"T.J. Afraid of Hawk is helping organize an indigenous summit at the base of Bear Butte in South Dakota, a place sacred to more than 30 tribes but soon to be a neighbor to the world's biggest biker bar.

The Summit of Indigenous Nations, scheduled Aug. 1-4, will help prepare Native people to reach out to state legislators, county commissioners and federal lawmakers as they try to preserve sacred lands.

Bear Butte tops the list of tribal concerns.

�Right now, they just know Native Americans hold it sacred, but we want them to know it's our place of prayer,� said the Lakota woman from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. �They don't understand because they don't see us there all year-round. Lakota people never stayed there because it was too sacred. We went there for our prayers and we left.�

But biker bar mogul Jay Allen, an Arizona businessman, is in the middle of creating a permanent presence less than two miles from the butte where Natives pray and perform ceremonies during about five months of the year. Allen has already broken ground for a 150,000-square-foot chunk of asphalt for trucks and for bikers to drink at his bar. A 30,000-seat amphitheater for concerts is also in the works.

�It's the biggest biker bar we've ever seen,� said Oglala Sioux Tribe President Alex White Plume, a summit organizer. �It's so humongous that it just frightens us.�"

Get the Story:
Jodi Rave: Indigenous summit to focus on saving sacred lands (The Missoulian 7/31)

Relevant Links:
Jodi Rave - http://www.missoulian.com/jodirave

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