Indigenous Peoples Open

Treaty Honoring Grandmother Earth

WE, the undersigned Indigenous peoples and nations of Unci Maka, Grandmother Earth, gathered together this 31^st Day of August, 2024, with our non-Indigenous allies at the sacred He’Sapa of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate, home of the Seven Council Fires of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota peoples and known as Wahmunka Oganunka Inchante, the Heart of Everything That Is;

AS NATIONS AND PEOPLES who have retained their connection and spiritual relationship with Grandmother Earth and our current and ancestral territories and lands, we have been tasked by Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, with the sacred obligation to care and protect of those territories and lands, our natural relatives who share them with us, and Grandmother Earth Herself; and

AS NATIONS AND PEOPLES possessed with inherent sovereignty and the full and equal right to their spirituality, identity, integrity, culture, ways, self-determination, and nationality, including the ability to enter into treaties and other international agreements between nations, under international law;

WE ACKNOWLEDGE AND AFFIRM the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United League of Indigenous Nations Treaty, the Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Manaus Declaration on Human Rights in the Climate Emergency, the Kari-Oca Declaration and Indigenous’ Earth Charter World Conference of Indigenous Peoples on Territory, Environment and Development, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, and other prior treaties and declarations that seek to protect Grandmother Earth and her Indigenous peoples and ways.

AT THIS TIME OF GREAT IMBALANCE AND GLOBAL CRISIS in the health of Grandmother Earth and all those that reside upon and within her embrace, including our natural relatives and future generations; and

IN THE LAKOTA SPIRIT OF WOLAKOTA;

WE SOLEMNLY DECLARE our common and sacred commitment to Her, our natural relatives, and future generations to join in seeking to heal Her wounds according to our traditional ways and knowledge as peoples retaining our sacred relationship to Grandmother Earth and the natural world;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, WE INVITE our non-Indigenous allies to join and support us in this sacred effort.

THIS AGREEMENT SHALL REMAIN OPEN indefinitely for adoption by other Indigenous nations and peoples and allies.

THIS AGREEMENT AMONG THE UNDERSIGNED INDIGENOUS NATIONS AND PEOPLES shall be presented to their peoples by reading it in their respective language and be subject to the review and approval, the ratification, of the undersigned Indigenous nations and peoples according to their customs and traditions.

Executed this 31st Day of August 2024 at He’Sapa: