21st Annual Blanket and Toy Drive for Native Americans seeks to double their donations on December 3

Tucked away on the windswept high plains of South Dakota, off the beaten path, dwellings dot the flat horizon, scattered across a landscape scarred by poverty and rich beyond imagination in history and heritage. And pride. And perseverance. And some of the darkest hours in American history.

It is here that the White Plume family has become a living cultural resource, tioyospaye (extended family) to hundreds of Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Indian people who work to preserve their spiritual, cultural, physical connection to the land, the sky, the water, the plant nations, the animal nations, the ancestors.

They are traditional people, and they walk in the modern world as well, utilizing Facebook to communicate with the world, speaking both English and Lakota. They are involved with nearly every effort to keep traditional ways alive and to teach them to the next generation. And for about a decade, they have agreed to accept and redistribute blankets, toys and warm clothing items coming from an annual gathering that has taken place all but one year since the non profit group Redbird began the drive, in Simi Valley, in 1994.

The White Plume family hails from Manderson, South Dakota, and items shipped to them from the blanket drive radiate out from their rural location to other remote Native American households. There's usually somewhere between 60 and 100 new, lightweight, washable blankets and a few less stuffed toys tucked within their folds. Occasionally there's some really nice winter wear - ski jackets, brand new or worn once or twice - squeezed into the boxes. Melba Kistner and her friends, most from Moorpark, California, have often created crocheted blankets specifically for this event.

This year Redbird hopes to double the number of donations so that another location can be included in the gifting - the community of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and the riders of the Oomaka Tokatakiya, most of them youth, who will begin a journey on December 15 that they will remember for the whole of their lives. The journey - made on horseback - will take them across South Dakota to Wounded Knee, and depending on winter's temperament, it can be a very challenging ride.

Oomaka Tokatakiya means “the future generations”. The ride starts on December 15th, at the site where the Lakota Indian Chief Sitting Bull was killed, and traces the trail taken by some of his tribe to join Chief Big Foot. It goes on to follow Big Foot's effort to reach Chief Red Cloud in Pine Ridge. And ends on the December 29th at the site where the Wounded Knee Massacre took hundreds of truly innocent lives in 1890.

One hundred years after the massacre, the Lakota performed a Wiping of the Tears Ceremony to signal the end of mourning. And in 1990, after tracing the trail for four years, the ride was meant to end.

But in 1992 the ride was restarted and aimed squarely at the future. While the ride is still in homage to Sitting Bull, Big Foot and those who lost their lives at Wounded Knee, the ride is also meant as a cultural embrace to foster leadership qualities in the youth. Along the way, the riders experience some of what their ancestors endured by embodying an intellectual, spiritual, and physical remembrance. Braving the brutal South Dakota winters, these kids, as young as seven, ride up to 35 miles in a day.

It is a life changing experience in a land criss crossed by non Indian ranchers and residents and bristling to this day with tension. When the riders have to use modern roadways and weave their way through non-Indian populated areas to follow the route and reach Wounded Knee, they are not always welcome. And it becomes part of their understanding of today's world, and the world of their ancestors...not really so different in many ways.

The pay-off is hard to measure in words. It has brought youth that were drinking, doing drugs and leaving their traditional ways behind back to a spiritual core. In a land with the highest unemployment and suicide rate in the nation, it brings hope. Integrity. It is to walk - or more accurately ride - in two worlds...to touch the past, embrace the present, and be the future.

This year Redbird's drive has an ambitious goal. If the Native American and environmental non-profit can keep both trucks running, they'll be showing up to the drive with two 1990 Suburbans, ready to be loaded down. The group seeks items in this order of priority:

New, warm, lightweight, washable blankets (for everyone); New winter gloves, socks and scarves (for the riders, and the communities); New and like-new winter coats, pants in all sizes (for everyone). They also send soft (stuffed) toys of small to medium size. Boxed toys and school supplies are given to Walking Shield, which has a reservation distribution network. Finally, but not really least, the group needs somewhere between $600.00 and $800.00 for shipping.

Everyone is welcome on December 3, with or without donations. The northern traditional drum Blue Star, which was taught their songs by the elders of the Pine Ridge reservation, will be singing songs and dancers who feel moved to honor the drum will dance. Often others - storytellers, bird singers, culture bearers from various tribes - will share knowledge, songs, dances and indigenous wisdom. It's a friendly, informal event held in the Simi Valley Town Center Mall Community Room, on the second floor in the shadow of a giant Christmas tree. It is "...a bit like coming to a community gathering on a reservation" remarked Anaquad Cobe, Anishinabe, who joined the gathering in 2015.

Those unable to attend but wishing to contribute can donate via mail (see address below), or securely via Redbird's website. Click here for Redbird's "Get Involved" page and donate securely via PayPal. Redbird is a 501(c)(3) federally recognized non profit association. To learn more about Redbird visit http://www.RedbirdsVision.org. To learn more about the Oomaka Tokatakiya (Future Generations Ride) and see more stunning photos by Ken Marchionno and his Native American journalist youth interns, visit 300-miles.org.

Mail: Redbird, P.O. Box 702, Simi Valley, CA 93062

Email: redbirds_vision@hotmail.com