Northern Arapaho tribal leaders oversaw a heavy-equipment operation Thursday to remove a driveway entrance to the Foundations for Nations evangelical church, then plant tribal flags where the entrance had been.
The operation follows a nearly-four-month clash between the church and tribal leaders – plus several tribal members – over a July 5 sermon in which Foundations for Nations Pastor Sarah Lucas described relics of the Sun Dance as idols and urged members to turn to Jesus.
Controversy erupted, with local and nationally known tribal members calling the sermon intolerant. The tribe’s six-person executive branch, the Northern Arapaho Business Council (NABC), told the church to leave the reservation.
The church, which sits on private but not tribal land within the Wind River Indian Reservation’s external boundaries, declined to leave.
At midday Thursday, a track hoe gouged a roughly two-foot-deep trench across the fence opening threshold of the driveway into Foundations for Nations Ministries off Rendezvous road. A skid steer scooped out the culvert.
A truck sat waiting to receive the debris.
Spectators, mostly tribal members, watched the operation, photographed it, laughed and chattered.
“They’re removing the driveway,” Alice Thomas, a frequent protestor of the church’s messaging, told Cowboy State Daily on scene.
Thomas called it an “illegal driveway,” adding, “so the tribe came in and just removed the driveway.”
If the NABC held a vote to remove the driveway, it wasn’t public, said Thomas.
“They did it covert,” she said with a chuckle.
Thomas noted that congregants can still enter the church property from the driveway on the Mission Road side.
NABC Chair Keenan Groesbeck appeared to direct the operation.
“Yup,” said Groesbeck to the question of whether there’d been an NABC vote.
Beyond that he declined to comment.
At one point a concrete cylinder, the remains of a culvert, rolled down the roadside. Fremont County Commission candidate Nicole Wagon, who’d been focused on documenting the operation, dodged the cylinder just in time.
Besides Groesbeck, NABC members Jesse Crispin and Preston Moss also oversaw the operation.
Tribal leaders dug with shovels to place two Northern Arapaho flags, affixed to narrow stripped trees, into what had been the driveway.
About 15 feet away, on the church side of the fence, a wooden cross stood in the ground displaying two signs. One read, “Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through Me.”
The other read, “Jesus loves you and so do we! – FFN.”
Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders gouged out the driveway leading from a tribal road into a church property Thursday, then planted two of the tribe's flags. It's the latest outcry after the church pastor called out "idolatry" in tribal rituals. (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily) 
Northern Arapaho tribal leaders oversaw a heavy-equipment operation Thursday to remove a driveway entrance to the Foundations for Nations evangelical church, then plant tribal flags where the entrance had been. (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily)
‘Giving Us Problems’
Thomas said church leaders had been “giving us problems for protesting at that driveway.”
Thomas is one of the main protestors leading weekly demonstrations outside the church since July, along with her cousin Darci Quiver.
Lucas filed protection order petitions against both women in Riverton Circuit Court, pointing to instances in which Thomas has publicized Lucas’ home address and a photo of her home, Quiver has called Lucas “Satan” online and displayed protest signs suggesting physical violence, and other gestures the petition calls a pattern of harassment.
Lucas’ petition urged the court to keep the women “as far away as possible” from her home, church, daughter’s school, and rental property.
So the protestors moved from their usual demonstration site near the Rendezvous Road driveway to an alternate pathway leading toward the church, where they knew they’d still be generally visible.
Meanwhile, Quiver has filed a request for restraining order against Lucas in tribal court.
Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders gouged out the driveway leading from a tribal road into a church property Thursday, then planted two of the tribe's flags. It's the latest outcry after the church pastor called out "idolatry" in tribal rituals. (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily) 
Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders gouged out the driveway leading from a tribal road into a church property Thursday, then planted two of the tribe's flags. It's the latest outcry after the church pastor called out "idolatry" in tribal rituals. (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily)
About The Road
Fremont County Sheriff’s personnel were parked on the church’s property. U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs personnel parked on the road outside it.
Thomas said both agencies were there for standby because in a jurisdictional quirk of the region, the sheriff’s office serves non-tribal members on the reservation and BIA serves tribal members there.
Lucas was on her property, watching the operation. She said she’s in touch with her attorney and declined to comment further.
Cowboy State Daily has placed an inquiry with the Fremont County Clerk’s office on whether the church has an easement on that driveway.
Cody Beers, public relations specialist for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, said Rendezvous Road is a tribal road and WYDOT is not involved in the matter.
It once was a state highway, but the tribes took it over, along with 17 Mile Road, about 15 years ago, said Beers.
The tribe receives federal dollars to manage it, he confirmed.
“We have nothing to do with it at this point,” said Beers of the state agency.
Winslow Friday, of the Wind River Intertribal Department of Transportation, could not be reached immediately Thursday. His phone signaled that it was off or beyond service range.
And, The History
Foundations for Nations incorporated in Wyoming and settled on the reservation in 2017.
It has offered child and youth ministries, food provision and other philanthropy.
The church was forthright about its mission. Its website calls it a multi-cultural, multi-generational church seeking for people to “have a relationship with God, be ignited to reach people with the good news about Jesus, and work together to impact communities.”
Its statement of belief says that Jesus is “the only way to heaven and the only name that can be called upon to gain eternal life.”
A Little Legalese
After the NABC told the church to leave the reservation, the tribe issued a policy banning "outside ministries" without permission.
The Eastern Shoshone Business Council, whose tribe occupies the reservation along with the Northern Arapaho, followed suit days later.
Many Northern Arapaho tribal members floated the idea of pursuing the “bad man” clause of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty to punish the Lucases.
The Lucases' attorneys from Liberty Counsel parried in an Aug. 7 letter, saying the theory misses the nature of the clause, as a means of addressing a wrong within the meaning of the treaty, and acts that could be prosecuted as crimes.
Referring to the Lucases’ religious rights and past court cases affirming religious rights on reservations, the letter says, “Neither Tribe here has the right to interfere with the quiet use and enjoyment of privately-owned property for religious worship.”
The letter emphasizes that the church owns its land.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
