As Indigenous tribes gathered in protest to protect sacred lands from being demolished to make way for the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, URI Global Council Trustees Elder Audri Scott Williams and Elder Phil Lane, Jr. traveled to join them and to read a statement of support from the United Religions Initiative. They presented the URI flag as a visible show of solidarity.
Many URI Cooperation Circles are standing with their brothers and sisters at Standing Rock. One of these is the Revivers of Indigenous Spirituality and Ecosystems (The RISE Circle), a URI Multi-Region Cooperation Circle, which will be Praying in Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on Native American Day (formerly known as Columbus Day in the US).
Katherine Hreib, URI Environmental Network Coordinator, wrote an article about her own relationship to nature and support of Standing Rock.
Learn more about URI's statement of support for Standing Rock here.
