Healing, awareness and reconciliation guide Dakota 38+2 Memorial Riders on final journey

HOWARD - Dashing through the snow each day from Dec. 10 until the day after Christmas are a group of Indigenous elders, adults and youth riding horseback on the way from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota.

Their multi-day, 330-mile trek through the snow and slush is part of the last-ever Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride, which commemorates the 38 Dakota warriors who died in the largest single-day mass execution in the U.S. on Dec. 26, 1862, and two more were captured and hanged later. They all died as part of convictions tied to the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

After the war, captive Dakota people were exiled to Fort Thompson, and many Dakota women and children died of cold and hunger during the winter in 1863 in what eagle staff carrier and Dakota elder Wilfred Keeble describes as the “first concentration camp,”.

The Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride started in 2005 following a dream from Lakota spiritual leader Jim Miller of a spiritual journey by horse, returning home to Minnesota for the Dakota people. The 330-mile trek has gone on every year since Miller’s dream to reconcile that history of the massacre of Dakota people.

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This year’s ride will be the last for the current group of ride leaders and tribal elders, Keeble and Josette Peltier explained, speaking on Miller’s behalf. Peltier is a spiritual leader, organizer for the ride and a cook for the riders and their caravan on each leg of the journey, she said.

Peltier said Miller felt, through spiritual guidance, that the 17 years the ride has been running has helped bring healing, awareness and reconciliation among Native and non-Native people, and that it’s time to retire the staff.

“Through these years, different communities have opened their doors to us and embraced the ride,” Peltier said. “People are sharing pastures (for the horses), giving us places to stay and giving food to us. That’s not only healing and bringing awareness, but also bringing reconciliation. Now it’s time to move on.”

Since this is the last ride for the current group of elders and organizers, Peltier said that leaves an opportunity for younger generations to pick the tradition back up and keep it going if they wish to do so.

Over the years, people have come from all across the globe to follow the riders on their journey or even join on parts of the ride, Keeble said. In 2007, a documentary crew joined the ride to produce “Dakota 38+2.” That year, the group was stuck in Howard for a couple of days due to a blizzard.

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Other riders have come from as far as Israel and shared their culture with the riders around Christmas, Keeble said. Last year, reporters came from France to join the group on the ride, too.

The riders are in a ceremony on their journey, practicing their own way of prayer and bringing awareness to what happened to their ancestors, Keeble explained. The riders educate on the history of the hangings, but also broken treaties, colonization and all atrocities committed against the people Indigenous to Turtle Island.

“The Dakota (people) were exiled from Minnesota,” he said. “We’re going home. That in itself is something. Being exiled from our homelands was a devastating blow to the Dakota people.”

The ride can be difficult -- it’s cold and it’s not very fun, Keeble says, but “we remember that our ancestors were being chased, hunted and killed. They went through all of that and sacrificed for us, so we can stand the cold for a few days and sacrifice a few days of the year for them.”

Peltier added that she’s sure people probably question why a group of dozens of riders would travel on horseback for over 300 miles in the cold of winter, but “when we get to Mankato, it brings happiness and healing.”

“It’s about bringing family together again,” she said, noting that in Oceti Sakowin culture there’s a common Lakota expression used, “Mitakuye Oyasin,” that means “We are all related.”

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Many of the riders are relatives or have direct family lineage to the 40 people who were hanged after the war, Keeble noted.

On Wednesday morning, the Argus Leader witnessed as dozens of riders took off from Howard toward Madison, where they would have lunch near the recognizable white buffalo statue at Prostrollo’s and dinner at Dakota State University.

Riders were of all ages. Some, like Keeble, rode in a manner demonstrating their years of experience, while some youth rode slightly stubborn ponies. Some used saddles; some rode bareback. But all rode toward a common goal.

“Over the years, a lot of youth have joined,” Peltier said. “To me, that’s a blessing for our future generation.”

Families that live in homes along the group’s route on Highway 34 stood outside in the cold Wednesday morning watching the caravan ride by on its way east to Madison from Howard, smiling and waving in solidarity with their mission.

Now that the ride will soon be ending for the last time, Peltier said, it feels like the group is having the final word or entering its final phase.

“(Miller) just wants to know that he accomplished, he completed his dream in his lifetime, and now it’s time to help one another and help our sister tribes to come together and start working together,” Peltier said.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Elders in the Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride announce 2022 as last journey