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00:00:00Let's all pray. We came this far. Some beautiful people and they prayed. So let's all pray
00:00:25together as a family.
00:00:51These writers they come from all over
00:00:53Canada, Montana, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota. There's even a guy here
00:00:59from Austria. It's from all over the world. These writers come. And that's the point.
00:01:06That's what we're trying to do here is we're trying to reconcile, unite, make peace with
00:01:11everyone. Because that's what it means to be Dakota. To be Dakota means to walk in peace
00:01:19and harmony with every living thing. That is our way. This ride came through a vision
00:01:28of a man by the name of Jim Miller. And in that vision, he saw writers going east. We're
00:01:34going home. That's what we're doing. We're going home.
00:01:38In 2005, when I received this dream, as any recovered alcoholic, I made believe that I didn't get it.
00:01:51I tried to put it out of my mind, but it's one of them dreams that bothers you night and day.
00:02:38I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
00:02:46I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
00:02:58St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1863.
00:03:02Good news for Indian hunters. The Indian hunting trade, if the game be at all plenty, is likely
00:03:08to prove a profitable investment during the present fall and winter for our hunters and
00:03:13scouts in the big woods. Having increased the bounty for each top knot of a bloody heathen
00:03:18to $200, there is likely to be considerable competition in the trade, and the best shots
00:03:24will carry off the most prizes.
00:03:32Christmas is coming.
00:03:40I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
00:03:49May God bless you all.
00:04:02May God bless you all.
00:04:08With settlers encroaching on us, they push us onto a little bitty strip of land along
00:04:13the river. All of our people were put there and were not allowed to leave or hunt.
00:04:18The Indians could not leave the reservation. If they left without permission, they would
00:04:28be considered hostile and could be shot on sight.
00:04:34They were supposed to be given rations, given the treaty, but people get greedy. That's
00:04:39how they call them, washichu. They started skimming off the rations and pretty soon they
00:04:44were starving them. When they were starving them, that's when this trader said, well,
00:04:48let them eat grass. And so they revolted. And the fight occurred and many were killed.
00:04:55It was a very short war. It only lasted a few months. When it was over, President Abraham
00:05:03Lincoln hung 38 of our leaders at one time, one pull of the lever, which is today the
00:05:11largest mass execution the government has ever carried out.
00:05:25My great-great-grandfather's waxwolf owl tail was hung that day. Those of us that are
00:05:38on this ride descend from them 38 that were hanged.
00:05:54My great-great-grandfather's waxwolf owl tail was hung that day.
00:05:58We'll never be able to feel what he felt, but we understand he was a spiritual man and
00:06:27he cared a lot about his people. And I think if he was alive, he would have did the same
00:06:32thing. To remember, he would have wanted to acknowledge the ancestors in a spiritual way.
00:06:39And when I heard about this dream, Uncle Sheldon Wolfchild, he told me this dream that Jim
00:06:46had and I wanted to be a part of it. There's something about that ride that pulls you to
00:06:51it. You want to get on a horse and help out. You feel pain in your ribs, your back, your
00:06:57legs. You get cold. We've been through blizzards. A lot of times, if you don't own a horse,
00:07:03you end up on the horse that nobody wants to ride, so that's a sacrifice in itself.
00:07:21I just want to tell everybody here that I love you very much. We don't have to blame
00:07:36the Washichos anymore. We're doing it to ourselves. We're selling drugs. We're killing our own
00:07:46people. And that's what this ride's about. It's healing.
00:08:16We were exiled from Minnesota by an order of the government which stated to annihilate
00:08:46the Indian race or forever push us from the borders of Minnesota. And that's what happened.
00:08:52Thousands and thousands of our people were slaughtered, froze to death, starved to death.
00:08:57Disease took a lot of our people also. A lot of them were marched on foot. Some were brought
00:09:04on cattle trains. Got down to St. Louis, they put us on riverboats and they were brought
00:09:11up the river to where we presently are now at Crow Creek, which was at that time a prisoner
00:09:16of war camp. From there, our people scattered to the four directions.
00:09:23Some of them, you know, would jump off their boats and just drown themselves and they couldn't
00:09:29deal with the hardships. And so it was a horrible thing. They thought it was the end of the
00:09:34world coming here. They had no more hope. And so for us, this journey back, this ride
00:09:40back is taking their spirits back, taking it home to the homeland.
00:09:46We're going to show up in Mankato at the hanging site on December 26th at 10 a.m., which is
00:09:51the anniversary of them 38 that were hanged.
00:09:57When you have dreams, you know when they come from the creator. You just know it.
00:10:10And I always know when it's a significant dream because he says, I've got to tell you
00:10:14this, you know. And so he gets up and he says, I got to tell you this. And I don't know what
00:10:19it means, but and he started telling, telling me he was being directed to make these offerings
00:10:28around the horse. The horse would carry these offerings and that these offerings were for
00:10:36all of the men that were hung in Mankato.
