Uncovering the Past

To Create a Strong Future

OUR COMMUNITY

Our Mission

The purpose of the People of Sacred Land is to support American Indian people who are citizens of the State of Colorado to preserve their culture, language, and ways of life that were intimately tied to the land.

Our Vision

Create a Truth, Restoration & Education Commission to provide the truth of what happened to the Indigenous people of Colorado. Once the truth is known, a reconciliation and healing process can begin.

Our Impact

2024 Annual Report
2023 Annual Report
2022 Annual Report 

Two elementary school girls writing in notebooks at a classroom desk.
Elderly Native American man with white hair wearing a bandana outdoors.
Smiling young Native American man with long braided hair against a teal background.
Elderly Native American woman in pink blouse holding a woven basket outdoors.
Native American woman dancing at a powwow in traditional regalia.
“In a very short period of time, from 1861 to 1864, virtually all American Indians were removed from the Front Range and Eastern Plains. We want to know exactly how Indian people were removed from this area and exactly how much was lost.”
— Richard Williams, PSL Executive Director

Our Focus

  • Land acquisition for the purposes of preserving sacred sites, practicing cultural ways, and perpetuation of the sacred traditions of American Indian people who occupied the land within the boundaries of the State of Colorado for over 11,000 years.

  • Education:  Advocate for relationships with all higher education institutions that will enhance educational opportunities for all Indians.  Support all the American Indian students in the K-12 educational systems.  Provide unique cultural experiences for American Indian students that will allow them to experience and learn about the cultural ways of their people. Provide all students of the State of Colorado with the opportunity to learn the history of Colorado from an American Indian perspective by creating curriculum material that honors the truth. Pursue a relationship with Colorado State University to create greater opportunities considering its status as a land grant institution.

  • Create a land base for the return of the Buffalo to their sacred grazing lands while supporting the preservation of grasslands, reintroducing food, and medicinal plants with a focus on sustainability.

  • Provide resources to pay for fees for American Indians to hunt and fish within the boundaries of the State of Colorado. Create an education experience that will help our children learn to hunt and fish in a safe and culturally appropriate manner. We will research the issue of hunting and fishing rights to determine if these rights were legally extinguished by treaty language.

  • Our most precious people in our society are our Elders and we must find ways to support them.  We will continue to honor them every year by hosting the annual American Indian Elders Christmas Dinner.

  • This will include, when possible, the following: housing, food banks, shelters for the domestically abused and support for our homeless members.

  • We serve as a research entity to study the history of “Indians” who occupied the State of Colorado with a focus on producing documentaries, accurate historical representations of why Indians were displaced from all regions of the State of Colorado, and an in-depth analysis of economic losses associated with the removal of Indians from the state.