Makoce—Gift From the Creator: Lakota Land Heritage
The Oceti Sakowin Oyate (People of the Seven Council Fires) have been blessed with beautiful, productive, and sacred lands. Mountains – including the Black Hills — plains, prairies, forests, and river bottoms – the land has sustained the people for thousands of years.
The current land system, however, fragments and violates the land and the Lakota heritage. The boundaries of the oyate’s land have shrunk to a fraction of their original range, mostly due to outright theft. Sacred sites go unprotected, and there is a great need to educate both Lakota and non-Lakota about their significance. Land within the boundaries of reservations is not under Indian control, and it is often broken up into small parcels that are not adequate to support a tiwahe (family) or tiospaye (extended family).
The solutions are not simple. Reclaiming the Oceti Sakowin land heritage is intertwined with the Lakota People’s Law Project’s other strategic objectives. Developing a self-reliant economy depends on land. To protect our land, we must be able to protect not only the land itself, but also the air and the water.
The Lakota People’s Law Project has worked to map the oyate’s boundaries and research the detailed history of the land’s theft. Our Land Project is working to re-create self-government as a way toward sovereignty over our land and our future. We are exploring further legal avenues and will continue to protect and respect our land. It was taken from our parents, and we must reclaim it for our children.
Reclaim our Ancestral Lands
Makoce—Gift From the Creator: Lakota Land Heritage
The Oceti Sakowin Oyate (People of the Seven Council Fires) have been blessed with beautiful, productive, and sacred lands. Mountains – including the Black Hills — plains, prairies, forests, and river bottoms – the land has sustained the people for thousands of years.
The current land system, however, fragments and violates the land and the Lakota heritage. The boundaries of the oyate’s land have shrunk to a fraction of their original range, mostly due to outright theft. Sacred sites go unprotected, and there is a great need to educate both Lakota and non-Lakota about their significance. Land within the boundaries of reservations is not under Indian control, and it is often broken up into small parcels that are not adequate to support a tiwahe (family) or tiospaye (extended family).
The solutions are not simple. Reclaiming the Oceti Sakowin land heritage is intertwined with the Lakota People’s Law Project’s other strategic objectives. Developing a self-reliant economy depends on land. To protect our land, we must be able to protect not only the land itself, but also the air and the water.
The Lakota People’s Law Project has worked to map the oyate’s boundaries and research the detailed history of the land’s theft. Our Land Project is working to re-create self-government as a way toward sovereignty over our land and our future. We are exploring further legal avenues and will continue to protect and respect our land. It was taken from our parents, and we must reclaim it for our children.