Standing Up

BRIAN: We’re going to turn now from Gary, Indiana to the city next door. Chicago is the hometown of Naomi Harvey Turner, a Lakota activist and co-president of Chi-Nations, a council for native youth in the city.

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: And Chi is for Chicago, but it’s also, I believe in Ojibwe means “many.” For all the different tribal affiliations of members within the youth group. And we started off just trying to make a safe space free with the talk because there is a lot of issues with people not listening to youth, to us.

BRIAN: But members also spent a lot of time traveling around Chicago and the Midwest, making connections with other native youth councils, running presentations on native culture, and marching in climate change protests. Many of these activists were in high school.

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: It was definitely hard. I would be missing for a week or two because I was in New York or I was in DC or some other res. And my teachers were definitely supportive of me, but I would come back with a workload. Sometimes, it’s hard. I’ve had people whisper rude comments of why are you doing all this? It doesn’t matter. And for those people, I realize that a lot of the kids that I went to school with in high school were from the hood or from the projects. So what they saw was that no matter how much they’ve tried, nothing would change.

I definitely understand that. You know, definitely things haven’t always changed for the better. But I think that you should fight anyways.

BRIAN: You ended up at a protest in Standing Rock, North Dakota.

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: Yeah. What happened was that DAP, the Dakota Access Pipeline, wanted to build an oil pipeline originally in Bismarck, where their population is majority white. And they decided that it was too much of a hazard to build it there, so they decided that they were going to build it on an Indian reservation, a Standing Rock Reservation.

A lot of these pipelines, they break. And when they break, the oil will go into the water. And harming the water would also harm indigenous people because water is life, [INAUDIBLE]. It’s very important to our traditions. And so when you poison the water, you poison the land, you poison the animals, you poison the plants. And so, people are already struggling on these reservations to live, poisoning the water would practically kill them.

BRIAN: When you went there as part of your youth council, were you aware that the protests in many ways was started by young people in Standing Rock?

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: Yeah. I was definitely aware. We were camping with the youth. And it felt really good to be surrounded by youth, seeing them build TVs, and they helped us build our tent, and created a stove for us. And we were sitting around a fire talking to each other, we had moments where we were making food for each other, building stuff with each other. And I think that was very important because it shows how powerful youth are, how much we can actually do if we had that kind of support from people. People that actually see our power and our potential and helped educate us and help us even be aware of our power and our potential.

BRIAN: And what was your actual experience of the protests themselves? Was it what you expected?

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: I think it was and it wasn’t what I expected. So definitely on the media, it showed very intense fights between the water protectors and the DAP people. Showing water guns and rubber bullets, and stuff like that. When I was there, it was safe. I mean, there was definitely some tense moments. I was down on the front lines, and you could see DAP security up on the hill. And there were water protectors in the river, standing with their hands up.

I also remember at night, floodlights. There was no complete darkness, that lights were always on you and there were always helicopters in the sky.

BRIAN: So it was even brighter than Chicago out there in the middle of North Dakota.

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: Yes, definitely it was a lot brighter. I mean, Chicago has its lights, but the way that those flood lights were positioned, it was like shining right on you. They were all actually there to remind us that they’re watching us, that they’re still there. So there’s a lot of mental warfare going on, I would say.

And another interesting thing that I experienced is that there wasn’t really a place for us to wash up. And so we went to the hotel on the reservation and actually got kicked out, which I thought was very interesting because we’re here fighting for the people on the reservation, fighting for the very water that the hotel is using.

BRIAN: So you really experienced some of the cross pressures that anybody who joins a protest experiences, I think. How long were you there, altogether?

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: Just a week.

BRIAN: How did the experience change you?

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: How did it change me?

BRIAN: If it did it at all.

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: I mean, it definitely did. It made me– in Chicago, I have experienced racism, discrimination. And then I’ve also– I have to write about it too, studying that as an activist and a scholar. But there’s a certain thing you can’t know until you experience it seeing the way that people have to live on the reservation.

The fact that the water protectors made a point to every single person in that camp that we are not getting violent. This is about praying, this is a sacred space. And they went up to the front lines with their hands up just praying. And there were people on the other side seeing their very existence as something dangerous, as a threat now.

BRIAN: You’ve said that you would be willing to die for the cause. That’s quite an extraordinary thing for an 18-year-old even to have to think, let alone say. Why would you be willing to die for the cause?

NAOMI HARVEY TURNER: I mean, one aspect is that definitely in Chicago and many big cities, you see people die for no reason. And so, I don’t want to get hit by a car, I don’t want to get shot by a stray bullet. But also, that once again, people see my very existence as a threat. And so, I decided that if one day I have a daughter or a son, and if my death let them be able to pray and live. And my ancestors died and fought for my very existence and for my ability to practice my culture. So why not do the same for my own descendants?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRIAN: Naomi Harvey Turner is co-president of Chi-Nations youth council and a student at DePaul University in Chicago.

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JOANNE: That’s going to do it for us today, but you can keep the conversation going online. Let us know what you thought of the episode or ask us your questions about history. You’ll find us at backstoryradio.org, or send an email to backstory@virigina.edu. We’re also on Facebook and Twitter @backstoryradio. Whatever you do, don’t be a stranger.

BRIAN: This episode of “Backstory” was produced by David Stenhouse, Nina Earnest, Emily Gaddick, Ramona Martinez. Jamal Milner is our technical director, Diana Williams is our digital editor, and Joey Thompson is our researcher. Additional help came from [INAUDIBLE], Sequoia Kirylo, Courtney Spawna, Aaron [INAUDIBLE], Korean Thomas, and Gabriel Hunter Chang. Our theme song was written by Nick Thorburn. Other music in this episode came from [? Ketsa, ?] Paddington Bear, and [? Jazar. ?]

Special thanks this week to With Good Reason, and as always, the Johns Hopkins Studios in Baltimore.

ED: “Backstory” is produced at Virginia Humanities. Major support is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the provost’s office at the University of Virginia, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. Additional support is provided by the Tomato Fund, cultivating fresh ideas in the arts, the humanities, and the environment.

MALE VOICE: Brian Balogh is Professor of history at the University of Virginia. Ed Ayers is professor of the humanities and President Emeritus at the University of Richmond. Joanne Freeman is Professor of history and American studies at Yale University. Nathan Connolly is the Herbert Baxter Adams associate professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. “Backstory” was created by Andrew Wyndham for Virginia humanities.