LaDonna Brave Bull Allard was a Standing Rock Sioux elder who spent most of her life educating people about the history of the land and protecting the sacred sites of her people in North Dakota. In 2016, she co-founded the Sacred Stone Camp on Standing Rock Sioux land to resist the building of the Dakota Access pipeline. The resistance to the pipeline, which would put the Missouri River (the water source for the reservation) at risk, attracted thousands from around the world. This week, we learned that LaDonna passed away at the age of 64 from cancer. We leave you with these excerpts of our interview with her last year. We will always remember her courage and undying determination to protect land and water, which she called, “life.”

“When you destroy a water of the community, you destroy a community. When you destroy life, you destroy everything…We cannot do that. We must stand up to protect the water.”