Sunkawakan Ta Wounspe

How a gift helped this nonprofit reconnect with their sacred relative.

Sunkawakan Ta Wounspe: Teachings from the Horse Nation is a nonprofit committed to repatriating our ancestral horses, preserving the teachings of their ancestors, and nurturing the relationship between the horse nation and the people of Standing Rock. 

After years of traumatic events like the Indian wars, forced assimilation, and boarding schools, the organization wants to work on bringing horses back into the lives of their people. They believe that if they can reconnect their people to the horse, then future generations can once again flourish.

“The nomination and gift were an answer to a prayer,” they said in regards to being gifted from the Amplifying Sovereignty fund. “The support came at a crucial time, giving us the ability to purchase much-needed hay during a period of extreme drought in the Dakotas. The future of our ability to care for our horses was at risk due to climate change. The gift gave us the ability to care for them at a very crucial time for our family.”