Defending Ȟe Sápa, Upstaging Donald Trump, and an International Indigenous School under Threat

American Indian Airwaves

Part 1: NDN Collective President and CEO Nick Tilsen was among 20 Land Defenders arrested while protesting Donald Trump's visit to Mount Rushmore on July 3rd, 2020. Over 200 land defenders successfully mobilized to the defend the Ȟe Sápa and the Treaty of Fort Laramie by preventing ticket holders along Highway 244 from taking the Keystone entrance to the Independence Day fireworks celebration speech at Mount Rushmore with President Donald Trump. Subsequently, the American president, Donald Trump, was upstaged by the success of the land defenders ultimately preventing a larger than anticipated turnout for Donald Trump’s speech, garnishing media attention over Trump’s speech, and raising the critical consciousness and awareness of the sacredness of Ȟe Sápa, The Treaty of Fort Laramie, and fostering greater solidarity for a just transition. Over 20 people were arrested and charged on July 3rd, including Nick Tilsen who was charged with two felony accounts and three misdemeanors which if convicted on all charges could result in up to 15 years in prison. After being detained for three days, Nick Tilsen was released and he joins us to discuss the successes of the July 3rd, 2020 action, upstaging Donald Trump, his jail prison experience, the structural racism of the prison industrial complex system in South Dakota, the implications of being convicted for all felony and misdemeanor charges, honoring the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851/1868, Donald Trump’s violations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the establishment of the Black Hill Legal Fund for providing legal counsel for the July 3rd arrestees, the continuing work of the NDN Collective, plus a whole lot more. Guest: Nick Tilsen, (Oglala Lakota Nation), President and CEO of the NDN Collective, a Rapid City, S.D. non-profit organization dedicated to Indigenous power through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grant making, capacity-building and narrative change. Part 2: This past Thursday on July 9th, 2020, the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) voted on a new charter policy, LAUSD Policies and Procedures for Charter Schools, which threaten and possibly leads to the termination of charters schools such as the Anahuacalmecac International University, the only and oldest international Indigenous school located in Los Angeles County, California. Our guest provides detailed and insightful implications of the LAUSD recent actions, the Indigenous Education Now coalition’s submission of a formal complaint to the United States Department of Education against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and the Indigenous Education Now coalition demands that the LAUSD immediately address the Native student COVID-19 crises, and conduct Indigenous/tribal consultation with local Indigenous nations and organizations, plus a lot more. Guest: Marcos Aguilar, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Academia Semillas del Pueblo and Head of the School at Anahuacalmecac International University