Mark K. Tilsen

Mark K. Tilsen is an Oglala Lakota Poet Educator from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He comes from activist families long steeped in the struggle for liberation for all people and the long term survival of the Lakota Nation. At Standing Rock he stepped into the role of a direct action trainer and police liaison. Those stories have been compiled into a book of poems titled It Ain’t Over Until We’re Smoking Cigars on the Drillpad. During the pandemic Tilsen has worked with Camp Mniluzahan providing shelter for unhoused relatives in on Lakota land near Rapid City SD.