The He Sapa Initiative (Black Hills, South Dakota)

Recently, efforts of the Black Hills Unity Alliance to restore greater Tribal rights over their sacred territory, the heart of the world, have been stonewalled within the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Black Hills Unity Alliance is a coalition focused on the protection, advocacy, and stewardship of the sacred Black Hills region, known as Paha Sapa to the Lakota people. The Alliance aims to build unity among tribes, advocate for Indigenous sovereignty, and leverage legal, cultural, and spiritual strategies to protect the Black Hills from exploitation. The Alliance is headed by none other than Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook, the Oglala Lakota medicine lineage holder who graced the Atlantic Crossing container with her radiant presence.

A constellation of advocates joined the Atlantic Crossing by Loretta's side, including Lynn Van Housen, director of Loretta's Tribal development nonprofit, Amelia Rose Barlow, who has worked in connection with Loretta for decades, and Josie Watson Esq, an Earth Law attorney. Within this conference, they met minds with Pooven Moodley from Natural Justice and are developing a plan to transfer the Biocultural Protocols to the Black Hills land rights case, as a new legal framework tool that the 9 Tribes could work with to reinvigorate legal proceedings relating to the Hills.

The legal proceedings will need to take the form of a Congressional hearing. Coordinating this Congressional hearing will necessitate gathering councils of leaders from the 9 Tribes implicated in Black Hills land rights. This dynamic creates a powerful opportunity to craft the movement narrative of why restoration of Native sovereignty over sacred sites like the Black Hills is a vital element of resolving the polycrisis humanity faces.

We are seeking a funder aligned with the physical and spiritual dimensions of the ultimate United States land back initiative: restoring Tribal sovereignty over the stewardship of the highest sacred sites within He Sapa, the Black Hills National Forest. Arguably, the key sacred site of our nations heartland.

Funding this effort for one year will require $750,000, sponsoring the efforts of project managers and attorneys conducting Tribal council coordination and Congressional hearing case building. Funding this effort for a three year time horizon would thus entail $2,250,000 - an amount that would help our team fundamentally reshape American perspective on Native stewardship of sacred sites on Turtle Island, and aid the Tribes in providing their energetic medicine to locations that have the power to nourish all life.