00:10:41Didn't know about Mankato till I had this dream in 2005.
00:10:48In his dream, he's seen all these, the 38 basically being hung at the same time and
00:10:54they were all reaching out, holding each other's arms.
00:10:58Our ancestry starts over there in Mankato. So keep that in your hearts. Keep that in
00:11:17your minds as we travel.
00:11:23So I love you guys very much. I'm a real easy man to talk to. I'm kind of a quiet guy. I
00:11:33pretty much keep to myself. But any atrocity that happened to you, any of you, it happened
00:11:42to me. I was sexually abused, physically abused, spiritually abused, emotionally abused. I
00:11:52have blood on my hands. I'm a Vietnam veteran. I spent time in Leavenworth. So I've been,
00:12:03I've been through the course. Any of you need to talk to me, call me a sign. We're all equal
00:12:12in this room. Nobody's higher or better than anybody. We're all equal. So let's have a real
00:12:23beautiful ride. We got a long haul ahead of us. I never did this before. I don't know what I
00:12:31like to expect in the next 16 days. But you do. You're my family.
00:12:49This horse has the six directions that we use in our ceremonies. The two front legs represent the
00:12:55west and the north. The two back legs represent the east and the south. The head points up. The
00:13:01ears point up. Represents Wakatake. Up above, the tail points downwards towards Mother Earth.
00:13:10When you put those six directions together, it creates a sacred center to bring Wowakan in. It's
00:13:18a sacredness that you can only have with these six directions. And you can pray while you're on
00:13:23your horse. You can think about a lot of things. Some people can remember things that ancestors
00:13:29went through. It's the horse leading the way because of its healing power.
00:13:53It feels good to walk in their steps and be on the land where they were. It's a completely
00:14:14different energy around here. I feel it. I feel like a different person now that I came here.
00:14:23Today, we're riding because of a healing that we need to continue.
00:14:38The reservation where I'm from is the poorest county in the United States with an average household
00:14:44income of $5,000 per year. We also have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. There is
00:14:52something that we suffer from.
00:15:00So basically, I'm riding for my family because they need help. I already lost my oldest brother.
00:15:12He passed away four years ago. And two of my other brothers are sitting in jail. My family is
00:15:20slowly falling apart and this is why I'm doing this for them. And now my little brother, he's getting
00:15:28sent away. I wanted to go see him before he gets sent away next year. But I came here and I don't
00:15:42regret coming here. So all I can say is I'm honored to be on this ride. And I thank you for listening to me.
00:16:04It's just not for our Dakota people, but everybody involved. So if you have horses or you want to be a
00:16:09part of the ride, I mean, come join us. This is our family and we want you guys to be a part of it. So thank you.
00:16:20I didn't know Mankato, like 38 Native Americans were hung here. I had no idea about that. I'm not Native American,
00:16:27but my mom's like Native Canadian and up there. So just having a little bit of that in me and hearing this,
00:16:35really means a lot. So, thank you.
00:16:42It was pretty good talking to them, letting them know our side of the story. And not what just came out of some book
00:16:49that some dude wrote. Coming from the real thing and from the people that are experiencing it. Yeah, it was pretty good.
00:17:00It was a pretty good ride.
00:17:04That's probably the burnt burger and the doughy pizza.
00:17:08No, that's just a joke.
00:17:11And I really don't associate with Caucasian people. I don't know why, it's just, I don't know, I never really.
00:17:19I used to, like when I was little, I had different races of friends when I was little.
00:17:24Like, we might as well just put it on the table, too, because it's the truth and it's the only way that we're going to be able to come together.
00:17:32My people and me, and we've talked about this, there's a lot of racism.
00:17:37And I'm willing to say, yeah, I have some racist moments where I think, oh, okay, they just did that because they're a white guy.
00:17:45Or they're not going to get it because they're white. They're just not.
00:17:49I was feeling like I didn't want to be a part of this anymore.
00:17:53Because I was feeling like everybody was talking to me as, like, Dakota Sarah.
00:17:58Like, oh, well, like, you know, like, you're Dakota first.
00:18:01So I'm going to ask everything, all my questions based on your race.
00:18:07You have to understand there's a certain amount of curiosity coming into a situation.
00:18:11I mean, if someone from Africa came to me, they would have a million questions, I'm sure, about Adam the white guy, the Italian kid from Long Island.
00:18:20So the fact that the questions are getting directed at me makes me feel like, oh, Adam was the only one who was asking questions, the only one who didn't come from the heart.
00:19:20It's going to be warm here in the next couple of days. It's going to be real cold.
00:19:25Real cold.
00:19:28The forecast this morning said Saturday, Sunday, Monday, blizzard warnings.
00:19:39Not much to say.
