They ride to remember the 38 who were hanged

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Five men brave the cold Sunday afternoon on the second day of the Dakota 38 Horse Ride west of Wessington Springs on Highway 38. The riders are, from left, Ken Four Clouds, Mason Red Wing, Richard Milda, Christian Lengkeek and his father, Peter Lengkeek. Milda is from the Crow Agency in Montana. The other riders are all from Fort Thompson. (Austin Kaus/Republic Photo)

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The snow fell and the wind blew, but the weather wasn’t enough to halt a dozen horse riders focused on honoring men killed in the largest mass execution in American history.

“The weather doesn’t stop us,” said Peter Lengkeek, one of the riders and Crow Creek tribal council member.

Lengkeek and others started the sixth annual Dakota 38 Horse Ride in Fort Thompson on Saturday. The group traveled to a point eight miles east of Gann Valley on Saturday. Five riders rode to Woonsocket on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon, six riders from Sisseton joined the group.

The ride was started by Jim Miller in 2005. Miller was inspired to start the ride after having a dream where he rode 330 miles on horseback to a river in Mankato where he saw 38 of his own ancestors hanged.

Miller later learned that he had dreamt of the 38 Dakota people who were hanged on Dec. 26, 1862. It is the largest mass execution in American history. The execution came in the wake of the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862, an extended battle between American Indians, white settlers and United States soldiers in August and September 1862.

While 38 American Indians were executed, 265 others who were charged in the attacks were pardoned. Almost a third of them died in captivity in Illinois.

It was a grim period in area history, with historical accounts indicating that between 500 and 900 white settlers and soldiers were killed and more than 100 Indians died as well in the fighting. Battles between whites and Natives in the region continued for two decades.

The Indians were removed from western Minnesota after the event and forcibly relocated to Fort Snelling in Minnesota and later to sites in Dakota Territory and Nebraska, where hundreds died of disease and malnutrition. Powwows are held in Mankato each fall to commemorate the events and the fallen. The site where the scaffold stood is now set aside as Reconciliation Park.

Lengkeek and others plan to arrive at the hanging site in Mankato on Dec. 26, the 148th anniversary of the execution.

“You’ve heard Yosemite Sam say ‘I’ll hit you so hard your grandchildren will feel it’,” Lengkeek said. “That’s what happened to us.”

But while Lengkeek acknowledges the pain caused by the hanging, he said the ride is designed to bring reconciliation between the two races.

“The past is the past,” Lengkeek said.

“Let’s move forward and come together and embrace each other.”

While the weather didn’t stop the ride, it did cause a small injury Saturday when a horse slipped on ice. The rider was slightly injured.

In the spirit of dedication and honor, Lengkeek said the rider didn’t let the injury stop him from continuing the ride.

“He jumped back on the horse after he stopped the bleeding,” Lengkeek said.

The ride is a powerful one for Lengkeek, who said the trip is also designed to bring awareness to the suffering of children on the Crow Creek reservation

“It’s very powerful and deeply spiritual,” Lengkeek said. “That whole time we’re riding, we’re in deep prayer.”

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