NDN Collective leads vibrant Indigenous People’s Day Celebration in Rapid City

RAPID CITY – It was an all-day celebration that began with a march and ended with a surprise performance from a Grammy-award winning rapper.

NDN Collective sponsored the Second Annual Indigenous People’s Day to celebrate and embrace Indigenous culture and heritage. The festivities began at the bandshell in Memorial Park. People gathered with hosts NDN Collective, Wambli Ska, American Indian Movement (AIM) and the International Indigenous Youth Council in preparation for the Investing in Community March to Main Street Square.

Kenny was among those who came to celebrate the day, wearing a jumpsuit made with original fabric. The fabric design, by Twin Cities Dakota artist Marlena Myles, cleverly incorporated Indigenous images in a comic book /pop art style motif that included a pair of disembodied lips yelling “LAND BACK.”

Several hundred people walked together from the bandshell to Haines Steet, across Omaha Street to Main Street and finally to Main Street Square. NDN Collective organizers gave a greeting and welcome.

“Today is a victory for our people – we organized, and we reclaimed this day,” said Nick Tilsen the CEO and president of NDN Collective. “No matter what they have ever done to take our language, our land, our culture, today is a testament that colonizers have failed. We have a responsibility to keep arching, doing our ceremonies, dancing, praying, and speaking truth to power. The colonizer wants us to hang our heads low – on days like this, we remind ourselves to hold our heads high. But it’s more than just a celebration. It’s a testament to our resistance and the strength of our prayers.”

After the greetings, the round dance began. This is a traditional ceremony that brings people together and doesn’t require any skill.

More than 1,000 people came to celebrate and enjoy the afternoon which was filled with traditional music, as well as acoustic, pop, spoken word and rap from Sebastian Gaskin, Bearhead Sisters, Stella Standing Bear, Nevada Brave, North$ide Baby, Miracle Spotted Bear, Keith Secola, Black Stone Drum Group, Santee, Autumn White Eyes, Tanaya Winder, Pte San Win, and Tia Wood.

The family friendly event featured artist vendors, food vendors and vendors providing information about issues important to Indigenous peoples, like the mining on tribal homelands, protecting water and racism.

The Know Your Rights (KYA) campaign was handing out literature in conjunction with NDN Collective’s free KYA seminars.

The Black Hills Clean Water Alliance was available handing out literature about the proposed BLM mineral withdrawal of more than 20,000 acres of public land near Pactola. The withdrawal would remove all this area from mining for 20 years. The public comment period is open until October 21. Plus, maps showing the many areas where there are exploratory drilling proposals.

Monique “Muffie” Mousseau, executive director of Uniting Resilience, was sporting a pair of tennis shoes, one white and one black, with the word “equity” splashed across the back of the heel in gold embroidery. “I feel really powerful and entitled today. I feel like we should be feeling this way every day as a regular human being.”

Mousseau said it still feels like the state and city administration are doing the bare minimum. “It’s a small band aid they’re putting on right now to pacify the real issues and they want to get along for now, but I know that they’ve got to adjust to the bigger issues and come together. I don’t see a lot of Caucasian people out here,” said Mousseau with a sweeping gesture across the Square. “It’s mostly all of the people from the surrounding tribes and the people who came for the powwow. I do think we need to do more. I still feel the tension in the community. And that’s what we need to fix. We didn’t have this kind of freedom and I’m so happy to see this for the younger people.”

Surprise guest Macklemore wrapped up the day. “I feel incredibly honored to be on this stage, out of all the stages I’ve been on this year, this is the most important one,” said Macklemore in a press release from NDN Collective. He explained he had watched the film Lakota Nation vs. the United States after October 7 of last year and was moved by it. He said he recognized that what is happening in Palestine also happened here. “We are being called as a people to rise up against systems of oppression, against white supremacy, rooted in love and community.”

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)

 

The post NDN Collective leads vibrant Indigenous People’s Day Celebration in Rapid City first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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