00:00:47.500Today I'm speaking to Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses, Daniel.
00:00:53.700Once we can heal ourselves and move forward, we can then, you know, create a new generation, the next generations of our relatives moving forward into the future who can, you know, be free from this trauma and this pain and this heartache that exists.
00:01:10.680Jordan Marie brings Three White Horses Daniel, is a citizen of Kulwi Chasha Oyate, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, as well as a passionate and devoted advocate nationally known for her grassroots organization for anti-pipelines, climate justice efforts, Change the Name, Not Your Mascot, MMIWG2S, and MMIP, and Native Youth Initiatives.
00:01:39.980Jordan is the founder and organizer of Rising Hearts, an Indigenous-led grassroots group
00:01:45.720designed to elevate awareness of Indigenous issues and the intersectionality of all movements
00:01:51.400impacting Brown, Black, and Indigenous communities.
00:01:54.880Currently, she is using her running platform to help raise awareness of missing and murdered
00:02:00.000Indigenous relatives by dedicating the miles she runs to a missing or murdered Indigenous person.
00:02:06.220well jordan thank you so much for joining me today as we were chatting earlier this is a real honor
00:02:15.620and i've definitely been a fangirl for a while so this is just such a beautiful way to spend this
00:02:23.260rainy day with a roaring fire being able to spend some time together so thanks for joining us
00:02:30.880Lila Palamayaye, thank you so much for having me.
00:02:34.680So, yeah, I hope our listeners are familiar with missing and murdered Indigenous women,1.00
00:02:44.000But in case some are not, I want to ground our conversation in the reality of what has
00:02:49.220taken place across settler colonial states like the United States, Canada, and Australia.
00:02:54.360One of the most commonly shared statistics is that in 2016, the Urban Indian Health Institute found that there were nearly 6,000 reported MMIW, yet only 116 made it into the Department of Justice database.
00:03:12.540Additionally, indigenous women and girls are murdered and sexually assaulted at rates as
00:03:17.100high as 10 times the average in the United States, and 97% of their perpetrators are
00:03:25.680And I think people are much more aware of this issue today because the media has been
00:03:31.900paying more attention, but I also want to recognize that there continue to be some serious
00:03:38.700misrepresentations in the media when it comes to this crisis. For example, there is still
00:03:44.760the underlying belief that this epidemic is exclusively taking place on reservations.
00:03:51.480So can you begin by sharing where the MMIP movement currently stands,
00:03:56.980and what are some of the main inaccuracies that need to be addressed?
00:04:00.800yes this is an issue an international crisis and an epidemic that is you know really impacting all
00:04:10.520indigenous communities and I want to say that one I am not an expert I am just an advocate
00:04:15.580doing what I can to help uplift the advocates the families the people doing this hard work
00:04:21.600to end this injustice and I'm really honored to have a platform to help do that and help
00:04:27.020you know, be part of those steps in hopefully eliminating this crisis entirely. But first,
00:04:33.760I want to say that, you know, this movement of missing and murdered Indigenous women,
00:04:37.760as I learned from Anita Lucchesi of Sovereign Bodies Institute from a webinar that I listened
00:04:43.100to a little over a year ago, was that, you know, this movement was founded by our First Nations
00:04:47.780relatives and really began in Canada because of the high rates of their relatives being taken.
00:04:53.520And also, we know the Highway of Tears that has given such visibility to this issue of, you know, their relatives being taken when they were hitchhiking or trying to walk to their next community, and that this has been devastating the families and has led to this injustice when it comes to law enforcement, when it comes to the federal government in terms of what does accountability look like?
