Help us repair Regina Brave's War Horse
FUNDRAISER
Grandmother Regina needs $2,500 to repair her Dodge Grand Caravan. We've asked her if she would like to get a new vehicle, but loves the features on this van! She frequently travels with her friends, children, and grand babies to Yankton Rez, Standing Rock Rez, Cheyenne River, Eagle Butte Rez, Rapid City, Fort Peck, and Great Falls, Montana too, for court hearings on KXL after a Federal Judge had stopped KXL from coming to Montana. Her van, in her own words, is her "War Horse" which allows her to be very active in her community. If you know Regina, you know. She just turned 81-years-old and still drives wherever she needs to go!
Her transmission gave out on the way to Rapid City and the vehicle was towed to Red Shirt. It has been out of commission and in the repair shop since September 2021.
If you'd like to hear more from Regina, you can catch her weekly on the Vets Program, every Sunday from 10 am to 11:30 a.m., MDT, on KILI Radio, "Voice of the Lakota Nation" (kiliradio.org).
Who is Regina Brave?
Regina Brave is an enrolled member of the Oglala Band of Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires). Many people are familiar with Regina from her participation at Standing Rock. On February 23, 2017, under militarized sniper surveillance, Regina Brave took a Treaty Stand at Oceti Sakowin Camp and was arrested with other Veterans. (click for video of Veterans Response with Grandmother Regina Brave)
Regina Brave is a descendant of Ohitika (Brave) who negotiated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 on behalf of Mahpiya Luta (Chief Red Cloud). The events that happened which led to the signing of the Treaty were passed down orally from her father.
On August of 1960 she joined the US Navy. While stationed at Naval Air Brunswick, Maine she stood on Honor Guard for President Kennedy August of 1962. She received her Honorable Discharge in August 1963. After relocation to San Francisco in 1966 she returned to Oglala. In February, she was part of the group in Wounded Knee. She carried out speaking engagements and raised money for the Wounded Legal Defense/Offense Committee (“Wickledoc”) for the non-leadership trials. In February 1978, she began coordinating the State of Colorado for the Longest Walk to protest six anti-Indian Legislation Acts to abrogate Treaties. In April of that same year, she joined the Longest Walk to Washington, DC. In 1982, she and her friends began protesting against the State of South Dakota and their jurisdiction on the Yankton Sioux Reservation. This issue went to the Supreme Court and won again, the Yankton Sioux Tribe has jurisdiction within the original exterior boundaries of their reservation – 2012. (After appeals in Federal and the 8th Circuit Court) in January 1986 the Elders who were protesting Public Law 93-531 called the “Navaho/Hopi Partitioned Land” stewarded under Goldwater to extend Coal Strip Mining into Big Mountain. The people came to a Peace Resolution on the deadline for Forced Removal.
She was awarded the ACLU’s highest honor, the Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty. She is also the recipient of the 2017 Chora Prize from Metabolic Studios.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I met Regina Brave a few months after she took a Treaty Stand at Standing Rock in 2017. When I met Regina, she was out in California, brought out by an organizer who wanted to make money on Regina's speaking engagements. This woman was not only unstable, but incredibly inexperienced individual and totally disconnected from Indigenous Movements. I stepped in and took over Regina's travel and housing situation, looking out for her and her family who was in California at that time, which created a strong family bond between myself and my Auntie Regina. She loves my son and has taken us on adventures in the Black Hills with her and our camp friends, her grandchildren, children and other friends from Pine Ridge we have been very lucky to meet. I do my best to help her when she asks me to.
Thank you for supporting!
