Trail riders fight cold, but go on

Wounded Knee ride on track to end Friday

BRIDGER — Two dozen weather-whipped Wounded Knee Memorial Riders riders paused Saturday on the first sunny day of the past week.

Their ranks thinned by one-third, the horseback riders passed the day with conversation and errands, giving their horses a chance to rest before setting out today for Wounded Knee.

Throughout the day Saturday, the riders from as far away as California and New York arrived in this village 90 miles west of Pierre. As many as 300 are expected to ride into Wounded Knee on Friday, the eve of the 100th anniversary of the massacre of Chief Big Foot and his followers.

The Wounded Knee Massacre put a symbolic end to the U.S.-Indian Wars and opened up a 100-year wound that Indians hope will begin to heal with the completion of this spiritual ride.

Ron McNeil of McLaughlin, who helped coordinate the 250-mile journey across the state, said the bitter cold weather of the past week challenged riders’ will to endure but it did not slow them.

“You wake up in the morning and look for excuses not to ride, but you end up getting on your horse because you made your vows,” he said.

The ride began Dec. 15 near Bullhead, at the site of the Hunkpapa Chief Sitting Bull’s last camp site.

His death at the hands of the Standing Rock Indian Agency police on Dec. 15, 1890, triggered the flight of Chief Big Foot and his band of Minniconjou Sioux toward the Pine Ridge Agency. Up to 400 of them were slain at Wounded Knee by the U.S. 7th Cavalry.

Clayton Small, 34, of Pine Ridge, said he was undaunted by the weather: “To me, it’s a spiritual thing. I haven’t thought about the weather. Big Foot had it a little worse.”

McNeil said most of the riders found shelter in churches and community centers along the way. Many riders have suffered frostbite, and one young colt has died.

Thirty-eight riders set out from Bullhead and 24 arrived here on Friday night. Few of the 24 who arrived in Bridger escaped the cold’s bite, he said.

“The majority of them have frostbite,” he said.

Saturday’s shelter at the nutritional center on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation will be th elast for the next several days. Riders will camp out of doors and in tents for the next three nights as they continue on the final 148 miles.