Despite major foundation cuts, NDN Collective vows to ‘double down’

Founder and CEO Nick Tilsen, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, told Buffalo’s Fire that NDN Collective started the year with 99 staff members and $50 million in funds. However, resizing has meant reducing their workforce to 57 and their budget to roughly $25-27 million.

Since 2018, NDN Collective has been at the forefront of many presentations, rallies and demonstrations advocating for sovereignty, justice and equality for Indigenous people. They were in the headlines earlier this year when outgoing President Biden granted longtime prisoner and AIM member Leonard Peltier executive clemency, which NDN Collective had long lobbied for.

The organization also held a homecoming celebration for Peltier and several hundred supporters in February, as he relocated from prison to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians’ Reservation in North Dakota. NDN Collective provided the house where Peltier spends his days now, after half a century in various federal prisons.

Even before the second Trump Administration took office in January, Tilsen said there had already been constant attacks from right-wing opponents against NDN Collective directly, and philanthropic organizations that have partnered with or supported it.

“We’re not one of the organizations who are going to water down our messaging to fly under the radar. Quite frankly, in this moment, we’re doubling down. We’re going to keep fighting for the things that we believe in, and we’re going to keep being vocal about it, and we’re going to keep pressing forward.”

Tilsen acknowledged that some past philanthropic funders will not be part of that fight, so with NDN Collective’s reduced resources, they’ll work more strategically to navigate the current political landscape that’s seen the eradication of DEI initiatives at companies and universities, as well as the whitewashing of history at museums, monuments and national parks.

“We have two buckets of our work, there’s our place-based work that we’re doing in the Black Hills. campaigns and projects we’re engaged on with the ground,” explained Tilsen. He said the next bucket is the movement-building work, which is training and development outside of the region.

Tilsen said that they’ll also launch the Land-Back Action Network, which will begin forming with past friends, organizers, trainers, nonprofits, businesses, and artists who’ve worked with the NDN Collective over the past seven years. He says there will be a consolidation of resources and knowledge within this network to counter some of the threats the group sees taking root both in the U.S. and globally.

“The rise of authoritarianism and democratic backsliding is a direct threat to tribal sovereignty and indigenous self-determination,” said Tilsen. “And we’re going to have to build robust networks of training people to resist.”

Tilsen said that Native people have always been scrappy and resilient, and now more people across the U.S. are feeling the brunt of what Indian Country has endured for centuries.

“And they’re getting pissed and they’re getting upset. And that’s why it’s actually an opportunity. An opportunity to work with people and build coalitions. We might not agree on every single issue, but we definitely agree that there should be a multiracial democracy that represents the people.”

As the Trump Administration continues to assert its power through the deployment of National Guard troops to “crime-ridden” cities and testing the legality of its many executive orders, Tilsen says the big lesson Americans can use now is the method of non-cooperation.

“The bedrock of our sovereignty and our struggle has often been our desire to not cooperate with the federal government when it wants to violate our rights,” said Tilsen. “We have always been able to flex, and that’s how we have the few rights that we have.”

On Aug. 27, Tilsen discussed the situation and determination of his group on a podcast, with fellow NDN Collective leadership, President Wizipan Little Elk Garriott and Vice President Gaby Strong. The group asserted that it’s not going anywhere, even if cutbacks have to be made.

Tilsen says people can also support NDN Collective by donating to its For the People campaign, and following its social media accounts for updates on its activities.