It’s been one month since the arrest of Red Fawn Fallis, an organizer with the Oglala Lakota Sioux. Police arrested her on October 27 (along with at least 140 others) during a raid on the short-lived 1851 Treaty Camp, or Sacred Ground Camp, in North Dakota. It was one of the most severe confrontations between law enforcement and those challenging the Dakota Access Pipeline.
According to her family, as well as a website dedicated to Fallis’s release, she was serving as a trained medic to treat those injured from the confrontation. At some point, three officers allegedly “targeted, tackled and threw her to the ground. One officer pulled his weapon and placed it against her back,” according to the site. Shots were fired while she was pinned to the ground.
Officers are alleging that Fallis attempted to shoot at them after taking an officer’s weapon. The state has charged her with attempted murder, resulting in a possible 20-year sentence and $110,000 bail, as Democracy Now! reported. Calling her the “political prisoner” of the #NoDAPL movement, a video posted online compares her to civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, as well as now deceased Honduran Indigenous environmental activist Berta Cáceres. Actor Mark Ruffalo ("The Incredible Hulk") recently showed support for Fallis’ release in a video for Fusion.
However, water protectors say they can contest this allegation with video footage and eyewitness accounts. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier had previously said during a press conference that he could not confirm any demonstrator had fired a weapon.
Today (November 28), Fallis was in court where documents on Twitter show that the state court has dismissed her case, placing her in federal custody. In support of her court hearing, water protectors have been asking allies to wear red and call the Morton County Sheriff Kirchmeier and North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple through tweets and posts tagged #FreeRedFawn.
#FreeRedFawn pic.twitter.com/KS4cPf3ytg
— Art Forces (@ArtForces) November 28, 2016