Bear Butte
There is nothing quite like Bear Butte, as it looms high on the horizon in the heart of Paha Sapa, the Black Hills, the heartland of the Great Plains and indeed, the Lakota Universe. Chief Arvol Looking Horse, nineteenth generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, explains, "In our Sacred Star Knowledge, Bear Butte is recorded as part of the star formation; the mirror in the sky that reflects the Black Hills' sacred places of power for our spiritual guidance." Bear Butte has long been a sacred place where people from more than 50 tribes gather to pray and vision quest.

For more information

Bear Butte International Alliance

DefendBearButte.org

Missouri River
At one time, the upper Missouri River ran freely through Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. Halfway through the twentieth century, though, the Army Corps of Engineers built six massive dam and reservoir projects. This 1,500-mile stretch of river has long been central to the life and worship of 26 local Native American cultures, including the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Sioux tribes and the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota. The dams created artificial lakes which have flooded many ancestral Native sites and erode the shoreline by as much as 30 feet per year. It is not uncommon for burial grounds to be flooded, releasing ancestors from their resting place.

For more information

Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition

Black Hills
The Black Hills have been considered sacred for millennia to many Native American nations from the United States and Canada. This unique geographic area contains the oldest mountains in the world. For thousands of years, hot mineral springs were used by indigenous people for healing purposes. Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, and buffalo roamed and lived in these sacred mountains. However, they all disappeared with the illegal trespassing into this area by Euro-Americans in the late 1800s. Although the Black Hills was, and still is, protected by treaty for the exclusive use of the people of the Great Sioux Nation, the federal government of the United States has allowed the complete destruction of the Black Hills primarily through mining, logging, tourism and housing development. (Courtesy of Defenders of the Black Hills)

For more information

Defenders of the Black Hills