Oceti Sakowin leaders gather for Annual Treaty Conference

The 5th Annual Oceti Sakowin Treaty Conference convened at the DoubleTree Hotel in Rapid City, during the 48th annual Lakota Nation Invitational. The conference brought hundreds of participants to hear from some of Oceti Sakowin’s most dedicated leaders, scholars, culture bearers, spiritual leaders, elders as well as tribal leaders from other nations

RAPID CITY—December 16-18, 2025, leaders from the Oceti Sakowin gathered for the 5th annual Oceti Sakowin Treaty Conference to discuss Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota history, culture, and their treaties with the United States. Organized by the Sicangu Lakota Treaty Council, the annual three day conference is hosted during the Lakota Nation Invitational (LNI), an annual gathering of Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota student athletes and their families that began 48 years ago to combat racism against Native families in the 1970s. The conference aims to build community, and brings some of Oceti Sakowin’s most dedicated minds to discuss tribal sovereignty, climate change, and revitalization of Indigenous cultures.

This year’s theme was ‘Listening to the Chiefs,’” said Sicangu Lakota Treaty Council Executive Director Phil Two Eagle. “This also means listening to the voices of our old treaty elders— those grandfathers and grandmothers who carried this work when it was dangerous, when it was lonely, and when the pressure to give up was constant. Many of those elders are not with us here today. But their work did not end with their passing. It lives in us, and it is now our responsibility to carry it forward. Our treaty grandfathers understood clearly what was happening when the Indian Reorganization Act governments were imposed on our people.”

“This is a conference to express oneself,” said Wendell Yellow Bull, the conference’s eyapaha. “We have a lot of historians, some of our council, our treaty council members from various groups and they’re all getting older now. It’s time that we start to involve the young men, and young women to start thinking about coming together, and it’s really difficult, and this world today is really difficult.”

The three day conference included dozens of speakers, discussing many different topics including cultural revitalization, treaty rights, data centers, repatriation, climate change, mining in the Black Hills, the Doctrine of Domination, the Dawes Act, welcoming back the buffalo, and included an honoring of Bill Means—one of the founders of the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) who has had a lifetime of advocacy for treaty rights and Indigenous self-determination throughout the world.

“We’re not a religion, we’re a way of life, but we still have to realize the manmade laws” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse at the Oceti Sakowin Treaty Conference on Tuesday, Dec. 16. “When I became that sacred bundle keeper in 1966, I was put through ceremony. Then after the ceremony, I was told that the elders were going to honor me and that I had to pick up that bundle and take care of it. In 1966, the elders told me to not use foul language to stay in an altar, and that people will say things to you, let it go. Some day they’ll come back.”

Frank Star Comes Out, Oglala Sioux Tribal President, also addressed the conference and discussed his role as a tribal leader, the challenges it brings, uniting as a people, and the stance the Oglala Sioux Tribe recently took to withdraw their membership from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT). “It is an honor to be up here before you and there’s a lot of talk of what’s going on in the world,” he said. “And for me, the role I play, as a tribal leader is a tough one with this administration because as you all know, this current administration doesn’t align with tribal nations.”

“I took stance on some of the wellknown organizations, national organizations,” Star Comes Out said of the Oglala Sioux Tribe withdrawing from participating with NCAI and COLT. “It was difficult, but when it doesn’t align with our treaties, our traditions, our culture, our way of life, we need to stand on our treaties, because I believe they’re stepping on our toes, inching their way into our sovereignty, and I’m not gonna let that happen.”

Eugene Little Coyote read a prepared statement from Northern Cheyenne Vice President Ernest Little Mouth Sr.: “I remember a few years ago, a ceremony was conducted by my friend Arvol Looking Horse, in which the ancient alliance between the Cheyenne and the Lakota was renewed. It was a powerful ceremony that stays with me to this day, and I’ll carry it forward for the rest of my life. It is in this endearing spirit that Northern Cheyenne is proud to be present here at this conference and we proudly stand with our brothers and sisters at the Oceti Sakowin Treaty Council.”

