Oglala Lakota Oppose Fireworks Event at Mount Rushmore

Trump confirms that he will attend the fireworks event at Mount Rushmore in the Sacred Black Hills on July 3, 2026. The Oglala Lakota Council in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, passed a resolution opposing the event.

Protest in 2020 over fireworks event at Mount Rushmore. Photo credit Unicorn Riot Media.

Oglala Lakota Oppose Fireworks Event at Mount Rushmore

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, June 16, 2026

See update: Live coverage and responses: 

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/07/seek-shelter-at-trumps-fireworks-event.html

PINE RIDGE, South Dakota -- The Oglala Lakota Tribal Council opposes a presidential visit to Mount Rushmore for a fireworks celebration in the Sacred Black Hills, on July 3, 2026, which President Trump plans to attend.

"It should not occur," the Lakota Council said in its resolution, pointing out the violation of the aboriginal treaty, the Fort Laramie Treaty, and the distress Lakota already live with because of federal budget cuts.

The tribe's resolution points out the ongoing uranium mining and oil pipelines, including Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline, where sacred sites are being destroyed.

Lakota Youths in Solidarity with Palestine Screen 'Spaces of Exception'

 

Lakota Youths showed 'Spaces of Exception,' a film revealing the truths of the lands of Native people and Palestinians, Native lands, here in the Lakota community on the Oglala Lakota Nation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where the film series originated. Photo by Mato White Plume.

Lakota Youths in Solidarity with Palestine Screen 'Spaces of Exception'

In the Lakota community where the film series began, the film reveals the shared truths in the lands of Native People and Palestinians.

By Mato White Plume and Natalie Hand

Oglala Lakota Nation, Pine Ridge, South Dakota

Censored News, Nov. 23, 2025

Mato White Plume said, "A lasting impression this film left was the shared themes of systemic confinement, and the resistance against it. Seeing these two histories laid side by side like that, it clicks. It makes the regimes of control and displacement undeniable. It was for sure heavy, but the kind of heavy that fuels the flame for liberation."

"The most powerful was witnessing the raw acts of resistance," said Mato White Plume, Organizer for Moccasins On The Move.

Lakotas for Palestine Attacked in Hate Crime in Rapid City

Lakotas for Palestine Attacked in Hate Crime in Rapid City

Lakota Statement , Censored News, July 24, 2024

RAPID CITY, South Dakota – On Saturday, July 20th, we traveled to Mni Luzahan to support the International Indigenous Youth Council for a peaceful rally for Palestine. The rally was co-sponsored by ally group SD4Pal. Within 5 minutes of our arrival, this worker began heckling us from the lawn of City Hall, where she was working.

Oglala Lakota Youths: 'Peaceful Youth-led Rally for Palestine Attacked by Zionists in Rapid City'

(Above)South Dakota for Palestine in Rapid City, South Dakota, July 20, 2024

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Oglala Lakota Youths: Peaceful Youth-led Rally for Palestine Attacked by Zionists

By International Indigenous Youth Council-Oglala Lakota Chapter

Censored News

RAPID CITY, South Dakota -- On July 20th, a Saturday afternoon, dozens peacefully gathered around the City Hall to call for a ceasefire for Palestine. We were assaulted with spray paint and threatened with a firearm. These violent acts prove exactly what Palestinians have to experience from day to day.

New database reveals where Native American human remains are being held

A depiction of one scene at Sand Creek by witness Howling Wolf Cheyenne

Give us our people back

Native American human remains are being held by museums and universities. Native Americans want to bring their ancestors home.

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

A new database reveals which museums and universities have human remains of Native Americans. It shows which places have made those available for return, and which ones have not.

The database by ProPublica shows those not returning remains to the Tohono O'odham Nation including the University of Arizona Museum and Arizona State Museum. The places that have not made remains available to Oglala Lakota in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, include Harvard University and Milwaukee Public Museum

“We never ceded or relinquished our dead. They were stolen,” James Riding In, Pawnee and longtime professor at Arizona State University professor, said of the unreturned remains.

Oglala Lakota say 'No' to using Indigenous youths as poverty porn for church profit

Oglala Lakota youth speak truth to the Oglala tribal council of their concerns of abuses by local churches operating within the boundaries of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. These crimes include and are not limited to openly demonizing cultural teachings and traditional Lakota. -- Andrew Catt Iron Shell Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKaQa4L3yaA

Oglala Lakota say 'No' to using Indigenous youths as poverty porn for church profit

By Eleanor Ferguson
Youth Mentor

International Indigenous Youth Council-Oglala Lakota Chapter
July 26, 2022

Mitakuyepi, there was a victory for the Titawan Oglala Lakota today!

