Kicked Out, Help a Native Artist Find a New Home on Wheels

Haŋ mitakuyapi. Čanté wasté nape čiyuzapi. Mni wakaŋ oyate hemataŋhaŋ. Isnanauŋ emakiyapi

Hi, I'm an Indigenous Dakota/Lakota Artist, Isnanauŋ on Instagram and TikTok.

[ photo is of my cats and I when i lived part time in my van for the summer 3 Years ago ]

I was made to leave my home of 2 almost 3 years by the oldest matriarch of my family because I refused to enable another toxic family member who is a long-time abuser and drug addict.

As an online artist. I liked to keep my personal life and art seperated but this entire situation became much bigger and messier than it needed to be leaving me feeling extremely isolated and helpless. All the stuff below may seem like a lot. Especially since all this stuff went down all in 1 week. But i feel like transparency is important especially when it comes to asking for any kind of help.

[ I do not specifically say names and avoid saying kind of relations these people have to me because of legal reasons as they have been making the greatest effort to hurt me in any legal way they possibly can so i am just being cautious. ]

Not wanting my childhood home to become a meth house, I took the responsibilities of taking care of the house. I paid the bills and was the sole provider for the household at the time and took care of myself, my elder, my pets, and their cat.

I'd like to clarify that I do not have a prejudice against people struggling with addiction. I'm well aware it's a complicated and tough situation for everyone involved. I grew up surrounded by it, and it's unfortunately a common reality for a lot of Native kids and people across NDN country. But this person in particular has harmed and traumatized me and my family ever since I was a child. This person has no remorse or willingness to change. Enabled and spoiled her whole 48 years of life. And witnessing this from a kid to now a 24-year-old adult, the resentment of having to be silent finally broke.

I was raised in a multi-generational household and with the belief of sweeping stuff under the rug for the sake of peace. But I couldn't stay quiet about this anymore. For the first time in my life, I genuinely voiced my concern to the elder of my family and made it clear I was not comfortable and did not want this person in the home I lived in. After witnessing and finding this person stealing, lying, leaving meth pipes around the house and finally almost overdosing in my bathroom at the beginning of 2024, that was my final straw. I could no longer handle this mental strain and repetitive distress this person had inflicted on me and my family my whole life.

But instead of listening to my concerns, my words were considered "disrespect" by the elder of my family just because the drug addict was "older than me" and that they were "family". After some back and forth, they denounced me as her granddaughter and demanded I leave the house in defense of the drug addict. I refused to leave as I worked hard to pay and live there the past almost 3 years. So they tried to kick me out by calling the cops on me, but since I was the one paying all the bills, the cops refused and legally couldn't remove me. So the elder proceeded to threaten elder abuse on both me and the tribal police officers for not doing what they said because they are an “elder.”

After witnessing how far and how easy it was for this person I centered most of my life around to just throw me out after how close we were and how much I did for them, I made a choice. As of 2/14/25, I left my home in the dead of night while everyone was gone over the weekend and on my own terms instead of waiting for a court order to get me kicked out. Legally, the house was in the elder's name, so it was only a matter of time. Only proved my intuition right as a day later they had falsely claimed “elder abuse” and filed a restraining order on me and on another family member who was never involved besides being on my side.

I am devastated by the loss of someone I loved so much but I do not regret the amount of courage it took to break one of many cycles in my family.

Now for the reason I started a GoFundMe:

I'd like to point out that I do have a job and work 40 hours a week. While I am saving up as much as I can, including using the previous donations I received towards a new used van. even with that I will not have nearly enough to get a decent van by spring and need a reliable source of transportation for work. So I am also taking on some emergency commissions too, on top of opening this fundraiser.

I managed to find a temporary place for my pets and I to crash for now until the spring. My intention was to move into my van during spring and live in it for the year, but the day after I moved, my 1997 Dodge Ram conversion van of 4 years finally gave out on me. The past year she’s had more and more frequent issues than usual and more expensive each time I bring her to the shop. So I’ve finally decided that I can no longer be confident in her as a reliable source of transportation and have to look for a different van.

My research for the best and most reliable and within my desired budget are old conversion vans that are either an old GMC Vandura or an old Chevy G20 series van. The price market for these vans (especially well-maintained ones) is a bit up there but I'd much rather have the peace of mind of having a good reliable van than constantly having to question weather or not if I’ll break down so often.

So I am fundraising to secure a stable living situation for myself and my pets, as well as to get a new van so I can have a reliable means of transportation that doubles as a new home for my pets and me.

Pidamaya (thank you) if you had read all of this. I know it was a lot and especially for all this to go down in just one week. And thank you to all the people who have been keeping up with this situation on my Instagram