Malia Obama, the oldest daughter of former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaThe Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Don't expect a government check anytime soon Trump appointees stymie recommendations to boost minority voting: report Obama's first presidential memoir, 'A Promised Land,' set for November release MORE, was spotted Friday at a Dakota Access pipeline protest at the Sundance Film Festival.

Malia Obama joins Dakota Access pipeline protest at Sundance https://t.co/8RtAHZ9jQV pic.twitter.com/o7aboCYycG — Mercury News (@mercnews) January 27, 2017

Obama was praised by fellow protester, actress Shailene Woodley, who also attended the event at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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“It was amazing to see Malia,” the actress told Democracy Now.

“To witness a human being and a woman coming in to her own outside of her family and outside of the attachments that this country has on her, but someone who’s willing to participate in democracy because she chooses to,” Woodley said. “Because she recognizes, regardless of her last name, that if she doesn’t participate in democracy, there will be no world for her future children.”

Malia reportedly left her family’s Caribbean vacation to attend the Sundance festival.

The Dakota Access Pipeline was in headlines late last year as massive protests nationwide fought to stop the pipeline. Many were concerned with possible oil spills, the pipeline's affect on nearby water supplies and the tribal rights of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who discovered the construction of the pipeline was planned through a sacred site.



Feds stopped construction of the pipeline under Obama, however President Trump took executive action this week to move forward with its construction.