Remembering “Water Warrior” Holly Bird

Photo by Tyler Franz

From staff reports

Holly T. Bird, a local attorney, indigenous activist, and member of the Traverse City Area Public Schools Board of Education—and whose family had roots on Little Glen Lake—joined the ancestors on April 3. Bird was co-executive director of TitleTrack and advocated for everything from indigenous visibility and racial justice, to clean water and energy, to LGTBQ+ rights. A proud member of the Thunder Clan, she traced her heritage from Apache, Yaqui, and Perépucha Tribes and joined the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipe Line in North Dakota in 2016.

Bird wrote the following text message to her friend, now State Rep. Betsy Coffia, in September 2018, during Trump’s first term as president:

“Betsy, do you know how steel is made stronger? It is heated [in] fire which is the passion and then hammered until it is a fine point. Then it is plunged into a cold watery substance which makes it sizzle and appear to grow dead. Each time the steel is forged in the fire and then sent back to the water it grows harder and stronger. Trump and his administration have been the water to our steel. You are the fire. We are growing stronger.”

The Glen Arbor Sun, which celebrates 30 years in 2025, is a free community publication supported by local advertisers and subscribers. Thanks for your readership and support.