Adreanna Rodriguez (she/ella) is a Lakota/Chicana artist based in Oakland, CA. As a storyteller, her research, writing, and filmmaking revolve around issues of social and climate justice for Indigenous communities, as well as femme stories. Adreanna is currently working as an Associate Producer at VICE Audio. She holds a M.A. in Visual Anthropology from San Francisco State University and a Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies from the SALT Institute for Documentary Studies at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. She will be investigating reproductive health care and access to abortion services within Indian Country.
American Indian and Alaska Native children have some of the highest rates of being placed in the foster care system.
In California, farms have not been immune to COVID-19. A Farm Bureau Federation survey recently found that more than half of farms across the state have lost customers or sales due to pandemic. Small family farms are especially vulnerable.
In the midst of the pandemic, a new foster care model based on community living and known as a “children’s village” has opened up to foster youth on the Cheyenne River Reservation. It’s a collaboration between the tribe and an organization called Simply Smiles — with members of the tribe leading the way by sharing traditional knowledge at a critical time.
As a teenager, VICE journalist Adreanna Rodriguez was given a choice that would alter the course of her life. It’s a choice she has considered and reconsidered again and again. In this collaboration with Snap Judgment, Adreanna travels to the Standing Rock Sioux’s Reservation in North Dakota, to find out what could have been.