Cheryl Angel interview

In a conversation with Marcial Godoy-Anativia, Cheryl Angel discusses her role in protecting the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation water source located by the Missouri River. After 500 years of "everybody making their buck," Angel reflects on Native and non-Native Americans coming together in a collective fight against the Pipeline. She co-founded the Sacred Stone Camp in April 2016 as a shared space for prayer, resistance, and education where tribes and activists could come together in resistance. "It was like building a community from scratch on traditions that we have practiced for centuries." Additional topics discussed include camping strategy, decolonization training for outsiders, the role of social media, and navigating police brutality

Cheryl Angel is a Lakota woman, Sicangu/Oohenumpa from South Dakota, and a frontline water protector at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, where she supported Sacred Stone Camp starting in April 2016. While there, she worked to integrate deep prayer with nonviolent direct action, guiding two women-led actions in resistance to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. On July 3, 2020, Angel participated in the 3-hour blockade of the main access road from Keystone to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills on the occasion of Donald Trump's visit and rally. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota Sioux, the original occupants of this land, and the creation of this monument stands in violation of the Treaty of 1868 and indigenous sovereignty