00:05:18.200what does justice look like and you know showing the inequities and the problems that exist within
00:05:24.380these systems that are not supporting our indigenous relatives and so this began you know
00:05:30.000a few decades ago and and I'm happy to see that this movement has been growing and expanding but
00:05:36.120also it's been really heartbreaking to see how it has been devastating so many of our communities
00:05:41.340and as and something that I always say too is this either directly impacts us by us losing a
00:05:47.900loved one. I have a cousin, Brittany Tiger, who was murdered. And we have, you know, countless
00:05:54.400more across our families. But this is something that either directly impacts us or indirectly
00:06:00.200impacts us because we know someone who's lost a loved one who's still searching for their loved
00:06:05.540one and still fighting for justice for their loved one. Or we know someone who knows someone
00:06:10.260and we see the missing flyers being shared across social media. And it's just really
00:06:15.860heartbreaking to see that almost every single day. And so this movement began with our First
00:06:21.320Nations relatives and has been growing and expanding and bringing in more people, calling
00:06:25.660more people in to help support this movement, to support the families, to bring in funds to help
00:06:32.140support these efforts. And now we're seeing it grow in the United States and, you know, without
00:06:38.360the efforts of, you know, Sovereign Bodies Institute, Urban Indian Health Institute, National
00:06:42.680Indigenous Women's Resource Center, Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, and countless more
00:06:46.740coalitions and groups, they're all dedicated and focused to giving visibility to this issue,
00:06:52.120to ending gender-based violence in our communities, and to have these discussions not solely be
00:06:58.260focused on reservations, but this is happening in rural and urban communities too. So that's
00:07:03.320something that I want to say is that this isn't just, you know, an isolated incidence on the
00:07:07.440reservation these are incidents and realities that are happening everywhere in every city
00:07:13.080in every town in every county in every state and you know it's sadly happening across the
00:07:18.880world in different countries well thank you for that introduction and addressing some of those
00:07:28.400questions and for over a year you've been using your platform as an athlete to raise awareness
00:07:35.600for MMIP by taking the time to learn the names and stories of individual missing Indigenous
00:07:42.000relatives and saying a prayer for each one with every mile you run, combining marathon running
00:07:48.500and prayer. And I've talked about the financial connections to this epidemic and the role of
00:07:54.660policy and data collection and addressing it on the podcast before, but I'd really like to ask
00:08:00.440you to speak about running as prayer and the power of prayer when it comes to MMIP.
00:08:06.800How does the act of running, which in the context of marathons might seem like a very
00:08:11.960individualistic and competitive act, actually serve as a way to move energy in solidarity
00:14:12.920to dedicate your presence as a reminder
00:14:16.000must open collective wounds that are so deep.
00:14:19.340And by denying this epidemic or erasing it,0.72
00:14:23.580we've made it so that indigenous women1.00
00:14:25.380not only have to work to bring relatives home,0.64
00:14:28.000but they themselves also suffer from the very work of it. So my question is around
00:14:34.240responsibility and accountability. One, how do you hold yourself accountable for protecting
00:14:40.980and caring for yourself? And two, whose responsibility is it to shoulder the burden
00:14:47.380of this information? That first question is something I'm still figuring out and
00:14:52.760And I'm not really good at it. I spread myself thin and I give more than 100% to everything that I do. And so being able to take care of myself has been really hard because this is something I care so much about.
00:15:07.580And one thing that I did to take accountability and to begin this path of healing and understanding
00:15:14.860and figuring out how I can move forward and run forward in a good way to be able to keep
00:15:19.660doing this, you know, was going to therapy and finding an indigenous therapist, someone
00:15:25.320who comes from my community, someone who looks like me, someone who understands colonization
00:15:31.620and this epidemic and so many other issues that are happening just made me feel so much more
00:15:38.060comfortable and you know feeling like I could actually really confide in someone that gets it
00:15:43.340and so we have been talking about these prayer runs and finding out one that I'm an empath and
00:15:51.560something that I carry on these emotions and take on these emotions and how heavy these stories are
00:15:57.460sometimes seeing the comments coming from the families of especially when they've been you know
00:16:02.860fighting for decades um to find the answers and hold law enforcement and the government accountable
00:16:09.220and doing their job is just something that i i took on and carried with me and i just want to
00:16:17.720do so much and for me it just felt like i had to keep running and so by the end of 2019 you know
00:16:24.680I experienced injuries for the first time ever, like in my entire running career, because
00:16:29.020I was basically running myself into the ground. And, but at the same time, the only time I felt
00:16:36.040like I was able to be happy and feel a sense of purpose was running. But at the same time,
00:16:43.260it was like a double edged sword. So I just was experiencing a lot of these mental health
00:16:48.320issues and, you know, working with my therapist and setting boundaries for myself. I took two
00:16:55.240months off from running completely and took it day by day and was literally like asking myself
00:17:00.620every day, are you ready to run today? Nope. Okay. And I just had to get to that moment where
00:17:05.960mentally I was ready and emotionally ready and spiritually ready to go for a run again.
