stand with them on this fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“We are protectors—not protestors” over 5,000 people said, that are camped out in Sacred Stone Camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. When I stood in front of moving bull dozers, and two weeks prior to my arrival the tribal chairman and the tribal members did the same thing, many told me “it’s been the women that has been stepping in front, first.”

We as women have been the heart of the movement. We are the receivers of life. We receive that seed and we turn around and give life. So what happens if we are receiving hate? What do we give out? When my best friend Lakisha Davis’ 13-year-old son Trevion Davis was murdered by the police in Georgia, as a mother I protested in the streets.

When my friend Rumain Brisbon was shot and murdered in front of his children by Phoenix police officer Mark Rine, as a sister of Black men I organized town halls to create collective change and I organized protests in the streets. I stood next to women in Ferguson. I stood next to women in New York. I stood next to women in Atlanta. I stood next to women in Selma. I stood next to women in Arizona. I stood next to women in Standing Rock!

We are at war and just like the Cold War, World War I and II and the Vietnam War, we are having to fill in the void for what men are doing, because they are being slaughtered left and right. The only difference—it’s America killing Americans.

As a mother of a five and 15-year-old sons, I must do something. As a Native American woman I can’t sit back and watch these sick corporations and government continue to steal land that my ancestors died to save. As a African American woman I can’t just sit back and watch another video of these racist cops kill another unarmed Black woman, man or child.

As a human I can’t sit back and watch racist people continue to think they are superior to others because of the color of their skin.

My late mother Wauneta Lonewolf always said that “the woman is the heart of the home.”

Well to add to that, we as women have become the heart of this movement. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that “No nation can rise any higher than its women.” Well what’s going to happen to this nation if all of us get fed up? Maybe a change can happen.

Mitakoye Oyasin - All My Relations YoNasDa Lonewolf Wacipi Olawon Win “Star Song Woman” Human Rights Activist/ NOI / Proud member of the Oglala Lakota Nation

The Final Call