00:19:43I think some of the things that they're doing like this ride are important for their heritage.
00:19:50I think all people should be proud of who they are and their ancestry and their heritage.
00:19:56I'm proud I'm Norwegian.
00:19:59Golden, golden rims.
00:20:03I got pinched out here.
00:20:06Does she know the price in there? How much a tire was?
00:20:10Just, hey, just don't worry about it.
00:20:13Oh, come on now. I got to give you something.
00:20:17Don't worry about it.
00:20:18You sure?
00:20:19Yeah.
00:20:20Appreciate it. I really appreciate it.
00:20:22Yeah.
00:20:23I wouldn't be so generous, but I just watched that movie Pay It Forward, so.
00:20:27Oh.
00:20:32I wish more of this country was that way.
00:20:34Yeah.
00:20:35Needs to go back to that.
00:20:36Yeah.
00:20:37Yeah, definitely.
00:20:39We've got too many people that are worried about the dollar instead of helping the human being.
00:20:44Exactly. Exactly.
00:20:46I'm getting back in there. I better go.
00:20:48Yeah.
00:20:49I'll just fill that up and I'll come back out and shut that water off.
00:20:53Okay.
00:21:09Okay.
00:21:35Extreme conditions for much of the West
00:21:38as we go through the next several days.
00:21:39Let's get into this bitterly cold Arctic air.
00:21:41Don't forget there'll be a wind chill factor up and through here.
00:21:44I'm running behind you.
00:21:58Some people have loaded their horses here already.
00:22:00Yeah.
00:22:01This isn't where the horses are supposed to be today.
00:22:03Yeah.
00:22:04We didn't get permission to do that.
00:22:06Well, they accept us.
00:22:08This Jim.
00:22:10Jim.
00:22:12I think it's his name.
00:22:13Jim.
00:22:14Yeah, he's the county extension agent that I've been talking to.
00:22:17So he's here?
00:22:18He was here.
00:22:19He gave me this key.
00:22:20Okay, that's good enough.
00:22:21To water.
00:22:22Good enough.
00:22:33Go on.
00:22:34Go on.
00:22:36Okay, I'll get some snacks together and stuff.
00:22:38Oh, that would be so awesome.
00:22:40Yeah.
00:22:41Oh, they would love that.
00:22:42Okay, sure.
00:22:44And it made me feel uncomfortable because, like, in the back of my head,
00:22:47I always, you know, look at them.
00:22:49I was like, they're probably uncomfortable with all of us in here.
00:22:52Don't trust us too much or something.
00:22:54You know, I don't know.
00:22:56It's just how I was growing up.
00:22:58How much did you ride today, man?
00:23:00About, I don't know, 30, 40 miles.
00:23:05How are you feeling?
00:23:06Sore.
00:23:08What do you guys think of the horses?
00:23:10They're nice, but they hurt your butts.
00:23:12They hurt your butts.
00:23:14Yeah?
00:23:15Are you recording it?
00:23:17Yeah, man, you're on tape.
00:23:19Hi.
00:23:24Can I ride it?
00:23:27How can you get up there?
00:23:28How can you get up?
00:23:32I sure can't.
00:23:34Sorry.
00:23:35I'm not big enough to.
00:23:54For me, I love each of you.
00:23:56These little guys here, we're doing that for them.
00:24:00Our culture is one of...
00:24:06Oral.
00:24:07Everything's passed down to us.
00:24:11Riding across there today, I was crying coming.
00:24:16I wonder what my relatives endured when they came down on the boat.
00:24:22When we were taken off the boat, our first homeland in 1863,
00:24:26our first home was the Stockade.
00:24:30When Sitting Bull heard about that as a young man,
00:24:33he came on horseback to see how the people were being treated.
00:24:37And they were being treated worse than animals, I said,
00:24:40and that's why he stood his ground like that.
00:24:45These people call me today.
00:24:47There was two ceremonies that were going on back home
00:24:50called the Uipis.
00:24:53They said that crazy horse in Sitting Bull is riding with us.
00:24:59That means a lot to me.
00:25:17I went out with a regular pair of gloves
00:25:19and was out there about 15 minutes,
00:25:21and my hands started to get frostbite.
00:25:24I saw the weather report.
00:25:26It said 45 below, 50 mile-an-hour winds.
00:25:28It said you're taking your life in your own hands if you're on the road.
00:25:33You're taking your life in your own hands if you're on the road.
00:25:56The last time I walked with people, men and women like this,
00:26:00this, I was in a Marine Corps. Yesterday, you know that bad blizzard? These riders
00:26:07wanted to go. They saddled up, they warmed their horses up, we couldn't even see 50
00:26:11yards. Cold. And they still wanted to ride to make this trip. That's how
00:26:25important this is to us. So, if you don't mind, we're gonna just kind of wait this
00:26:31out. Yeah, and then, you know, if it gets really bad, we got that Quonset, you know,
00:26:35we can put the horses in there. There's quite a bit of room in there. Can we take a look? Yeah.
