Little Feather hosts Dakota riders

Wilfred Keeble, the staff bearer for the Dakota 38+2 memorial ride, stood in the middle of a packed room at the Little Feather Indian Center with his hands in his pockets and an earnest look upon his face. After saying a few words in the Dakota language, the bustling crowd began to fall silent, final whispers gathering the children near to hear the elder who was about to speak. 

It was Wednesday, Dec. 18, eight days into the ride that started 174 miles west of Pipestone in Lower Brule, S.D. The annual ride commemorates the hanging of 38 Dakota in Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862, and three years later, the hanging of two Dakota chiefs at Fort Snelling. The ride will end on Dec. 26 at 10 a.m. in Mankato, the date, time and place where the 38 were hung.

Keeble reminded the approximate 50 people in the room that the ride was intended as not only a memorial, but as a time to pray for the healing of one’s self and others. At that moment they would pray for the healing of Gary Erickson. Erickson, husband of Little Feather’s Alice Erickson, had been facing serious health issues over the past year. Keeble called for the group to sing and pray for Gary’s healing.

Gary’s family gathered at the back of the room as riders and supporters lined up to shake their hands, hug them and offer prayers for Gary’s healing. A drummer played and sang with others a song about healing and prayer.

“The song means we are the Lakota nation, we stand together to pray for you,” said Todd Finney, a rider from Medford, Minn.

After the prayer, the riders were treated to a meal that had been prepared by the Ericksons and members of the community and included three different kinds of soup, four different kinds of hotdishes and several different meats, sides and desserts.

“We’ve been cooking since yesterday and into today,” Alice Erickson said. “A lot of the food gets brought in. We have a lot of local people who are really good to us and they bring food in.”

Erickson said she loved that the riders prayed for her husband of 57 years and believed it would help him.

“He’s had a couple of close calls but the power of prayer brought him out of it,” she said with a smile.

Keeble said that around 40 riders had assembled at that point of the 16-day journey; they expect many more to join them along the way to Mankato. He said that although the number has increased this year, work and family responsibilities prevent many from joining the ride.

“They join us when they can and support us in other ways,” he said.

Many among the group are of Dakota descent and ride to commemorate their ancestors. Others, like 20-year-old Clayton Mann of Nashville, Tenn., were drawn to the ride not by ancestry but by spiritual ties. When he was 14-years-old, Mann’s mother showed him and his brothers a documentary about the Dakota 38+2, and she brought them to witness the memorial firsthand.

“She wanted us to understand what had happened,” said Mann, who is a country and classic rock performer in the Nashville area.

Despite the fact that his mother could not make the trip the following year, Mann said he knew he had to return. So his mother brought him to Wisconsin from Nashville so that he could catch a ride with Keith Nichols, a long-time supporter of the event.

“I told her I really wanted to come back and so she dropped me off at Keith’s house in Wisconsin,” Mann said. “Every year since I drive up to Keith’s and ride over with him.”

This was Mann’s sixth year on the ride. He said even though he self-identified as a Catholic, the journey has had a spiritual impact on his life.

“It’s life-changing and inspirational every year, and it grounds you in your faith,” he said. “You get called to it over and over. When you have to sleep in community centers with people, wait in line to eat food, and pray all the time, it just humbles you and makes you grateful for the regular life you get to live.”

Group members like Finney, and Josette Peliter, another long-time rider, said that in the Dakota culture it does not matter if riders are blood or not –– they all become family when they join other riders in prayer and community.

“In our culture, when we all get together like this, it really comes down to heart,” Peltier said.

Having people like Mann from other cultures “is great for the group,” Finney said, and also serves as a reminder that there was actually a white person hung in Mankato along with the other Dakota natives on Dec. 26, 1862.

“His name actually meant ‘little white man,’” Finney said. “He had been adopted by the Dakota.”

The riders spent Wednesday evening in Flandreau before returning to Pipestone’s Little Feather the next morning for a large breakfast. From there, they saddled their horses that had been boarded at the Pipestone County Fairgrounds and continued on their journey.

So far, the biggest obstacle the riders had faced had been the ice on the roads and in the ditches.

“Ice has been a major factor in our ride,” Keeble said. “But we do what we have to do, and we keep going.”

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