Friday, dozens of people wound through the rainy streets of Eugene for an Indigenous Peoples March, one of 16 organized across North America.
On the steps of the federal courthouse, Native Americans beat rawhide drums, or spoke about topics ranging from cultural appropriation to safeguarding the environment.
Noly Chouinard identifies as Pinoy/Cree, a mixed heritage rooted in the Philippines and Canada. He says this march is also in correlation with the Womens March being held this weekend.
“But it’s also recognizing the struggles of our native women up north. There’s a string of missing and murdered indigenous women all across Canada," Chouinard tells KLCC.
"We have struggles here in Oregon, with pipelines coming. Trump is very much for those kind of things, and those destructions of Mother Earth. And this march also correlates with our brothers and sisters in our southern border.”
Choinard sang a song in tribute to the American Indian Movement, and said activism is needed more than ever these days.
Copyright 2019, KLCC.