LANDBACK For The People

Nick sits down with Norma Rendon, Executive Director of Where All Women Are Honored. Indigenous women and two spirit relatives are some of the most marginalized people in all of society. There is a direct relationship to the stealing of Indigenous Peoples land and the wrongful violent mistreatment of Indigenous women. The LANDBACK Movement is only possible because of the matriarchs and in fact “La...

NDN Launches the Landback Action Network! The LANDBACK Movement has been growing, expanding and creating impact throughout the Indigenous world. Now it’s time to further connect this growing movement through the building of a network made up of Indigenous peoples, communities, and Nations to build, collaborate, learn, and get the Landback.  In this episode Nick brings Nicole, Cy, and Eva–thre...

Nick sits down with resident uncle, artist, and NDN Store manager JayCee Beyale. JayCee draws inspiration from street art and graffiti, using a combination of spray paints and acrylics to celebrate the fusion of technology with Indigenous culture, primarily in paintings and murals. Together, they talk about why it’s important for arts, creativity, and swag to have a permanent place in the movement...

Nick Tilsen, Founder & CEO of NDN Collective, sits down with Taylor Gunhammer, local organizer, to discuss the attack on Pe’sla, a sacred site for many tribes in the Black Hills region. Local company Pete Lien & Sons (PLS) will be doing exploratory drilling, looking for graphite. This drilling will destroy sacred land and risk contaminating the water that many in the region depend on. CALL...

It takes all of us to organize against racism in our communities. In this episode, Nick sits down with Dr. Valeriah Big Eagle and Wizipan Little Elk Garriott to discuss the ruling in the federal lawsuit trial against the owners of the Grand Gateway hotel. After years of advocacy, racism was on trial and on full display in the courtroom. The verdict? Racism is expensive.  SUPPORT OUR WORK: Hel...

Jason Sole is back on LANDBACK For The People. Nick and Jason catch up in the Southside of Minneapolis. We dig into Jason’s recent pardon, discuss what is happening on the ground in Minneapolis, and Black & Indigenous liberation in the Landback movement. ℹ️ Support REP:  https://repformn.org     ℹ️ Show love to Jason: Sub to his Substack and join his Patreon . This episode...

We’re back for season 4, and in this first episode, we get personal. As some of you may know, Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, Founder & CEO of NDN Collective, is being brought to trial in Pennington County, South Dakota and will be fighting for his freedom.  ℹ️ You can learn more about Nick’s case here: https://ndnco.cc/tilsentrial2026   NDN Collective believes this case to be a politica...

To wrap our 2025 season, we're diving into what is happening in Alaska. How Indigenous people in Alaska are fighting to protect the ecological biodiversity, their subsistence rights, wildlife, and to keep minerals in the ground. Historically roads being built in Alaska have been the ways in which they've exploited the people and the land. One current project being proposed is Ambler Road, over 200...

In this episode, we talk about LANDBACK in the Black Hills. The battle for the Black Hills is the longest legal battle over land in the American judicial system. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the stealing of the Black Hills was one of the most gross violations of the Constitution in US history. Nick is joined by revered Lakota elders and spiritual leaders Richard Moves Camp and Robert Two...

When Nick was 13-years-old he wrote Leonard Peltier a letter. In that letter he said he would fight for his freedom until the day he is free. In this profoundly personal episode, Nick sits down with Leonard to talk about his journey, his struggle, and what he means to the people. LEARN MORE: Support Leonard by buying his artwork: https://www.lphawkmanii.org/ Read about NDN Collective's effort to b...

Storytelling is the backbone of our movement. In this episode, Nick Tilsen sits down with writer and comedian Joey Clift to talk about how important it is to use narrative and storytelling as a mechanism to catalyse the LANDBACK movement, the power of modern-day representation, and Joey's upcoming short animation film, "Pow!." LEARN MORE: Pow! premieres 11/24 on FNX, watch here: https://www.youtub...

In this episode Nick Tilsen is joined by Dr. Lilias Jarding, Executive Director of Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, and Taylor Gunhammer, Lead Organizer for the Protect the He Sapa campaign at NDN Collective, to talk about past and current efforts to protect the land and water in the Black Hills of South Dakota, updates on the Protect the He Sapa campaign, and how important intergenerational orga...

In this episode Nick Tilsen is joined by Foster Cournoyer Hogan, NDN Collective Bison Coordinator, and Wizipan Little Elk Garriott, NDN Collective President, to announce the launch of a critical mutual aid campaign in response to the SNAP benefits crisis, discuss how this moment calls us into action, and to share about the upcoming work for the Bison Homelands Initiative at NDN Collective. GUESTS:...

