Help Jacob Johns Recover from Terrorist Shooting

Indigenous climate activist, artist, musician, and father Jacob Johns was shot in the chest this morning, Sept 28.2023, during a No Juan de Oñate statue peaceful prayer ceremony in Tewa territory (more commonly known as Española, New Mexico). Jacob put his body between women and children when the shooter charged towards the altar. Jacob prevented the shooter from harming women and children. The shooter attempted to fire again but his gun jammed preventing him from committing a mass shooting of indigenous peoples while they were in prayer and ceremony. He was air-lifted to a hospital in Albuquerque, and had surgery. The shooter, who was wearing a red MAGA hat, is in custody of tribal police. We ask everyone to please pray with us that he survives this surgery and doctors have’ the strength and wisdom to help him.

Jacob, who is Hopi and Akimel O'odham, has dedicated his life to Indigenous and climate justice. He is a skilled muralist and speaker, and specializes in non-violent, peaceful “artivism”. He has a teenage daughter, she and his other family are currently flying from Washington State to Albuquerque New Mexico to be by his side.

This inspirational man has put his life on the line over and over again to make a better world for his fellow humans, and now he and his family need your support to recover from this terrible hate crime. As you can imagine, being a climate activist is not lucrative work to readily afford major life-saving surgery. We are humbly requesting your donations to help cover his recovery, his medical bills, and to help support his family needs during what will likely be a very lengthy recovery period. This comes just two months before Jacob will be leading an Indigenous Wisdom Keepers Delegation at COP28 to advocate for Indigenous solutions to climate change. Please pray with us for his recovery and donate if you can.

Links to his work are below:

- Free The Vote Mural: https://landscouncil.org/news/free-the-vote-mural

-COP28 Indigenous Wisdom Keeper Delegation https://www.backbonecampaign.org/cop28more

-Jacob’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studio_1_eleven

Links to further details about the incident are below:

WARNING, CONTAINS FOOTAGE OF SHOOTING:

NDN Collective Instagram post -

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxwYjeAJu4m/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/man-shot-during-juan-de-o-ate-statue-rally-in-espa-ola/article_946dcd3c-5e2d-11ee-9363-97e4e793df8a.html#1

UPDATE: Jacob has just come out of his first surgery, we will keep everyone updated as we move forward.