Dear Relative,

This year has been one of remarkable resilience and justice. As we navigate election week, it’s essential to acknowledge both the strides we've made and the organizing that continues to ensure that the genocide of all Indigenous Peoples ends. From the Black Hills to Weelaunee Forest to Gaza, the call to defend our ancestral homelands and ecosystems is stronger than ever. From Tactical Media to Organizing to Creative Resistance, our teams continue paving the way forward.

Before a big action or event, we gather and begin with prayer and grounding as a powerful reminder of where we have been and the shared purpose moving us forward. Elders and knowledge-keepers–through our culture, history, and struggles– guide us through teachings that honor ancestral knowledge and our present moment. Together, we carry our shared emotions—apprehension, gratitude, or righteous rage—yet our commitment to our people remains steadfast.

We refer to this morning circle to establish a foundation for our collective care and dedication as we navigate the days ahead. Regardless of your decision to participate in this election, our team provides opportunities for you to take action on behalf of our people and future generations. Our leadership will share their insights on the current landscape, what lies ahead, and how we can work together towards a future focused on defending, developing, and decolonizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, all communities, and Mother Earth.

Creativity has been a major part of our culture and way of life as Indigenous people. It is an expression of love and appreciation of life we are living with each other and land. It’s how we are weaving stories of our lifetime. It is how we teach responsibility and heal in creative balance. We live by example in our creativity, Art it is in our DNA. It is for locals to see as well as globally. In all oppressed spaces, we are being told, “No, you can’t do that.” The very presence of certain colors displayed together has continued to offend oppressive empires. This is how we know this is our role.

Election time is usually a time when the visual arts surface more than ever. In the form of posters, banners, signs, stickers, “get out the vote” art, promoting movement issues of solidarity, inspirational quotes and messages on unity, and so on. This also involves all direct action messaging that evolves leading up to and during elections. Especially nowadays, the canvas is much larger with access to social media and digital art. This is where it circulates globally in different languages. People teaching people and those people teaching movements forming workshops, toolkits, and manuals. Whether it’s in person or virtual, it is getting out there. The visual experience and physical art become archives in offices, people's homes, people's stories, and our memories.



As organizers, our role is to ensure that the politricking is more than just a momentary slogan or chatter. We must continue to identify opportunities to develop the material conditions that support the empowerment and skill-building of our communities to apply pressure to the elected officials once they are voted into office.

We need to create space and opportunities for our people to feel empowered and ready by identifying targets and points of intervention. This looks like 1) creating and training communities on response plans based on ongoing assessments of threats and risks centered around our peoples’ needs, 2) developing frameworks and infrastructure to support mobilizations at scale, and 3) continuing to support the skills and capacities of our community. 

We must remember that this is not a sprint, it is a marathon. There are many experiences and power in our communities on how we have dealt with the so-called empire and won. We are still here and will continue to exist past this colonial experiment.



The state of media during this election cycle is chaotic and polarized. Audiences are siloed into tailored "realities," consuming only what aligns with their beliefs, fostering disinformation and misinformation that manipulate outcomes and distort the truth. While many believe truth will prevail, multiple “truths” now exist for different communities, making it increasingly challenging to cut through the haze. Amid these online debates, the ongoing genocide in Palestine continues unchecked, and the escalation of climate disasters signals a critical stage in the climate crisis.

People should question everything they see online and prioritize real-world community engagement outside algorithmic lenses. Although the internet’s promise has largely failed, we need credible, actionable information to move forward. To navigate issues like deepfakes, disinformation, and dwindling trust in social media, we must acknowledge that these platforms are designed to perpetuate fragmented narratives, hindering collective understanding. Intentional manipulation online drives intense reactions and fuel the economy of outrage, diverting focus from genuine connections. We must ensure that our trusted sources are accountable and genuinely serve the communities they inform.

As Indigenous media-makers and storytellers, our role is to ground people in the realities that matter—our relationships, lands, waters, and life-sustaining connections. Centering our media in Indigenous perspectives offers a profound counter-narrative to corporations and entities pushing destructive agendas. Our stories disrupt these harmful forces, helping others envision a future built on shared relationships rather than domination. Indigenous storytellers lead by showing the consequences of current actions and what’s possible when we acknowledge our collective responsibilities.

While familiar and specific to the organizing conditions we are in now, we understand the importance of skill-building and skill-sharing, especially in times of mass surveillance and state repression. This year we spent several hours training alongside comrades in the movement, sharpening our tools and building stronger connections. We needed to create space to refresh and train up on topics such as Know Your Rights, security culture, de-escalation, situational awareness, bleeding control, contamination, and much more.

This year we have held several actions and demonstrations in the fight for Leonard Peltier's freedom. We are in a crucial moment as elder Leonard turned 80 this year and his health is deteriorating. While strategically leveraging media and lifting up Leonard's narrative, we advocated directly with key policy stakeholders, and simultaneously led marches, light projections, banner reveals, and other demonstrations.

Our organizing is always multi-faceted. We lead with ceremony, using our medicines and our prayers. Before deploying, we created new and refined protocols and agreements. This was critical for keeping each other safe physically, while also working to support each other emotionally and spiritually. After each deployment, we held a debrief and noted the lessons we had learned and our successes. This practice allowed us to process and reflect while also strengthening our protocols.

No matter what happens with this election, one thing is clear: we hold each other up through every moment of grief, train and build our skills at every chance, and stay connected as we fight for the future of our ancestors' dreams. Check out what our relatives at Emergent Fund and Communities for Just Schools Fund are offering around resources, safety, and security for this political moment.

Whoever claims the title of the 46th President of the so-called United States should know: global resistance is here to stay. We won’t back down until our voices, Indigenous-led solutions, and demands are heard and acted on — we aren’t going anywhere!

In Solidarity, 



Korina Barry, Managing Director of NDN Action

NDN Collective

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