Rapid City, South Dakota - People from across Turtle Island marched and rallied in Mni Luzahan (aka Rapid City, South Dakota) on Monday to mark Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Dozens of people raised "Free the People, Heal the Land" signs during the Rise Up Against Authoritarianism march organized by NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led group fighting for self-determination and land back.

"This day would not exist without resistance. This day was in direct opposition to Columbus Day, celebrating a settler genocidal maniac who did not even set foot on this continent," NDN Collective's Sarah Sunshine Manning said in a live broadcast of the event.

"As you all know, the so-called president of this country is doing everything he can to revert back to celebrating that colonizer, that genocidal maniac, and so we're very much in a space and place where we know our resistance is still essential," she added.

US President Donald Trump last week signed a proclamation recognizing Columbus Day while refusing to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Participants in Monday's day of action chanted "Stand Up, Fight Back" and "Free Palestine" to drumbeats as they marched through the streets.

Madonna Thunder Hawk, legendary Lakota organizer and co-founder of Women of All Red Nations, recalled how "the police state here in South Dakota" had done damage to many Indigenous people in years past. She hoped participants would remember that as they convened in Rapid City.

"Those wasicu [white people], they really get nervous when Indians gather," Thunder Hawk said. "They know they've got all the guns and everything behind them, but still, they get nervous when Indians gather."

"It's kind of fun to do this every now and then, give them a little something to worry about," she laughed.

Speakers at Monday's event emphasized that Indigenous Peoples' Day is not only an occasion to honor the past, but also to look toward the future.

"Here, in the sacred He Sapa [Black Hills], we are under attack by illegal mining operations, and so we have to fight that back," NDN Collective President Wizipan Little Elk Garriott urged, noting that the extractive activities are destroying the land and waters.

According to the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, there are 259,014 acres – or about 17% of the entire Black Hills – currently under active mining claims as of September 2025.

The US government illegally seized the Black Hills in 1876 in violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, which had guaranteed the land to the Sioux people (Oceti Sakowin).

"The solution is the return of our federal lands here in the Black Hills," Garriott said. "We can do it, but it's going to take every single one of us – one heart, one mind, fighting every single day."

Garriott hailed the release of Indigenous freedom fighter Leonard Peltier after more than 49 years behind bars as proof that "anything is possible."

Peltier in February returned to his Turtle Mountain homelands, where he remains under home confinement, according to an executive commutation issued by former US President Joe Biden on his final day in office.

"If we can free Leonard, we can get our Black Hills back," Garriott said.

Peltier himself also took the stage on Monday. Looking out over the crowd, he said, "I'm happy that I did this, that I fought for you. I'm so thrilled, and I tell you, I'd do it all over again."