Dear Supporters of Indigenous Civil and Human Rights for the Niskithe Prayer Camp,

Thanks for your ongoing support!

Today's update quote's directly from the prayer camp's May 9, 2022 statement:

"Today we begin the second week of our peaceful occupation of the land. Niskithe Prayer Camp started as an act of resistance in the face of erasure and exclusion, as a way to demand the dignity and freedoms promised to all Americans. By raising our tipis and establishing our camp, we said emphatically, “We are still here. We are strong. And we will remain.” We will continue to honor these intentions by remaining on the land and practicing our ceremonies here. 

In the past week, we established relationships and initiated dialogues with elected officials at City Hall. Though some of these relationships show promise, we have yet to receive any tangible protections for our sweat lodge or the Fish Farm property, nor a plan for meaningful representation of Native people in local government. We did not come for a land acknowledgment. A promise for continued dialogue is not enough. The transformative justice work must begin and the structures of our government need to change. 

Additionally, we are calling on Bishop James Conley and the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln to recognize their responsibility in this matter, that they have a central role to play in protecting our ceremonial site, and that they still have the power to take decisive moral action towards that end. We call on the Bishop and the Diocese to bring us to the table with the Manzitto brothers, to break or renegotiate their existing contract, and write a new one that does not amount to cultural genocide, one that will allow all parties to co-exist on this land. Contracts can be broken, and the financial consequences that the Diocese would incur is nothing compared to the debt they owe to Native peoples for centuries of persecution that has led to the loss of lives, languages, ceremony, and identity..."

To read more of this crucial statement, please see: https://www.niskitheprayercamp.com/