"We Are Still Here"

The westward encroachment of settlers onto the Plains radically impacted Tribal Nations in a series of events that forever changed their traditional lifestyles, culture, and access to homelands. The establishment of reservations restricted where Native peoples could live and practice life-sustaining activities such as horticulture and hunting. These boundaries were determined by treaties and originally encompassed much larger areas than today, but numerous congressional acts, including the Black Hills Act of February 28, 1877, drastically reduced this land base, at times through unlawful confiscation. Regardless of reservation boundaries, Tribal members remained spiritually and emotionally connected to places they had long held sacred, such as the Black Hills.

Keystone, South Dakota · United States