I can comment on that.
Normally in our community different families come together and they host their annual sun dances here in the community. Unfortunately, those were cancelled. I think there were about four of them that were cancelled throughout the summer, sweat lodges and ceremonies. Cancelling those things because of COVID has definitely had a huge impact here in the community. The Dakota people here in the Sioux Valley rely heavily on prayer and ceremony, so that has definitely affected us.
We have an incident commander who works with the leadership and all our managers here in the community. We were able to come up with some solutions to help people address their spiritual needs while still maintaining social distancing and all of our safety precautions. Back in October we had a four-day sacred fire that was monitored by the community. All community members were able to come and go so that the gathering numbers were still kept to a minimum. They were able to offer their prayers and prayer ties, that sort of thing.
Those are some of the things that we tried to incorporate into the community so that they still are able to reach out for assistance through that way of ceremonial life.