Wind Cave, Wounded Knee, and wounded pride

Custer to Hot Springs, South Dakota Saturday, August 7, 2021

Today couldn’t have been easier, 34 miles down the Mickelson rail trail and good roads, almost all downhill, and with a tailwind. So why didn’t I feel better?

For weeks I have been talking about, and apprehensive about, visiting the site of the Wounded Knee massacre, the heartbreaking coda of our military action against the Lakota People, on December 29, 1890. Apart from slavery and the Jim Crow era, this is possibly the most shameful episode in our history. I just can’t stop thinking about it, of course have read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, seen the PBS and other videos, and after finishing my Crazy Horse audiobook, have just completed American Carnage. No, not that American Carnage, the earlier book, the most detailed and definitive recounting of the massacre, and the grievous trail of deception, coercion, humiliation, and treachery that led up to it. That Sitting Bull had been killed just 14 days before, that all three tragedies—Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the massacre—were precipitated by bungled attempts to bring the Lakota into custody; and that the inciting event was the poignant and heartrending Ghost Dance, a plaintive call for a messiah to restore to the First Nations what was taken from them; it was all just too much. The dance was beautiful and harmless, but it unnerved the soldiers and settlers, and became the spark that ignited the powder keg.

Beyond the highpoints, a theme of this trip is to visit the worst as well as the best of America, that only by acknowledging, by paying tribute, by owning the harm we have done, can we begin the healing. The Germans have done this, to some extent, with the Holocaust, and are much farther down this road than we are. Maybe it’s all part of my grandiose self-delusion, that by eschewing fossil fuel on this trip I can combat global warming, that by visiting these sites I can help kickstart the healing. Silly perhaps, OK silly definitely, but it’s been an engine of motivation keeping me going.

So why the apprehension? This one has me creeped out. It will take me three days out of my way—I’ve blown days before taking zeros and zigzagging all over creation waiting for Charles Mound to open up—but now I’m feeling the pressure of the approaching winter, of getting through the Rockies and Cascades before then. The facilities are extremely sparse along the way, after reserving that B&B I discovered it has no running water, and the idea of doing these sweaty days without my nightly shower is daunting. Indeed, the heat and winds look unfavorable, as does the road quality exiting into Nebraska. I seem to be developing my own wounded knee, the DJD that dogged me on the Camino has been mercifully quiet until that 11 mile hike up Black Elk Peak on Thursday. Finally, and I’m embarrassed to admit it, the common practice of dogs roaming free on the reservations has me anxious.

My whining seems ludicrous compared to the real dangers and suffering of 1890, but tonight I’ve made the agonizing decision to skip Wounded Knee. Better part of valor and all that. Just getting through the semi-arid desolation of Nebraska and northeast Colorado will be challenging enough. Wounded pride (this is the first major stop I have had to give up) aside, I don’t want to jeopardize the whole trip to tag this post.

There was a bright side to this Debbie Downer day. My route took me through Wind Cave National Park

Only my second national park, Isle Royale was my first. I didn’t go to the caves themselves, we had been there in 2005 and they were cool, but there are more impressive caverns elsewhere. Just passing through, however, I was able to see bison, prairie dogs, and untouched prairie.

Randy had suggested I ride through the heart of Custer State Park, where there are large herds of bison, but included a link to his own adventures there.http://theentertainernewspaper.com/writers/brich/feb06.html Impressive story, but poor salesmanship, in terms of getting me to go there. I’ll have trouble enough with the bison at the Nebraska highpoint.

Distance 34 miles, 4,945 total. Time 5 hours with stops. Elevation gain 650 feet

©️ 2021 Scott Luria