The NDN Collective is a left-of-center Native American advocacy organization best known for campaigning to close the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. ^{1 2} The group is based in Rapid City, South Dakota. ³ NDN Collective received one of the inaugural Bezos Earth Fund grants and is active in left-of-center environmentalist activism and protests. ⁴

NDN Collective campaigns to close Mount Rushmore. The group runs a petition alleging that the monument is an “international symbol of white supremacy and racial injustice” built on “stolen land.” ^{1 2}

Starting in 2021, the NDN Collective began promoting anti-Israel and Palestinian-nationalist advocacy, calling for the U.S to stop all military aid to the State of Israel while claiming Israel to be a product of  “Zionism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism.” ⁵ Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel and the resulting Israel-Hamas war, the NDN Collective released a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and further halting all U.S aid to Israel. ⁶

Founding and History

NDN Collective was founded in 2018 in Rapid City, South Dakota. Today, NDN Collective works with more than 50 philanthropic partners and over 200 Native American organizations. ⁷ NDN Collective frequently engages in left-of-center environmentalist activism. Despite being registered as a charitable organization, NDN Collective president and CEO Nick Tilsen has called the group a “movement infrastructure organization.” ⁸

Environmentalist Activism

NDN Collective has gained national attention for its calls to close Mount Rushmore. Tilsen allegedly organized a July 3, 2020 protest, at which 150 demonstrators used vans to block security checkpoints in an effort to prevent ticketholders from attending then-President Donald Trump’s Independence Day speech. The protest resulted in Tilsen’s arrest. ⁹ The organization continues to run an online petition to close Mount Rushmore as of February 2021, calling the monument an “international symbol of white supremacy and racial injustice” and claiming that it is built on “stolen land.” ^{10 11}

NDN Collective was also involved in protests to stop the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, despite the fact that the proposed pipeline route did not run through federally recognized Native American territories. ^{12 13} After President Joe Biden cancelled the construction of the pipeline, NDN Collective announced that it would refocus its efforts towards shutting down the Dakota Access and Enbridge Line 3 pipeline projects. ¹⁴

In October of 2020, NDN Collective launched the Landback Campaign, a left-of-center campaign aimed at giving federal lands to tribal organizations. The Landback Campaign was launched using $3 million of funding from a Bezos Earth Fund grant. ¹⁵ Aside from demanding federal land grants, the campaign has demanded the dismantling of government organizations that allegedly support “white supremacy,” including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service (NPS), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ¹⁶

In the lead up to the 2020 election, NDN Collective organized several get-out-the-vote efforts, including social media campaigns and voter engagement drives to encourage Native American people to vote in the 2020 presidential election. ¹⁷

Anti-Israel Advocacy

In 2022, the NDN Collective published “The Right of Return is Landback,” a report authored by Palestinian journalist and self-described “revolutionary” Ghassan Kanafani. In his report, Kanafani claimed the State of Israel was created  as the product of  “Zionism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism” and built on “the elimination, removal, banishment, and identity theft of Palestinians.” The paper concludes with, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,” a phrase implying support for the destruction of Israel. ⁵

On October 19, 2023, shortly after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack against the State of Israel, NDN Collective issued a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza while advocating for the U.S. to cease all military aid to Israel. ⁶

On November 4, 2023, NDN Collective founder and president Nick Tilsen spoke at the National March on Washington for Palestine, and advocated for a “revolution” in both the U.S. and Israel. ¹⁸

On December 8, 2023, the NDN Collective broadcast a poetry reading honoring Palestinian “martyrs” against Israel. ¹⁸

On December 25, 2023, the NDN Collective released a post on its X (formerly Twitter) page calling for a ceasefire, to “lift the siege of Gaza,” and for Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners. ^{19 18}

In May 2024, the NDN Collective sent “tactical media” groups to university campuses to report on anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests. ¹⁸

Controversy

In July 2024, the Republican staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works published an report claiming that left-of-center and far-left organizations had received funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The paper cited the NDN Collective as a case study, noting that the organization is a partner of the Climate Justice Alliance and had received $100 million (two $50 million grants) in federal funding provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the IRA.  ¹⁸

The report detailed the funding the NDN Collective received while it promoted anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian policies as well as the group’s ties to the Biden administration. Several examples cited included former NDN Collective director of policy and advocacy Jade Begay serving as an environmental advisor within the Biden White House, White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy meeting with and praising the organization, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland attending an NDN Collective event celebrating her cabinet confirmation, and the U.S. Department of State inviting the NDN Collective to host a panel at a climate conference in Dubai. ¹⁸