On the conference’s second day, participants discussed efforts to build hyper–data center projects near tribal lands—projects that require massive amounts of water and energy, as Honor the Earth, an Indigenous led environmental nonprofit, emphasized in their remarks

“Indigenous communities worldwide disproportionately bear the front of and contamination to supply earth and rare earth minerals,” said Honor the Earth Executive Director Krystal Two Bulls on Dec. 17. “Indigenous people make up 20% of the world’s population, but we provide 80% of the world’s biodiversity.”

“It’s estimated that more than 70% of the known uranium deposits are on Indigenous lands, right?” said Two Bulls. “But we are not consulted from that, we don’t give consent, and we don’t benefit from those.”

Two Bulls also discussed the energy industry’s effort to create a situation that justifies demand for energy. “The United States has the most data centers in the world,” she said. “So even places like Japan that are known for the technology, and being technologically advanced as they are, they do not use the same amount of energy, nor do they have the same demand for hyperscale data centers, because they have learned how to do things officially and effectively.”

The conference attendees voted to pass a resolution calling for the abolition of the General Mining Act of 1872 and the permanent protection of He Sápa. The resolution declares that the Mining Act of 1872 was enacted without the consent of Indigenous Nations and has enabled more than a century of mineral extraction on Oceti Sakowin treaty lands, which is in direct violation of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868.

“He Sápa is not for sale. It is not a resource colony,” said Phil Two Eagle. “It is a sacred place guaranteed to our people by treaty, unlawfully taken and repeatedly exploited. This resolution affirms that laws imposed without our consent have no legitimacy on our treaty lands.”

The resolution calls for the full repeal of the Mining Act of 1872, the immediate cessation of mining permits and claims issued under its authority within Oceti Sakowin treaty territory, and the development of a new legal framework grounded in treaty compliance, Indigenous consent, and environmental protection. The Oceti Sakowin Treaty Council announced it will pursue coordinated advocacy at the tribal, federal, and international levels to advance repeal of the Mining Act of 1872.

“This resolution is about protecting the land, the water, and the future of our people,” Two Eagle added. “We carry a responsibility to the generations yet to come, and that responsibility demands the permanent protection of He Sápa.”

The three day conference was attended by many including tribal leaders, elders, youth, and many other members of the community. Sponsors of the conference include Honor the Earth, WILD Foundation, the International Indian Treaty Council, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and Peta Omniciye, Inc.

Two Eagle shared that there are three efforts that can change the way of life for many in treaty territories: tribal banking, tatanka restoration, and Lakota language revitalization. In the next few years, he wants to draft legislation that would prioritize these issues.

“Tatanka is not livestock; the Tatanka is our relative,” Two Eagle said. “Restoring the buffalo advances food sovereignty, climate repair, grassland and soil health, and our economy. Over time, Tatanka can replace dependency on beef cattle systems imposed on our lands and return us to a food system aligned with Wolakota.”

“We are beyond language revitalization and preservation,” Two Eagle added. “We are now in a time of rescue. The Lak.óta language carries law, ceremony, science, and worldview. When a language disappears, a way of thinking disappears with it. A Language Rescue Act would support immersion, intergenerational transmission, community-based speakers, and the conditions necessary for Lak.óta to be spoken in homes, ceremonies, and governance — not only classrooms. Together, these three efforts — banking, Tatanka restoration, and language rescue — form a foundation for a renewed Lakota way of life grounded in treaty rights, responsibility to Unci Maka, and accountability to future generations.”

Darren Thompson is the Managing Editor of Last Real Indians Native News Desk and the Director of Media Relations for the Sacred Defense Fund, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’s an award winning multimedia journalist enrolled at Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, where he grew up. He can be reached at darren@sacreddefense.org.

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