#NoDAPL Noise Demo Demands Freedom for Jailed Water Protector Olowan Martinez

From Unicorn Riot

UPDATE – Wednesday, September 21: The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services claims Olowan Martinez was extradited to Nebraska this morning.

On September 20th, 2016, water protectors from Red Warrior Camp and others from the Oceti Sakowin and Sacred Stone camps converged on the Morton County Correctional Center to hold a noise demonstration.

March in Mandan, ND demands freedom for jailed #NoDAPL water protector #OlowanMartinez LIVE: https://t.co/zcDC9t5ZR5 pic.twitter.com/blFHPqmfGC

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) September 20, 2016

Unicorn Riot was live for this event (see above video).

The Morton County jail has been used to hold all arrested water protectors from the numerous direct actions which have occurred to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

One water protector and Red Warrior Camp elder, Olowan Martinez of the Oglala Lakota nation, from the Pine Ridge reservation, has been held for a week. Long after all others arrested have been released, Olowan continues to be imprisoned at the Morton County jail as the state of North Dakota insists on continuing to hold her for attempted extradition to Nebraska.

Olowan is wanted in Nebraska based on charges related to her alleged involvement in actions against liquor stores in the small settlement of White Clay, Nebraska, which lies just a few miles from Pine Ridge across the South Dakota-Nebraska border.  By most accounts White Clay exists for the sole purpose of selling alcohol to Native people on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Alcohol is illegal in Pine Ridge and the reservation has disproportionately high rates of alcoholism and suicide.

Olowan tells her story in this video from the People’s Media Project:

A fundraising campaign has been launched to fund legal efforts to free Olowan Martinez, and raised over $1,000 within 24 hours of being launched.  Various individuals and groups have expressed their concern over Olowan’s continued incarceration and plan to work towards her release.

“Olowan is currently incarcerated at Morton County jail for her defense of the Water at a #NoDAPL action to stop the continued construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. She is the only one still being held captive, in their custody. The state is pushing for her extradition on charges connected with her resistance at White Clay, Nebraska (to stop alcohol sales from destroying her community) and is attempting to hold her for weeks without proper representation and process….

Olowan is an Oglala Lakota Mother and Grandmother. She is a long time Indigenous Land Defender, Water Protector, a born and raised Warrior. Her roots in resistance run deep and strong, far and wide, from Liberation Days to the Sounds of Resistance, she has worked to bring together the Women’s Peace March, to organize with Mothers Against Meth, to protect Indigenous women from industrial man camps and to stand in the way of resource extractive industry time and time again. Olowan is not only an Indigenous Land Defender and Water Protector, she is also working to actively protect her community from the oppressions tied to drugs and alcohol.

Olowan is a Sundancer, a Pipe Carrier, she is a spiritual woman, a mother to the movement, a teacher, a matriarch and a mentor to the youth. Her war cry has brought so many to these frontlines and many others. We don’t leave our Warriors behind and we will not let Olowan become another missing and murdered Indigenous woman, kidnapped by the state, we will not let her become another statistic, Indigenous women are the largest and fastest growing prison population.” – West Coast Woman Warriors Media Cooperative