The OST Tribal Council has officially suspended all activity of every single church/missionary on the reservation until all employees/volunteers can pass a background check, and provide full financial statements which will prove how much money they are receiving, where their money is coming from and where it is going. If they fail to do so they will be removed from Oglala Lakota Territory.

Starting from today no missionary should be operating on our reservation until they’ve followed the proper protocols.

They banned churches and missionaries from using photos/videos of Oglala Lakota children to solicit donations. They also copyrighted the words Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, OST, and Oglala Lakota so churches and missionaries are no longer allowed to use these words in any type of form to receive funding or donations; such as in their website, pamphlets, donation fundraisers, etc.

They will be starting an active 2-week investigation on the Dream Center ASAP to see if they were affiliated with Matthew Monfore and whoever else was affiliated with Matthew Monfore will be banned from our reservation.

I just want to give a big wopila to those who made this possible, those who guided me and the International Indigenous Youth Council-Oglala Lakota Chapter this far.

Our mentors never gave up on our vision even when shit was tough, our mentors always reminded us that the work we are doing is necessary and needed in order for us to save our Lakota spirituality.

The youth do this work for all of the babies who died at the hands of priests and nuns.
We do this for the elders who are still suffering from boarding school trauma.
Shout out to tribal council for holding it down for our way of life, for the people, and the youth.

We are rising! Times are changing!
It was a good day to be Oglala Lakota

Video of Oglala Lakota Council discussion and approval of new ordinance which halts missionaries and requires churches to register, provide background checks, provide financial reports and halts the use of photos of children for fundraising. All work of missionaries and churches is halted until registered, with law enforcement enabled to enforce the removal of violators.

https://fb.watch/exTNuDxxyp/

Cheyenne River sending buses of Lakotas to resistance 'No Dakota Access Pipeline'

Camp of Sacred Stones Photo Waniya Locke, Cannon Ball, N.D., Sat. Aug. 13, 2016

Oglala President: White Clay distribution tantamount to bootlegging

Oglala President urges halt to scheme to 'bootleg' liquor into White Clay

Oglala President Bryan Brewer

By Oglala President Bryan Brewer
Oglala Sioux Tribe, Office of the President
Censored News

On July 10, 2013 High Plains Budweiser announced that it would cease to deliver alcohol to the town of Whiteclay, Nebraska. This decision marks a significant victory in our efforts to stop the flow of alcohol in to our communities from Whiteclay. In addition, High Plains Budweiser stated that they will only deliver as far as Rushville, Nebraska where vendors from Whiteclay would be expected to pick up their product for themselves and take it to their stores. This practice is illegal, and tantamount to bootlegging.

Treaty Meeting at Wounded Knee Site July 13, 2013

Treaty Meeting, Wounded Knee Site, Saturday July 13, 4:44 p.m.

Censored News

Contact: Scott 218-204-1384

FOR IMMEDIATE RElEASE
There will be a Treaty Meeting at the Wounded Knee Massacre site on Saturday afternoon at 4:44 p.m.

Families, women, and men are invited to participate in this spiritual Treaty Talking Circle to discuss strategies for getting the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie honored and respected.

Currently, nine (9) trillion dollars in Black Hills gold sits as stolen property in Fort Knox, Kentucky, while millions of dollars a day is spirited off of Treaty Lands from Wyoming in train cars to supply the electricity needs (coal gasification plants) for millions of americans - without one (1) cent going to the Treaty Signatory Nations and the N/DN/D/Lakota people for their Treaty Resource.

There will be a Canunpa Circle Ceremony as well as discussion about utilizing Treaty Land for a spiritual encampment/Treaty Reclamation project - the 40 acres of Treaty Land occupied/swindled from the heart of the "Pine Ridge Reservation" next to the Wounded Knee Massacre Site currently under discussion.

Treaties are protected by Article VI of the U.S. Constitution that states, "Treaties made with Indian Nations shall be the supreme law of the land, with the judges in every state bound thereby."

There are no 'broken' treaties, only those VIOLATED each day by the u.s. government and american people. The "squeeky wheel gets the grease" so it is now time to make Treaty Voices heard as Treaty Peoples reclaim Treaty "supreme law" Homelands.
(In 1992/3, Oliver Red Cloud helped with the re-establishment of Oyate Omniciye "General Council Talking Circles" in Porcupine, SD, that later moved into Mni Luzahan)

Jean Roach Photos 'Leonard Peltier Day' Oglala, SD

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Photos copyright Jean Roach
Thank you Jean Roach for sharing your photos with Censored News!
Leonard Peltier Day, Oglala, South Dakota, June 27, 2013

