Greta Thunberg, Favourite For Nobel Peace Prize, Honored At Standing Rock

Source: The Guardian

Greta Thunberg has been honoured by tribal leaders at Standing Rock in North Dakota, the scene of fierce environmental protests, as the teenage climate activist became odds-on favourite for another garland – the Nobel peace prize.

Thunberg has been visiting Native American activists who have opposed the Dakota Access pipeline, a major oil project they say will contaminate their drinking water. The Standing Rock Sioux reservation was the scene of a major protest encampment that was dispersed following a severe police crackdown in 2017.

Tokata Iron Eyes, an environmental activist, invited Thunberg, a fellow 16-year-old, to her homelands on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, after befriending her. On Tuesday the duo spoke at the Standing Rock high school about the burgeoning youth-led climate movement that has seen millions of people strike from school and protest against fossil-fuel projects around the world.

“This is a global fight; this is not just in my home country in Sweden,” Thunberg said. “We as teenagers shouldn’t be the ones taking responsibility. It should be the ones in power.” Iron Eyes said that indigenous culture was inherently linked to the health of the environment. “No 16-year-old should have to travel the world in the first place sharing a message about having something as simple as clean water and fresh air to breathe,” she said. -More...



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/greta-thunberg-standing-rock-north-south-dakota-nobel-peace-prize

---

At a closing ceremony with the group, Thunberg was gifted with a Lakota Native American name, Maphiyata echiyatan hin win, which translates as “woman who came from the heavens”.

Swedish Activist Greta Thunberg Brings Climate Message To Standing Rock Sioux Nation, Inforum, Oct. 8, 2019
https://www.inforum.com/news/government-and-politics/4711406-Swedish-activist-Greta-Thunberg-brings-climate-message-to-Standing-Rock-Sioux-Nation



- Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, 16, embraces Sioux Medicine Man Arvol Looking Horse Oct. 8, after a forum on climate change at the Standing Rock High School in Fort Yates, N.D. Jeremy Turley /Forum News Service