Uniting the nations part of 50-day ride

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Representatives from South Dakota, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan were in Saskatoon recently to generate interest for Unity Ride '96. The ride begins May 1 in Wahpeton, Sask. and ends June 20 at Grey Buffalo Horn Butte (Devil's Tower), Wyoming.

The 50-day trek on horseback is a lead-up to June 21 which has been declared World Peace and Prayer Day For Global Healing. The declaration was made in the form of a request to all nations by Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation keeper of the sacred white buffalo calf pipe for the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nation.

"This is a spiritual ride," said Peter McArthur, a horse rancher from the Pheasant Rump Reserve in southeastern Saskatchewan and one of the organizers of the event.

"We feel it is a way to unite our people through a return to our culture and ceremonies."

According to Henry Sky Water, former chief of Manitoba's Birdtail Reserve, Unity Ride '96 is the last of four rides that have taken participants across Canadian/U.S. boundaries from places like Standing Rock and Rosebud, S.D. to Birdtail, Pheasant Rump and Wahpeton.

"We are going to the extremes of Sioux territory and following routes similar to the ones our ancestors used when they travelled back and forth," he said.

Last year's ride from Pheasant Rump (Nakota) to Wahpeton (Dakota) was approximately 725 km long and stopped at 15 different First Nations where sweats and other ceremonies were among the activities. It united the Nakota, Ojibway, Cree, and Dakota.

Organizers see Unity Ride '96 as a fulfilment of a prophecy that was given following the massacre at Wounded Knee, S.D. in 1890. The prophecy said that for six generations the people would suffer, but that the seventh generation would rise again.

The seventh generation is here, " said Gary Silk from Standing Rock, S.D. Silk organized the first rides in 1986 to 1989 after visions he saw during a sundance in 1980. "I saw our people coming back together," Silk recalls. "I saw the red man reunited."

Only a handful of riders participated in the first ride in 1993, but with each successive year the number of riders has grown.

"Many people join just for a little ways," said Silk, "maybe from one reservation to the next. We don't know how many will go the whole distance on this one, but by the time the ride gets to Devil's Tower we hope there will be at least 300 people. There could be 2,000. People from all over the world have been calling."

Silk, Sky Water, and McArthur have participated in all of the previous rides. So has Francher Kennedy and a number of others. Each one admits being powerfully impacted by the spirituality of the event.

"Being on the ride taught me things about my culture I could never have learned on the reserve," Kennedy said. "I've learned respect for Elders and respect for mother earthI've learned about the sacred pipe, and our relatives in North and South Dakota. I've also gotten a different look at the youth situation on reserves and in urban settings. Now I have something positive to tell the young people."

Participants in the ride are required to provide their own horses (some are available upon request through McArthur) and personal equipment including a tent or canvas bedroll and sleeping bag. They are also responsible for the horse's feeding, watering and grooming as well as for blood tests and a certified veterinarian's certificate of health, both of which are essential if the animal is to cross the border.

Anyone may join up. Previous riding skill is not a necessity, and there are no stipulations about the sort of horse required. One man made the journey from Pheasant Rump to Wahpeton last year on a Shetland pony.

McArthur said anyone willing to lend horses for the ride should contact him.

"We have experienced and qualified trainers who can work with them."

Financial donations are also very welcome and can be made to the Unity Ride '96 Fund through the Royal Bank in Carlyle, Sask. For further information contact McArthr (306) 462-2002 or Sky Water (204) 568-4682.