"The sky was blue. And clear. It was a beautiful day to be riding across the winter prairie gracing the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
It was a good day to be alive.
I joined 44 horseback riders Saturday for what has become the annual Big Foot Memorial Ride, a two-week tribute to our Lakota relatives who died at the Wounded Knee Massacre on Dec. 29, 1890.
By the time our 286-mile journey ends on the Pine Ridge Reservation this Dec. 29, some 200 other riders will have joined us at different points along the way. As we traveled the first 15-mile leg of our journey, we rode with clear instructions to look out for one another.
And we did. Only one rider was bucked off. As our horses galloped, I thanked my Lakota relatives for the beautiful gift of their memory. Even though Chief Big Foot of the Minneconjou Lakota and more than 350 unarmed men, women and children were mowed down by U.S. Cavalry soldiers and left to freeze into contorted shapes on the prairie, they've shown us the worst of our suffering is over.
We are mending the sacred hoop that was broken.
On this day, I rode a magnificent paint horse brought to me from North Dakota by my father, Carlin Rave. I thanked my ancestors. I thanked them for the beautiful animal I rode, who bore such a proud spirit. I could feel it. He stayed up front near the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe flag and the sacred eagle staffs."
Get the Story:Jodi Rave: Embarking on a trip to complete the hoop (The Missoulian 12/18) Relevant Links:
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