00:17:12.020And so now I feel like I have a new plan of how I can do these programs and help give visibility to this issue and to help uplift the voices for the voiceless and the advocates doing this work in a better way, while also being mindful of those boundaries that I've set, which means maybe, you know, taking the notifications off my phone or, you know, muting the notifications of some of the MMIW groups that I am part of.
00:17:39.380Not that I'm not going to see that information, but not being inundated with an update popping up on my phone or in the message chats or anything like that.
00:17:49.060And so it's me having to be proactive to go into those spaces to get an update of what's going on, what's happening, what's the latest policy update, you know, who's this missing flyer for and where are they, you know, how can I help, what can I share?
00:18:05.600So it's setting those boundaries and it's a slow growing healing process for me and
00:18:10.700healing is not linear, but I feel like I'm finally moving forward in a better way, especially
00:18:16.480a year from now to this like very day, I was not in a good place.
00:18:20.520And so I'm really happy with this progress.
00:18:22.440For the second question, in terms of who needs to be held accountable and who could be helping,
00:18:30.100It's the federal government and, you know, they have a federal trust responsibility to be supporting indigenous communities. And, you know, we have to start dismantling and, you know, breaking those barriers of institutionalized racism that exists, especially with the law enforcement and in the government.
00:18:51.520You know, some of these issues that we're seeing of why these cases have potentially maybe gone cold is due to the racism that exists in law enforcement and the families, you know, doing all that they can to try and demand help and get help, especially in those first critical hours of when a loved one is missing.
00:19:11.380And sometimes a lot of our relatives and community members are met with that racism and that hostility and that prejudice and those stereotypes, those already created narratives of who indigenous people are, and they choose to not help us.
00:19:28.400And so it's the families, it's the advocates that are on those front lines, organizing the search parties, doing whatever they can in those first few days, in those critical hours, when law enforcement should be there from moment one, from the moment that the families contact them.
00:19:44.860And it's the funding that should be allocated to Indigenous communities in the programs, the domestic violence and sexual assault programs, the safe housing shelters, all of these programs should be funded continuously.
00:20:00.500And, you know, with the Violence Against Women Act, in the last year, it's been really disappointing to see that being used as kind of like a political football in terms of the budget, when it's about really the safety of women.
00:20:11.660and that should not be compromised or negotiated
00:20:15.960or diminished in any sort of capacity.
00:20:53.640And we can't fill those roles with people who have no connections to the MMIW,0.99
00:21:00.600MMMR, Missing and Murder Indigenous Relatives Community.
00:21:03.780We need those voices in those spaces and at those tables.
00:21:06.580So I would hope to see in the future more accountability in terms of that of including our community members that have been part of this work for so long to be part of those discussions.
00:21:17.300Yeah, that makes so much sense. And in a piece titled Jordan Daniels Unrelenting Race for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, author Sierra Mondragon brings up the term survivance in context to your work.
00:21:38.460survivance is an active sense of presence, the continuance of Native stories, not a mere reaction or a survivable name.
00:21:49.800Native survivance stories are reunifications of dominance, tragedy, and victimry, end quote.
00:21:58.240But you point out that healing also needs to be an active part of survivance.
00:22:04.420So can you talk about the importance of healing while simultaneously working to build a future where Indigenous lives are protected from violence?
00:22:14.280Yeah, I think we need to recognize that we have a lot of trauma in our communities that has been very present and ingrained in our DNA since colonization, since contact.
