While Jan. 20, 2017 marked the first day of President Donald Trump’s administration, it doesn’t appear the previous residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. will leave the public eye any time soon. Former First Daughter Malia Obama was spotted at a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week.
Malia Obama has ties to the Dakota Access Pipeline, as her father former President Barack Obama, signed legislation to block two pipeline developments. The former First Daughter may also become a fixture at Sundance, thanks to a summer internship for studio executive and movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux claim the pipeline, which is planned to stretch from Illinois to North Dakota, will potentially contaminate their water supply. The Standing Rock Sioux’s land ends approximately half a mile from the disputed part of the route. Standoffs between the Standing Rock and authorities made news for the majority of 2016, and it was widely expected Donald Trump would renegotiate the terms of the Dakota Access Project upon taking office.
Actress Shailene Woodley, who also joined protestors against completing the pipeline, praised Malia Obama for joining the cause.
“It was amazing to see Malia,” Woodley said in a recent interview with Democracy Now. “To witness a human being and a woman coming into 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, 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.”
