Kunsi Keya Tamakoce welcomes you to the opportunity of participating and praying in a traditional Lakota Sundance. The Womxn’s Lakota Sundance is a vision gifted to Unci Beverly Littlethunder, and is guided by her youngest daughter Lushanya in the matriarchal-tradition of our ancestors. We trust you arrive with the wisdom that you are choosing to join in this sacred ceremony that requires quiet attention, prayerful respect, and active participation.
Indigenous ceremonies are available around the world, and each spiritual community may have differing protocols. As this ceremony is guided by the Lakota ancestors, it is important that each participant be open to learning through observation, listening, and doing. It is important to notassume the ways of our ceremony, and be prepared to walk with respect for this ancestral tradition.
We are a womxn’s ceremony guided by matriarchal-lineage, and we honor our Two Spirit, trans, and nonbinary community members. Community members who identify as such are invited to participate in this ceremony and share your prayers.
Hiya Mitakuyasin,
The Sundance Council
What is a Lakota Sundance?
The Sundance is one of the Seven Sacred Ceremonies given to the Lakota people. Sundance is a ceremony that represents life and rebirth. Sundance is a New Year ceremony celebrated in the summer, usually on a full moon. It is a powerful and sacred ceremony that has withstood severe oppression, many times, since it was given to the Lakota People. It was once exclusively Lakota, and has become a ceremony practiced by many other American Indian tribes. Each tribe/community/family has its own variation of Sundance. The focus of the Sundance Ceremony is one prayer: healing for Mother Earth and all those that live with her. We are giving thanks for all the good things that the Creator has given to us.
About the Kunsi Keya Two Spirit Sundance Leaders
In Memory of our Founder and Visionary - Unci Beverly Littlethunder
In 1987, Beverly Little Thunder received a vision that would change the lives of countless people.
For years, Beverly had been an active participant and respected leader within the Lakota Sundance community. As a Two-Spirit woman, she experienced exclusion from a ceremonial tradition she loved deeply. During this time, she received guidance through a dream and was later approached by two women elders who encouraged her to create a ceremony for those seeking a place of belonging.
From that vision, the Women's Lakota Sundance was born.
Beverly envisioned a ceremonial community where women could step fully into leadership, prayer, service, and responsibility. She imagined a space where Indigenous women, Two-Spirit people, and others who approached the work with respect could gather in ceremony, strengthen their relationship to the teachings, and discover their gifts in service to community.
Her vision extended beyond the arbor. She dreamed of a place where people could gather year after year to learn, pray, share meals, honor elders, raise future generations, and care for the land together.
That vision became Kunsi Keya Tamakoce—Grandmother Turtle Land.
For nearly four decades, Beverly's leadership created a ceremonial home rooted in prayer, relationship, and community care. Her legacy lives on through the land, the ceremony, the people she mentored, and the generations who continue to gather in the spirit of the vision she carried.
Rather than allowing exclusion to define her, Beverly created something new.
Pilamayaye, Unci Beverly.
We remember your vision.
We honor your teachings.
We continue the work.
Sundance Guide - Lushanya Echeverria
Beverly’s youngest daughter, Lushanya, has participated in Lakota ceremonies since she was 3 years old and has learned and led alongside Unci Beverly for more than four decades. Following the traditions of the ceremonies in which she was raised, Lushanya began dancing as a young child, and leads sweat lodges and pipe ceremonies for various communities. Lushanya commits her life to supporting, learning, and honoring the vision of the Women’s Lakota Sundance. In addition, Lushanya is committed to expanding Kunsi Keya Tamakoce to be a spiritual retreat center that hosts multicultural events, Indigenous leaders, and their ceremonies from around the world.
Lushanya is a professional educator, storyteller, and author. She develops character education curriculum integrating Indigenous-based spiritual practice, values, and beliefs. Her children’s book, Grandmother Turtle Land, is a Lakota creation story that portrays characters as gender non-binary and teaches social skills and community building from the teachings of her matriarchal lineage.
An educational leader, Lushanya studies trauma theory, early childhood onset trauma, and trauma stewardship. She works with BIPOC teachers to address the psychological effects of working with students from trauma. Lushanya is committed to the healing of intergenerational trauma among her family, and all Indigenous of America people suffering from Indian Military Boarding Schools. She is committed to sharing traditions of her Indigenous Lakota spiritual practices to further empower all Indigenous women in their traditional ceremonial spaces.
For more information about the Two Spirit Sundance, please contact us.