Dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture, the Lakota People’s Law Project partners with Native communities to protect sacred lands, safeguard human rights, promote sustainability, reunite indigenous families, and much more.
For over a decade we’ve been standing strong with the Lakota to end the long history of treaty violations and systemic corruption that has resulted in the loss of their most sacred lands and the epidemic of children being removed from their families and traditions.
The Trump administration is at it again. The executive branch keeps trying to use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to bail out the dying fossil fuel industry. Use your voice now to say NO.
The City of McLaughlin shut down power to the White Mountains' FEMA trailer just as COVID-19 hit Standing Rock. Take action to let the city council know it is not OK to put families on the street during a pandemic.
You can send a message of solidarity and congratulations to the tribe!
The Lakota People's Law Project opens a new foster home at Standing Rock to provide Native-run kinship care for kids in need.
LPLP attends the North Dakota Public Service Commission public hearing to oppose DAPL expansion. Over the past two months, LPLP and tens of thousands of supporters have joined the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Rosebud, and Oglala Sioux nations in demanding the hearing and asking that the Commission deny the dangerous plan to double DAPL's oil capacity.
LPLP is overjoyed to join the Oglala and Standing Rock Nations in welcoming teenaged Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to Lakota Country. LPLP, Red Cloud Indian School, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe host a climate panel at Pine Ridge with Greta and Tokata Iron Eyes. The two also lead a panel at Standing Rock and a march in Rapid City.
Muffie Mousseau and Felipa De Leon lead the charge for LGTBQ2S-positive change to the Pine Ridge Reservation. LPLP helps document and publicize their tireless efforts to convince the Oglala Nation Tribal Council to pass a landmark marriage equality statute on Pine Ridge and South Dakota's first anti-hate legislation.
LPLP joins Oglala Sioux Tribe President Julian Bear Runner's D.C. delegation to meet with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) about Keystone XL, the climate crisis, and the Green New Deal.
From April to June 2019, in the wake of massive flooding, LPLP provides organizing and media support to facilitate flood relief for the Pine Ridge Reservation. This work culminates in two landmark disaster declarations and badly needed aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
North Dakota implements a restrictive voter ID law meant to disenfranchise Native voters. The Lakota People’s Law Project, Four Directions, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fight back with a ground campaign to enroll tribal citizens and get them to the polls on election day. Standing Rock issues 727 new IDs and more than doubles its turnout from the prior midterm election.
GOP aims to suppress ND Native American vote to hinder Heitkamp
#StandingRockTheVote in Full Swing
Thank You for Helping #StandingRockTheVote
After LPLP's legal team begins deposing law enforcement personnel, North Dakota prosecutors drop both serious charges against Chase Iron Eyes—alleged criminal trespass and incitement of a riot. Many thanks to all the kind and generous supporters who made this victory possible!
Citing Nestle's unethical business practices, LPLP launches the #NestlePledge and joins the movement to #BoycottNestle and its products. #WaterIsLife
LPLP's Phyllis Young spearheads the campaign for energy independence on Standing Rock. Sustainable solutions, new statewide renewable standards, and incentives for green projects can move the Dakotas, which still rely on coal for 70 percent of their energy, away from dependence on fossil fuels.
Leaked documents reveal that a private security firm hired by DAPL parent company Energy Transfer Partners targeted, surveilled, and provoked the peaceful and prayerful water protectors at Standing Rock. LPLP's campaign—which ultimately gathers over 55,000 signatures—calls on the state of North Dakota to drop the charges of water protectors arrested during #NoDAPL.
After militarized police raid the newly-established Last Child Camp and arrest Chase Iron Eyes, LPLP Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan steps in to organize Chase's defense. LPLP also provides litigation support to several tribes’ fights in Washington, D.C. against DAPL.
In the spring, members of the LPLP team—including lead counsel Chase Iron Eyes and tribal liaison Madonna Thunder Hawk—join the resistance camps on Oceti Sakowin treaty land to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. In addition to providing organizing, logistical, and media support, LPLP petitions to prevent the pipeline from violating Lakota treaty rights and threatening Standing Rock‘s water supply.
"South Dakota is still trafficking our children, Lakota children, Indian children, and they get millions of federal dollars every year for their so-called 'child welfare services.'"