00:22:26.000and everything that has happened since the genocide, the violence, the wars, the disease,
00:22:31.840the boarding schools, residential schools, and everything that's part of it. We have relatives
00:22:37.840today, including my grandfather who passed away, but was in a boarding school. We have relatives
00:22:42.820today that still can't even speak to what they witnessed and to what they experienced during
00:22:49.100those times and this trauma generational trauma is passed down and it has these wounds and I think
00:22:56.880now especially for me as I've been learning more about these new words and terms and things to
00:23:02.560label that I've always been wondering or what this means or what is this you know it's it's shed
00:23:09.240light on the collective healing that we all need to do that we've experienced or have seen within
00:23:17.520our families and to be able to, you know, once we can heal ourselves and understand,
00:23:24.080you know, our lived experiences and what we've gone through and understand our relatives and
00:23:30.960what they went through and our ancestors, even more than just knowing that it was genocide or
00:23:37.280it was a war or it was just boarding school. Once we can heal ourselves and move forward, we can
00:23:42.480then you know create a new generation the next generations of our relatives moving forward into
00:23:49.880the future who can you know be free from this trauma and this pain and this heartache that
00:23:56.080exists but at the same time this trauma and what we've gone through and things that we are learning
00:24:02.480from our families and communities it's also what motivates us to be dedicated and devoted to that
00:24:08.560heart work that motivates us every single day for a better future, to want better for
00:24:15.180our next generations, to want to see a future free of violence where we do not have this
00:24:21.540epidemic existing anymore, where we are not grieving for our friends and families, whether
00:35:49.820not only just within the MMIW movement,
00:35:52.080but also bringing it into the Me Too movement.
00:35:54.940And something that I started talking about when I first moved to Tongva lands to Los Angeles, California, I was speaking on Me Too platforms and rallies. And I really appreciated other indigenous sisters talking about MMIW in that space. And it made me realize, no, this is all of our missing relatives, their Me Too moment too.
00:36:15.400and that also we need to take it back a couple hundred years even further that you know Pocahontas
00:36:24.020was our first Me Too she is our first MMIW that we can think of and that we need to help reframe
00:36:31.380her story and not have it be romanticized or over hyper sexualized to fit a Disney format
00:36:38.940or narrative that's out there we need to actually talk about her story for the facts and what it
00:36:43.500was and what happened to her. And so I've seen that conversation grow and expand in different
00:36:49.640conversations with so many different people and communities, having a better understanding of
00:36:54.680what it's like in our indigenous communities of what we have to go through and what we have to
00:36:58.980advocate for and why we advocate. And so I think when we come together as a community and that are
00:37:06.360more informed, we can then, you know, push and call for the things that we need, that we deserve
00:37:11.700to hopefully eliminate this epidemic yeah and for listeners who are interested in exploring
00:37:17.880these ideas deeper I really encourage you all to look at the incredibly comprehensive
00:37:24.100MMIWG2 and MMIP organizing toolkit that Jordan has shared with us so we will link to that on
00:37:33.200the website and through social media I'd now like to transition our conversation
00:37:39.300to discuss Indigenous visibility and invisibility in the media,
00:37:44.740beginning with the reality that MMIP activists have long been calling out
00:37:49.660how dominant media's coverage of this epidemic causes additional harm,
00:37:54.060as many stories are not portrayed truthfully or heavily rely on violent language
00:38:00.120so that people don't really think to look into these cases
00:38:03.240or follow up with them because it's inevitably implied.
00:38:06.920So specifically, I've been thinking about how we rarely hear about the stories of MMIP being found and returning to their homes.
00:38:16.660So can you speak to this and how this also really highlights the intersection between Indigenous and Black communities and Black Indigenous folks in terms of how they're actively erased and dehumanized in our media?
00:38:31.560Yeah, we are constantly always fighting our own erasure from so many different levels and platforms out there. But when it comes to the media, something that I always advocate for and demand, especially when I'm having the opportunities to speak with media, and especially if they're publications or articles or anything like that, like, I demand to see the edits and to see the final review.
00:38:58.220And sometimes I get met with a little bit of hostility and pushback and them saying that's not allowed, that you should just trust us and what we're writing.
00:39:06.040Because time and time and again, after seeing so many other relatives and just other voices across so many different movements of what they're advocating for, have seen them tokenized or have seen them basically kind of harmed where they were approached to get their insight and their point of view.
