"On July 31, 2020, as heavy clouds gathered on the horizon, hundreds of protesters filled downtown Albuquerque, N.M. The Red Nation, an Indigenous-led socialist organization, coordinated the rally to protest the Trump administration’s decision to send 35 federal agents to support the local police. After participating in a summer of uprisings against police brutality and hearing about federal agents targeting demonstrators in Portland, Ore., the Red Nation knew that this moment required bodies in the streets—especially in the city with the second-highest rate of fatal police shootings in the country. Members of the Red Nation carried hefty red and black shields that read “Land Back” and “No Fash” to protect them from riot police and members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a civilian militia group. But just as this protest was beginning, it started to pour. Amid the torrential rain, the protesters kept going, while the cops and armed right-wingers never showed up. Members of the Red Nation suggested... that even if the police had come, their tear gas wouldn’t have worked in such weather. The rain had protected the protesters. “There is a deep spiritual element to what we do. There always has been in Indigenous movements. And so when we’re out in public, doing these types of things, those types of moments are really significant for us because it demonstrates to us that our ancestors and the earth itself is in solidarity with us,” Melanie Yazzie"