Faith Spotted Eagle is a fluent speaker of the Dakota Language and a member of the Ihanktonwan, although she descends from the Sicangu, Hunpati, Hunkpapa and Mdewakantonwan of the Oceti /Peta Sakowinand has French/Irish blood through her grandmother Julia Deloria and John McBride.
In the western world, Faith attended college at American University in Washington, DC and Black Hills State College, Spearfish, South Dakota, and earned a Master’s in Guidance and Counseling in her early twenties at the University of South Dakota. In the Dakota/Native world, she has been active in teaching the Dakota language in language nest settings; been a 20-year member and coordinator of a revived traditional Brave Heart Society which operates a multi-purpose lodge; comes from a Sundance family; and has helped revive the Isnati Awicadowanpi (Coming of Age Ceremony) for the last 20 years across the Seven Council Fires. She was a recognized leader in the 10-year fight against the KXL Pipeline intrusion into Treaty Territory, since 2007. She was also an elder leader in protecting the Horn of the Oceti Sakowin Camp at Standing Rock in 2016, which gained worldwide attention. Due to her lifelong work, she was recognized by what is called a “faithless elector” who cast their pre-designated vote for another candidate and instead voted for Faith Spotted Eagle in the US Electoral College in the 2016 national election. From this, Faith received the first Presidential electoral vote ever cast for a Native American in US History.
Currently, Faith works in Native communities with her model Healing from Red Rage, which has been widely used in Native Communities in the US and Canada. She also contracts with the Veterans Administration and many tribes and schools utilizing this model. She is a trained mediator/peacemaker and incorporates traditional peacemaking with western approaches of peacemaking. Her priority is the preserve the good medicine of the Dakota Culture for the future.