Jim Terry Interview: An Artist's Journey To Standing Rock

Chicago comic book artist Jim Terry who is half Native American (Ho-Chunk Nation) traveled to Standing Rock in early November to deliver supplies to water defenders. The journey inspired him to create a stunning piece of artwork, and this is his story. 

Terry wanted to make clear that he was not speaking for Standing Rock Sioux, but from his personal experiences.

"Here is the most amazing that I took away from it. I went to the prayer that morning. This elder was speaking and he said, I'm going to lightly paraphrase, but he said, "There are people from DAPL who have infiltrated our camp and they're walking around our camp. So, if you see anybody who looks suspicious." At this point, I'm like okay what are we supposed to do. He says, "Invite them to the fire, have a cup of coffee with him. Talk to him, and tell him we are doing this for his children too." And that is no joke the philosophy of the camp," said Terry.  

"One of the things that I noticed when I was out there, when these elders spoke, he said "Good morning relatives" to everyone, everybody that was there, you had every kind of race, sexual orientation, everything was "Good morning my relatives. We're all connected here. We're all on this planet together. We are the custodians of this planet, we are not the conquers of this planet. We are its custodians." I hope that if nothing else this raises some awareness about the direction we can go in from here on out," said Terry.