“That Was Hollow”: Wind River Protesters Reject Pastor’s Apology for Sundance Slur
On a rainy Sunday at the end of August, about a dozen protesters stood outside the Foundations for Nations church near Arapahoe, Wyoming. They’ve been showing up every single Sunday since early July.
Cars and trucks passing on the road honk in support. One sign hanging on the fence says what most of them are thinking: “Leave.”
A recent partial apology from Pastor Sarah Lucas hasn’t changed that position. If anything, it made things worse.
The Apology That Wasn’t
On July 5, Lucas preached a sermon on the final day of the Northern Arapaho Sundance ceremony. She called the tribe’s sacred pipe an idol and described the Sundance itself as “demonic activity,” and the videos spread fast.
Protests outside the church started within days. The Northern Arapaho Business Council formally directed Foundations for Nations to leave the reservation, and the Eastern Shoshone Business Council quickly added its own demand.
The Montana chapter of the American Indian Movement traveled to Wind River to stand with protesters at an August 23 rally. The opposition wasn’t shrinking.
Then Lucas gave an interview to the Riverton Ranger. She said delivery matters, that she’s “repentant” about how her words came across, and that she’s sorry they came off as mocking.
But she held firm on the message itself. She can’t apologize, she said, for something she’s given her life to.
Organizer Nicole Wagon heard all of that and called it what it was. “That was hollow. She’s not sorry about what she said,” Wagon told Wyoming Public Media.
Wagon noted that Lucas had already chosen to double down when the controversy first broke. Coming around weeks later, only after sustained protests drew national attention and the American Indian Movement, didn’t read as genuine to the people who’ve been standing outside in the summer heat.
The demonstrations continue, Wagon said, until the tribes’ requests are honored.
The Ceremony They Tried to Erase
The Sundance isn’t just a ceremony. It was once a federal crime.
The U.S. government banned Native American religious practices in 1883 under the Code of Indian Offenses. For nearly a century, tribal members faced arrest and punishment for practicing Sundance, using the sacred pipe, attending powwows, or engaging in much of the spiritual life their communities had always known.
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed in 1978. That’s within living memory.
Northern Arapaho member MiRae Yellowbird has pointed to that history directly when explaining the community’s reaction. She noted that Sundances and other ceremonies were illegal not long ago, with jail time as the consequence for practicing them.
Lucas preached her sermon on the last day of a ceremony that the U.S. government criminalized less than fifty years ago. That’s the ground her apology landed on.
“You’re on Our Land Here”
Foundations for Nations has operated near Arapahoe since 2017. Its presence on the reservation wasn’t an accident.
Both tribal governments have now formally demanded the church leave. Both have also put new registration requirements in place, meaning outside organizations must consult with tribal leadership before conducting activities on the reservation.
Lucas’s answer to the removal demand is rooted in property law. She and her husband Jason own the land the church sits on as private fee land, she’s argued, and she says that makes any departure legally complicated.
Wagon wasn’t moved by that framing. “You’re on our land here, as Indigenous people. You’re guests,” she said. “But now that we know where you stand, the request is simple: for them to leave.”
The church has retained Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based litigation nonprofit that specializes in religious freedom cases, and has signaled it’s preparing to fight removal in federal court. The Lucases also filed a petition for a stalking protection order against the protesters last week.
What Comes Next
This isn’t close to resolved, and everyone involved knows it. The protests continue every Sunday, the church holds its services, and the lawyers are getting ready.
Former Wyoming legislator Andi LeBeau put the underlying stakes into a single sentence: “My ancestors had a relationship with the Creator before Wyoming was Wyoming.”
Native people on Wind River don’t need a pastor’s theological clearance to practice their sacred ceremonies. What the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone are asking for now is something more straightforward than a legal fight: they want Foundations for Nations off their land.
Reporting based on Wyoming Public Media, Wyoming Public Media — July 2026, and WyoFile.