David Archambault II (Lakota: Tokala Ohitika) is a Sioux politician who served as tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota from 2013 to 2017.
Archambault says he spent a lot of time with his grandfather while growing up and learned to hunt, fish, cut wood, work in the garden, and ride horses.
[5] Archambault was elected as Chairman of the Standing Rock Tribal Council in September 2013, defeating Mike Faith and replacing Charles Murphy, who had been chair for many of the previous thirty years.
Archambault has frequently spoken on behalf of the Standing Rock Tribe and allied people's protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline and other Indian rights issues.
[1][2] In 2014 Archambault and his wife Nicole met President Barack Obama when he attended a Flag Day at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
Archambault praised Obama for helping to correct "historic wrongs" involving tribal land disputes saying, "Sitting Bull once asked the government in Washington to send him an honest man.
"[7] Archambault was instrumental in protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline and setting up resistance camps on land adjacent to the Standing Rock reservation.
After months of protest, in December 2016 the United States Army Corps of Engineers under the Obama administration announced that it would not grant an easement for the pipeline and was undertaking an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes.
Saying, "Our fight isn’t over until there is permanent protection of our people and resources from the pipeline," Archambault said that he and the tribe will continue to protest and work for Native American rights issues.