Unsung Native America - REBELMANN to join Dakota 38 Memorial Ride - A 330-Mile Journey by Horseback

CHICAGO - Dec. 4, 2014 - PRLog -- The history of the Native American is very selective, especially when it's ugly.  And ugly is an understatement.  We have all been indoctrinated into the big-band, musical themed "cowboys and Indians" movie mantra.  You know those movies - The ones of the beautiful Native Americans getting gloriously killed by the brave cowboy guiding his chuckwagon across the prairie; his bonneted bride and blue-eyed children bouncing in the back as he valiantly guides them to a new life in the West. He single-handidly kills the mocha-skinned Natives and their families; and somehow, the whole scene feels a lot better as the big-band, feel-good music plays on in the background. American history - glorified.  American history - selectively taught.  American history - now made "civilized" by that Marlboro-looking man of a cowboy.

THAT contradictory word - "civilized."  The "civilized" systematic killing, and attempted mass genocide, of the indigenous peoples of these United States. That IS the Truth.  Simply put - The Ugly Truth.  The untold story - of the real history - of the Native American, not taught in the history books in order to create a backstory of glorified greatness, by the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, who like many other past presidents, systematically tried to exterminate, yet failed, the original peoples of these United States.

There is one caveat.  They are still here ..... and alive ..... The Native American.

The First Nation peoples of these United States are not the playbook of mascots Washington "Redskins" owner, Dan Snyder, celebrates like a smorgasbord of homegoods, where back-in-the-day a "bloody heathen scalp" or "Redskin" fetched a remarkable $200.  They are instead, a celebrated people who strive to keep their culture alive, along with protecting the very land their ancestors valiantly died for.

The removal of the Dakota Indians from Minnesota and the upper midwest, in what was, and still is, basically a race war, has left many Native Americans traumatized by these acts of "civilized" behavior. In fact, The Indian Removal Act, later signed by Andrew Jackson in 1830, would further attempt to repress and silence the indigenous peoples of the United States.  In order to annihilate the Native American, the Dakotas were exiled from the Fort Snelling Concentration Camp in Minnesota and marched, or put on cattle trains and river boats, to the Crow Creek Concentration Camp in South Dakota, where bands of the Oceti Sakowin remain to this day. (Yes, you are familiar with this story - the attempted-genocidal, grotesque treatment of the Native American is the model Adolph Hitler used for the widely known attempted genocide of the Jewish people - the Holocaust.)

The Dakota 38 is just one of those selective instances American history has tried to forget.  The very public, simultaneous, mass hanging of 38 Native Americans, for refusing to eat grass and endure mass tribal starvation on their encroached reservation lands, is discussed only in very hushed circles, is not taught in schools, and certainly is not a plaquared moment at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Springfield, Illinois. And certainly not discussed is the digging up of the bodies to use as scientific experiments shortly after the execution.

But the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires, do have Mr. Jim Miller, a U.S. Vietnam Veteran and descendent of the Dakotas themselves.  Mr. Miller first organized the annual journey from South Dakota back to their original homelands in Minnesota in 2005. The Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride came to Mr. Miller, who had no prior knowledge of the mass execution, through a series of visions and dreams. The arduous 330-mile memoriam ride, via horseback, commences on December 10th, on the banks of the Missouri River at the Lower Brule' Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Sixteen days later, a ceremonial ending of the ride occurs at the hanging site in Mankato, Minnesota, 10 AM, December 26th.  The mass execution of the Dakota 38 still leaves Native America searching for healing and reconciliation.

It is a ride of remembrance, healing, and honor for the descendents of those who died protecting their women, children, homes, and the very land they were born upon. The Dakota 38 should move all of us to a conversation. A conversation about healing, unity, education, and reconciliation. The Native American deserves their history be told, in full truth, no matter how ugly history has treated them.  It is time we celebrate America's indigenous people and culture, and set free America's 500 Nations.

They were not just born IN America. They ARE America.

[Writer's Note:  REBELMANN's knowledge of the Dakota 38 came about after visiting Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Wounded Knee in South Dakota, 2012.  The 3 teen brothers will travel to the Lower Brule' Indian Reservation on December 8th to participate in the 330-mile horseback ride to Mankato, Minnesota. Inspired by their story, the teen rock band of brothers wrote their song "INDIAN LAND," and plan on releasing the debut rock single in 2015.]

The Dakota 38 Ride is in need of Donations

Cash donations can be made via check, credit card, Paypal or wire transfer to:

The American Indian Institute - Dakota 38 Ride

502 West Mendenhall Street

Bozeman, MT 59715

For details, contact Gloria Hazell Derby at: gloria_hd@hotmail.com