Niskíthe Prayer Camp - Photo Story
Visual narration of a protest group who attempted to stop the construction of a neighborhood on land across the street from one of Lincoln, Nebraska's oldest indigenous sweat lodges. Reporting credited to the Lincoln Journal Star.
On the morning of Feb. 6 2023, ground crews preparing to remove trees and excavate a plot of land at Wilderness Park in Lincoln, Nebraska, arrived to the sight of a 15-foot tipi and a group of 8-12 outraged protestors standing on an adjacent street.
The protest group, established in spring of 2022 and named the Niskíthe Prayer Camp, was created in protest of city officials approving the construction a housing development across the street from a historic Native American sweat lodge. The lodge plays an important role in an Indigenous purification ceremony where steam is created from heated stones for participants to physically sweat away physical and non-physical impurities, commonly followed by more Native traditions.
The group was concerned about how traffic, light, construction and noise will impact the native habitat and disrupt the sanctity of the Oyate and Fish Farm sweat lodge, originally established by Chief Leonard Crow Dog in the 1970s at Wilderness Park for Native Americans to hold traditional ceremonies, to pray and to heal.
Comprised of people from multiple Native American tribes, including the Lakota people and Cherokee Nation, the group views the vegetation and wildlife at Wilderness Park as sacred due to the historical significance surrounding Native American culture at the park.
What began as a peaceful protest would end in arrests.
Members of the group gathered before sunrise across the street from 1st St. and Wilderness Park, bringing supplies to build a tipi.
Using rope and wooden poles, protestors spent about an hour interlacing the poles and neatly tying rope to build a frame.
Group members build the frame of a tipi, photo framed around the arm of an excavator not in use.
A tipi is fully erected just after sunrise.
By the time dirt crews arrived to their morning shifts, a completed tipi stood tall. The protest group held a prayer with the sunrise, an act they say is sacred.
As morning set in, crews began to arrive at the site and took notice of the protest group, before ultimately starting their bulldozers and excavators to begin to clear the land.
Seeing crews begin to remove trees, some protestors sprinted across the street and jumped in front of heavy machinery to stop their work.
A standoff ensued as protestors jumped in the way of construction equipment, with the police being called by the ground crew not soon after.
Protestors link arms to stop a bulldozer from moving forward.
Below, a protestor stands alone in front of an excavator to block its path.
Staring matches took place between protestors and workers before police arrived.
Four Lincoln Police Department cruisers arrived and officers attempted to mediate the tension between the protestors and ground crews.
Some protestors expressed their willingness to be arrested for their cause, but remained peaceful.
Protestors continued to block the crews until eventually moving back across the street to protest in front of the tipis. Two people were arrested during the confrontation but were released soon after.
More members of the prayer camp arrived with signs, coffee, and a feather for smudging, a Native American tradition of cleansing the air around a person to restore emotional balance and remove negative energy.
Seen below, one of the camp's leaders Kevin Abourezk live streamed the day's events on social media.
A smudging feather is used to waft smoke from burning sage around his body.
Protestors hug while watching construction crews work on land they see as sacred.
One week later, prayer camp members brought the protest to the steps of the Lincoln County/City Building and to a Lincoln City Council meeting.
Here, people sing around a drum circle in front of the County/City Building.
Protestors taped their mouths in protest, saying beforehand that the construction attempt is an attempt to silence Natives. They also painted signs opposing the site's developer Sam Manzitto Jr.
Tables with art supplies were set up outside the meeting for protestors to create their own signs to bring into the city council meeting.
With tape over mouths and signs in hand, protestors lined the back of the Lincoln City Council meeting, despite rules against such signage.
All protestors had their mouths taped excluding the few charged with speaking on the group’s behalf, like Rosina Paolini, bottom, who opposed the deforestation of the land.
"You effectively silenced the voices of your community with lawsuits and police, and I'm going to take that time to reflect that silence, said another protestor," Wyatt Nelson.
Others stood silent, like one protestor who stood at the podium and held up a paper note for the entire 5-minute window he was allowed to speak.
The protestors' signs were removed at the request of city council members during a short break, but more protestors remained present to speak to the council.
Above, a note held up a protestor whose mouth was taped shut, left on a teleprompter after his allotted speaking time.
Despite later legal efforts, a lawsuit seeking to appeal the decision to allow the construction of the development was dismissed in 2023.
Later in fall 2023, a Lancaster County judge found the two protestors arrested during the protest guilty of obstructing a public roadway while blocking construction crews from clearing land for the neighborhoods' construction.
"When they knew this area was going to be desecrated and destroyed, they started to do whatever they could do to stop it," Attorney Spike Eickholt said on behalf of the two protestors.
Benita Cassas (from left), Carlos Cassas, Carol Flora and Quincey Walking Bull (bottom) protest against the deforestation of trees from Wilderness Park in front of the County-City Building on Monday, Feb. 13, 2023.
In January 2024, a settlement was reached between the city of Lincoln and opponents of the development, which included the dismissal of a lawsuit against the city.
Parts of the settlement included: requiring the city of Lincoln to hold two training sessions for city employees -- conducted by The Indian Center or a mutually-agreed upon group -- to help grow relationships with Indigenous people; supporting advocates in their attempt to conserve green space within the development; conducting an environmental analysis of development in the area, and updating city code regarding Native ceremonies.
As of 2025, construction continues on the Wilderness Crossing Development.
Above, protestors listen during a Lincoln City Council meeting with tape over their mouths in protest.