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Riders Circle Up at the Wounded Knee Massacre Site
Yukonna Henry Rides Strong
300 Miles to Wounded Knee
The Oomaka Tokatakiya is a nearly 300-mile memorial horseback ride. The ride starts on December 15th, at the site where the Lakota Chief Sitting Bull was killed, and traces the trail taken to join Chief Spotted Elk, to warn him of impending danger. The journey then follows Spotted Elk’s effort to reach the safety of Chief Red Cloud in Pine Ridge, shadowed by the Calvary,
and ends on the December 29th, at the site where the Wounded Knee Massacre took hundreds of lives in 1890.
The details of the massacre are horrific, hundreds of unarmed people were shot, children hunted down for miles, many of the wounded left to freeze. This ride is taken on by the ancestors of those who lost their lives, and the difficulty, the miles, the weather, affords respect for those willing to endure.
Starting at Sitting Bull Camp, most of the first riders come from up north; Rock Creek, Canon Ball and Fort Yates. There are usually 15 – 20 riders in the beginning, and at the halfway point, the numbers grow to around 45 – 65 riders. The halfway point is Bridger, where riders from Sitting Bull’s Camp met Spotted Elk, and together they headed southwest toward Pine Ridge. Here the numbers swell to over 100, as people join in along the way. By the time they reach Wounded Knee, there will be over 300.