Seth (Iyokpiya Kaga Sni) Eastman prepped for this year’s Dakota 38 + 2 Ride with his community deep in mourning over the November 22 mass shooting that resulted in the death of 4 Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal members and left one badly wounded. During his preparations for the ride he envisioned going to that house and taking a spirit horse there. He said he was told by Jim Miller the founder of the ride, “In the Dakota way the spirit horse will gather whatever spirit is left there.”

The Dakota 38 + 2 Ride was begun in 2005 by Jim Miller from a vision he had to commemorate and promote healing and reconciliation over the 1862 mass hanging of 38 (and later two more) Dakota men ordered by President Lincoln in Mankato, Minnesota the site of the largest mass hanging in U.S. History. The Dakota men were being executed on December 26, the day after Christmas for a Dakota uprising when the United States did not honor treaties signed with four Dakota bands giving up 35 million acres of land which left their families facing starvation.