Video Lakota Land Defender connects the legacy and future of Standing Rock and Cop City

Jan. 18, 2025 marked two years since Georgia State Patrol killed Tortuguita. The anniversary of the forest defender’s death has become known as the Day of the Forest Defender. Members of the Lakota Nation traveled to Atlanta for the anniversary to stand in solidarity with Tortuguita’s family and the movement to Stop Cop City.

Jasilyn Charger, a land defender of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, spoke with the Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC) about the interconnectedness her tribe’s fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock and Atlanta’s battle against Cop City.

Transcript:

Jasilyn: What do you do when your people are under attack?
Crowd: Stand up fight back!

Jasilyn: What do you do when your water is under attack?
Crowd: Stand up fight back!

Jasilyn: What do you do when your brother is under attack?
Crowd: Stand up fight back!

Jasilyn: What do you do when your sister is under attack?
Crowd: Stand up fight back!

Jasilyn: What do you do when your land is under attack?
Crowd: Stand up fight back!

Jasilyn: Standing Rock and Cop City are interconnected. You cannot talk about one without talking about the other. Like roots of a tree and streams of water, they bleed into each other. The movement to Stop Cop City has definitely been a seed that was planted after Standing Rock that was watered by, you know, the events that happened in Standing Rock, and to see the roots grow through the communities and to see the lessons learned and the people it’s brought together, has been a beautiful sight.

You know, from someone who helped birth Standing Rock from the beginning to the bitter end, to see that movement still carried on the backs of the young people and the people in the cities, has been a beautiful sight to see that the ripples are still going throughout the time, throughout the generations.

You can’t talk about social justice, racial justice, environmental justice without talking about Indigenous rights, because everywhere on Turtle Island is stolen land. And it may be a different environment, but it is the same story. It may be a different place, but it’s still the same people oppressing us. It’s still people putting their boot to our neck.

Through these struggles and through this pain creates a stage of unity that connects us to each other. It creates a banner that we all can stand under and through what the government and these systems that were created to oppress us, they have given us, a sense of unity, because it’s always been throughout time, through struggle and strife of injustices. It’s always been people of color, and it’s always been the youth who stand up and who rise, rise to the occasion. And so when we go to the forest and we go to land, we are coming home and we’re coming back into ourselves. We are liberating this land not only for us but for our next generations. And, you know, for indigenous people, it is not a sense of choice, but it’s a need and it is responsibility, because as caretakers of our land, it is our job to make sure that we pass it down to the next generations.

My experience has been full circle because so many people here, have experienced, their own awakening in the movement. And to see so many people from so many walks of life come together and tell their stories and speak their truth and inspire each other and remind each other. Even after construction, we can still do things. We can still mobilize. There are still steps after that. I think, you know, from Standing Rock to Cop City, construction isn’t the last stop. There are divestment campaigns. This is just one leg of the race. And after this, there’s more to come.

Group: Black Snake Killas. Water is life.