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Okay. Today is December 1st 2022. We're on the National Mall. Could you tell us your name? Yep, (speaking an indigenous language). My name is Alethea Phillips. I'm from the Omaha Nation in Nebraska. Could you tell us about your project here? What your involved with, what the tipi is about? Yeah, our organization is Native Youth Alliance, we're an intertribal, indigenous youth organization. We originally established in 1999, or-we originally established in 1990. This project, Tipi on the Mall, was originally established in 1999, and we are out here for a month-long prayer vigil. So we say that when you commit to a ceremony like this you need to commit for four years, so we did this 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. So with the 20-year anniversary of the last time we've done this event, we've decided to revitalize this project.

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So, you'll be doing this next year and the next few years after that? Yep. And how did you get involved with the Native Youth Alliance? Well, I was three months old the first time we did this. My parents originally established Native Youth Alliance.

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And could you tell us a bit about what Native Youth Alliance's, what the goals are for setting up the Tipi on the Mall? Yeah, absolutely. Our organization, Native Youth Alliance, was originally established for homes for children, whose parents were incarcerated, and that's what my dad heard as he was sweating, running the sweat lodges for the brothers inside the prisons. We have always wanted to have this land restoration, but we, until that time, that these homes can really be established, our organization, Native Youth Alliance has expanded to include all issues that affect indigenous youth. So, we are re-establishing ourselves with the re-establishment of this 20-year project, and we are now working on primarily environmental issues, but we-we work on environmental issues indigenous rights issues, cultural and language preservation, youth programming and education. And do you, I believe you were telling me, or talking about the relationship to the longest walk? Is, did I hear you talk about that or? We are not affiliated with the longest walk. We have been out here, again, you know, we did this 1999 to 2002 and then this month, we've been here, as a safe space for indigenous people, to offer their prayers to the sacred fire, this entire month. So this month, we've mostly been out here, we have the ICWA hearing on November 9th. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the ICWA law, but it was put place in 1978 for the protection of indigenous children after the boarding schools. So, now, you know, we'll start to see it more in the media where they're finding the mass graves underneath each of these boarding schools. And then after the boarding schools was the foster-care period of assimilation, where Native children were still being taken from their homes, being abused, and murdered and the foster care system as a way to-it was a form of cultural genocide against indigenous peoples, to try and strip us of our culture, of our religion, of our languages and of our heritage.

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And how did those hearings go? They are still in deliberations, so that hearing began on November 9th. There was indigenous peoples from all across the country, coming to the support that-the Indian Child Welfare act, as that went to its first hearing, but I think we are expecting to hear a final verdict around May or June of next year. So, you've been here now, you're-you're coming up on the-the last night, if I understand. Yes.

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What are some of the things that, well, that you have-who have you all met with? And what are the things that you've done while you've been here? Yeah, we've been here in support of the Indian Child Welfare act. We've had a bunch of native veterans come through during Veterans Day. We've had youth group-a youth group come from Oak Flat, protecting their homelands against copper mining, and then we've had indigenous peoples from all across the country come from academic conferences, from work conferences, who are just visiting. Who were-we just had a Omaha relative today come by, who is just starting to reconnect. And you know, we've had roughly about 200 indigenous people come from all across the country throughout this month to come and offer prayers to the fire. And you know, I've been I'm saying it, is that every day, we're out here we meet someone who was worth it to be out here that day. Could you tell us a bit about the kind of activism that you're involved with when you'll leave here or that you've been involved with prior to setting up the tipi? Yeah, absolutely. So, I became more involved when I was 17. So that is when we were out here for a pipe ceremony, and it also happens to be the same day as the national day of action protest against the Army Corps of Engineers during the Standing Rock movement, and that's when I met Ladonna Brave Bull Allard. Who, you know, we met after that March and she told me, you know, she invited me, she said you need to come out to Standing Rock. So, two weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, we arrived in Standing Rock with the idea that we were going to be out there for two week-be out there for two weeks, and we ended up for staying for four months, all the way up until the eviction, and at that time, I was 17. I got shot at. I got tear-gassed, I got maced all while standing in prayer and so that really brought to my attention, the, you know, violent extremities the extraction industry will go to in order to protect their own corporate interests. So that's when I became, I feel like a lot of people became more aware of the indigenous frontline environmental movement. So we came out here to Washington, D.C. for that. And then we started working on divestment and started working on indigenous environmental issues all across the country. We've worked in Washington State against liquid natural gas fracking, we've worked back in our own territories, back in Nebraska, against the KXL Pipeline, and so, we are still continuing to try and bring awareness around the indigenous environmental movement. We were-this tepee was actually set up outside the United Nations indigenous peoples permanent forum earlier this year, and we've been going to that forum for the last few years. Throughout November was also the UN climate negotiations. I was a part of SustainUS for several all indigenous youth delegation to the UN climate negotiations back in COP 25. This is COP 27 now. So, you know, we're very aware of being here during that time, those negotiations were starting to come about as well. So, we still will continue to work on indigenous environmental issues all across the country. Our organization, Native Youth Alliance, were really at a point of capacity building, and really starting to relaunch our vision of what we would like to see Native Youth Alliance do, so having the opportunity to connect with indigenous people from all across the country this month has really been a blessing. So, from here, we're planning on continuing to follow up with the people we've met and to continue to work on some issues all across the country.

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You talked a bit about your parents, and-specifically about how they founded the Native Youth Alliance in 1990. My-my understanding, I suppose, would be that they've inspired you in many ways. Could you talk a bit about how your parents got in this work and-and how-what kind of work that they have been involved with? Yeah, absolutely. My parents founded our organization, Native Youth Alliance, back in 1990. They worked out here in Washington DC for many years. Um, where they hosted indigenous peoples who are coming for different Native rights issues, and our organization, Native Youth Alliance, they worked on many different issues, including, it was called the Nevada test site, where they were blowing up nuclear bombs on the Eastern Shoshone reservation. And, I am now finding that a lot of Eastern Shoshone from that time, now have high rates of cancer. So, my mother was also exposed to that level of radiation and developed multiple myeloma. So, she is the founder of this project, in particular, tepee on the mall. So, you know, she passed when I was 15 after, you know, suffering of that cancer for many years. So, I'm very aware of how this work is intergenerational, but also, you know, aware that this-this is the realities of, you know, what has happened in the past and in terms of the environmental movement, but, you know, definitely still saying here and honoring our family for, you know, what has happened. Is there anything you'd like to kind of share with us in terms of ways in which those who might be watching this can you support your work or support the larger climate justice movement? Yeah, absolutely. Well, my permit says that I'm actually supposed to be able to have 20 tipis out here. This is a loner tipi, so if anyone would like to come join us next year, we're planning on doing this event for the next three years and making that commitment, so if anyone has a tipi that they would like to come and join us with out here next year, next November, I would-we would absolutely welcome them and one thing that I've really been saying is that it's very individual. So, I've really been trying to talk to the public about their own personal interests, about their own skill sets, and how that can be applied to the indigenous environmental movement, whether you're into gardening, or you're a writer, or whatever it is, there are ways in which that you can use your skills to plug into native rights issues and help support. Our organization is Native Youth Alliance. We are looking for volunteers and you're welcome to check this out. We're Native Youth Alliance on Facebook, tipi on the mall on Instagram, TIPI, and we would absolutely be welcoming of anyone who would like to support.

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Any last things you'd like to share before we close the interview? (Speaking indigenous language). Thank you very much.