A Native American activist from Cheyenne River and several other tribes donned a turban and joined protestors in Washington, DC, holding signs calling for an end to wars and to “honour peaceful lives”, reports the Guardian.
“I’m wearing this because it represents a symbolic gesture,” the activist, Vincent Powell, told the Guardian. “People feel like it’s OK to disrespect our people and our sacred sites, and this is an action to show people that we’re not going to take it anymore.”
Powell, who said that he has been detained 10 times for protesting, was among about 100 people who signed a protest petition in January, along with former congresswoman Donna Edwards, to urge President Barack Obama to sign an executive order banning the US government from building a $8bn pipeline over land under Native American jurisdiction in North Dakota.
“I wish we had more than this,” Ute Little Thunder, a member of the Navajo Nation, told CNN. “It’s not enough to have a day of gratitude for all the good things we’ve got – that’s not enough.”