Grandmother Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance

"Our spiritual ways, our Sun Dance ways are encouraging prayer and bringing a lot of people back. A lot of young boys and girls are coming into the Sun Dance and are learning to reconnect with the source of their being."

 “Our people know that the land and the language are one. If we lose one or the other we are no longer who we say we are.”

“The Sundance is very sacred to our Oglala Lakota peoples. As you support the ceremony in a respectful way, something good will come to you and your people as well.”

"I think the grandmothers that are gathered here, that they're all taking the same way."

"We use Indian Medicine all the time at home. Our spiritual ways, our Sun Dance ways are encouraging prayer and bringing a lot of people back. A lot of young boys and girls are coming into the Sun Dance and are learning to reconnect with the source of their being."

"It's the only way to survive is through prayer. We can talk about many things, but if we don't have that prayer, we will never succeed."

"There's no turning back, and I hope that the, the grandmothers all think that way."

"...Reconciliation - we have that already, our Lakota people.  We try our best, like I said, we use the pipe to pray and we have to have peace in our hearts as well as with others.  So what has happened in the past, we can't redo it, we can't bring it back; we have to move forward to carry that peace and carry it on so that what you do with that land, make it plentiful, maybe feed the homeless, help the people and have that peace in your heart."

Rita's photo: Tracy Walsh:  http://www.hmbreview.com/

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