06/30/2018

In the early 1990s, Little Thunder helped create the term “two-spirit,” an umbrella term for LGBTQ+ Native Americans. She vowed she would not return home “until all of my two-spirit brothers and sisters were welcome.

”Years later, on a cold October night in 2016, Little Thunder sat in car headed south on Highway 1806 from Bismarck, North Dakota. As the car slowed down and pulled up to a security gate at the #NoDAPL resistance camp, the elder rolled down her window and asked a young volunteer where she could find the two-spirit camp. That weekend, Little Thunder and other two-spirit leaders were officially welcomed by the Oceti Sakowin leadership in a grand entry ceremony organized by Lakota activist Candi Brings Plenty. 

It was the first time Little Thunder had been home in 32 years. 

“Going to Standing Rock and having that welcoming,” she said, “it was so healing. I had never dreamt I would live to see that happen.”