Time - USA (2020-04-06)

78 Time April 6–13, 2020

TARA HOUSKA

A link between worlds

When bankers and oil-company

execs need a Native American

perspective on infrastructure

projects affecting tribal lands,

they often call up Tara Houska,

35, an Ojibwe lawyer and envi-

ronmental activist. “I’m trying to

be a bridge between those two

different worlds,” she says.

Houska gained prominence

during the 2016–2017 protests

against the Dakota Access Pipe-

line (DAPL) for calling on banks

to divest from the pipeline and

documenting inhumane treat-

ment of protesters supporting

the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

In March 2017, she was part

of a delegation of indigenous

women who briefed officials

from Norway’s $1 trillion oil

fund. That same month, the

JODY WHITE

Delivering

normalcy

As the coronavirus

outbreak has shut

down schools across

the country, it has

complicated

the lives of families

who rely on the facili-

ties for meals. Some

school districts in

states like Oregon,

South Carolina and

Georgia are trying

to make sure these

meals get delivered

to students—and

Jody White, 56,

a bus driver in

Estacada, Ore., is

one of many nation-

wide who are staying

on the road despite

closures to make

sure students on

free and reduced-

price lunch plans

still get fed. “I’m

pretty sure they look

forward to it because

when we pull up

they’re all smiles,”

White says. “This,

right now, what we’re

going through, is not

the norm for [kids],

and so when they see

a bus pull up, that’s

the norm for them,”

she says. “It helps

them a little bit, I

hope.” She has some

evidence it’s work-

ing: she’s been inun-

dated with thank-you

cards “from almost

every stop.”

—Sanya Mansoor

fund divested from DAPL, and

that fall, it announced it was

considering dumping its oil

stocks. While the eventual sell-

off was smaller than activists

hoped, it represented a shift in

awareness—and Houska says

that since then, banks seem

more aware that indigenous-led

movements can have a real

impact on their bottom line.

Nowadays, she’s focused

on a pipeline closer to her

Minnesota home: the proposed

expansion of Line 3, which

could threaten the Anishinaabe

territory’s wild-rice production.

She lives near the proposed

route on an indigenous women-

led camp she founded called

the Giniw Collective. There, she

juggles grant writing and calls

from policymakers with look-

ing for firewood, hunting and

fishing. At a time of crisis in the

U.S. and abroad, she says, that

connection between tribal and

nontribal life is more important

than ever: “I hope the original

peoples of the land are looked

to for wisdom about how to be

resilient.”—Olivia B. Waxman

TIM BOYLE

Running strong

When Tim Boyle quit

smoking in 2013, he

decided to take up

running—but staying

motivated was tough,

especially during win-

ter in his hometown

of Fargo, N.D. That

is, until he heard that

one way to overcome

a disinclination to

run is to remember

those who would

love to run but can’t.

Boyle, 48, posted

about this on Face-

book, and his friend

Michael Wasserman,

who has Down

syndrome and hip

dysplasia, said Boyle

could run for him any-

time. This exchange

evolved into I Run 4,

an organization that

has matched some

17,000 runners with

“buddies” who can-

not run or have diffi-

culty doing so; some

of the pairs have

ended up traveling

halfway around the

world to meet. “Both

people are getting

inspiration out of it,”

Boyle says. —K.S.

JAMIAH

HARGINS

Growing together

Jamiah Hargins, a

recruiter who lives

in Los Angeles,

started gardening in

his backyard a few

years ago and soon

found himself with a

big enough harvest

to give food away to

people who live on

his street. It created

a lighter mood, he

says. He then turned

to social networks to

see if other garden-

ers had crops they’d

like to trade. About

15 people came to

the first meetup

he organized, then

20, then 30. Now

in its second year,

the gathering has

become an organiza-

tion known as Crop

Swap LA. Gardeners

meet up monthly to

exchange items like

grapes and corn, but

Hargins, 35, has also

started dreaming

bigger, talking about

turning rooftops and

yards across L.A. into

yet more sources of

local food. —K.S.

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