00:39:23.500But then the way the article was written made them look like the antagonist or, you know, someone that was, I don't know, like evil or something in terms of what they were fighting for and labeling them as fighting against something.
00:39:39.440And so when it comes to just words, even simple words being used in these publications and media can do a lot of damage on who we are, what we advocate for, potentially harm and hurt, the movements that we are trying to give visibility to, I think the media needs to come to these conversations and approach the families and approach the advocates or anyone across our movements need to approach us really carefully.
00:40:06.280They need to understand that there is trauma present, that these issues are incredibly hard to talk about. And we do not need to be tokenized. We do not need to have, you know, our loved ones or their loved ones being misrepresented.
00:40:21.380because as we have seen in some in some cases you know these writers or reporters tend to focus on
00:40:28.600maybe some of the potentially bad things they did when they were younger that had nothing to do with
00:40:33.740them being an adult and them gone missing or being murdered and how they they show us or represent us
00:40:41.300or picking the worst photos possible that make them look bad instead of picking the beautiful
00:40:48.780photos of who they are, who they were. And this is happening, been happening time and time and
00:40:54.060again, you know, especially these last several months with the death of George Floyd, the murder
00:40:58.340of George Floyd, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and so many more, you know,
00:41:04.620that have been in the media, I think we need to also call attention to the media and hold them
00:41:09.680accountable, and make sure that they're doing their job the right way, the best way in the most
00:41:14.760supportive and visible way you know they need to hear us they need to listen to my or their
00:41:24.060lived experiences of what is happening and they need to also have us be part of the editing
00:41:30.060process that's that's always what i talk about and what i always try to um speak to when i'm
00:41:36.020talking with them because this happens so much and it can either set us back in terms of what
00:41:43.360we're fighting for and trying to give visibility to and bringing community in to support us
00:41:47.520especially with how they may frame it or you know summarize the issue and it could potentially put
00:41:54.380communities against us thinking that this is our problem or because we are who we are you know we
00:42:00.440were asking for it or you know we deserved it and that's not the type of thinking we want out there
00:42:05.400or the kind of behavior we want we need the support we need the visibility and we need a
00:42:12.780platform that can be there to support these stories, to support the families, and to have
00:42:18.780updates of what is happening. We need follow-up. We need to know if they've been found safe or if
00:42:25.580the case is still going, what is happening in those cases. We need the media and the reporters
00:42:30.900and the writers to be committed to these stories because these aren't just stories for publication
00:42:35.860and for likes or clickbait. These are stories of actual people and their lives and their family
00:42:41.960and the devastating impacts that it has had on them
00:42:44.900and the communities and potentially for our next generations.
00:42:48.720And so that's something that I'm really passionate about
00:42:52.300in terms of media and the kind of visibility
00:42:56.360that they do for these stories and for the families.
00:43:41.960Well, looking back, I think for many of us, the conversation on MMIP leads us to really
00:44:08.800ask why. Why is this still an issue and what will it take to resolve it? But the reality is that
00:44:16.660there is no single solution because this is a symptom of a very sick settler society that seeks0.92
00:44:23.860to take whatever it can to fulfill its own greed and predatory nature. In the MMIWG2 and MMIP0.98
00:44:31.800organizing toolkit, Tia Oros Peters writes, quote, the indigenous paradigm of respect,
00:44:39.060reciprocity, responsibility, and relationship to others and to the earth, and for others and for
00:44:45.880the earth, encompasses more than maintaining the integrity of our own lives. It includes the air,
00:44:52.560plants, water, and animals as much as our ancestors and those yet to be born. This framework
00:45:00.160for assuring a restored world in which all life is nurtured, flourishes and participates in its
00:45:06.820respective place within the cycle, lays an unwavering foundation for sustainable livelihoods
00:45:13.260and a balanced world order, and is a harmony-based holistic paradigm. It is completely distinct from
00:45:20.360Western or mainstream settler thought. In its very collectivist nature, it is relationship-based.
00:45:26.580It's about sharing and achieving balance. It differs significantly from the individual-oriented, acquisition-based, oppositional nature of Eurocentric thinking and being, a paradigm of taking, end quote.
