NISKITHE PRAYER CAMP UPDATE

​Join us Sunday, July 17 when Kevin Abourezk will give an update on what the Niskithe Prayer Camp group is doing to continue their work to keep Indigenous Peoples from erasure in our Lincoln community. Their initial efforts were to protect sacred Native American ground, which has been used for centuries by Indigenous Peoples to gather salt at the Salt Creek Basin. 

In May, Kevin—a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe—was an organizer of the Niskithe Prayer Camp, a community action to call attention to the threat to two Native American sweat lodges. Lincoln City Council voted to change the area to urban zoning, and the Lincoln Planning Commission greenlit a megadevelopment. The Omaha Tribe called the land in question “Niskithe,” or salt water.

Kevin has a legacy of activism on issues affecting Indigenous Peoples. Starting with his great grandparents—Cecelia and Harry Jumping Bull who invited AIM activists to stay on their land—Kevin’s family has spoken up and shown up. Kevin has spent his career in journalism documenting the lives, accomplishments, and tragedies of Native American people. 

For 18 years he was a reporter and editor at the Lincoln Star Journal. He is the recipient of the 2006 Associated Press’s Best Enterprise Story Award. He also is an awardee of the prestigious Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for his reporting on the impact of alcohol sales to the residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Since 2017, Kevin serves as managing editor for Indianz.com, a Native American news website. He also hosts a bi-weekly podcast for Indianz.com called “Indian Times” that focuses on Native American news.

Join us online or in person at 10:00AM at 6300 A Street in Lincoln.