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.

Lakota keeper of the traditional ways, great grandmother, Native American Church elder, sundancer, healthworker for people with diabetes. Beatrice is a member of the Council of Language Elders, focusing on Oglala Lakota language immersion and teaching their native tongue to children and to elders.

Grandmother Mona Polacca​, a Hopi/Havasupai/Tewa elder, hold a Master's in Social Work and serves on several United Nations' committees on Indigenous people's issues. She's a featured author, speaker and educator on Indigenous people's human rights, aging, mental health, addiction, and violence. She is the president/CEO and faculty of the Turtle Island Project, a non-profit program that promotes a vision of wellness by providing transcultural training to individuals, families, and healthcare professionals.

According to Grandmother Mona, "Indigenous people have come through a time of great struggle, a time of darkness. Like the nature of a butterfly, in the cocoon, a place of darkness, the creature breaks down into a fluid, and then a transformation, takes place. When it is ready, and in its own time, it begins to move and develop a form that stretches and breaks away from this cocoon, and emerges into this world, into life, as a beautiful creature. We grandmothers, we have emerged from that darkness, see this beauty, see each other, and reach out to the world with open arms, love, hope, compassion, faith, and charity."