By Carol Hiltner | President, Altai Mir University
As you may know, the Standing Rock Lakota -- the "water protectors" who organized the Dakota Access Pipe Line protests to protect the Missouri River from catastrophic oil spills -- are the same tribe, but different band, as the Pine Ridge Lakota.
When the "water protectors" were forced from their winter camp, our Pine Ridge project leader Christinia Eala, who participated in the protests, invited them to come to Pine Ridge. Several came.
Our project accomplishes two goals: 1) to provide urgently needed, healthy housing on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and 2) to teach low-cost, environmentally friendly construction skills to the Lakota as a marketable profession.
Although we have many volunteers, both regional and international, the situation at Pine Ridge is so desperate that Lakota participation has not been as high as we had hoped.
The influx of Native Americans -- Lakota and other tribes -- to our project not only breathes new vigor into our building program, but enables a constructive follow-up and opportunity to use the organizing and leadership skills that the "water protectors" developed durng the Standing Rock protests.
Thank you for your continued support. It is more important now than ever, because we need the building supplies to keep everyone busy.
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