Artist unknown, Indigenous
Black Snake Protest Puppet, 2021
This 200-foot-long black snake was created to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2021. Youth from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the Lower Brule Sioux traveled over 1,500 miles to D.C. for this this protest. The pipeline is compared to the indigenous prophecy of the black snake, Zuzeca Sapa, who will bring destruction to the land, water, and people. This large activist art piece drew attention to the problem and represented the extreme length of the pipelines and the extreme destruction it can cause for the water and land. I was drawn to this piece because it was a grassroots art effort by the Water Protectors to fight the companies and the government trying to bulldoze through their land and water without their permission. This piece is proof that it doesn’t always require an art degree to create something that draws attention and emotion to an issue. Label by Sam Dutilly