Plenty International Reflects on the Sun Dance 2025

We’re delighted to be able to share the following update from Plenty International, who supported and attended the Afraid of Bear – American Horse Tiospaye’s 36th annual Sun Dance ceremony which took place in June this year. Onaway too has a close and long-standing friendship with both Native American communities and the Afraid of Bear – American Horse Tiospaye, whom we have supported for many years.

We hope you enjoy reading about Plenty International‘s experience and reflections on this year’s Sun Dance in the Black Hills, South Dakota.

Last week, representatives from Plenty International (Dan Bright, Executive Director, and his son, Brad) traveled to the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota to participate in and support the 36th annual Afraid of Bear and American Horse Tiospaye Sun Dance ceremony alongside the Oglala Sioux people. As an organization with a 40-year legacy of collaboration with the Pine Ridge Reservation (being very near the core of Plenty), this trip was more than a journey—it was a reaffirmation of kinship, purpose, and responsibility.

Upon arriving in the Black Hills, it is challenging to take it all in. Towering evergreens, rugged granite cathedral peaks, and vast open skies formed a dramatic and humbling backdrop for the sacred gathering. The changing weather mirrored the emotional depth of the experience: near-freezing hail storms rolled across the hills one moment, and blistering 100-degree heat appeared the next. Through it all, the spirit of the people remained obvious, strong-rooted like the trees and enduring like the granite.

Plenty International was honored to provide logistical and on-the-ground support for the event, including assistance with food cost, grounds set-up, provision of medical supplies and standby services, and hydration resources for participants and supporters. The Sundance is a sacred ceremony. An expression of faith, endurance, and cultural survival. But it is also, necessarily, an event that requires infrastructure and care. Our role was to help meet these practical needs while respecting and protecting the spiritual core of the gathering. We will continue this support for Sun Dances to come (keep an eye out for specific requests to support this process).

During our time there, we built new relationships and strengthened old ones. We shared meals, stories, and prayers with tribal elders, fire keepers, and fellow allies and organizations from around the world. We witnessed the power of solidarity, the resilience of tradition, and the depth of the commitment the Oglala people hold to their ways—despite the growing hardships they face.

This trip reminded us that our work does not end with a single visit. The conditions on Pine Ridge and other reservations continue to deteriorate economically, socially, and environmentally. The people need more than ceremonial support, they need daily support. Plenty International remains committed not only to honoring the sacred by supporting ceremonies like Sun Dance but also to addressing the urgent, ongoing needs of the Lakota communities in their day-to-day lives.

We look ahead with renewed purpose. Our next steps include continued work with local organizers to streamline future event logistics while ensuring the ceremony itself remains untouched and at the center, supporting established programs on Pine Ridge, and the evaluation and development of new programs based on needs outlined by the community. The connections made on this journey have deepened our roots and expanded our vision.

We invite all who believe in justice, healing, and cultural survival to stand with us—to listen, to learn, and to act. The Oglala are not asking for pity. They are asking for partnership. And Plenty International is working to be highly engaged in this process.