There is a caravan of support, trucks and trailers, cars, and vans, a community that travels, carrying food and bedding, tack and support for the riders and horses. The two-week experience builds relationships across communities, reservations, and internationally as European riders often attend the ride in coalition. Riders come from as far as the Czech Republic and Korea. Together, everyone does their part to facilitate this physically challenging memorial, embracing tradition and spiritual connection.
It’s a 300-mile trek into history that is as much a contemporary tradition as remembrance. Riders come and go, children grow up on the ride, and while this ride only happens once a year, the experience runs deep in the lives of those who participate.
Learn more online:
www.300-miles.org
About the author: Ken Marchionno is an artist and educator who lives in Los Angeles, California. His work has been published and exhibited throughout the world, including the Smithsonian Institute, the Song Zhuang Culture and Art Festival in China, and the US embassy in Prague, the Czech Republic. Ken has photographed the Oomaka Tokatakiya since 2004.
Top left; Cross Country to
Bridger
Top middle; Tipi and Truck
at Four Corners owned by
Amos Cook and Phillips
Bald Eagle
Top right; Family Leaving
the Wounded Knee Grave
Site
Middle left; Stormy and her
daughter
Middle center; Crossing the
Cheyenne River at Bridger
Middle right; Horses Pause
as they Cross the
Expansion Joint at the
Cheyenne River Bridge
Bottom; Cross Country to
Red Owl Springs