09/18/2026
This developing conflict is a direct attack against the church. Please join me in praying for Wind River Reservation and Pastor Lucas. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us this is a spiritual battle. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood..." please read the attached article.
-Bishop Alvarez
Wind River Standoff: Pastor Refuses to Leave Reservation After Calling Arapaho Sundance ‘Idol Worship’
Every Sunday on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, worshippers enter Foundations for Nations Church to pray while protesters gather outside to do the same.
The standoff began after Pastor Sarah Lucas, who co-founded the church with her husband, Jason, used a July 5 sermon to denounce Arapaho ceremonial practices just as tribal members were finishing that week's Sun Dance — a sacred multi-day rite of prayer, sacrifice, and renewal.
In the sermon, Lucas made clear she did not approve of the Sun Dance, declaring, "Jesus is the chain breaker. He is the only God that we should be praying to."
The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes, who share the reservation, have since ordered the church to leave. But Lucas — who is not Native American but owns the private land her church sits on — insists she has no plans to go, setting up a standoff that tests the limits of religious liberty against a tribal nation's authority to govern its own land and traditions.
Lucas maintains her sermon reflects her biblical convictions and is constitutionally protected speech. But many Arapaho people see it as an attack on a practice central to their identity — reopening wounds from a painful history of forced religious assimilation.
