Kalle BenallieICT
Civil Rights activist and activist for Indigenous people Jesse Jackson died on Feb. 17. He was remembered for his close relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. and a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement.
“Jesse Jackson was a strong and powerful ally between the Black community and the Indigenous people on this land. I thought that it was very helpful to us to have a powerful ally,” founder and CEO of NDN Collective Nick Tilsen said.
Jackson, who was also a reverend, said he had Cherokee ancestry.
He aligned himself with several Indigenous groups and causes like the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance to protect a sacred site from nuclear waste dumping. He supported the Cherokee Nation to have a non-voting delegate in Congress, advocated for the release of Leonard Peltier and was at the frontlines of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016.
Jackson, 75 years old at the time, said when he visited North Dakota, he was willing to go to jail.
“With promises broken, land stolen, and sacred lands desecrated, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is standing up for their right to clean water. They have lost land for settlers to farm, more land for gold in the Black Hills, and then again even more land for the dam that was built for flood control and hydro power. When will the taking stop? When will we start treating the first peoples of this lands with the respect and honor they deserve?” Jackson said in a press release at the time.
Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, said he remembers flying with Jesse Jackson from Chicago to Bismarck, North Dakota to protest against the pipeline. Tilsen said Jackson asked him to explain the entire political history of the Lakota people during the flight.
“When we were getting ready to get off the plane, he was putting his pea coat on and he had his scarf. He kind of started punching the air like how a boxer does when he gets ready. He started saying, ‘Hey, brother Nick we don’t need no pipelines. We need lifelines. All kinds of lifelines and no kind of pipelines,’” Tilsen said.
After shaking everybody’s hand, Jackson immediately wanted to go to the frontlines.
Actor Mark Ruffalo posted on social media that Jackson “stopped a wave of violence from the militias on the hill at Standing Rock the day the camp got word they were going to move in with a violent crackdown.”
“I have never felt such hatred focused on another group of people as those men armed with weapons of war staring out of their cold eyes to the peaceful water protectors. It burned my soul,” Ruffalo said. “Jesse Jackson showed up and with him a sense of peace and calm. We will miss this man. Rest in power!”
Fredricka Hunter, who said she was a Native American outreach coordinator for presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, met Jackson a couple of times. She said she was heartbroken to hear of Jackson’s death.
She recalled Jackson sitting next to Hillary and Chelsea Clinton at the Democrat National Convention in 2004 where Obama made his keynote address.
“As I watched and listened to Obama’s historic speech, I could feel the passing of the torch for Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama. Those feelings still give me the chills,” Hunter said.
Jackson alongside Indigenous rapper Litefoot called for Hip Hop duo OutKast to apologize for their 46th Annual GRAMMY performance that depicted Indigenous clothing and tipis.
Litefoot said Jackson agreed to appear as his guest at the Gathering of Nations in 2004 and mutually invite OutKast to speak on stage.
Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation Principal Chief, released a statement about how Jackson was a friend to the Cherokee people and how he reached out to the Cherokee Nation six years ago to discuss issues and visited leaders in 2022.
“His message to Cherokee Nation was always one of interest in our history and issues and one of encouragement for Black people and Native Americans to find common cause in the name of peace, justice, equality and prosperity,” Hoskin said.
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