Beatrice Long-Visitor Holy Dance

Member of the 13 Grandmothers Council

“We are here with a prayer for our generations, for our grandchildren who are suffering, for our children’s grandchildren. How are we going to survive? Our government is taking everything from us. Our people want our Black Hills back. The only way to survive is through prayer.”
—Beatrice Long-Visitor Holy Dance, member of the 13 Grandmothers Council

Beatrice Long-Visitor Holy Dance is one of the 13 grandmothers of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, a global alliance that teaches ancestral ways of prayer, education, and healing. She is an Oglala Lakota keeper of the traditional ways, great grandmother, Native American Church elder, sundancer, and health worker for people with diabetes. Beatrice lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with her sister, Rita Long-Visitor Holy Dance. Together they initiated a Youth Ambassador program that reminds Lakota youth of their sacred rites, the Sun Dance, and the connection to the source of being.