The Black Hills had been granted to the Lakota in an 1868 treaty, a promise that the US went back on in 1877 when gold was discovered on the land. Thomas Kemper, the previous basic secretary of global ministries for the United Methodist Church, and Wyandotte Nation Chief Billy Friend hold a deed signifying the switch of land to the tribe. “It contributes to the therapeutic of past wrongs — which have been carried out by the church to Native and Indigenous people — because it is a concrete act,” Kemper mentioned. “It’s not simply the words, however it’s also a concrete act of giving, of returning this land, of deeding it back to the Wyandotte.” As the church was preparing to have fun 200 years of missions, it met with the Wyandottes and floated the idea of returning the land as a method of honoring their centuries-long relationship, said …