Deserae Kill Eagle with her two daughters.
BY: Eliza King Freedman, SUMMER 2020 COLLABORATOR AT POWER IN PLACE
On May 25, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer, making him one of too many victims of police brutality. However, unlike countless other victims, Floyd’s murder was recorded and went viral. Since then, the country has been consumed by protests and calls to action regarding police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, and people who have never listened before are beginning to pay attention to what needs to change in this country and what role they play in that change. Many of us, myself included, are wondering what we can do as citizens. How much of a difference can we really make with an Instagram post, a sign at a protest, a conversation with a friend? Wouldn’t we do better by simply supporting those already in power and letting them use their influence to encourage change? No, I don’t think we would. I believe that it is the conversations between friends and the protests and the posts that are bringing about the legislative change that our nation is finally seeing. And it was the words of Deserae Kill Eagle, granddaughter of Little Shell Chippewa Tribe Vice-Chairman Leona Kienenberger, that affirmed this perspective and motivated me to continue forth in this manner:
I had someone tell me once, “Des, you don’t have to be on the front line. You can help by holding an office position or by helping in an office position and connecting your people and networking.” And I thought, “No, but we need more of the grass-root people who are helping show and model for their people.”
In addition to her thoughts regarding how to support a movement and how to participate in something much bigger than oneself, Kill Eagle also discussed what an education can do to supplement one’s cause and one’s ability to participate in society:
Systemic racism is finally being forced into the light in this country in a new, all-consuming way, as people finally realize the ways that the government and the American institutions have been intentionally holding back and holding down BIPOC. Kill Eagle’s words struck me specifically because she has known for so long what many of us are only just learning. She knows how to fight, she knows to learn about what she's fighting for before she speaks on it, and she knows how to participate. As we navigate these protests and this rocky political climate, I believe that it is people like Kill Eagle that will guide us through, for she has been fighting for this cause longer than many of us were even aware of it.
Eliza King Freedman is a rising sophomore at Middlebury College. She intends to major in International Politics and Economics with a minor in Architectural Studies. In addition to Power in Place, she also works for a horse therapy organization that specializes in the rehabilitation of veterans. She is most passionate about the study of nonproliferation and prison reform.