NDN Legal Fund
Talking Points
The NDN Legal Fund was founded summer of 2020 when many worldwide witnessed firsthand, the brutal over-policing and use of force against non-violent Land Defenders asserting their First Amendment and Treaty Rights in the Oceti Sakowin Homelands in the He Sapa. With a tremendous outpouring of support for Indigenous relatives facing criminal charges for fighting for their homelands, many watching the events unfold wanted to support from afar. Land Defenders, Water Protectors, and Indigenous Activists who fight for Native American rights, against racial injustice, and other important advocacy work often targeted by systemic oppression. This fund provides a pathway for Indigenous people to fight back against systemic oppression when they are targeted by over-prosecution.
About the Fund
The NDN Legal Fund’s mission is to:
Protect our people through both offensive and defensive legal representation in the courts. We fully recognize that non-violent direct action and civil disobedience are fundamental revolutionary tools for the liberation of Indigenous People, our lands and all people. Therefore this fund is dedicated to providing duty of care for individuals and partners that engage in actions, protest and cultural activities affiliated with NDN Action Network and its related entities and subsidiaries.
Along with protecting the individuals who have taken action in partnership with NDN, this fund is also used to protect the organization itself from attacks from the local, state and federal government who wish to silence our leaders, jail our people and deter our movement from its goals. We understand that we are doing very important system change work in an era where there is a full on proactive assault on the right to protest and free speech. In almost every single region in which NDN works and supports the movement there are anti-protest laws in place as an attempt to prevent us from mobilizing our communities and people. Yet we take the risk and continue to organize in these conditions because the very survival of our people and nations are at stake. This legal fund works to ensure proper legal representation whether it be criminal or civil matters. The multiple jurisdictions that zig zag through the Indigenous world include Tribal, County,City, State, Federal and International jurisdictions. This fund will be used in whatever jurisdictions are necessary to protect our people, our organization and our movement.