Pastor’s anti-sundance sermon sparks standoff over church’s future on Wind River Reservation

Foundations for Nations Church, owned by pastor Sarah Lucas, sits on private property inside the Wind River Reservation. In a July sermon, Lucas labeled the Arapaho sundance—a core spiritual rite—as “idol worship,” insisting that only the Christian God should be worshipped. The comment revived historic wounds of forced assimilation and prompted the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone councils, supported by American Indian Movement activists and chairman Keenan Groesbeck, to pass ordinances demanding tribal approval for any religious operation and to call for the church’s removal.

Lucas, represented by the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel, maintains that her speech is protected by the Constitution and that land ownership shields her from tribal banishment. The tribe acknowledges jurisdictional limits over private land but argues the dispute threatens tribal sovereignty, leading to the suspension of the church’s youth programs. Community members are split, with some congregants backing Lucas’s stance and others feeling hurt by her remarks, while the standoff continues amid competing legal and moral claims.