00:45:42.400and so i wonder if you can speak to this as a call to both dismantle white supremacy
00:45:50.260and human supremacy but also a call to rebuild a new future and to use this epidemic that
00:45:57.800continues to occur to pray into the protection of indigenous black and brown folks in both tangible
00:46:04.500and intangible ways? Yeah, I think when it's a beautiful club idea, I think something that
00:46:13.820always comes to my mind when speaking about this injustice and this issue is we need to recognize
00:46:20.760this troubling cycle of violence happening, not just against our women, but against our earth
00:46:28.000and listening to other aunties and sisters that are in this movement. And especially when they're
00:46:33.440advocating for MMIW in the climate justice conversation, that we need to repair our
00:46:41.720relationship and how we treat Unchi Maka, grandmother earth, that the violence that
00:46:47.420has been happening on her is directly correlated with the violence happening on our women. And
00:46:52.100when we can repair that relationship and stop harming her, that we will stop harming our women
00:46:58.820in our community. And so I think that just goes across so many platforms and different ways of
00:47:04.420what that looks like and decolonizing our life and our systems and what things can we do to
00:47:11.020step back and to, you know, have a better view and perspective of how we are all connected to
00:47:19.740each other, even just outside of indigenous communities that metakulia, yasin, look what
00:47:24.900the translation is we are all related and for me as I was raised and growing up you know I
00:47:29.840I was raised as you know not only fight and do what you need for your people but also for all
00:47:37.060people and that is something that we need to recognize and we need to understand this really
00:47:45.240toxic cycle of violence happening and when we can stop that hopefully we can stop the violence
00:47:51.500happening on our bodies. And I think we need to have people who are not coming from indigenous1.00
00:47:58.720black, brown communities. We need to have them understand how colonization has really impacted
00:48:08.620our communities and our lives. And we can't treat it like cafeteria food in terms of history of
00:48:14.980picking and choosing what we want to know and what we want to learn and how we want to view it.
00:48:19.120We need to understand that this country was, you know, off the genocide of indigenous peoples and, you know, off the removal and stealing our black brothers and sisters from their homelands and enslaving them here and to our island relatives too.
00:48:32.840You know, this has been happening since day one and people need to understand how colonization has the settler mentality of conquering and, you know, self-entitlement and the need for more.
00:48:50.460And so for us, we have been harmed by that system that has been created, that has been brought here to the United States is because we are seen as, you know, not enough, that our lives are more expendable because we don't fit these colonial narratives that have created this country.
00:49:14.440we've been harmed by this system and people need to understand that and when we can understand that
00:49:21.520and accept that then we can start doing the work of what else can we do what can i do what can i
00:49:28.600do within my family how can i contribute how can we be supporting these communities how can we be
00:49:35.180supporting indigenous black brown peoples what can else what else can we do and so i think when
00:49:40.920we can understand our history and accept it and acknowledge it and not believe what we see in the
00:49:47.880current textbooks, which are inaccurate, that don't tell the whole picture, or getting a better
00:49:53.760understanding of what truth-giving is rather than thanksgiving, and understanding, you know,
00:49:59.360our Mashpee Wampanoag relatives in the fight for their own lands and their own sovereignty right
00:50:03.680now currently happening against the administration, and so many other efforts across the board,
00:50:08.180when we can actually understand the truth and learn from those communities and those voices
00:50:14.980of what is happening and get a different perspective. And we can, or they can allow
00:50:20.380themselves to feel how they feel and ask questions and kind of sit with this new knowledge of kind of
00:50:28.640internal reflection of, oh, how have I been perpetuating this potential, you know, violence
00:50:33.500or this potential racism, or how have I just been, you know, part of this harm? What else can I do?
