Prayer for Today

Morning prayers to your journey. As you ride the ancestor are proud and healing with your medicine. To the beautiful horses that are in this journey keep safe and strong. Prayers to everyone.
Nena Valenzuela

The page today will be mostly the messages that come in from you, our members. We have had so many this year, that I think I should make a page now for them. There will no doubt another one will be made at the end of the Ride. I know a lot of you don't return to the group once the Ride has ended. We understand that, but just to let you know we are here all year round.
I have added over 100 posts today.

The Ride will go 25 miles to Courtland today. A total of 302 miles

Conversations

Danielle White
I hope the horses and Riders all have covers/protection from Cold.

Gloria Hazell Derby
Admin
Danielle White The horses are always cared for before the Riders. They come first on this Ride. Each night they are housed in a warm safe place with enough food. Then the Riders go to their place of safety and warmth. When I went out with them on the Ride years ago I was really impressed the way the horses are top priority to everyone. You don't need to worry!

BearPaw WhiteEagle Shields
Tom Wirt thank you

Gloria Hazell Derby
Admin
BearPaw WhiteEagle Shields 12/26: The Ceremony always starts around 10 am which is the time the hangings were in 1862.

Gloria Hazell Derby
Admin
Wind Rider They will be leaving Land of Memories Park to arrive at Reconciliation park for Ceremonies to begin at 10 am. (The time of the hangings in 1862) This may be a few minutes earlier or later depending on the weather at the time. Hope this helps.

Wind Rider
Gloria Hazell Derby thank you!

Donna Tatting
Is anyone welcome to attend?

Gloria Hazell Derby
Admin
Donna Tatting Yes of course! There are usually a load of people there watching every year. Not sure about this year due to Covid, but yes you are welcome to go and watch. It is wonderful watching all of the horses riding in along the road all together!

Tom Wirt
Admin
Donna Tatting be sure to leave plenty of time before 10 to get parked, it's tight. If you can walk ok, try to park a little away since many elders and handicapped attend. It is an important, sacred time for them as well as the Riders. A blanket or robe is a good idea along with lots of warm clothing and boots.
Donna Tatting if your early, (yes), there is lots to do, read, pray for in Reconciliation Park, where the Riders enter and the ceremonies, prayers and songs take place.

Kari Jones
I always bring a thermos with hot coffee or cocoa.... Helps to keep me warm.

A full size model of Pipestone Quarry, in the Pipestone Monument.
This shows the amount of Quartzite that has to be removed before the actual Pipestone can be reached. The bucket shown is usual for a quarrier to have to lift a whole lot of these during a day, to put elsewhere next to the quarry out of the way. The tools in the model are typical old fashioned hand tools that the quarrying is done with. You cannot use any motorised tools as they will crack the Pipestone. So everything has to be done very delicately when you get near to the Pipestone. The darker red part of the quarry is where the Pipestone (Catlinite) is located. It can take months to reach that stone, and so not a lot of it can be pulled out each year.
The weather in Minnesota plays a big part in the quarrying as well. In winter you cannot quarry. Too much snow. In summer it gets too hot in a quarry to be able to stay down there for long. Some quarriers set up a shade over the pit to enable them to be able to work down there. In the spring the snow is melting and so the quarries get flooded and pumps have to be used if people want to try to quarry. The best time to quarry is the Fall, especially September, it becomes cooler and enables the quarrier to work easier.
My late husband Chuck Derby, had ancestors that were affected by the 1862 History. They used to come to Pipestone every year from the Upper Sioux to quarry for stone to allow them to make Pipes for the Tribe. In 1862 they had just finished quarrying and were heading back home, when they saw smoke on the horizon. They thought maybe it was from a wild fire,and continued on, finding out that the 1862 fighting had begun. They then buried the stone that they had quarried, and went and packed up and went to Canada, returning a number of years later to their homeland.
Chuck's Grandparents (Moses Crow and Estella Pearsall) met at the Pipestone Indian School. They eloped and eventually returned, becoming the first Dakota people to reside in Pipestone. His Grand-father worked at the Indian school in Mainterence I believe, and so did Chuck's dad when he and his mother got married. From the stories I have been told I don't believe that the school was like those we are hearing about now, it was more a school to teach students a skill they could use to make a wage from. Of course those living in Pipestone also learned the skill of Quarrying and making Pipes from their elders. This has been handed down through the years.

