In this column with NPQ, LandBack for the People, NDN Collective builds on their podcast of the same name, sharing stories from Turtle Island and beyond about Indigenous people organizing in community, advocating for social justice, and fighting for the return of Indigenous lands.
During uncertain times, people often turn to history to glean lessons that can guide us in challenging moments. This is why I wanted to revisit our first LANDBACK for the People podcast episode, initially broadcast in April 2023. In “Madonna Thunder Hawk: A Matriarch of the Movement,” NDN’s CEO and founder Nick Tilsen sat down with Thunder Hawk to discuss the intergenerational, decades-long resistance efforts to defend our land, water, and people.
Thunder Hawk is Oohenumpa Lakota and has been known to jokingly call herself the “Forrest Gump of Indigenous resistance” because one would have a hard time naming an Indigenous-led action in the past 55 years where she wasn’t present. From multiple occupations of Mount Rushmore, to the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties and the Bureau of Indian Affairs building takeover, to the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973, to the mass mobilization at Standing Rock in 2016 that brought together 200 tribes and thousands of people from across the globe, Thunder Hawk has been organizing on the frontlines of Indigenous rights movements for decades.
Her stories and words of encouragement remind us both of the progress the movement for Indigenous rights has achieved and the intergenerational nature of our organizing.
Rooted in Land, Rooted in History
In the interview, Thunder Hawk shared that her activism began by first learning about her history.
“We sure weren’t learning it in school or any history written about our people,” she clarified. “But we were learning from our elders, who were raised by grandparents who had memories of the Battle of Little Bighorn. That’s how close our history is to us. And they were the ones that brought us along.”
“We’re the only ones that have title to the Black Hills, and no one’s going to know about it unless we make it known.”These lessons, along with witnessing thousands of acres of her home, the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, being permanently flooded by the construction of the Oahe Dam, had a profound impact on Thunder Hawk: “That was awakening for me to learn this history of our own people and our ancestors.”
“When you started hearing younger ones say, ‘LANDBACK,’ what was your reaction to that?” Tilsen asked.
Thunder Hawk didn’t miss a beat: “There they are. Yeah, LANDBACK! Hello. Welcome to the club!” she exclaimed. While the hashtag might be new, the fight for land back is anything but. “That goes way back, even before my time,” she reflected.
One of the longest ongoing LandBack legal battles in the United States is for the He Sapa, also known as the Black Hills—a sacred land for the Lakota and many other tribes whose traditional homelands extended to this land. The return of the He Sapa is something both Thunder Hawk and Tilsen have organized around for decades.
“This is our land. We’re the only ones that have title to the Black Hills, and no one’s going to know about it unless we make it known,” Thunder Hawk shared.
Indigenous people have been fighting for our land back for hundreds of years. NDN Collective has centered this fight in our political agenda, which has helped to bring the movement for LANDBACK into mainstream cultural consciousness. And there have been material consequences from the movement as well. A report by the Sierra Club estimated that, as of 2023, approximately 420,000 acres (656.25 square miles) of land had been returned to Indigenous communities in the past 20 years.
LANDBACK is about reclaiming all that colonization has taken from Indigenous peoples and the ongoing struggle to practice our cultures. Or as Thunder Hawk puts it, LANDBACK is about reclaiming “what our ancestors did so you and I can be walking around here. So now it’s our turn. It’s our time.”
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A Generational Struggle
The majority of the organizing work Tilsen and Thunder Hawk discussed is intergenerational. Many of these movements started decades ago and have seen new generations of leaders take up this important work.
“Times are different,” reflected Thunder Hawk, “the mindset of the entire country is different than it was back when we were young.”
The Sierra Club estimated that, as of 2023, approximately 420,000 acres (656.25 square miles) of land had been returned to Indigenous communities.
This is why, when Tilsen asked about her thoughts on strategies she sees organizers using to continue this movement, she shared, “I don’t think that I thought of the change so much as I thought, well, it’s their time.”
We see this intergenerational work continuing, especially in the Black Hills. In the episode, Thunder Hawk shared stories about successfully organizing with allies to kick out the Union Carbide Corporation to stop uranium mining in the Black Hills in the 80s.
“I mean, we had some of the largest, biggest gatherings of people in the Black Hills,” she recounted. “We had a five-mile block on the highway, just marching down the road, hundreds and hundreds in town. People came from all over the country.”
But the threat of mining in the Black Hills didn’t stop.
In 2023, one in every five acres in the Black Hills was under a mining claim. But in 2024, after years of organizing and advocacy work by NDN Collective and other allies, then-Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) signed and approved the Pactola Mineral Withdrawal. This withdrawal protected 20,000 acres of land in the Black Hills against mining for the next 20 years.
“Know what you’re talking about and get organized and start out with yourself.”
This is just one example of how this work continues across generations and the importance of investing and believing in the next generation of organizers. We see these lessons reflected in some of the election wins in 2025, like Zohran Mamdani’s campaign successfully organizing new coalitions to bring a new generation into office.
Thunder Hawk reminded us that “you don’t need anybody’s permission” to start this work. “Just know what you’re talking about and get organized and start out with yourself,” she advised.
Tilsen agreed, and then added, “I think it’s important that you remember that—that you put that into action, that you take the moment to realize that you already have the ability to act now, that you don’t have to wait. There is no savior coming to save you, but that we have a collective responsibility.”
You can watch the full conversation in LANDBACK for the People’s inaugural episode “Madonna Thunder Hawk: A Matriarch of the Movement.”