Leadership

Nick Tilsen is the founder, president, and CEO of the NDN Collective. Tilsen is a lifelong left-of-center activist who has worked on projects related to environmentalism, entitlement programs, and housing development. ²⁰ Aside from running the NDN Collective, Tilsen was the founding executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, a Native American community organization in South Dakota. Tilsen previously worked as a local point of contact for the Ladders of Opportunity Initiative under the Obama administration, guiding investments towards low-income communities. ²¹

As of late 2020, Tilsen faced charges for his alleged role in a July 3, 2020, protest near Mount Rushmore prior to then-President Donald Trump’s Independence Day remarks. The charges include second-degree robbery and grand theft, after Tilsen allegedly stole a shield from an member of the National Guard. The charges also include two counts of simple assault against law enforcement officers, with officers alleging that Tilsen engaged in physical menacing and made threats against them, in addition to three misdemeanor offenses. ^{22 23}

Kim Pate is the vice president of the NDN Collective. Pate is a Nez Perce tribal lawyer who also practices in the state of California. ²⁴ The NDN Collective board features members of a number of left-of-center organizations, including Judith Leblanc of the Native Organizers Alliance, far-left activist Edgar Villanueva of the Schott Foundation, and Princess Daazhraii Johnson of the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition. ²⁵

Jade Begay is the director of policy and advocacy for the NDN Collective, working in the role as of December 2023. Starting with the organization in January 2019, Begay also served as creative director as well as climate justice director. By March 2021, Begay began serving on the Environmental Justice Advisory Council for the Biden administration. From 2021 to 2023, Begay also worked as an environmental justice movement fellow at the Tishman Environment and Design Center. In September 2024, Begay worked as a Native American engagement director with the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris (D). Prior to this, Begay worked as a multimedia producer for 350.org. ²⁶

Funding

NDN Collective received $2,203,226 million in contributions and grants in 2018, its first year of operations. In 2019, contributions to the NDN Collective reached $11,369,310. ²⁷

NDN Collective has received several large contributions from left-of-center organizations. In 2018, NDN Collective received grants of $2.5 million from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation,²⁸ $810,000 from the Surdna Foundation,²⁹ and  $400,000 from the Tides Foundation. ³⁰

NDN Collective also received $300,000 from the Rudolf Steiner Foundation by way of a grant made by the Foundation to the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation with the purpose of supporting NDN Collective. ³¹ Tilsen left the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation in 2018 to lead NDN Collective. ³²

In 2019, NDN Collective received a $12 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund to support environmentalist activism. ³³ From this funding, NDN earmarked $9 million to disburse in separate, $100,000 grants to other Native American organizations as a part of NDN’s Self Determination Grant program. The program was meant to fund other organizations “defending native lands against the fossil fuel industry.” ³⁴ In the same year, NDN Collective received $750,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,³⁵  $550,000 from the Tides Foundation,³⁶ $400,000 from the Ford Foundation,³⁷ and $100,000 from the Libra Foundation. ³⁸ The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also listed a $750,000 grant approved for future contributions to NDN Collective in its 2019 filings. ³⁹

In 2020, NDN Collective received a $500,000 grant from the Bush Foundation for its COVID-19 Response Project in 2020. ⁴⁰ That same year, NDN Collective received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan that was approved on April 16, 2020, with a value between $150,000 and $350,000. ⁴¹

Since its founding, NDN Collective has also reportedly received grants from Novo Foundation, JPB Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation,⁷ and the Wend Collective. ⁴²

Grantmaking Activities

NDN Collective is affiliated with NDN Partners, a for-profit organization. ⁴³ Through NDN Partners, NDN Collective distributed millions of dollars of grants to various organizations as a part of its two-part COVID-19 Response Project. In Phase 1, NDN Collective disbursed $2.5 million to 95 partners, and in Phase 2, the organization distributed $4.5 million to 105 organizations. ^{44 45}

Associated Organizations

NDN Collective is associated with the NDN Foundation, a grantmaking and fundraising 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2019. ⁴⁶ According to the June 2020 NDN Collective newsletter, the Foundation is part of the “NDN Ecosystem,” and the NDN Collective appoints the director of the NDN Foundation. ^{47 48}

NDN Collective is also affiliated with the NDN Fund and NDN Action, two 501(c)(3) organizations founded in 2019, and the NDN Action Network, an advocacy organization founded in 2020. ^{49 50 51}

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