(Honorable Mention – Mixed Media)
School: Kodiak High School
Grade: 12th
I was inspired by the Dakota Access Pipeline and Standing Rock’s fight against it. Standing Rock is a Sioux Native American reservation in North Dakota, the pipeline will essentially run through the reservation’s fresh water sources most likely contaminating their drinking water. The construction of the pipeline will and has run through “protected” sacred Native American burial sites, ruining them forever. Native Americans from all over the Americas have joined together to peacefully fight the pipeline together. Being Alaskan Native and Native American myself, I felt a need to do something to help my sisters and brothers fight the pipeline, so I used my art skills to create this piece.