"I can't even describe how powerful it was out there, to be with all those people, praying and asking for help from the Creator."

Yellowtail said an elderly Lakota Sioux woman handed her and her friend willow tree seeds that they planted in the path of the pipeline. "The intent is these willows will be there when we had children, when our grandchildren come about."

"I was so overwhelmed with emotion," Yellowtail said. "(It's) Something I'll never, ever forget."

The experience was so positive, she said she came back to L.A., "floating."

"I feel really inspired and really grounded," she said. "I know that whatever comes next is going to be really inspired."

Yellowtail said she wouldn't call herself an activist, "So I would be the last person I thought would be on the front lines, but I did it," she said. "I just had faith that that was exactly where I was supposed to be in that moment."

The entire experience, from designing Protector Gear to visiting the camp, has also deepened her relationship with water and made her a more conscious consumer, she said. It has also given her increased confidence in her professional pursuits.

"It was good affirmation for me to go there," Yellowtail said. "I see how my work and my career path and the things I’m passionate about, how they’re still very much intertwined in the big picture."

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