Lakota Mount Rushmore protester says charges being dropped
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A Lakota activist who was arrested while leading a protest before former president Donald Trump's visit to Mount Rushmore last year said he has negotiated with prosecutors to drop charges against him, which carried a punishment of nearly 17 years in prison.
Nick Tilsen, the president of an Indigenous advocacy organization called NDN Collective, told The Associated Press that he will participate in a prison diversion program in exchange for all but one charge against him being dropped. He cast the deal as a victory for Indigenous organizers who have been calling for public lands that once belonged to tribes to be returned to tribal control.
“It’s a victory for the movement,” Tilsen said. “Any time you try to prosecute organizers and leaders of this movement it’s a strategy to try to weaken the movement.”
The final charge, simple assault of a law enforcement officer, will be dropped once he completes the program, he said, adding that charges against other protesters will also be dropped as well.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/lakota-mount-rushmore-protester-says-214513901.html