"During uncertain times, people often turn to history to glean lessons that can guide us in challenging moments. This is why I wanted to revisit our first LANDBACK for the People podcast episode, initially broadcast in April 2023. In " Madonna Thunder Hawk: A Matriarch of the Movement," NDN's CEO and founder Nick Tilsen sat down with Thunder Hawk to discuss the intergenerational, decades-long resistance efforts to defend our land, water, and people."
"Thunder Hawk is Oohenumpa Lakota and has been known to jokingly call herself the "Forrest Gump of Indigenous resistance" because one would have a hard time naming an Indigenous-led action in the past 55 years where she wasn't present. From multiple occupations of Mount Rushmore, to the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties and the Bureau of Indian Affairs building takeover, to the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973, to the mass mobilization at Standing Rock in 2016 that brought together 200 tribes and thousands of people from across the globe, Thunder Hawk has been organizing on the frontlines of Indigenous rights movements for decades."
""We sure weren't learning it in school or any history written about our people," she clarified. "But we were learning from our elders, who were raised by grandparents who had memories of the Battle of Little Bighorn. That's how close our history is to us. And they were the ones that brought us along.""
Madonna Thunder Hawk, Oohenumpa Lakota, has organized across decades of Indigenous resistance, participating in occupations of Mount Rushmore, the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties and BIA building takeover, the 1973 Wounded Knee siege, and the 2016 Standing Rock mobilization that united 200 tribes. Her activism grew from learning Indigenous history through elders and grandparents with living memories of historical battles. The organizing emphasizes community-rooted, intergenerational strategies to defend land and water, mobilize thousands across tribes and nations, and advance the return of Indigenous lands and collective self-determination.
Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.
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