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GPAS started building in 2014 and became an official non-profit in 2017. We now have three full-time staff, two part-time staff, and three youth interns. Founder, Sikowis Nobiss, who started organizing over twenty-five years ago during the Burnt Church Indigenous fisheries crisis in New Brunswick, Canada, saw that Iowa needed more Indigenous voices to speak up for the Earth. During the NoDAPL resistance movement in 2016, she created a platform for Great Plains Action Society to empower Indigenous voices in Iowa concerning extreme resource extraction perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry. During this fight, GPAS worked tirelessly in both Iowa and North Dakota, bridging the gap between Indigenous communities and rural landowners. This led GPAS to form Little Creek Camp, an Indigenous-led resistance hub in Iowa and to finally register as a 501(c)3 that is 100% Indigenous-run. Our efforts have truly brought the voice and actions of Indigenous Peoples to the forefront of Iowa’s climate movement, which is much needed in the most biologically colonized state in the country and the number one contributor to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico due to colonial-capitalist farming practices. By uplifting traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge, we are making it clear that Iowa needs to reMatriate prairie, bring back first foods, and increase Indigenous land stewardship. 

OUR STORY

WHO WE ARE

We address the trauma that Indigenous Peoples and the Earth face and work to prevent further christian colonial capitalist violence by fighting for and building power in Indigenous communities through reMatriation, healing justice and a regenerative economy. We are a close group of Indigenous organizers of the Great Plains working in our homelands, which is located in the vast grassland of Turtle Island, situated between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River and stretching from the Northern Tundra to the Gulf of Mexico. However, our focus is in Iowa, Eastern Nebraska, Southern South Dakota and Minneapolis, but we work within many national and regional cohorts and coalitions.

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Founder and Executive Director

Nehiyaw/Saulteaux

George Gordon First Nation

Sikowis@greatplainsaction.org

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Representation Director

Anishinaabe 

Descendant of  White Earth Ojibwe

jengelking@greatplainsaction.org 

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Siouxland Project Organizer

Umonhon/Mexican

Omaha Tribe of Nebraska

barreaga@greatplainsaction.org

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BOD Chair

Santee Sioux

Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska

Siouxland Pride Alliance

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BOD Vice Chair

Executive Director

Science &

Environmental Health Network

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BOD At Large Member

Meskwaki & Ho-Chunk

Meskwaki Nation

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Siouxland Project Director

Ho-Chunk

Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska

trivers@greatplainsaction.org

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Civic Engagement Youth Organizer

Dakota, Ojibwe, Pueblo

tobias-ana@greatplainsaction.org 

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Land Defense Organizer

Oglala Lakota

Oglala Lakota Nation

nicole@greatplainsaction.org

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Elder Advisor

Ioway

Tribal Historic Preservation Officer

Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska

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BOD Secretary

Diné 

Navajo Nation

Sage Sisters of Solidarity

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Terrance Medina

BOD Treasurer

Santee Sioux and Dakota

Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska

Fatherhood is Sacred

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ReMatriation Consultant

Meskwaki

Meskwaki Nation

Water Panther Consulting

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