Mato Paha: Rally to Protect Bear Butte (2010)

Bear Butte, known to the Lakota as Mato Paha, is a sacred mountain held in reverence by Plains Indians. This film dramatically illuminates the struggle between native traditionalists, who regard Bear Butte as a place of quiet sanctity, fasting, and prayer, and non-Indian businesses that seek to exploit the land around the mountain. Rallying against increasing encroachment from campgrounds, biker bars, and convenience stores, a broad coalition marches 6 miles from Bear Butte to the Meade County court house in Sturgis, SD. But liquor-license applicant Jay Allen, a Californian, has already begun construction of the World's Largest Biker Bar at the base of Bear Butte ahead of the annual Sturgis Bike Rally... MATO PAHA follows this struggle for religious rights from 2006 until the present.