Statement From Leonard on Oglala Commemoration

June 26, 2013

My Family and Friends. I hope you are comfortable and that you are all healthy and happy. For those of you who walked today, I imagine the sun gave you a little more color and I am proud of all of you. You know if I were out, I would have been walking with you, leading the charge, of course.
In my mind, I am right there with you. I can smell the burning sage and sweetgrass intermingled with the smells from the boxes of frybread and the big pans of potato salad. The “unci’s” are sitting on chairs in the shade, probably teasing each other and laughing, like only you can. I see all of you sitting on the blankets under the shade on the hard dry ground, trying to find a way to be comfortable. I can look over to where the old campsite was and spot the place where the guys would cut the wood, and the place where the gardens were.
A sadness comes over me as I see the foundation, where the homestead of Grama and grandpa Jumping Bull once stood. I remember the kids running around and playing, carefree and happy. At times it seems like it was a long time ago and other times, it feels like it was yesterday. Sometimes when I’m alone, I wonder why life has to be so hard for our people. It’s puzzling that some of our own people will turn against us. Is it money? Power? Greed? We were here because we were asked to be here, to stand as protection to the traditional families who continue to follow the original instructions as handed down to us from generation to generation in the form of our Creation stories. I am told there is now an investigation being implemented for the murder of the sixty some people killed during that reign of terror. It’s an outrage that it took over 40 years to discover that a bullet hole in the back doesn’t sound like death by natural cause. We were there also, to protect the land from being raped by the government for uranium. We have evidence of the chemical dumps placed on our land without the knowledge or consent of our members and the leaking of radiation 5 times the safe level, polluting the veins of our mother earth and turning our secred water into a poison that would cause our child bearing women to abort their unborn babies and cancer replacing natural cause on the death certificates of many of our people. I am not trying to make this a gloom and doom message. I am only trying to give an understanding to some of our young people that we need to continue to protect all that is sacred to us, our Elders, our women and our children, our culture and way of life and each other.
I am always asked about an update on what is going on with me and I will try to explain. As my team can tell you, my blood pressure is high, my diabetes is out of control to the point of causing problems to my sight and I have a lot of pain in walking. My medication has been withheld for several months and doctor appointments are a rare occurance. I have been tested for prostate cancer and although I was never given any clear answer of whether or not cancer exists, the symptons indicate there is definitely something wrong. The recent problems with shortness of breath and chest pains are causing me additional stress. I assure you, this is not the place to be sick or to have health problems because in prison, we are just another number. It’s just a good thing I don’t need to take medication to keep a sense of humor or I would definitely be screwed! Additionally, I was approved by my counselors inside, for a transfer to a medium security prison closer to home but the transfer was denied from the office in Texas, without a reason. Although the denial was appealed, who knows how long that will take to be reviewed.
In closing, I want to say “pilamiyeya” to all of you for your hard work. I know this is a great undertaking to organize an event. It humbles me to know that you are taking the time to remember not only me, but all of the warriors who are attempting to take the HIS STORY out of history, by standing up and telling OUR story. I stand with you in support of recognizing our inherent rights,our truth seekers and our sacred way of life. To those of you preparing to Sundance, I hope you will feel me dancing next to you, in the Inipi, I am there taking in the steam and singing with you. But as you can guess, I am getting tired. I just want to be home with my people. I want to wake up to the sound of the birds singing outside my window and the smell of “cowboy coffee” coming from the kitchen instead of hearing the clanging of cell doors and jingling of rings of keys. Please! Continue to fight for what is right. That is all I can ask.
Mitakuya oyasin!
Doksha,
Leonard

Six days later, Pine Ridge declares disaster

Six days after the disaster, Oglala President Steele declares Pine Ridge a disaster area
KOTA Radio
Audios at: http://www.kotaradio.com/news.asp?eid=5002&ID=1221
On Monday, the Oglala Sioux Tribe president John Yellow Bird Steele declared Pine Ridge a disaster area. Hundreds there are without power and many are stranded in their own homes.In Wanblee, an emergency operation center set up at the Crazy Horse School is running on generators where 250 people have been stuck since Wednesday night.
Susan Thundershield and her 9 grandchildren have been sleeping on the gym floor for the past 5 night (audio.)
But, things aren’t much better for those able to stay in their homes, like Delane Moves Camp. (audio)
Food and water are in short supply and providing help has been a struggle, with the Red Cross making a couple of visits and volunteers from Minnesota trying to bring food on snowmobiles.
Relief worker Phyllis Wilcox said they’re desperately seeking donations. (audio)
Mount Rushmore Superintendent Gerard Baker said park service staff will deliver firewood to the area.
Note from Censored News: Please keep in mind if you donate through the Red Cross, to hold the Red Cross responsible. During Hurricane Katrina, millions of dollars in donations from Indian Nations to the US Red Cross never reached the Houma Indian Nation in Louisiana. None of it ever reached the Houmas.)