Native groups hold town hall meeting

RAPID CITY – Illuminative, a Native-led nonprofit that focuses on the increased visibility of Native peoples in American society, hosted a virtual town hall via their Facebook page on July 8. The meeting was titled The Time is Now: National Native Town Hall. With a large and diverse amount of speakers from Native and other heritages, the town hall focused on the national mascot debate, the incidents on July 3 at Mount Rushmore, and the long road ahead for these issues.

“This really does feel like a sacred moment, this feels like a transformative moment,” said Crystal Echo Hawk, founder of Illuminative, at the begging of the town hall. “We are shining a light, and, tonight, by holding this meeting we are fighting against the invisibility and erasure of Native Peoples.”

But the topic was not only about Native oriented racial issues, but the entirety of racial issues in the United States that has come to fruition over the past months. “We are excited to be in solidarity with you in this moment, as you all have continued to be in solidarity with us,” said Ash-Lee Woodward Henderson, executive director of Highlander Research and Education Center, an organization that provides training and education to movement leaders.

The founder of the NDN Collective who was recently arrested for protesting President Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore, Nick Tilsen, spoke about his actions having deep roots in his culture but also promote racial issues nationwide. “You have this historic moment that has been largely created by the leadership in Black Lives Matter which has created a temperature in this country,” he said. “I wanted to connect the issue that has been generational for the fight of the Black Hills to this broader conversation that is happening in the country and society today about white supremacy and white supremacy constructs that live and breathe live and well in society.”

Tilsen’s fight on July 3 is far from over as he has legal battles ahead of him, but they are not useless. “Yes I will have a battle against the judicial system, and yes that is a reality, and yes there is a huge amount of risk that I am personally taking as a result of what happened,” he said. “But this is an opportunity to actually elevate the issue.”

At the end of the town hall meeting, the conversation shifted from specific issues like mascots and Mount Rushmore to a conversation about building a multiracial movement for justice and equality. “As someone who understands that movements take many people doing many things for a long time, we are at a choice point where we have to organize an Indian Country to understand the nature of systemic racism and how it impacts black people, immigrants, Arabs and so on,” said Judith LeBlanc, a member of the Native Organizer’s Alliance. “We have to show clearly what our role is, and what medicine we bring to a multi-racial movement.”

The town hall was hosted by Illuminative in partnership with NDN Collective and Native Organizer’s Alliance. Participants in the conversation included Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, Faith Spotted Eagle, a member of the Brave Heart Society, and Rodney Bordeaux, a Rosebud Tribal Chairman.

(Contact Travis at travisldewes@gmail.com)

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