LaDonna Brave Bull Allard

[emilylevine]

It is with a heavy heart that I pass on the news of the passing of our friend LaDonna Brave Bull Tamakawastewin Allard, historian of the Standing Rock Huŋkpapȟa and Yanktoŋais.

For many around the country and around the world, LaDonna became known to them in 2016 when she created Sacred Stones Camp on her land along the Cannonball River at the northern border of the reservation as part of the fight to protect the water from the Dakota Access pipeline. But to me and many here in this group, we knew her as a brilliant historian and genealogist.

I met LaDonna at Fort yates in about 2007 while on a research trip while working on Josephine Waggoner's manuscripts. Although she had just lost her son, she was gracious and welcomed me. Over the years I worked on that book, she answered so many questions and helped me with translations I could not figure out. I also saw her in 2014 when I gave a presentation about the book at Timber Lake on the Cheyenne River rez. A lot of relatives of Waggoner's came from across the country, as we were also going to Lemmon and Fort Yates to lay two to rest. LaDonna came to my book talk with Miles and I remember her talking for a long time to Mr. Bickell, a local rancher and historian. He had brought a saddle that had belonged to Mary Crawler (Moves Robe Woman) and they were discussing it---and much more.

One that same trip I was taking all of Waggoner's manuscripts up to Bismarck to be housed and the State Historical Society and I stopped at Fort Yates along with two of Waggoner's great granddaughters to meet LaDonna at the Sitting Bull tourist center on the college campus there so that she could look at and spend time with the manuscripts. I always felt---and I told her---that in my eyes she was the heir to Josephine as the tribal historian. Josephine would have been so proud of her.
We all went to eat at My Auntie's and talked and talked.

We have lost a remarkable women. Smart and brave and hardworking. A truly great historian. A friend.

[Dietmar]

Thank you Emily,

I´ve also read about LaDonna´s passing today. Very sad news and a great loss. LaDonna had been a member of the American-Tribes boards since our beginnings. You can find many of her posts on our site.

Moreover, she was always friendly and supportive. We will remember her.

Dietmar

[emilylevine]

Yes, it was always good to see her posts here. I knew people here would want to know and maybe hadn't heard. Although, of course, news spreads fast on social media . . .

[carlo]

Sad news. Always appreciated LaDonna’s contributions here.
May she rest in peace.

[grahamew]

Very sad. She hadn't posted much lately and had been heavily involved in the fight against the pipeline. RIP

[debstar76]

This also makes me sad as well, I'm going to miss her posts, she helped so many people looking for answers of their ancestors, She is going to be greatly missed by all of us..Rest in Peace LaDonna, many prayers for you as you begin your journey ahead of us..take care <3

[kingsleybray]

the world has lost a great person, my friend LaDonna Tamakawastewin Allard. Her name there means Her Good Earth Woman and she strove tirelessly to keep her native soil and the planet clean and safe for the generations that come after us. When Big Oil was trying to lay a pipeline across the Missouri river on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, she knew that meant all environments downstream would be endangered -- and that's all the way into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Ocean. In short it meant all of us PlanetWide. So she fought and she inspired other people to fight, and she placed her people the Oceti Sakowin or Lakota back where they belong, at the frontline of history. That battle has been won. Other battles loom. She left us all with a legacy of grace and loving awareness. For me, she opened many doors. I thank her, and am grateful in Four Directions that I knew her. I hope and pray she's with Miles, laughing, preparing a place again for us. Ho, in every Direction may it be good!

[clarence]

So sorry to hear such a sad news. We'll never forget a great person who shared with us her immense knowledge with passion and commitment. Rest in peace..

[Californian]

A great loss not only for LaDonna's family, friends and acquaintances but also the Lakota Nation as a whole who are grateful for the thousands of hours she dedicated to locate, conserve, identify, perpetuate and make available the valuable insights into Lakota history.

Bismarck Tribune, 12 April 2021, by Amy R. Sisk
DAPL protest camp founder and Standing Rock historian LaDonna Allard dies

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, pictured in May 2016, photograph by Lauren Donovan

LaDonna Allard, a Fort Yates resident and founder of the first Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp, died on Saturday.
Allard donated family land to form the Sacred Stone Camp in March 2016. It grew in size over the next few months and inspired other camps along the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers, where thousands of people from around the world soon arrived to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its fight against the pipeline. Allard’s resistance to Dakota Access came about because one of her sons is buried on a hill near the route of the line, which crosses under the Missouri River just upstream of the Standing Rock Reservation. A longtime tribal historian, Allard told the Tribune in her first interview about the pipeline that the area is rich with history, ancient settlements and burials. “We will stop it. We have prayer with us,” she said in April 2016. “We are not expendable.” The Sacred Stone Camp was modeled after a similar camp formed on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline. The camps along the Standing Rock border came under scrutiny by law enforcement, who made hundreds of arrests at demonstrations in the area in 2016 and 2017. Pipeline developer Energy Transfer maintained the camps disrupted construction and cost the company money. The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs ultimately issued a trespass notice to those remaining at Sacred Stone after the tribe asked protesters to leave, according to Tribune archives. The federal government held a share of the land in trust for the tribe.

Allard's legacy
As the #NoDAPL movement grew, Allard became one of its most recognizable figures, traveling the world speaking out about the pipeline fight and advocating for divestment, the movement in which activists urge financial institutions to withdraw money from causes they see as unethical. She continued to do that after the camps were closed, construction was finished and the pipeline started transporting oil. The pipeline fight Allard helped launch stayed in national headlines for months, and it brought more attention to Indigenous rights and environmental justice issues. Activists continue to fight other pipelines, including Keystone XL. President Joe Biden canceled a permit for that project his first day in office earlier this year.

[hreinn]

This is a sad news.
It must be difficult for her people.
This is too early.

LaDonna was always very helpful and informative.
LaDonna will be missed here and she will be remembered.

With good thoughts and feelings to her family and to her in the spirit world.

Hreinn

[Mitchell BigHunter]

Aww Much love. just saw these. R.I.P. Sure were a Great Woman.