Renée Sans Souci

Renée Sans Souci (born Suzette Sans Souci) is an Indigenous educator, artist, and activist born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1962. Sans Souci is a citizen of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska.

She is the co-leader of the Niskíthe Prayer Camp, located in Lincoln, Nebraska. Sans Souci is also known for work as an advocate for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement, an Omaha spiritual practitioner, and a cultural consultant.

Early life Renée Sans Souci was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1962 to two members of the American Indian Movement. Sans Souci also obtained an associate degree in art at the Nebraska Indian Community College. Sans Souci is credentialed through the Indigenous Roots Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition to degree programs, Sans Souci also spent time learning spiritual and traditional native practices from Ojibwe leaders in Minnesota during the years of 2007 and 2008. She uses her experiences and activism to teach about environmental justice, tribal history, art history and poetry at the Lied Center. She is also a practitioner of traditional healing.

Sans Souci travels across the United States, educating others on Native history, languages, spiritual practices and colonization. One of her most notable presentations was given at the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, titled Native American Women Activists: Resistance, Resilience, and Passing the Torch. Sans Souci has also appeared as an interviewee for the America Masters Special: The First American Indian Doctor, a documentary about Susan La Flesche Picotte.

Some of her work as a cultural consultant has given her the opportunity to work on Crane on Earth In Sky, a puppet show by Heather Henson and with Christopher Cartmill on The Nebraska Dispatches. Sans Souci has a personal connection to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, as her niece was murdered, along with one other woman, on the Omaha Reservation in 2020. Sans Souci also works with Water Protector movement. With the Water Protectors in Minnesota, she protested the Line 3 pipeline. This experience allowed her to speak at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, for Sustain UNL.

In addition to these activist organizations she participates in, she serves as a board member for Nebraskans for Peace, Grinding Stone Collective, Stand in for Nebraska, Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition, Nebraska Steering Committee for Project Learning Tree, and Project WET. She was also a volunteer for the Tribal Education Department National Assembly where she learned of decolonization practices that she uses in her teachings throughout the Great Plains. For her work as an advocate for the native community in Lincoln, Sans Souci was a finalist for the Inspire Founders Award. Part of Renée's volunteer work includes speaking at events and conferences. In 2022, she was a featured speaker on the importance of the Platte River at the Platte River Basin Conference.