3rd Annual Black Hills Two Spirit Powwow!!

We are honored to introduce AG Brushreaker, known by her Lakota name Wiwanyang Wachipi Hoksila (Sundance Boy). A proud member of the Sicanju and Oglala Lakota, AG is a descendant of the Brushbreaker and Poor family. With a deep commitment to her traditions, she has been dancing as a jingle dress dancer since the age of 10 and currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Welcome

Uniting Resilience is committed to honoring, restoring, and celebrating the sacred place of Two-Spirit relatives within Native Nations. We create space for spiritual, cultural, and artistic expression, fostering healing and empowerment across our diverse communities.

For generations, Native societies have recognized Two-Spirit people—feminine males, masculine females, and those beyond the binary—as healers, visionaries, mediators, shamans, and leaders. Their gifts were cherished, their spirits respected, and their presence seen as essential to the balance of community life. In our traditions, a person’s true character reflects the spirit within, and all that exists is understood as coming from the Spirit World.

History of the term TWO SPIRIT
and its definition.

In 1990, a circle of LGBTQIA Native elders gathered at the Third Annual InterTribal Native American/First Nations Gay and Lesbian American Conference in Winnipeg. It was here that the term Two-Spirit was first spoken into being. Our tribal nations have always held words, stories, and teachings to describe the many ways our relatives walk in the world, across the full spectrum of gender and identity. The elders knew that no single nation’s language could encompass all of these identities. Together, they chose Two-Spirit as an inclusive term to honor and uplift Native relatives within the LGBTQIA+ community.

Nearly three decades later, in the spring of 2019, before the founding of Uniting Resilience, co-founders Muffie and Felipa helped craft and pass the first—and still the only—hate crime bill ever enacted into law on tribal lands across the United States. This historic milestone continues to guide our work, grounding Uniting Resilience in fearless advocacy, cultural reclamation, and community healing.

Learn More About Us

Alongside passing the first-ever same-sex marriage statute on the Pine Ridge Reservation, co-founders Muffie and Felipa advanced marriage equality laws on Crow Creek and Sisseton-Wahpeton. Their vision is to ensure these protections are enacted across all nine tribes of the Oceti Sakowin.

In 2021, they formally established Uniting Resilience as a 501(c)(3). Together with a working committee that included some of the same elders present at the historic 1990 gathering, they partnered with Senator Red Dawn Foster to introduce Senate Bill 166—a hate crime bill—into the South Dakota Legislature. During debate, legislators asked for the definition of Two-Spirit. For the first time in U.S. history, Native Two-Spirit was legally defined on record. Lawmakers insisted the bill would only pass if the term was removed. Uniting Resilience refused. Although the bill was dropped, that legal definition remains—a permanent milestone.

Muffie and Felipa continue to educate, organize, and advocate. Their commitment is unwavering: South Dakota will one day pass a hate crime bill that fully protects Native Two-Spirit relatives.

We honor the elders who have carried this movement from its earliest days, and whose voices continue to guide us: