Ruby Montoya, a former school teacher and climate activist from Arizona who worked alongside Jessica Reznicek in effort to disrupt and stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Ruby Montoya was born in 1990 and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Throughout her childhood, Montoya experienced emotional and physical abuse from her father, for whom she obtained a restraining order against in 2008. She was also allegedly sexually abused by a non-family member as a child. Her half-brother Gabriel Montoya claims that she was not involved in civil rights actions throughout high school and college.
Ruby Montoya was a teacher. She taught preschool in Boulder, Colorado, at New Horizons Co-Op Preschool before quitting in 2016 and moving to Standing Rock to pursue climate activism. Montoya then taught grades 3 and 4 at the Running River Waldorf school in Sedona, Arizona, for two years following her confession related to DAPL. Montoya ceased teaching once she was arrested on September 27th, 2019. Montoya does not have any children.
Montoya opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and followed the story closely. In late summer 2016, she quit her job and joined the encampment against DAPL led by Jessica Reznicek that was located approximately two and a half hours east of Des Moines, Iowa, called Mississippi Stand. Montoya was not an activist and had no criminal record prior to her involvement in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Demonstrators, largely organized by Reznicek, blockaded site access roads and locked themselves to construction equipment to halt drilling occurring under the Mississippi River for pipeline construction. Despite efforts by the encampment, drilling was completed in late October of 2016 and the encampment disbanded.
According to their confession, Montoya and Reznicek began conducting industrial sabotage against the Dakota Access Pipeline in November of 2016. They set fire to construction equipment using coffee canisters filled with gasoline, motor oil, and rags, in addition to burning holes into the pipeline structure using oxy-acetylene torches. Differing reports suggest that damages from their sabotage ranges from $3 million to $6 million. In July 2017, the women held a press conference at which they publicly confessed to their crimes, but charges were not filed against Montoya or Reznicek until 2019.
MontoyaâÂÂs and ReznicekâÂÂs charges were severe, according to US Attorney Richard Westphal and FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel, in order to warn off other people from pursuing similar actions. Montoya was indicted on September 19, 2019, by a United States federal grand jury, with âÂÂone count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, four counts of use of fire in the commission of a felony, and four counts of malicious use of fireâÂÂ.àShortly after her indictment, on September 27, 2019, Montoya was arrested in Arizona. After her arrest, she was detained to wait for a trial date to be set for when she would need to appear in court in the Southern District of Iowa.
In September 2022, Montoya was sentenced to prison for 6 years. US Attorney Richard D. Westphal commented that her significant sentencing was justified by the over $3 million worth of damages assigned to Montoya, and added that she would serve as an example to deter others who may be inspired by her actions. She is currently serving her sentence at Phoenix RRM with an expected release date of October 20, 2026.
<nowiki>*</nowiki>Ruby Montoya and Jessica Resnicek took responsibility for the industrial sabotage starting in November 2016 during their press release in July 2017.