In Season 3, Episode 6 Nick Tilsen is joined by Brittany Koteles, Executive Director of Land Justice Futures. This organization helps religious land owners pursue land justice – shifting the narrative of land as a commodity to one of repair, restoration, and reciprocity. Land Justice Futures works closely with Christian communities and Catholic sisters to move toward repair. According to Land Just...

In this episode, Nick sits down with three amazing leaders of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS). NABS is conducting an oral history project documenting the stories of boarding school survivors for the Library of Congress. The work of NABS includes development and implementation of a national strategy to increase public awareness and cultivate healing for the tra...

In Season 3, Episode 4: Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective CEO and Founder, sits down with Amy Sauze, Remembering the Children's Executive Director, and Dr. Valeriah Big Eagle, Director of He Sapa Initiatives for NDN Collective, to talk about LANDBACK's relationship to healing intergenerational trauma. GUESTS: Amy Sazue Dr. Valeriah Big Eagle LEARN MORE: https://www.rememberingthechildren.org/ NDN COLLEC...

In Season 3, Episode 3: Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective CEO and Founder, joins NDN Collective President Wizipan Little Elk Garriott and Vice President Gaby Strong to talk about the current political moment, changes to the movement building landscape and the future of our organization. NDN Collective was founded seven years ago and has created significant impact for Indigenous People across Turtle Isla...

Nick Tilsen sits down with the guys of Sacred Storm Buffalo to talk about their work, the importance of investing into community-led enterprises, and how the restoration of buffalo back into community is LANDBACK. Sacred Storm Buffalo , a community-rooted and culturally grounded workforce development enterprise of the nonprofit Wambli Ska Okolakiciye, is dedicated to restoring strength, purpose, a...

In Season 3 Episode 1: Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective CEO and Founder, sits down with He Sapa Otipi's Executive Director, Cante Heart and Dr. Valeriah Big Eagle, NDN Collective Director of Strategic Partnerships, two Indigenous matriarchs leading the work of developing an Indian Center in MniLuzahan (Rapid City). He Sapa Otipi is an emerging non-profit rooted in Lakota values and traditions that revi...

On this kickoff episode of Season 3 of LANDBACK For the People, Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective's Founder & CEO, welcomes new leadership to NDN Collective, President Wizipan Little Elk In this conversation we unpack the triad of leadership at NDN Collective, examining the origins of Nick, Wizipan, and Vice President Gaby Strong, and how they each came into their roles at the organization. We learn fro...

On this final episode of season 2, Nick Tilsen talks with Jason Sole to discuss what being an abolitionist means, the origins of FTP, how the LANDBACK movement and Black Liberation are required for our collective liberation, and that Black and Indigenous solidarity is a practice that we need to build within our movements. ABOUT JASON SOLE: Jason, formerly incarcerated, is an abolitionist. He has b...

On this episode of LANDBACK FOR THE PEOPLE, Nick Tilsen invites Deenaalee Hodgdon, Co-Executive Director of Smokehouse Collective, Executive Producer of "On the Land" Podcast, and NDN Collective Radical Imagination artist, to discuss the subsistence lifeways of the Arctic through fishing and tracking salmon to feed and sustain their communities. ✊🏽 WANT TO LEARN MORE? ▶️ Visit the Smokehouse Col...

On this episode of LANDBACK FOR THE PEOPLE, Nick Tilsen invites filmmakers Julian Brave Noisecat (former NDN Collective Media Fellow) and Emily Kassie, directors of the award winning documentary SUGARCANE, to have the conversation on Indian boarding schools (known as residential schools in Canada) and its relationship with land back. Boarding schools and education were weaponized in order to assim...

In Season 2 Episode 4: Protect the ȞeSápa, Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective President and CEO talks about the the history of mining in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the direct corelation of the General Mining Act of 1872 and its relationship with the stealing of Indigenous land, and how we are working to protect the ȞeSápa today. "As long as the history is for the ȞeSápa, so is the history of resist...

In Season 2 Episode 3: The NDNs are coming! ... to Hold Racism Accountable, Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective President and CEO talks about the racism towards Indigenous Peoples on their homelands and how systemic racism is a problematic cause of economic injustice for our Indigenous relatives across Turtle Island. It's a daily hardship, "Whether it's in Gallup or in Rapid City. The story is the same."...