{"id":40291,"date":"2026-07-02T23:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/on-sovereign-lakota-land-day-one-movement-calls-for-a-new-beginning\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T23:19:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:19:20","slug":"on-sovereign-lakota-land-day-one-movement-calls-for-a-new-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/on-sovereign-lakota-land-day-one-movement-calls-for-a-new-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"On sovereign Lakota land, Day One Movement calls for a new beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Community<\/a><\/p>\n

Community member Nick Tilson speaks at launch of Day One movement. Photo by Marnie Cook<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

CAMP MNI LUZAHAN, S.D. \u2014 On sovereign Lakota land in the Black Hills, Black and Indigenous organizers launched the Day One movement this week, calling for a \u201cnew beginning\u201d for the United States just days before the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

Gathered at Camp Mni Luzahan in the He Sapa, movement leaders framed the buildup to July 4, 2026\u2014promoted nationally as \u201c250 years of freedom\u201d\u2014 as a moment to face the country\u2019s violent beginnings and to plan a future built on land back, reparations, and self-determination.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuly 5, 2026, represents a new opportunity to build a country that works for all of us,\u201d said Erinn Carter, an educator and Day One movement organizer from the West Coast of the United States, who opened the press conference. \u201cThe truth is that America is stolen land, and the truth is that America was built with stolen hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day One describes itself as a national movement rooted in Black and Indigenous communities across the U.S. and Pacific Islands. Organizers say it directly challenges the whitewashing of genocide, slavery, and land theft, and responds to a wave of \u201c250th propaganda\u201d celebrating liberty while rights for marginalized communities are under attack.<\/p>\n

Nick Tilson, a Lakota father, husband and community organizer speaking on his homelands in the He Sapa, told reporters he was not speaking on behalf of any organization but as an individual in a grassroots movement made up of \u201cpeople across this country and across this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot continue to perpetuate anti Blackness, we cannot continue to perpetuate Indigenous erasure if we\u2019re going to build a path forward,\u201d Tilson said, describing land return to Indigenous peoples and Black reparations as core to the vision.<\/p>\n

At Camp Mni Luzahan, organizers also unveiled a \u201cBill of Essential Rights,\u201d a modern framework they say exposes the limits and unequal application of the existing U.S. Bill of Rights.<\/p>\n

The document was presented by Jacy Bowles, a longtime resident of Oakland, California, who described herself as a child of Native Mexican and settler parents and an urban climate justice activist and community organizer.<\/p>\n

The Day One Bill of Essential Rights includes:
\n\u2022 Right to land back
\n\u2022 Right to reparations
\n\u2022 Right to self-determination and sovereignty
\n\u2022 Right to consent
\n\u2022 Right to basic needs
\n\u2022 Right to religion and culture
\n\u2022 Right to dignity and bodily autonomy Right to safety
\n\u2022 Right to move freely and belong
\n\u2022 Right to regenerative food systems and a protected planet<\/p>\n

Bowles said generations of experience show the current system \u201callows for vastly unequal interpretation and application\u201d of rights, and argued the new framework is needed to ensure \u201call humans and Mother Earth\u201d have the rights and dignity they deserve.<\/p>\n

Speakers stressed that Black\u2013Indigenous solidarity is longstanding, rooted in generations of shared resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe past 250 years of genocide of enslavement, of empire and lies\u2014is up,\u201d said Fae, a Day One organizer based in Washington, D.C., introduced as a community organizer and direct action practitioner. \u201cAmerica is stolen lands built by stolen hands, stolen bodies, stolen livelihoods, stolen wealth. There would be no 250 without Black labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fae and other speakers linked Day One to Maroon communities \u2013 self-governing settlements formed by Black people who escaped slavery \u2013 and to historic alliances between free Black settlements and Indigenous nations in places like Louisiana, the Carolinas and Florida, arguing that renewed Black\u2013 Indigenous solidarity today is what most threatens systems of white supremacy.\u201d She said there are examples throughout history of these alliances. \u201cAnd so, what we\u2019re asking for folks really to do is lean back into the practices that are actually culturally significant to us and already exist in the same ways that have already been named, because that is actually their biggest fear. We have an opportunity right now, July 5. This is our next 250 years. We decide every moment past then what that looks like, we decide how we interact with one another, we decide how we care for each other, we decide how people meet their needs, and we as a movement are committed to a different 250 than the last 250 and so for folks at home who are wondering, what does it look like July 5? What do I do? Go into your community, build those relationships, free each other by being outside, being open, being vulnerable, being willing to learn, and finding out what sovereignty and liberation looks like for yourself and for each other, because this is a communal process. We can only do this with all of us. We need everyone. When we see each other\u2019s struggles as one\u2026 that is when we are the majority, and when we\u2019re the majority, anything is possible,\u201d Fae said.<\/p>\n

The Camp Mni Luzahan launch is just one part of a broader cultural project. In the coming days, Day One organizers from the Midwest to the Northeast, Southwest, Mid Atlantic, and Southeast will engage in creative actions to counter the \u201clies surrounding the Fourth of July as a day of freedom and liberty.\u201d These creative actions will ask people to face the historical and ongoing violence against Black and Indigenous people by the U.S government<\/p>\n

\u201cDay One is a necessary response to the rise in authoritarianism, and the beautiful result of oppressed peoples banding together to create a world where we can all flourish,\u201d Tilson said in the movement\u2019s materials. \u201cWe are here to say no more broken Treaties, no more modern-day enslavement, and no more destroying our Mother Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all born with inherent freedom and intrinsic worth,\u201d added Fae. \u201cNow is the time to pour into our artists, our visionaries, and rising leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speakers tied the movement\u2019s demands to concrete struggles\u2014 housing, health care, wages, and schools.<\/p>\n

Brenda P\u00e9rez, an immigrant labor rights activist from Nashville, Tennessee, told the crowd she is an immigrant from northern Mexico who has lived in the United States for 25 years as an undocumented person and DACA holder, and the daughter of a domestic worker who cleaned \u201ctoilets of the rich and powerful\u201d to raise her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to say that we are going to organize, we are going to heal, we\u2019re going to coordinate, and we\u2019re going to build a better future together,\u201d P\u00e9rez said, envisioning rural hospitals, health care that is not a luxury, fully funded teachers, dignified work, and real land back and reparations. \u201cIf you have felt a struggle\u2026 this movement is for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about national politics and July 4 festivities, Tilson said Day One is focused on the long arc, not a single holiday or presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis movement is not concerned with Trump or July 3 or July 4,\u201d he said. \u201cThis movement is concerned about July 5 and the next 250 years\u2026 Trump comes and goes, but we\u2019ll still be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Day One organizers, that long view rests on a simple claim: despite centuries of violence, Black and Indigenous peoples remain.<\/p>\n

As the press conference came to a close Tilson asked, \u201cIs it possible that the best days of our people are actually in front of us and not behind us? And if that is true to you, what action does that invoke today?\u201d<\/p>\n

More information about the Day One movement, including the full Bill of Essential Rights and upcoming actions, is available at dayonemovement.org.<\/p>\n

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)<\/span><\/p>\n

The post On sovereign Lakota land, Day One Movement calls for a new beginning<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/div>

Community member Nick Tilson speaks at launch of Day One movement. Photo by Marnie Cook CAMP MNI LUZAHAN, S.D. \u2014 On sovereign Lakota land in the Black Hills, Black and Indigenous organizers launched the Day One movement this week, calling for a \u201cnew beginning\u201d for the United States just days <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> July 2, 2026<\/p>\n

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