Afraid Of Bear - American Horse Tiospaye

Grandmother Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance
New York, USA

Our mission is to practice and pass on to future generations the ancestral knowledge and spiritual practice of our Lakota relatives through our traditional ceremonies, including the Sun Dance.  Our Spiritual Director, Loretta Afraid of Bear - Cook is of 100% Lakota lineage from the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the Lakota ways of the Tiospaye are from her family lineage and the lineage of the American Horse family that has shared a long history of family relationship with the Afraid of Bears. We together host an annual Sun Dance in the Black Hills, now in our fourth decade.  While the Sun Dance is the most sacred of our ceremonies, we now seek to bring back into practice the other six sacred ceremonies which faded from practice when declared illegal by the US government in the 1800’s and to capture these ceremonies on film.

The Sacred Ceremonies Film Project is our commitment to create more pathways for our youth to connect with their culture, tradition and spirituality. Each summer we will hold ceremony and activities designed to engage youth in rites of passage that speak to their connection to the land, nature and community, and foster ties with elders. We are working with two filmmakers to create a series of films about these traditions for use by educators and organizations, as well as for the general public. Our prayer is that these films will allow us to speak directly to native youth in a medium that is accessible anywhere, anytime.

 We are seeking to raise $170,000 for 2022 activities. Funds will support our Tiospaye Sun Dance ($50,000), Rites of Passage ceremony for youth in the Black Hills ($50,000), and film production of the Rites of Passage ceremony and its preparation ($70,000). 

Afraid of Bear - American Horse Tiospaye is a 501(c)(3) organization. Your donation is tax-deductible.