Indigenous people have been brutally oppressed for hundreds of years, and today this oppression is still continuing–most notably at Standing Rock–yet somehow they manage to survive and even thrive.

Activist Sky Roosevelt-Morris is of the Shawnee and White Mountain Apache Nations and is a member of the Leadership Council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. She explains that this resilience comes from the earth and the elders. “We believe in something that cannot be stopped. We believe in something that is so beyond just humans. It doesn’t end or begin with human beings.”

“We’re not a faith based religion. Our spirituality isn’t faith based. We can feel it, we can see it, we can smell it, we can taste it every day. It’s a gift.”

This inspiring video is an excerpt from the forthcoming documentary End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock.