Wašté Win Yellowlodge Young (Ihunktowanna Dakota/Hunkpapa Lakota) is a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is a descendant of women and warriors who fought at the Little Bighorn and hails from Sitting Bull’s band.
She graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2001 and worked for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Historic Preservation Office from 2003 to 2015, including eight years as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer.
Wašté Win’s family founded the Očeti Šakowiŋ Camp: the epicenter of the Indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock from August 2016 until February 22, 2017, when law enforcement and military forcibly removed the water protectors. Wašté Win was one of 72 people arrested on February 1, 2017, at Crazy Horse’s “Last Child’s Camp” at Očeti Šakowiŋ for peacefully maintaining a physical and spiritual presence on Sioux treaty land.
Wašté Win has traveled throughout the world meeting with financial institutions, parliaments, and shareholders whose investments negatively impact Indigenous communities. Her work, along with that of other Indigenous women, has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars divested from harmful extractive industries. She graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 2022 and lives in Albuquerque.