Peoples Church of Madison, Wisconsin was organized in 1977 in response to a call from Native American prisoners in the Wisconsin penal system. The Waupun Indian Brotherhood at the state prison at Waupun had been involved in a struggle to obtain ordinary religious rights then being denied to them. Their religious leaders (elders) were not allowed pastoral visitation and the prison authorities would confiscate Indian sacred objects (pipes and medicine bundles) and smash them. Priests, Ministers, Rabbis and Mullahs were granted rights of visitation and practice denied to Native Americans.

Peoples Church ordained Ministers, including Rev. D.L. Ziebell, were an integral part of the struggle to get recognition of Native American rights to have their traditional spiritual lives inside as was granted to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Peoples Church was finally able (1982) to have prisoners who wished to worship, in the Indian way, brought to our Madison church site. Our Ministers organized the first Pow Wow ever held in a Wisconsin prison. Our Pastors were involved in this struggle which led to a meeting, at Waupun, with correctional officials, at which a set of guidelines for Native American worship, etc., was hammered out.

Reverend Jeff W. Goldstein,
Co-Pastor, Peoples Church

(Enclosed in letter dated May 11, 2008)