00:26:39Okay. So, let's get some panels and panel this off. Okay.
00:26:55We got the horses in the Quonset, and so I came back home, and then I'd say it was
00:27:18like four o'clock or something. Yeah, it was late afternoon. Yeah, when Jerry called
00:27:23and said, you know, where can we go to buy hay? Because the horses need hay. You know,
00:27:28I don't know where I'd send you. I know a lot of guys have got hay, but I don't think you can get
00:27:32there. But I said, you know, I don't know, I'll try. When he came back to the door, and he was
00:27:37all full of snow, and I said, what happened? He said, we've got to get the tractor going,
00:27:41because I'm stuck up here in the ditch. He said, I didn't even make the corner. I thought,
00:27:47oh my God, if it's that bad, why are you even out?
00:27:52She gets me out, and I tell her, you know, you just need to take the tractor, go home.
00:27:57Then I take off west, and it's terrible. You know, again, I can't see anything. There's
00:28:03drifts on the road, and all of a sudden, I'm right in a ditch again, and this is over a mile
00:28:08from home. And he called me, and he said, how are you doing? And I said, not very good right now.
00:28:16I said, I'm in a ditch. He said, what? I said, yep, I ran in a ditch trying to get to town.
00:28:23It's crazy, man. It's like, holy, I never really thought of those people doing something like that.
00:28:31She went out in the tractor, and found him somehow in that blizzard. You almost can't
00:28:38top that as far as support or commitment to what we're doing.
00:28:53All the way from Marty, South Dakota. We have any Choctaws in the house? Follow me, Mark.
00:29:08Look at them, they're taking off. Wow.
00:29:25All right, brothers.
00:29:38So,
00:29:55we come with a message of forgiveness and healing, and we all got to share this planet together.
00:30:01When that's the purpose of your ride, is to, you know, have some reconciliation,
00:30:06you think that's already happening, maybe, in some ways. Oh, no doubt. I had an outpouring of
00:30:12support and love. Westington Springs, they end that holiday. So, I give my blessings to them,
00:30:18and we pray for them. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. That was wonderful.
00:30:25We'll get that microphone if you do, and we'll let you. Thanks a lot. That was good. You did a good
00:30:31job. Thank you. I love you guys, and you guys have a good day. Oh, you as well. We'll be around.
00:30:39We got lots of good pictures to get here. Okay, thank you. You bet. Have a safe ride. You bet.
00:30:46This is awesome. To hear someone who's, you know, not angry at all, and says, you know,
00:30:52this is about forgiveness. Wow. Not what I expected. There's a lot of racism in this state.
00:30:59There are a lot of people that are against it, and kind of don't make any bones about it.
00:31:06It's okay to be who you are. You're Native, and you should be proud of it,
00:31:10no matter what tribe you're from. Get to know your history,
00:31:15because we are an awesome people, and you guys should be so proud of that.
00:31:21And I was in a eight by five cell, and it was hard. It was really hard. You know, I shed some tears
00:31:34in there. They said men don't cry, but we do. It takes a real man to cry, and thank you.
00:31:45The reason why I'm doing this, this journey, is so I can maybe help one of you in this room today,
00:31:51because our people are lost, and it's up to us to keep our language and our culture alive.
00:31:56We have to be the leaders, because we're the next generation, and it's up to us. If not,
00:32:01our culture is gone, our language is gone, and the Wakaija, the youth, the next generation,
00:32:07they won't, they'll be lost. They'll have nothing to turn to. On November 26th, I celebrated a year
00:32:13drugs and alcohol, you know, and it's just, I ain't gonna lie, sometimes I feel like using,
00:32:17you know, I get all my old buddies back home and say, oh, come on, have a beer with us. Now,
00:32:22let's go, let's go get high. I got this joint, you know, but I choose to pray, go to sweat lodges.
00:32:29During the summertime, we attend sun dances, and it's hard growing up where I'm from, you know,
00:32:34Pine Ridge, it's a hard place to live. They call it poverty plains, you know, but we choose to
00:32:38live like that, you know. Now, me writing is to make, hopefully make a change for our youth,
00:32:43so that they won't have to grow up in a society that we grew up in today.
00:33:03I got caught speeding, and he left me behind.
00:33:06They turned the lights on him, so I drove around with the trees parked.
00:33:19Any suggestions from life here, boss?
00:33:25My main concern is, like, hey,
00:33:31what's next in Canada?
