he's a citizen of the oglala lakota nation on the reservation. asked nick tilsen about his family's history. amy: talk about your family, your family's history. you're from pine ridge. nick: yeah. so my mother, joann tall janis, is from pine ridge. my father, mark tilsen, is from the minneapolis twin cities area. my grandfather, ken tilsen, was a civil rights attorney and attorney for the american indian movement. and my parents met around the time of wounded knee. and so i got to really grow up around like activist type of family. amy: and for those who don't know what wounded knee was? nick: wounded knee -- wounded knee was the siege or occupation of wounded knee in 1973, that was organizing from different indigenous people from around the country, about amy: in south dakota. nick: in south dakota on the pine ridge indian reservation, about three miles from where i live. and it was -- it was the generation before, it was their standing rock, right? it was the time in which people spoke out about all these grave injustices against all indigenous