Memorial horse riders honor Lakota history and culture

SANTEE Neb. – During Native American Heritage Month, we recognize and appreciate groups of Lakota horsemen and women who make efforts all year to honor Native American history and culture. Kermit Minor (Cheyenne River Lakota) of the Screaming Eagle Rez Riders and Jimmy Hallum (Santee Sioux Reservation, Nebraska) and Andrea Eastman (Lake Traverse Reservation, SD) of the Sacred Horses Society are all preparing for annual horse rides to remember and honor ancestors and to raise awareness of Native Americans’ resilience in response to oppression.

“To the Lakota, the horse is considered a relative. It is more than a connection through blood—it is spiritual,” says the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center in Chamberlain SD. “The horse symbolizes personal drive, passion, and appetite for freedom. Among all the spirit animals, the horse — šú.kawak.a. is one that shows a strong motivation that carries one through life.

“Horses became an important part of Lakota society because the Lakota were nomadic. Lakota people moved their villages to places where they had good grass and water for their horses and nearby bison herds. Horses made moving the village much easier because they could carry a heavy load.”

Richard Longfeather (Standing Rock Lakota Reservation) is a fluent Lakota language speaker and relay racer steeped in Lakota culture. He says, “The Lakota always like to be identified with horses.” Longfeather believes that keeping his sons active in relay racing and other sports with horses is a proven deterrent to the destructive influences that plague many reservations, such as alcohol and drug addiction and crime.

Kermit Minor has now devoted many years to the annual Dakota Exile Ride which originates in Santee NB in mid-December. He is now preparing for the 2024 ride. Having been a rider for many years, Minor now serves as the cook for the ride.

According to Minor, “the Dakota Exile Ride specifically honors the Dakota people exiled after the 1862 Dakota Wars and the subsequent Dakota 38+2 mass execution ordered by President Abraham Lincoln. … Through horseback riding, storytelling and ceremony, we remember this dark chapter and honor our ancestors – their resilience and hope for a better future.

“The Dakota Exile Ride strengthens bonds within the community, fostering youth leadership and cultural identity. Every mile reconnects us with our past and helps build a stronger future. … This is not just a ride; it’s a journey of remembrance, survival, and justice.

“In the winter of 1862, nearly 1700 Dakota were displaced to an internment camp at Fort Snelling, where an estimated 100 to 300 died from starvation, measles, and cholera. In 1863, the remaining Dakota women, children, and elders were loaded onto overcrowded steamboats by the U.S. Army, (moved downriver) and abandoned far from everything they had known.

“Many leaped from the ships, risking drowning over the horrors awaiting them, and many others perished during this harrowing journey. For those who reached shore, on what became the Crow Creek Reservation, life was hell … over 300 children and many others succumbed to malnutrition, disease, and the harsh, extreme environment. Dakota women endured relentless physical, mental and sexual abuse by their oppressors.

“This traumatic experience left indelible scars on the Dakota community, impacting generations to come and shaping their enduring fight for survival and justice.”

Participants in the Exile Ride will travel 330 miles on horseback in frigid temperatures to their final destination at Reconciliation Park in Mankato, which is where the 38 Dakota men were hanged at 10:00 a.m. on December 26, 1862. It was the largest single-day mass execution in U.S. history. Andrea Eastman’s ancestor, Wakinya Na (Little Thunder), was one of the 38 who were hung.

Eastman has been part of the Sacred Horses Society for approximately 5 years. “We ride against the injustices and atrocities inflicted on our people, such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR), massacres, and boarding schools. We ride to tell the dark history of the U.S., the stories not told, and to bring medicine and healing.”

She rides a 4-year-old bay horse named Sadie. Eastman says, “Sadie and I know each other. She knows what I am thinking. … Horses are like mirrors. They reflect our strengths and weaknesses. For example, Sadie is a healer and that reflects the healer within me. Also, she has no patience, and that’s like me, also.”

Eastman says that, within the Sacred Horse Society, she has the opportunity to reconnect with her family and traditional Lakota values and is carrying on the positive legacy of her parents who were Indigenous activists. “I’m proud of what we are taking part in.”

Jimmy Hallum is happy to be known as “Grandpa” to the multigenerational participants in the Sacred Horse Society. He has six children of his own, many grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. All of his six children have horses of their own. Hallum himself owns 6 adult horses and 2 new colts. He says, “Horses bring the good life. …”

He rides “to bring back the culture and to bring healing through education and awareness of history…. To move forward we have to know where we came from.” Hallum says that the overall purpose of every ride is “decolonization.”

Hallum says, on a horse ride, when the riders come into a populated area, “a horse is a draw. People come to see.” Then the riders have conversations with those coming to see the horses, sharing the purpose of the ride and the history being honored.

He says that on the rides, “we help each other. That’s the only way to heal.” The riders say prayers for one other and for other loved ones.

Hallum is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for more than 35 years. He says he got sober because he didn’t want his children to follow in the footsteps of his alcoholism. He is retired from the Nebraska Indian Community College where he served as the Cultural Director and healthy lifestyles promotion coordinator for over 20 years.

The Sacred Horse Society is hosting a fund-raising dinner on November 30 in Marty, SD. For more information about the fund-raiser and other ways to support the ride, contact Andrea Eastman at 605-682-9262 or email andreaeastman17@gmail.com.

According to Minor, every contribution helps support the riders, empower youth through connection to their history, preserve and amplify Dakota stories of survival, promote healing from generational trauma, and feed and care for the horses.

The Sacred Horses Society has recently been trained to help with searches when there is a new report of a MMIR. The group is now ready to take on this new task.

Hallum says that anyone with a horse can participate in the rides. Also, during the rides, there are supporters who accompany the riders in cars to help along the way.

Lakota spiritual leader Jim Miller, who returned to Spirit in March 2023, originated a ceremonial ride in 2005 after receiving instructions to do so in a dream. Todd Finney, whose Dakota name is Ta Can’te Was’te Yuha Omani (He Who Walks with His Good Heart) said he hopes Miller’s dream won’t be forgotten.

“His legacy was to forgive everyone (and) everything,” Finney said. “We need to be able to learn how to forgive and how to move on … and so the perspective of it for me and my hope is that people learn that there’s power in prayer, and we can learn to forgive everyone (and) everything, just like Uncle Jim did.”

(Contact Grace Terry at graceterrywilliams@gmail.com)

The post Memorial horse riders honor Lakota history and culture first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source