00:33:36Again, for my family from here, you know, it's good to see everybody in, and my main thing was
00:33:42to see you guys laughing, fed, and all that stuff like that. So, you know, I extend my thanks. And
00:33:50you guys are coming over this hill down here, this little town, that was, that was what I got
00:33:55afraid of. Man, these semis on 34, you know, they're going to come flying over, and it's cold
00:34:01and icy. So, I just stayed up there, and I see vehicles try to slow them down.
00:34:14This is a lady right here. This is a Steph. She has been really great in doing the,
00:34:21coordinating so much of the food, the help, the whole works. She's been fantastic.
00:34:26I had food coming all morning to my house, so my truck was loaded.
00:34:38Yeah, there was not even a question. As soon as we heard about it, we got the email,
00:34:40we responded back right away and said, yeah, count us in. We'll help out, so.
00:34:45When they marched the 38 to be hung, you know, they marched them to Manekato, and then after
00:34:50they hung them, they buried them in a mass grave, and the doctors from the local area,
00:34:54they dug up the bodies and used them for science.
00:35:02So, when we learn that history, then, then it's really hard.
00:35:06I own all the land back here. I'm just curious what is going on. I've seen all the trailers here.
00:35:26I grew up in Minnesota, and I had no idea that there had been a hanging of 38 warriors.
00:35:32And then the boarding schools, of course, to try to turn all the Indians into white people,
00:35:39and their spiritual ceremonies were illegal until 1978.
00:35:45Maybe U.S. white America will reach, or maybe is reaching, the point where they can start
00:35:54acknowledging what really happened in this country. They can acknowledge the massive
00:36:01massive land theft, three billion acres within the continental United States.
00:36:06Maybe they cannot acknowledge the broken treaties, over 400 of them,
00:36:12broken and violated by the United States of America and its U.S. Euro-American citizenry.
00:36:18Maybe they can acknowledge the genocide that occurred. 16 million Native people
00:36:25within the continental United States around 1500. And by four centuries later, 1900,
00:36:32the U.S. Bureau of Census said there's 237,000 left in the U.S. What happened?
00:36:55Will never, will never be far from here. Sure as I am breathing, sure as I'm sad,
00:37:04I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh. I'll leave here believing more than I had,
00:37:13and there's a reason I'll be, a reason I'll be back.
00:37:25As I walk the hemisphere, I've got my wish to up and disappear.
00:37:34I've been wounded, I've been healed. Now for landing, I've been, landing, I've been healed.
00:37:44Sure as I am breathing, sure as I'm sad, I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh.
00:37:48It's like my brother and I, we grew up shaking hands with everybody. Whether you've seen them
00:37:52last night or, you know, stick that old black paw out there. Let somebody shake that thing for you,
00:37:59you shake it back. And when you got love in your heart, they feel that love.
00:38:04It could be the most bitter S.O.B. there, but you know, he'll cool off and slow down.
00:38:12And like I said, we don't discriminate against anybody on this ride. Anybody's welcome.
00:38:19I was always scared to tell people that I loved them, and I'm not anymore. So,
00:38:28um, I just want to tell you guys I love you, and thank you for being here. I know it's hard,
00:38:34but um, let me know if you need anything. I'm more than willing to help.
00:38:38With Doc Gaston.
00:38:45That one guy said he saw her step in a crack. Yeah, it's her ankle.
00:38:57Well, she ain't gonna make this ride.
00:39:01I'm, uh, you may not know it,
00:39:11because I don't tell very many people, but I'm 100 percent combat-related disabled. 100 percent.
00:39:30Jim knows what I'm talking about.
00:39:46As a Vietnam combat veteran, my PTSD really kicked in today. It's a post-traumatic stress
00:39:53disorder. I'm 100 percent disabled, and the doctors tell me not to be on a horse.
00:40:05Today is really kicking in.
00:40:23Oh,
00:40:32I'm glad you guys let me be part of this.
00:40:53With that wawa coming inside those six directions, you place a man or a woman on a horse,
00:40:59you give it the seventh direction, which is the chokata, the center of all things. It represents
00:41:06mitakayawas. Everything is related and balanced, and you put that all together,
00:41:12and you move forward. You're able to create power as you go.
00:41:17So that was their justification for going to war, that it was either to defend themselves
00:41:29rather than starve to death. I learned a lot about the 38 plus 2 because
00:41:37while I was on that ride, I could really look into the past while you're sitting on that horse,
00:41:42while you're sitting on that horse, and it makes you realize you have a lot of time to think.
00:41:57So
00:42:27they say that the spirits are the ones that lead the people. They are in front of that
00:42:57staff. They're the ones taking us through this cold weather. They say these elements are part of
00:43:04life. We didn't realize how inspirational this was going to be. If they would bless us by coming
00:43:19back again some year, we would really welcome them. We hope it's an annual event, but we hope
00:43:25the weather is a little bit more cooperative.
