Along a narrow shoulder in front of a large metal church, vehicles were crammed in along the road. A truck door hung open, blaring staccato drumbeats and a vocal chorus of traditional music. It was Sunday morning, and church was in service at Foundations for Nations on the Wind River Reservation???.
A sheet tacked to the fence facing the church read simply, “Leave.” Some people held signs that said, “You’re not welcome.” Passing cars honked, arms waving from windows in solidarity.
The protestors have been gathering outside Foundations for Nations for weeks, ever since the church’s pastor made derogatory remarks about the Northern Arapaho tribe’s Sundance ceremony. She’s since apologized, but added that she’s not leaving.
The incident raises wider questions about tribal sovereignty and authority.
On the roadside, Northern Arapaho member MiRae Yellowbird waved back and let out a high-pitched trill.
“She called our sacred pipe an idol,” Yellowbird said. “Jesus didn't die for me. My ancestors did, and my ancestors were here way before Jesus was, so that's why I'm here. And speaking bad on our traditional ways is colonizer behavior.”
Yellowbird is referring to a sermon by Foundations for Nations Pastor Sarah Lucas on July 5, the last day of the Northern Arapaho’s Sundance ceremony.
In the sermon, Lucas said, “A pipe cannot hear your prayers. It's just a piece of material, right? This is the cycle that they're caught up in. This is all they've ever known, and the Lord is saying, ‘Tear down the idols. Tear down the altars.’”
University of Wyoming historian Jeff Means is Oglala Lakota and also participates in Sundance. He said the comment was hurtful because the sacred pipe holds great meaning as a physical representation of the universe.
As for the Sundance ceremony, he said, “ It pretty much goes back to the beginning of most of these Native nations' culture, and it is the central spiritual and religious ceremony of the year.”
Means said the federal government outlawed Indigenous religious ceremonies like Sundance in 1883.
”The Code of Indian Offenses in 1883, that outlawed the Sundance and many other Native spiritual practices,” Means said. “They went out and arrested Natives who participated in this. Oftentimes they would either be fined, and if they couldn't pay the fine, then they would have food rations withheld from them and their family. It was all kind of an effort to stamp out this savage culture, right? And it lasted in the United States until 1978.”
That’s in the lifetimes of many of these protestors.
Videos of the sermon quickly spread across the reservation. The Lucas family reported death threats and has filed a stalking charge against one protester.
The Northern Arapaho Tribal Business Council told Sarah Lucas she’s no longer welcome. The Eastern Shoshone soon followed suit, and both tribes adopted a registration system that will require their approval of all nontribal organizations going forward.
The church is now prohibited from picking up and dropping off children on the reservation. As a result, it suspended its youth programming. The Food Bank of the Rockies even cancelled a contract with the church’s food pantry, citing discriminatory remarks.
Pastor Sarah Lucas declined to comment for this story, saying in a WhatsApp message, “At this time, Foundations for Nations is not participating in media interviews or providing additional comment.”
In an interview with the online news source WyoToday, Lucas said she has no plans to leave.
“What people didn't realize is that we own our land. It's private. It's fee land, and we've built a church that's a rec center out there,” Lucas said. ”Everything that's out there is ours, and so we just can't up and leave.”
Fee lands date back to the late 1800s, when the federal government divided tribes’ lands into individual allotments, which led to a lot of that land being ceded or sold to the government for non-Native homesteaders.
Lucas said Foundations for Nations has given a lot to the community: an after-school program, a clothes closet, a mobile pregnancy center. The church is also in the middle of building a youth recreation center.
Lucas admitted her tone was offensive.
“Words matter, right? Delivery matters. And that is where I feel repentant about it,” she told WyoToday. “I'm so sorry that that came off mocking, that I hurt them in that kind of way. However, the word of God remains the same, and I can't apologize for something that I gave my life up for, right?”
“I think [her apology] was hollow,” said Northern Arapaho protester Nicole Wagon. “It wasn't said from the heart.”
Wagon is a practicing Catholic and said her own church, St. Stephens, is an example of how contemporary Christianity can embrace tribal belief systems.
“If you're going into the church, the stations of the cross, they have our hand drums on each station,” Wagon said. “The paintings and everything embrace who we are and where we come from. I mean, even in the backdrop is a teepee.”
Protester MiRae Yellowbird said Christian assimilation and boarding schools left intergenerational scars.
“I was forced into being a Catholic because my parents were assimilated and forced to be Catholic. Being Catholic never did anything for me,” said Yellowbird. “It was my traditional ways and our ceremonies and stuff that helped me get away from my drug addiction. And when I came home, I started doing like Wellbriety and sweats and started participating in Sundance again. And now, you know, I'm thriving.”
Yellowbird said the tribal members she knows who once attended the church no longer go.
”She just needs to leave,” she said. “That's all we want. She can go practice anywhere else for white people, but leave us Natives alone.”
The protesters said they plan to continue gathering here on Sundays until the church leaves.