00:50:39.580How can I be a better ally? How can I be a better relative to them? And so I think that's all part
00:50:44.760of the work that we are seeing here in 2020 right now, which is what I hope we continue seeing
00:50:49.880every single year, every single day, the same commitment, the same, you know, devotion to
00:50:56.460wanting better, a better future for our next generations and better for our relatives here
00:51:02.480today who are constantly fighting and making their voices as loud as possible to be heard
00:51:08.800and to be seen and supported yes yes well jordan this has been such a beautiful deep and potent
00:51:23.300conversation that I have just been so present with you every moment and as we come to a close
00:51:32.920I'd like to ask you about your organization Rising Hearts and how people can support yourself
00:51:40.120in this work yeah Rising Hearts has been around since Standing Rock in the fight against the
00:51:46.660Dakota Access Pipeline. And just a quick story. I never saw myself in this kind of advocate role
00:51:53.980or a community organizer. I always wanted to be part of behind the scenes and helping to make
00:52:00.080change happen. And it's been a dream of mine since eighth grade to move to DC and go work in policy
00:52:05.980and like help write laws. And, you know, that happened. I moved to DC. I got to work with so
00:52:11.300many incredible Native organizations and just found myself more connected and happier when I
00:52:17.700was working directly with the community. So I stopped working on the Hill and stopped lobbying
00:52:23.040and started working with an organization where I got to work with communities and help support
00:52:27.720them in implementing their projects and from the federal funding that they were getting and just
00:52:32.020basically got to be a cheerleader to the work that they were doing and being there as, you know,
00:52:37.240support. And it was just incredible. And so as this is happening, you know, Standing Rock was
00:52:43.760was happening. And, you know, hearing the calls from, you know, LaDonna Bravehold Allard and the
00:52:49.840youth and Standing Rock talking about what was happening in those very, very early months,
00:52:54.340you know, really sat with me of, am I doing enough and having myself ask these questions.
00:53:00.060And then finally, someone asked me, hey, this, the Standing Rock youth are running over 2000
00:53:05.960miles to Washington, D.C. to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline and deliver a petition to President
00:53:11.600Barack Obama. Do you want to organize something for them and welcome them to the city? And I had
00:53:17.140never organized anything in my life. I had attended rallies and protests and marches and everything
00:53:22.980and kind of always served in the observer role or the volunteer role or just being there to support.
00:53:29.580And I was like, sure, I guess I can try it out. And I worked with a friend of mine and we got
00:53:34.180permits, we got police escort, we got funding to have food for the youth and organize some
00:53:40.260meetings just for the youth with some government officials that were close to this project and
00:53:45.960overseeing the permitting and then the Department of Justice, Army Corps and the White House. And so
00:53:51.820this was just an incredible opportunity to learn from and be part of and to help just welcome the
00:53:56.920youth and they came and it was an incredible day and they were so inspiring to see them
00:54:04.200use their voice and to put their bodies under this kind of you know intense you know repetitive
00:54:13.380every single day just constantly running of you know running for purpose running with the purpose
00:54:19.020and running you know as a form of advocacy that's where I started learning about like running and
00:54:24.980connecting it to advocacy but for me had never brought it into a competitive platform but that's
00:54:30.740where i started really appreciating our youth um so they are who inspired me to hold myself
00:54:36.940accountable and be like jordan you need to do more like you need to organize you need to you know
00:54:43.380help uplift their voices and so that's how our rising hearts really came to be was out of the
00:54:48.540standing rock movement and hearing the calls for action and to support and uh to rally people to
00:54:53.940come together for standing rock. And I have to give this new
00:54:58.120path that I've been on ever since this, this journey that
00:55:01.140I've been on, like all the appreciation and credit to those
00:55:03.700youth, because if it hadn't been for them, I don't know if I'd
00:55:07.340really, I don't know if I'd be in this place that I am right
00:55:10.540now. So I'm really grateful for them to for showing me how
00:55:14.480important it is to stand up for something you truly believe in.
00:55:17.460And so all the credit goes to them. So that's how Rising
00:55:20.880Hearts came to be. It was really an answer to a direct call of
00:55:23.860action of elevating Indigenous voices, because in DC, so many things are being organized that I
00:55:30.200didn't see Indigenous voices on, especially speaking to this issue. And so I started inserting
00:55:35.000myself into those conversations and asking the organizers, hey, where are the Indigenous voices?
00:55:39.680Where are the land acknowledgements? Where are the Piscataway Native peoples? I know them. We're
00:55:45.600here. Why aren't we on these platforms? And so then that started networking and collaborating
00:55:51.960and developing these amazing partnerships