00:43:56And we wanted to put welcome to our farm on it, but we didn't know how to spell it or how to say
00:44:14it. So he came up with the word for thank you. We thought we can park all the vehicles. We have
00:44:20lots of land and we have pasture for the horses and a shop to feed everybody. And we just thought
00:44:26it was just a really neat thing you're doing and a good message for the season and something we
00:44:32wanted our kids to experience with all of you. And that's we thought it would be more personal here.
00:44:37So I'm gonna sing the song on behalf of my relatives here
00:44:41to honor you today for this grateful thing that you have done for us.
00:45:42And we couldn't even see. I mean the cars couldn't even see. The horses were like
00:45:46doing this. The wind's coming from this way and everybody's going this. Julian stops,
00:45:51gets out. We're shutting it down. We're shutting it down. Everybody gets off their horses. They're
00:45:54not rooming up in the car. I look over there. Gus's truck and trailer is in a ditch over.
00:46:01Things going terribly wrong. And it didn't need to happen, man. You have to have a conversation.
00:46:07Talk about it. We have two days of rest, the 21st and the 22nd. Today is the 20th, right?
00:46:12You don't ride today. You wait for the storm to pass Saturday and Sunday like, you know,
00:46:17the weather report said it was going to be horrible. Then you ride on the days of rest.
00:46:21He hit the ditch back there. There's no room for horses. Yeah, you got to make arrangements. You
00:46:26gotta haul horses there. You know, he's gonna stop it. You gotta haul them back.
00:46:31Shit, man. Jesse, what are you gonna do? I don't know. I gotta have my horse safe.
00:46:38Not out in the middle of the road. Makes complete sense to me. But since I'm not involved in this,
00:46:43I'm not a leader. I can't. You are a leader, Adam. We are all leaders. Yeah, we're all leaders. Come
00:46:48on. That's a great saying. And I'd like to believe that. All we're doing here is a lack of
00:46:54communication. That's all we have. I told you guys when we first started, I'm the only the
00:47:02person that had the dream. So I try to step back and I try to let these leaders step up.
00:47:25Yeah. This girl got kicked. I saw that. She got kicked this morning.
00:47:31The little girl got kicked by Chris' horse. Right in the hand? Yeah, right across the knuckles.
00:47:42Where I come from, everybody's mostly still mad about what happened. And, you know,
00:47:48that's probably another reason why I don't really get along with the Caucasian people.
00:47:56It's because of the 38? Yeah.
00:48:18They rose up to defend themselves, starving to death, to protect their land,
00:48:30their way of life and their people. Was it wrong to defend ourselves?
00:48:42That's the question.
00:48:44Within weeks, 500 whites, settlers, soldiers and government agents were dead, along with a smaller
00:48:53but unknown number of Indians. There were pretty horrendous deeds done on both parts. I mean,
00:49:01some immigrant from Germany who wasn't privy to the signing of the Traverse to Sioux Treaty
00:49:06was probably pretty shocked to see his wife's, you know, womb cut open, a baby taken out and
00:49:11brained against a tree. Just as later when New Ulm people attacked the Indians and killed a
00:49:16woman's child in front of her. You know, there's no heroes here. It was just, it was an ugly
00:49:22situation. When I think about Abraham Lincoln, that's hard to swallow because he freed the
00:49:30slaves, but yet really succumbed to the pressure from the people to hang. You know, they were
00:49:40supposed to be 300, over 300 that were supposed to be executed, but he reduced it to 38, you know.
00:49:52We say this is a spiritual ride. We're going to be the first ones to ask for forgiveness.
00:50:00We want to say our apologies. As the Natives, we want to step up and say, hey, we apologize.
00:50:11So we're going to be the first ones to forgive what happened when they hung our ancestors in 1862.
00:50:19We're going to be the first ones to forgive.
00:50:29So
00:50:53you know, I have anger in my heart too, and I took care of it the best I can.
00:50:57And I feel like I've done pretty good in the last 10 years, moved forward pretty good,
00:51:03and it's time to let those things go and press forward, you know, in a positive way.
00:51:19You know, Poncho and I are the ones who are interacting with the family, talking with Eli,
00:51:22talking with Taylor, the daughter she just Facebooked me, talking with Brady, you know,
00:51:27because if we're not talking with them, everybody else, you know, within my opinion of the Native
00:51:34community is doing their own little thing in the corners. Dave said he's never been into a white
00:51:40person's home, and he's from Sistin, you know, and that's where all those guys are from. So it's
00:51:46probably hard for them. I know it's hard for them, but those people could not have made it easier,
00:51:51and I'm not saying what they were feeling, but this family, like, they had whooped it up for
00:51:56peace on their shirts with a horse in rainbow letters. It could not have said, like, welcome
00:52:02with their names on the back. I mean, they went to a lot of trouble for this. I don't know if they
00:52:06normally walk around with that or they did it for this ride, but they had, you know, the whole thing
00:52:11going. I feel like we let them down a little bit, actually, as a community. I don't know, it's just
00:52:18how us grew up, not having them trust us or thinking we're going to steal something or, you know,
00:52:24something was going to go missing and they were going to blame us. So I didn't really feel
00:52:29comfortable stopping at all those houses. I mean, it's cool that they did that, man. I like that a lot.
