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South Dakota - "This is the way the tribes tell you that you are one of a select few who are doing what is above and beyond what is expected," said Clayton Quiver of the Oceti Sakowin spiritual encampment on LaFramboise Island near Pierre, South Dakota.

Bob Epp (Henderson, NE) accepted an award on behalf of CPT at a Lakota honoring ceremony on the Rosebud reservation on June 3. The hand-lettered, framed buckskin plaque read: "Great Sioux Nation Certificate of Appreciation, Christian Peacemaker Team, Honoring your courageous and dedicated stand protecting Fort Laramie Treaty Rights at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on La Framboise Island."

CPT, the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, Makoce Luta (Sacred Red Earth) Coalition, South Dakota Peace and Justice Center and the seven Lakota men who began the spiritual encampment each received an individualized plaque.

Through the honoring ceremony, the seven Lakota reservation tribes which make up the Great Sioux Nation demonstrated their appreciation for the warriors who have been resisting the transfer of Treaty Lands to the State of South Dakota. The term translated as "warriors" (akicita) in the traditional Lakota sense emphasizes nonviolent courage, commitment and bravery.

"To be a warrior is to be a shield, without a weapon, ready to lay down my life for the people without hesitation," explained Tom Cheyenne, akicita. "Warriors stop something bad from happening to the people without weapons, just with our presence," said Rich Shangreaux, another camp akicita.

Earlier in May, in a ceremony conducted at the LaFramboise Island camp, the seven young men were inducted into an ancient warrior society committed to protecting the people without using weapons. This induction ceremony had not been performed in over a century, according to Shangreaux.

Zintkalazi, another of the seven, said, "When we take our stand here it has always been in my mind that as the Teton Oyate (Lakota People) we are the ancestors of those yet unborn. We do this for the future generations as our grandfathers taught us. They shed their blood and gave their lives for this land," he explains. "It brought spirit back into my life."