We Say Return the Land to Make It Right

As Indigenous people in this movement, we have no desire to repeat history and to treat people with violence. Our movement is very focused on the tens of millions of acres that are public lands that are being destroyed by the mining industry or the fossil fuel industry.  Levy Uyeda: I wanted to end with a question related to occupied Palestine, given the horrifying and unspeakable violence the State of Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people. Because when we say LANDBACK,  it’s not just referring to the so-called U.S.; it means LANDBACK everywhere.  Tilsen: I want to be super clear: NDN Collective, far before the war between Israel and Hamas, has stood in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, understood them to be Indigenous people, and understood their right to return—and understood that as a shared LANDBACK struggle. We believe squarely in a solution where Palestinian people’s human rights are uplifted and where Jewish and Israeli people’s human rights are uplifted as well. As a Lakota, I connect it to the ability to return to the Black Hills. We believe that Palestinian people should have the same right.  If you look at who is likely profiting from the Hamas and Israel war, more than anybody it’s probably the military contractors who receive tax subsidies from the U.S. government and Israeli government to kill people.