Another story came in this year about the LaBatte family. I include it here as well.

LaBatte's history:

Brian LaBatte Sr
Francois LaBathe (LaBatte) was my grandpa. Mary LaBatte (Iron Shield) was my grandma.
A little history
In 1862, Philip's father owned a store at the Lower Sioux Agency across the river from Morton, MN. Philip and his family lived in the store. Samuel Pond, a missionary wrote, "The trader's children were the aristocracy of the land. They considered it beneath them to engage in the pursuits of the Indians or in the employment of common laborers. Their position seems to render it fit that they live in better style than the Indians and voyageurs. As a class, they were placed in circumstances very unfavorable to the cultivation of frugal and industrious habits." As will be seen later, this wasn't true of Philip.
The summer of 1862 was very hot. It was the 2nd year in a row that the Indian's crops had failed. The winter had been harsh, the snow deep and the Indians couldn't travel to where the game was. They were starving. Their babies were dying. The annuity payment was late and was expected any day. The trader's warehouses were full of food, but they refused to give any to the Indians on credit. Francois's boss, ordered him not to give the Indians any food. If he did he would be fined.
On the morning of August 18, 1862, an old Indian by the name of Iron Shields went about warning the whites to flee. He may have been Philip's grandfather. Francois and his family heard the warning and maybe didn't believe it. A few minutes later Francois was shot in his store. Philip may have seen his father killed. Philip's mother said, "After he (Francois) was killed and I dragged my children out from the store and run away amongst the Indians. They took everything out and set the store on fire so everything is lost."
The conflict continued for 6 weeks. After the surrender of the hostile and friendly Indians all the men were taken in chains back to the Lower Agency along with the women and children. The trials were held there. Those found guilty were taken to Mankato. The others, including Philip's family, were taken to Fort Snelling. It was a terrible time of
harassment and hardship.
In May of 1863, Philip saw about 1300 Indians leave the enclosure at Fort Snelling to board a steamboat to be transported to the Crow Creek reservation in Dakota Territory far from their homes. Conditions on the steamboats were so bad, that about 300 died before reaching Crow Creek.
About 137 men, women, and children remained behind at Fort Snelling. These were the military scouts and their families. They had opposed the conflict and had saved many lives. Philip's Uncle Joseph Iron shields was a scout for General Henry Sibley. Bishop Henry Whipple, Alexander Faribault and Henry Sibley successfully argued that some of these Indians (including Mary and Philip) should be moved to Faribault, MN. to live on Alexander Faribault's land.
The years at Faribault were hard for the Indians. The whites in town did not want them there and would not employ them. Bishop Whipple and Faribault furnished most of their support and continued to seek government aid for them. In June 1866 Shubael Adams wrote about the Faribault Indians. "On the whole it is quite apparent that these people are now living upon and must continue to depend on the charity of Mr. Faribault (who can not afford such liberality) or the benevolence of others, unless the government assists them. The neat and tidy appearance of their lodges, their attempts with their scanty means to keep up the show of civilized life in their deep poverty are evidence that they have seen better days. They are a civilized Christian people."
But in 1867 the Faribault Indians were still living in their teepees and hadn't received new clothing or blankets.
Philip probably received a good education from the Episcopal schools that Bishop Whipple established there.
In 1867 some of the families chose to go the new Santee reservation at Niobrara, Nebraska. Mary and Philip stayed behind with about 35 others. Sometime in the 1870s the ones who remained obtained title to small farming lots. Philip took care of horses and drove a team for Alexander Faribault's oldest son Oliver. Philip probably learned much about horses: picking good horses, caring for them

The Derby's and the LaBatte's are today cousins

Courtland

The Riders will be staying in the Courtland Community Center
300 Railroad St,
The Horses will again be at the Courtland Farm
Hay again donated by Mankato Saddle Club

Breakfast will be made by Katie Boone
Lunch will be with the Chuck Wagon
Dinner will be made by Franess Keeliher
All three meals will be in Courtland

Thanks to all who have helped in the area.