A member of

Standing Rock The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaksa ...

in North and South Dakota, Phyllis Young has been an American Indian rights activist (Lakota/Dakota) for more than 40 years. She is most widely known for her leadership role in the anti-Dakota Access Pipeline struggle in 2016 and 2017. Young worked for Standing Rock from October 2015 to September 2017, ultimately as an organizer of the Oceti Sakowin Camp, where tens of thousands of protesters—known as “water protectors”—gathered over time to resist construction of the 1,172 mile long oil pipeline. Young is a longtime member of the

American Indian Movement The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police br ...

, and as such she worked for and with Russell Means during his lifetime and other national Native American activists. In 1978 she co-founded

Women of All Red Nations Women of All Red Nations (WARN) was a Native American women's organization. It was established in 1974 by Lorelei DeCora Means, Madonna Thunderhawk, Phyllis Young, Janet McCloud, Marie Sanchez and others. WARN included more than 300 women fro ...

with Madonna Thunder Hawk. Between 1993 and 2008 Young served on the board of the

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, and in 1977 she helped coordinate the first conference on Indians in the Americas by the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Young was a tribal council member at Standing Rock from 2012 to 2015, and she is currently an organizer for th
Lakota People’s Law Project
a nonprofit law firm led by Attorney Daniel Sheehan providing legal defense to

water protectors Water protectors are activists, organizers, and cultural workers focused on the defense of the world's water and water systems. The ''water protector'' name, analysis and style of activism arose from Indigenous communities in North America dur ...

in the aftermath of the Standing Rock DAPL struggle. In 2018, Young became one of six people to be selected for the 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solve Fellowship with the Oceti Sakowin. As a Fellow, she was granted $10,000 in funding to put toward her efforts to bring renewable energy to the Standing Rock Reservation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Phyllis 21st-century Native Americans 20th-century Native Americans Native American activists Members of the American Indian Movement Female Native American leaders Native American history of South Dakota Native American history of North Dakota American environmentalists American women environmentalists Standing Rock Sioux people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women Women civil rights activists