Materials: Cotton, shot cotton, batiks
Techniques: Raw-edge appliqué, hand embroidered, hand quilted
Finished Size: ​73 x 68

Lakota Youth Speak is a restorative justice project on the Cheyenne River Reservation, in South Dakota. Since 2015, founders Ellie Storck and Marina Sachs have facilitated holistic enrichment programs designed alongside Lakota teenagers to amplify indigenous voices. Programs include weekends at sacred Lakota sites, health and wellness retreats, art and writing workshops, and community member-led activities focused on Lakota skills, foodways, and resilience. Initially funded by Davis Project for Peace, the Lakota Youth Speak Project continues through a partnership with Simply Smiles Inc., the generous support of private donors and other fundraising efforts. To learn more and support the continuation of Lakota Youth Speak, please visit www.lakotayouthspeak.wordpress.com.

​The Lakota Youth Speak quilt square shows a tipi with the words "Tipi Talks" inside. The Tipi symbolizes an important space for pre-reservation Lakota, as a place of agency and movement. In the context of our project, the tipi symbolizes a place where we met occasionally, but most importantly the brave space our project aims to support. "Tipi Talks," the teenager's nickname for the Lakota Youth Speak Project, directly speaks to the heart of the project, amplifying Lakota youth voices.

​Juanita Romero (her square says “liquid genocide”)
My name is Juanita Romero. I am 15 years old, and Native American. I live on the Cheyenne River Reservation. My quilt square is about my parents, who choose alcohol over me and my siblings. None of my siblings nor me live with them. I also barely get to see any of my parents or siblings because of what they choose. So the importance of the quilt square would be that parents should never choose bad deeds over something they choose to have.

​Autumn Roberts (her square shows a woman in front of flames and police) 
My culture and tribe mean the world to me, they are my tiwáhe (family), so I created this as an image of what happened at the DAPL camp. I shall be the change the reservation will wish to see. Pilámaya (thank you).

​Olivia Lakita LeBlanc (her square says “bring him home”)
I do not want anyone to be deported from their home country. All humans have a right to stay anywhere in the world — that is freedom.

​Jaycee Braden (her square says “indigenous women matter”)
I made this quilt square because my grandmother, Candace Rough Surface, inspired me to make it.  She went missing for years, and her body was found in the river years after she was missing. She was was dead. She was raped and then shot, and her case was unusual because they went to prison.  Native women are going missing on reservations all over the United States and nobody is talking about it.

Baptiste Miner (his quilt square shows a woman texting while driving) Texting while driving is far too frequent where I live, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation. The effects are devastating - there must be change.