00:52:36It's pretty crazy how it all worked out for the horses and for us.
00:52:41What are you doing? Recording. What's your name? Amber. Amber? Are you going to ride, Amber?
00:52:54Are you? Are you excited? Yeah. You're part of this group now, so, like, don't be afraid to tell
00:53:01them how you feel because they don't know that, you know? Well, to, like, do it publicly is a big,
00:53:07yeah, but it's a big thing. But now you're part of the group, so. But am I?
00:53:12Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I feel like I am, but then
00:53:18it's kind of like, you know, am I?
00:53:24A lot of us are getting sore throats and headaches and stuff and it's kind of hard
00:53:40to be in this climate if we're not used to it. And I know the Canadians, they don't care. They
00:53:44go around naked. I seen Carl walking down the creek with just a blanket on this morning.
00:53:55He was going to chop a hole in the ice and take a bath, he said.
00:54:00But I think one of our leaders here made some medicine in that container over there. Feel free
00:54:06to get some, especially now when it's really warm. And that's, us guys take medicine as
00:54:12hard as we can take it. I mean, I don't want this ride to end. I want to keep this ride going
00:54:30because this is the only time I ever felt happy. Because back home, it's really hard and
00:54:38it makes me feel good riding for my people.
00:54:49Our people
00:54:54suffer from something.
00:54:57An elderly woman of full-blood Dakota from where I'm from in Crow Creek,
00:55:03I was with her one time and a lot of bad things were going on. A lot of bad things. And I had
00:55:10asked her, why does this always happen to us? Why do we do these things to each other?
00:55:15Why does it always happen? And she didn't say nothing. She was driving a car for a while.
00:55:25I looked over at her, she was crying. And she said in her language,
00:55:29a deep embedded genetic depression. See our people at one time, the Dakota people are all
00:55:41Native Americans, had a very strong connection with the Creator. A very strong connection with
00:55:48Mother Earth. A very strong connection with nature, the forces of nature, all living things
00:55:55on this planet. And all this was taken from us like that.
00:56:06And we lost this connection with everything that we had. That's where this depression comes from.
00:56:13A lot of our people are severely depressed and they don't even know it.
00:56:17This depression is just now clinically diagnosed as the same thing soldiers
00:56:23suffer from when they return from combat.
00:56:53So
00:57:07in 1967, in 1968, I served in a place called Vietnam.
00:57:27A lot of young people don't know where that's at.
00:57:29And at that time, I took 38 lives.
00:57:41Had no connection, didn't make no connection with
00:57:46Mankato. Didn't know about Mankato until I had this dream in 2005.
00:57:52There's 38 that were hung and how does that all tie in? I can't say that I know. I mean,
00:58:05I really don't. But he had an experience around the fire, which I'm not going to go
00:58:14into deeply because it's his experience, which clearly showed him some things that he needed
00:58:21to do to release the 38 Vietnamese men that had been killed, you know, killed by him.
00:58:32And all of this was told to him by his mother and his mother passed away when he was 10.
00:58:38But she came out of the fire and told him he needed to do this.
00:58:52I'm kind of an emotional guy.
00:59:11Those coming down the road, my boarding school days kicked in.
00:59:16My days in Vietnam kicked in, riding into the city.
00:59:22So all my abandonment issues, the hurts and the pains that I went through
00:59:30coming down the highway this morning.
00:59:36I was wondering what our people went through the day before the hanging. What were their thoughts?
00:59:46What were their feelings?
00:59:51In the early hours of Friday, the 26th, as the time of the execution approached,
00:59:57some of the Dakota men lay sleeping on the floor. At dawn, many of the condemned men
01:00:04said goodbye to their captors in a display that fascinated the reporters.
01:00:09They shook hands with the officers who came in among them, bidding them goodbye as if they were
01:00:14going on a long and pleasant journey.
01:00:33And they all wanted their medicine man to speak on their behalf. The words are,
01:00:38don't let your heart be sad. We're going to see each other again. And when we see each other again,
01:00:44your heart and my heart is going to be so happy, it's going to cry when we come together again.
01:00:49That's what the song says.
01:01:14Many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you.
01:01:29It was the day after Christmas when they hung them. You know, that's terrible. That's something
01:01:35very terrible to do during such a sacred time. You know, and those are things that we're slowly
01:01:42trying to wipe away and it's working. And so the ceremony continues as we eat tonight,
01:01:51get up in the morning and get our horses, have our ceremonies and start our final ride
01:01:59to the hanging site.
