Religion · Statewide · WY · August 11, 2026
Wind River Reservation Sees Ongoing Protests Over Church, Sovereignty Conflict
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 13
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
The dispute has been narrowed to one congregation and one named person: protests have gathered outside the Foundations For Nations building in Arapahoe week after week — WyoFile counted more people outside than inside on July 26 — with the July 5 sermon by Pastor Sarah Lucas as the frozen incident and calls for the church to leave the reservation as the demand. The Lucas family reportedly left citing death threats, and the tribe's records review named this one organization specifically. The church has run the same play in reverse, with Liberty Counsel singling out Food Bank of the Rockies and Food Bank of Wyoming by name in a discrimination complaint.
Counter-Rule 13 · Radical Solidarity
Stand publicly with whoever has been singled out. Isolation is the whole mechanism; refusing it disarms the tactic.
Refuse the isolation on both sides of it this month: if you know Arapaho or Shoshone believers, or members of that congregation, contact them personally rather than posting about them, and say plainly that you will not treat any named individual as a stand-in for an argument. Decline to share the sermon clip or protest video as ammunition. If your church prays publicly about this, pray for the Lucas family, for the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone communities, and for the food pantry's clients by name, not for a side.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
Each side is holding the other to its own paperwork. The Northern Arapaho Records Department searched tribal records and reported finding no resolution, memorandum of understanding, permit or other official action ever authorizing Foundations For Nations to conduct recurring ministry — then the Business Council adopted a consultation policy on July 20, 2026 and invited the church to produce whatever authorization it believes it has. Liberty Counsel answered in kind, filing a federal complaint that the food banks' own nondiscrimination obligations bar them from dropping a partner over its religious teaching.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
Close your own gap before anyone looks for it. This month, ask your church office to pull the deed or lease for any property you use on or near tribal land, any MOU or permit with a tribal government, and the signed agreements behind any food-distribution or grant partnership, and put the dates and file numbers in one folder. If a required consultation or authorization was never obtained, say so first and request it — do not wait for a records department to say it for you.
Rule 11
“If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside.”
A hard negative pushed all the way over into its opposite. Calling the grandfather pipe used in Sundance a mere "piece of material" and praying against "demonic activity" was maximal language delivered on the ceremony's final day; within three weeks it had produced national headlines, weeks of protest, a new tribal policy, and a statement from the Eastern Shoshone Tribe on July 31 backing the Northern Arapaho — two governments united that outsiders rarely see aligned. The same overreach is now available in the other direction, as a local partnership dispute gets described in the language of national religious persecution.
Counter-Rule 11 · Proportional Truth
Refuse to overclaim, even where it would help. One exaggeration hands the other side the only weapon that works permanently.
Price the claims accurately when you speak. The verifiable facts are narrow: the church building sits on private fee land inside the reservation boundary, the Business Council's July 10 meeting and July 20 policy are tribal governmental actions, and the food-bank matter is an administrative complaint, not a court ruling that anyone has won. Refuse to say "a church was banned" or "a tribe outlawed the gospel" unless you can point to the document that does it — and correct anyone in your congregation who does.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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