A true matriarch, Ladonna Brave Bull Allard, will be remembered for all she had done to serve humanity: Sacred Stone, her mentoring of the young, her strength, and her vision.

She also was a Standing Rock Sioux historian and water protector who founded the Sacred Stone Camp in 2016  where many people came to resist the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline to bring attention to the environmental risks of the project.

To honor the women at the Line 3 pipeline encampment.

Anishinaabe women are the traditional keepers of the water, water protectors in their tradition. This song by Minnesota singer/songwriter Sara Thomsen was written for Standing Rock, but stands also for the water protectors standing strong against Line 3.

The current issue of Women’s Press honors these women as well.

Here is the link to the full digital issue of Women’s Press, which features many articles about indigenous women, their oppression and their strength, and the oppression and violence that they face.

For more information about Line 3, go to Honor the Earth and MN350. Both these websites have extensive information and ways to take action.

LYRICS

Water is Life

All my relations, come
Every nation, come
All my relations under the sun
We are one

We are praying, come
We are praying, come
We are the song and we are the drum
We are one

We are the river, come
We are the river, come
We are the boat, the paddle, the shore
We are one

Chorus:
Mni wičoni, sing (Mitakuye Oyasin…)
Mni wičoni, sing
Mni wičoni, “water is life”
for everything

We are the water, sing
We are the water, sing
We are the water
We are where all life begins

We are the ancient ones
We are the ancient ones
In your breath and bones we sing on
We are one

We are the meadow, come
We are the meadow, come
We are the lark that sings
the new day has begun

We are the new day, run, run, run
We are the new day, run, run, run
We are the old and we are the young
We are one

Chorus

We are the earth and sky
We are the thunder cries
We are the fire,
We are the light in your eyes

We are standing strong
Like a rock, like a stone
On this sacred ground we belong
We are home

Chorus

All my relations, come
Every nation, come
All my relations under the sun
We are one

—Words & music by Sara Thomsen

Mni wičoni (Mni wi-cho-nee) —Lakota for “water is life”
Mitakuye Oyasin —Lakota for “All My Relations”

ABOUT THE LAKOTA PHRASE “MITAKUYE OYASIN”

“When we say Mitakuye Oyasin, ‘All Our Relations,’ many people don’t understand the meaning of those words. The phrase Mitakuye Oyasin has a bigger meaning than just our blood relatives. Yes, it’s true; we are all one human race. But the word Mitakuye means relations and Oyasin means more than family, more than a Nation, more than all of humankind, everything that has a spirit. The Earth herself, Maka Unci, is our relation, and so is the sky, Grandfather Sky, and so is the Buffalo and so are each of the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, those that swim, those that fly, the root nation and the crawling beings who share the world with us. Mitakuye Oyasin refers to the interconnectedness of all beings and all things. We are all interconnected. We are all One.”

—Chief Arvol Looking Horse
from his book White Buffalo Teachings (Dreamkeepers Press, 2001)
Arvol Looking Horse is the 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe and a spiritual leader of the Sioux Nation. 

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