Mission

To advance social and legal equality. This includes environmental action at the foundation of building a healthy and equitable life for all.

Our Mission in Action

Through cultural and educational interaction with all indigenous tribes, cities, counties, states, and schools.

Through multi media interviews and presentations

Through grassroots organizational training and public events

Vision

Our vision is to see a society, both within and beyond Indian country that values all people equally.

We see the land we live on as our precious home, our mother – Unci Maka, which requires protection and is not merely a resource to exploit. We envision all living beings as our relatives, Mitakyue oyasin.

We bring this vision to our tribal communities, our local and national governments.

We do this through education, consultation, and community outreach. We work to make laws that include equality for all and that enact justice for hate crimes. We work through direct actions with the environment to be sure our lands and water are clean and that our air is pure for ourselves and our future generations.

Who We Are

Monique “Muffie” Mousseau and Felipa De Leon have dedicated their lives to education and community activism. Their work has spanned building awareness around current laws and practices within tribal nations and states, collaborating with local, county, state, tribal, and national law enforcement to address hate crimes, and developing school programs and curricula that give educators the tools to engage youth on the experiences and challenges of being Native Two-Spirit and LGBTQ.

Their journey as changemakers began in May 2019 when they confronted the painful reality that their own tribe lacked protections and rights for marriage equality. On July 8, 2019, the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe enacted Ordinance #19-24, formally recognizing marriage equality. Shortly after, on September 4, 2019, Ordinance #19-37 was passed, amending the Hate Crime Law to include protections based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability.

These groundbreaking ordinances established critical protections for Two-Spirit and LGBTQ relatives, ensuring that future generations will not face the same exclusion or harm.

Background

While the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, that decision did not extend to the 573 federally recognized tribes, each of which retains the sovereign right to determine its own laws. As Professor Marcia Zug, an expert in federal Indian and family law, explains: “Tribes have the right to make the decision themselves.”

Muffie and Felipa, both raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation, discovered in 2015 that they could not marry there. Instead, they received a marriage license in Pennington County and wed in a group ceremony at Mount Rushmore. Determined to bring change to their homeland, the couple began petitioning their tribal government, ultimately leading to the passage of marriage equality within the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe.

“We are looking out for future generations, for protections and for equality,” Mousseau told the Rapid City Journal. “These foundations of laws have to be in place because we have grandkids. And that next generation coming up, we don’t want them experiencing the same gay bashing. We don’t want them to reach a point where somebody says a bad word to them because they like someone of the same sex and they hang themselves. We don’t want that.”

Today, Muffie and Felipa live in Rapid City, while some of their children and grandchildren continue to live on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Their work remains grounded in love, culture, and a vision of justice for all Native Two-Spirit and LGBTQ people.

Our Core Values

As Lakota we strive to be Wo Lakota which means walking the Lakota Sacred way of life. It embodies the qualities of Humility, Perseverance, Respect, Honor, Love, Sacrifice, Truth, Compassion, Bravery, Fortitude, Generosity and Wisdom.