An honor tax is a voluntary payment that recognizes access to Indigenous land and is an act of repairing relationships with Indigenous communities.
In our latest video, you’ll learn about our decision in 2025 to make an annual contribution to the Lower Sioux Indian Community’s Mni Šota Makoče Honor Tax. This is our way of going beyond land acknowledgement and a step toward building right relationship.
The decision itself began when a board member suggested developing a land acknowledgement. However, as our board member Wayne Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Sioux) says in the video, “A land acknowledgement is not enough.”
What followed was a yearslong examination of our history and its connection to Indigenous land dispossession that resulted in our wealth acknowledgement statement as well as our honor tax decision.
This video explores that decision, why it’s so meaningful, and how it builds deeper relationships with the Indigenous communities we live in and serve. You’ll hear firsthand accounts from our board, CEO, staff, the land history consultant who proposed the honor tax, and the former president of the Lower Sioux Tribal Council who implemented it.
