Heart of Standing Rock Interview with Patty Porter

Patty Porter is a dynamic force to be reckoned with. She carries so much love, kindness, history, strength and wisdom. Patty braved a winter storm by kayak to settle on the lands of Oceti Sakowin Camp to join the fight against the North Dakota Access Pipeline.

To be inspired by her words and story is an understatement. Her voice carries and strong message that will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat craving for more.

"We started our paddle from Bismarck, and we came down about 23 – 24 miles. Then the storm hit. We had a massive storm. It was a life altering storm. Some (fellow paddlers) were on the left side of the river that had to get out. Some were way behind that got left and jumped into a cabin. There were like 30 people out of the dug outs in one cabin, and my partner and I were stuck in the middle. And he goes, "Should we turn back?", and I say, "No, we can’t turn back or we’ll die."
I told him all we could do is go to the lights. They're flashing the lights, and our brothers were on the shore flashing lights, and we’re just going. The hail just had to been massive big. We had lightening and thunder all the way around us just hitting. The water was so unbelievable. we couldn’t even see the end of our kayak. We had a massive white out, and I got hit in the eye with a hail and I could hardly see. And we tipped over a couple times, and I was told kayak can’t tip over. Well, we were real close a couple times.
I froze, and all I could hear was my dad, "Holler. Holler!" So I did. To me, it was close. It was real close, and I thought to myself when I froze, "Nobody’s going to come out and save you. You gotta dig, woman." So I started digging and I could hear my dad, “Holler.” So I did, “Whooooooooo!” I hollered as loud as I could, and I don’t know how many times and we couldn’t even see the lights. That’s how my brothers on shore could know where we were.
The storm of my life."

Interviewed by Toni Cervantes

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