Cindy Cochran, Activist & Supporter

Antioch College
Kat Christen, Interviewer | Antioch College KC04
Oral History in the Liberal Arts | Carrizo-Comecrudo Indigenous Led Activism for Border Justice in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas

 

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00:00:00 - Introduction of interviewer, Kat Christen, and interviewee, Cindy Cochran.

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00:00:11 - Cindy talks about why she is at the border from Wyoming, witnessing oppression, and importance of being part of an indigenous led movement.

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Partial Transcript: "I am here because I have always felt the need to be an activist for social injustice, racial injustice....right here, right now there are many areas to be involved with as far as resistance..."

00:01:59 - Cindy talks about what she sees near the indigenous-led resistance camp (Somi' sek Village) as quiet farming neighborhood with cemeteries and homes slated to be bulldozed. Cindy talks about home and property seizure.

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Partial Transcript: "Kat: Can you say something about what you see here? Cindy: We are at our camp about a mile, mile and a half from the river...a peaceful, quiet farming neighborhood very much like where I came from...."

00:03:31 - Cindy talks about meeting visitors to family cemetery that do not know about border wall construction planned through grave sites of their ancestors.

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Partial Transcript: "...when we tell them we are cleaning the gravesites, cleaning the cementary, protecting ancestral lands, we're trying to re-establish native habitat and native villages and what's happening with border wall construction and plans...."

00:04:22 - Cindy talks about trips around planned border wall area and meeting local people, some who are challenging wall construction in courts. Cindy talks about specific wildlife in area and pending habitat loss.

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Partial Transcript: "I am seeing and hearing the same story everywhere I go, people that live in zones to be destroyed have no idea that their homes are about to be raised, people that do know are challenging in courts..."

00:05:43 - Cindy compares her experience at Standing Rock (protest of LNG pipeline) in Lakota led resistance camps to Carrizo-Comecrudo led resistance villages near the border. She discusses spiritual aspects and prayer at native led villages.

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Partial Transcript: "I went to Standing Rock three times, it was such a powerful life changing experience for me...what it was about that....the spiritual aspect of Lakota people, the way they connect what was happening to our creator... and all living beings....that's what they stand on..."

00:07:37 - Cindy talks about purpose of re-stablishing villages as long term Native American sites, replanting native plants, recreating the environment before colonization, and stopping border wall construction.

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Partial Transcript: "...long term villages for native peoples to come back, get rid of invasive species of grass....and replant native plants...plants that will be medicinal and provide food....create the environment before this place was colonized...."

00:08:56 - Cindy talks about the hunting and patrolling of people.

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Partial Transcript: "...all the other destructions... come from the construction of this wall and the militarization of this area.... and the hunting and patrolling of people that are trying to migrate..."

00:09:26 - Kat: What should people know that are not in South Texas? Cindy: Listen to others living under oppression, understand our country as one of white supremacy, white privilege and racism. Cindy discusses television as example.

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Partial Transcript: "...I want them to lay down their own perceptions and their own agenda... cause the only way we are going to heal is when we start listening to others and when we start seeing what its like for people who have been oppressed here for so long....."

00:12:44 - Cindy discusses need for help and how others can help. She recommends media: "Somi'sek" Facebook Page and Googling "Carrizo-Comecrudo".

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Partial Transcript: "...if you are sitting in your home and hearing this and thinking I really want to do something...send money...keep sharing info on social media...the more voices we hear, and the more shared with people across the county the better, you may think that's not making a difference...everything you do is one of many and it helps...Google search that tribe and you will get all sorts of independent media coverage... If you sit on your TVs and wait for main stream media to get you the information you will never hear it..."