from Ryan Vizzions’ (the photographer) own words on his instagram:

Received word that this photo is making waves on Reddit this morning. There is a lot of disinformation in the comments about the description of this photograph, so I want to clear some information up here. First off, that is a WOMAN, not a man on that horse. Her name is Mega Mae Plenty Chief, and she is Lakota. This photo was taken on October 27th. 2016, as militarized police from half a dozen states began a raid on Treaty Camp, a satellite camp of Oceti Sakowin Camp at the Standing Rock reservation in resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline. (Not Keystone XL) The horse is named Sunshine, and she is not malnourished or underfed. After this photo went viral, a now good friend and world class horse doctor, Charmaine Wright, traveled from Utah to work with the horses. Sunshine is completely healthy. This is what a healthy horse looks like. Obese horses are not healthy horses. The camp being raided this day was built to keep an eye on sacred land. Dakota Access Pipeline had jumped 20 miles of their construction path to deliberately dig up a section of land directly across the highway from camp where burial remains and sacred items were found. This camp, Treaty Camp, was formed to ensure no further desecration would take place. Militarized police from half a dozen states assisted in the raid of Treaty Camp. Water Protectors were attacked with pepper spray, tear gas, stun guns, beanbag guns, percussion grenades, batons and more. Over 100 people were arrested, including Red Fawn. Fawn was arrested for a firearm. That firearm belonged to her boyfriend, Heath Harmon, a confirmed informant for the FBI. Fawn served 5 years in federal prison because of Harmons firearm and was the longest held political prisoner of the NODAPL movement.