Founder of Sacred Stone Camp to speak at CMU March 12
Founder of Sacred Stone Camp Ladonna Allard will speak about her experiences involving her career and her involvement protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline at 7 p.m. March 12 in the Central Michigan University Powers Ballroom.
This event is sponsored by Olga J. & G. Roland Denison Visiting Professorship of Native American Studies and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences' Critical Engagement initiative.
Every year a theme is chosen by the Critical Engagement initiative to focus events and discussions. This year's theme is "The End of the World" which prompted CLASS Dean Richard Rothaus to reach out to Allard.
In April 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline was being built near the Standing Sioux Tribe Reservation under the Missouri River in North Dakota.
Allard founded the Sacred Stone Camp as a way to oppose the building of the pipeline. The protests against the pipeline led to the largest gathering of indigenous nations in recent history.
The Sacred Stone Camp has now expanded to Sacred Stone Village where individuals learn to live a sustainable, traditional indigenous way of life.
Currently, Allard is a respected elder among the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, a genealogist and tribal historian. She is also the spokesperson for Sacred Stone Village and has earned many awards from the work she has done over the years.
Rothaus has been able to experience Allard first-hand throughout his experiences as a historian and believes Allard will be able to give insight on what really occurred at the protests.
"Her work is really about history, people, and environmental sustainability and I think she will do a great job of providing a much larger context for how the media sensationalized the protests," Rothaus said.
The ultimate goal of the night is for individuals to gain more knowledge on the complexity of the topic and what can be done in the future.
"I hope students will come and gain an understanding of just how hard these issues are, and just how far reaching the problems are," Rothaus said. "There are no simple solutions to the world's problems, and we are trying our best to pass knowledge to the next generation as it is their turn to face them."
