Arapaho tribe seeks to oust Wind River church after pastor’s sermon

The Northern Arapaho Tribe is seeking to remove a Christian church from the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming after its pastor condemned the tribe’s most sacred ceremony as idol worship in a sermon that circulated online. The standoff has become a test of tribal sovereignty, religious freedom and the rights of non-Native property owners living on reservation land.

Every Sunday, congregants gather at Foundations for Nations Church to pray while protesters outside march past ranchland and scattered homes.

The two rituals have unfolded in parallel since July, when a video surfaced showing pastor Sarah Lucas calling the Arapaho sundance ceremony “idol worship.”

“Jesus is the chain breaker. He is the only God that we should be praying to,” Lucas said in the clip.

Arapaho Chairman Keenan Groesbeck joined demonstrators on a recent Sunday, marching with activists from the American Indian Movement and ceremonial elders.

“We brought in our ceremonial elders. We heard them loud and clear,” Groesbeck said. “They don’t want them here no more.”

Lucas, who is not Native American, founded the church nine years ago and owns the land it sits on. She says her words reflect her interpretation of the Bible and are constitutionally protected.

“The Bible makes it very clear to only worship one God,” Lucas said.

She said she regrets her sharp delivery but not the message. Since founding her church, Lucas said she has urged Native congregants to renounce sundance, sweat lodges and burning cedar during prayer, traditions she equates to idolatry.

“I don’t believe you can have mixture,” she said.

Many Arapaho people say the sermon reopened wounds from the era of religious assimilation and abuse carried out through boarding schools.

DJ Gardner, a 28-year-old former congregant who has since left the church, associated Lucas’ rhetoric with those schools, including the one his grandfather survived.

“I thought they accepted us,” Gardner said. “In my view, why else would you be on a reservation?”

The conflict intensified in July when the Arapaho and Shoshone councils passed ordinances requiring religious groups to seek tribal approval before operating on Wind River.

“That’s the law of the land on our reservation,” Groesbeck said.

The ordinances forced Foundations for Nations to suspend youth programming, since the church is now prohibited from picking up and dropping off children on the reservation. In an Aug. 31 memo, the Arapaho council acknowledged that “jurisdictional limits” likely prevent it from regulating church activity on private land.

Lucas built her church on private property within the reservation’s boundaries rather than tribal land, where she said the tribes would effectively be her landlords. Her attorneys with the Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal organization, assert that her ownership of the property shields her from banishment.

Jessica Shoemaker, a professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, said jurisdiction over private property within reservations is litigated case-by-case.

Sunday turnout at the church is down half from 150, Lucas said, and some weeks the protest crowd has rivaled church attendance.

Arapaho congregant Tearany Black, who considers Lucas a stand-in parent, said she agrees Native Christians should turn away from ceremony but found the tone of the sermon racist.

“She cares for our people,” Black said. “I just don’t think she understands where we’re coming from.”

Jenea Mandan, an Arapaho traditionalist, said she felt anger and shame about sending her children to the church’s summer camp, where she had misgivings but needed childcare help.

“At that time I was a single mom, I was in a low-income situation,” Mandan said. “It feels like they took advantage of that.”

Gardner has returned to the Catholic church of his childhood, where Arapaho geometric motifs adorn the sanctuary and he is welcome to burn cedar. He has been praying for guidance on forgiveness.

“In order for me to strive to be like Jesus, I would have to forgive,” Gardner said. “But there are some lines you just don’t cross.”