PEACE WALK 2015: Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota...

Two participants here at Sirius Community in Shutesbury, MA are traveling tomorrow to join Peace Walk 2015 at Pine Ridge Reservation, SD in solidarity with the Lakota people on Big Foot Memorial/Future Generations Ride, December 15th through 29th, 2015. ~ JDHWB-R

December 29th marks the 125th anniversary of the massacre of Wounded Knee where an estimated 300 Lakota people were murdered upon open fire by the U.S. 7th Cavalry on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. In honor and healing of their ancestors as well as a deep desire to hold on to traditional values and culture, the people of the Lakota (Sioux) tribe have created what is called the "Big Foot Memorial Ride." The ride starts around December 15th and follows the trail that Big Foot's clan took after Sitting Bull's assassination, ending in their massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29th.

For more information on the ride and the massacre see these links:

Watch Film about the Bigfoot Memorial Ride on Youtube:

“KIFARU: Wiping the Tears of Seven Generations” (on Youtube in 6 parts)

This documentary tells the story of the Si Tanka Wokiksuye: “The Bigfoot Memorial Ride”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvBcMbKEp40

Excellent and Informative Links on History of the Memorial Ride

1.  When Ride Elders Handed Leadership of Chief Big Foot Ride to Future Generations Ride (October 21, 2010):

https://omakatokatakiya.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/native-sun-news-elders-hand-big-foot-ride-to-future-generation-thursday-october-21-2010/

2. The Future Generations Ride

December 29, 2010:

http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2010-12-29/Front_Page/Omaka_Tokatakiya_Future_Generation_Ride.html

3. Photographer Ken Marchionno Photographs of the Ride:

https://kenmarchionno.wordpress.com

[Note: Ken will be on the Ride. Check out his  Link to the “Future Generations Teen Photojournalism Project”:

http://www.kenmarchionno.com/TeenPhotoJournalism

4. Aaron Huey’s Pine Ridge Photographs (for NY Times & National Geographic):

Note: Aaron received a lot of complaints from Lakota at Pine Ridge for focusing on the "tragic" elements of reservation life. As a result, he returned to Pine Ridge and has helped to put together a wonderful Lakota Story Telling Photo Project on the Cowbird Storytelling Website:

Aaron's original photos:

http://time.com/3799842/why-we-look-again-aaron-huey-at-pine-ridge/

The Pine Ridge Storytelling Project:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/pine-ridge/community-project-intro

Website: “Healing Hearts at Wounded Knee”

Note: This site contains map, itinerary of Ride, etc.

http://healingheartsatwoundedknee.com

Nichidatsu Fujii Guruji was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded the Nipponzan-Myohoji order of Buddhism. In his later years in life (around 60) he was meditating on top of a mountain, wondering what he should dedicate the rest of his life to, when the atomic bomb dropped in Japan, his home land (not clear on whether it was Hiroshima or Nagasaki). From that day it became clear to him that it was his purpose to spread world peace through the construction of shrines to peace called Peace Pagodas around the world as well as to spread peace through action by going "out among the people" on peace walks where he would walk for many miles and chant "namu myoho rengue kyo."  Fujii believed that chanting it is a way to our Buddha nature.

http://www.sgi.org/about-us/nam-myoho-renge-kyo.html

The ride has larger scale implications than for the native people's culture alone. The ride is a ride for world peace, for healing of all divisions that may or may not lead to violence. The descendants of the Massacre at Wounded Knee are intimately familiar with this sort of violence, and now they ride as an expression to heal these sorts of cultural divisions.. As members of our own spiritual and cultural traditions, the allies of the ride are a representation of that healing. We will be walking behind the riders for the two weeks with intentions only to walk, and while walking to pray deeply for healing for the world and for all hearts of all people to welcome in peace and love so we may all live in the harmony we have originated from and since forgotten.

We are welcoming any and all intentions or prayers that may carry with us as we walk. There will be nothing but time to pray, and we would be delighted to bring into this powerful prayer experience any people, places, events that could use some prayer power. Distance healing is now accepted in the American Journal of Medicine as an effective healing modality. The healing energy of this event will be strong and I would like to invite all needs for healing or prayer to be part of it and reap the benefits. Let me know if there is maybe a name we could hold in our hearts or if you want to send a symbolic representation of your intention. On the same note, we would really appreciate it if you wouldn't mind holding all the riders and walkers in your hearts during this time as well.

The conditions during the walk have potential to reach 80 below with wind chill.

Prayer Ties in four colors/directions of the Lakota Medicine Wheel will be on Peace Walk...