01:02:13For this event, for the memory of the 38 Dakota, not only do we have
01:02:19a horse, a ride, we also have a run. Not only are we remembering,
01:02:25we're honoring our ancestors and those that have passed and struggled before us.
01:02:30It means a lot to me. We're kind of, we're kind of chasing through the footsteps of the 38
01:02:35Dakota plus two that had to go through this. So we're kind of,
01:02:40I don't know how to explain it, but we're kind of going back through that experience again.
01:02:50I've always believed that I'm going to be a part of this.
01:02:54I've always believed in, you know, that they're watching over us, you know, like,
01:03:03you know, it's not just us out there running. So that's just kind of the way I see it.
01:03:08We know our history and it hurts, but we're no longer in that prison no more.
01:03:13Reconciliation means something to everybody. I think it's a collective.
01:03:19And we actually also had the opportunity to catch the run.
01:03:22We ran for two miles at about 3 a.m. So it's been quite an adventure for
01:03:27the five of us who were there last night. So thank you to the riders. Thank you to the runners.
01:03:37On that fateful day, they were let out of the prison compound.
01:03:58They were shackled and chained together. They had hoods on them.
01:04:03The women began waiting and weeping. One of the prisoners, in a loud voice, said,
01:04:15Hear me, my people. Today is not a day of defeat. It is a day of victory.
01:04:24For we have made our peace with our Creator and now go to be with Him forever.
01:04:30Remember this day to tell our children, so they can tell their children,
01:04:34that we are people who died an oblivious death. Do not mourn for us. Rejoice with us.
01:04:42It's a good day to die.
01:04:44It's a good day to die.
01:04:55And then he lifted up his voice and began singing.
01:06:14I just want to tell all of you that I love you. We're doing this for our children,
01:06:36our grandchildren. And I want to thank all of you that helped me fulfill this dream.
01:06:49It's been a blessing for our people.
01:06:53Fifty-three years ago, I entered first grade and I was taught nothing but misinformation
01:07:03about the people that preceded me on this land. And it wasn't until that 1980s, when I walked
01:07:09into my first powwow at the Land of Memories, when I realized that I didn't know anything
01:07:16except lies, for the most part. And so I started that day to listen.
01:07:23Whereas the Dakota people lived in unity with the land for many years long before the European
01:07:27people came. And whereas the Dakota people have suffered unimaginable hardship over a long period
01:07:34of time as the land and riches they once had were gradually removed from their control.
01:07:40And whereas the Dakota people have many times been forcibly relocated at the whim of the United
01:07:45States government. And whereas one outcome of their trials was the largest mass execution
01:07:50ever recorded in U.S. history, during which 38 Dakota were hanged. And whereas the Dakota people
01:07:56have put forth tremendous effort in an attempt to continue to heal from their suffering over all
01:08:02these years. And whereas the people of this community welcome the Dakota people to be part
01:08:10of our community today and always. And whereas the people of this community recognize the responsibility
01:08:17we must bear in this healing process. And whereas the people of this community wish to be part of
01:08:24the healing process as the wounds begin to close. Now therefore, in recognition of the tremendous
01:08:31contribution made by the Dakota people toward that healing process to our community and communities
01:08:36in the region, I, John D. Brady, Mayor of the City of Mankato, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim December 26,
01:08:412008 to be Dakota Reconciliation Okiksuye Day. And in the sense of true reconciliation, I just want
01:08:51to say, welcome back to your home.
01:08:55I have just one little thing and then I'll let you go. Just a little symbolism of that welcoming. I'm going to also
01:09:17offer Jim a key to the City of Mankato.
01:09:24It's a key that opens no locks, it only opens hearts.
01:09:32Thank you very much.
01:09:36I thank each and every one of you here in this room. I thank the City of
01:09:42Mankato. I hope this opens a jail cell or two.
01:10:01I'm going to pass this staff on. I have two extra feathers for the two Dakota that were hung two years later.
01:10:12And I want to present them to him also.
01:10:17We are going to keep this going. From here, forever, we're going to keep this ride going.
01:10:28There was a bald eagle just after he started singing. It was soaring just above us there.
01:10:33To see that, to see something like that would, you know, would make you cry.
01:10:45Make any man cry to see something like that, you know, happening because this is real.
01:10:52You know, it's not going to end for me. I'm just going to keep that happiness with me.
01:10:56You know, I'm not going to like, once this ride ends, I ain't going to leave my
01:11:01my emotions right there and just go back home to what I was doing.
01:11:05You know, I'm going to take it with me. It's going to come home with me.
01:11:09We got to strive for that reconciliation.
01:11:14Let's go home and reconcile our families, our differences.
01:11:19Let's go home and hug our children. Tell them that we love them.
01:15:49So
01:16:19so
01:16:49so
01:17:19so
01:17:31you