Georgia Little Shield, the director of Pretty Bird Woman House, with her husband Norman, and their two foster daughters, 16-year-old Kristy and 8-year-old Krystal, in front of their dilapidated trailer on the Cheyenne reservation, south from Standing Rock. The family hopes to move in a brand new home by the summer. n the territory of legendary Sioux warrior
Sitting Bull, women on an isolated
reservation straddling the states of North
and South Dakota are slowly raising their
voices. The women of Standing Rock
have chosen to speak out against rape
and domestic abuse, hoping to break the
tragic cycle of violence, alcoholism and
misery their children face. In a land of big
skies and endless horizons, the challenge
seems immense. But for these women,
helplessness is not an option.
“Treat your partner as you would a pipe,”
reads a poster on the wall of Pretty Bird
Woman House, a shelter for victims of
domestic violence in the small town of
McLaughlin, at the center of 2.3 million
acre Standing Rock reservation. If
outsiders find this wisdom a bit odd, to
the Lakota Sioux people who live here,
the descendants of Sitting Bull, it makes
perfect sense. According to legend, the
chununpa, or sacred pipe, was bestowed
on the Lakota by the White Buffalo Calf
Woman, a supernatural figure central to
their spiritual belief. It is the holiest of all
symbols, something you would never
harm.
Georgia Little Shield, the director of Pretty Bird Woman House, with her husband Norman, and their two foster daughters, 16-year-old Kristy and 8-year-old Krystal, in front of their dilapidated trailer on the Cheyenne reservation, south from Standing Rock. The family hopes to move in a brand new home by the summer. n the territory of legendary Sioux warrior
Sitting Bull, women on an isolated
reservation straddling the states of North
and South Dakota are slowly raising their
voices. The women of Standing Rock
have chosen to speak out against rape
and domestic abuse, hoping to break the
tragic cycle of violence, alcoholism and
misery their children face. In a land of big
skies and endless horizons, the challenge
seems immense. But for these women,
helplessness is not an option.
“Treat your partner as you would a pipe,”
reads a poster on the wall of Pretty Bird
Woman House, a shelter for victims of
domestic violence in the small town of
McLaughlin, at the center of 2.3 million
acre Standing Rock reservation. If
outsiders find this wisdom a bit odd, to
the Lakota Sioux people who live here,
the descendants of Sitting Bull, it makes
perfect sense. According to legend, the
chununpa, or sacred pipe, was bestowed
on the Lakota by the White Buffalo Calf
Woman, a supernatural figure central to
their spiritual belief. It is the holiest of all
symbols, something you would never
harm.