Mahmud Fitil, BS

Mahmud Fitil is Qırımlı (Crimean Tatar), the Indigenous peoples of Crimea, and a water protector. His journey spans Qırım / Crimea, Eskişehir, Türkiye and Chicago, IL before attending college at Creighton University in Omaha, NE where he studied Psychology and Health Administration & Policy. While in college Mahmud formed many life-long friendships with other Indigenous people, which motivated him to do more with folks from Turtle Island to help curb the climate crisis and stop social injustice. 
 

In addition to his involvement with Great Plains Action Society, Mahmud is also a founding member of Ní Btháska Stand, a grassroots Indigenous / Nebraskan collective in opposition to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline where he serves as a field scout, drone operator, social media admin and does some occasional organizing. Mahmud recently spent over a year engaged in a contentious water permit intervening process with a broad coalition of water protectors before the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources delaying the project another year while running the clock out on the former pro-KXL president. In January 2021 Ní Btháska Stand Collective began working with the community of Mead, NE in order to raise awareness, organize and inform the public of the environmental disaster caused by that was the AltEn ethanol plant. Mahmud plans to continue working on Mead's issues with AltEn in Nebraska through the collective while also increasingly engaging other projects with the relatives of Great Plains Action Society such as returning to the work of stopping the illegal Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Su Hayattır! / Mní Wičóni! / Nibi Bimaadiziwin! / ¡Agua es Vida! / Water is Life!