On the Trail to Wounded Knee: The Big Foot Memorial Ride
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Le Querrec, Guy / Harrison, Jim / Rochard, Jean, PUBLISHER: Lyons Press, In , after the assassination of Sitting Bull, his friend, Chief Big Foot -- denounced as an agitaong>toong>r by the government -- decided ong>toong> seek refuge ong>withong> another Sioux chief, Red Cloud. Big Foot, seventy-years old and suffering from pneumonia, gathered his tribe of mostly women, children, and the elderly, and set out for the long journey that would take them ong>toong> Pine Ridge. Just twenty miles short of their destination, federal soldiers captured Big Foot and his followers, imprisoning them at Wounded Knee. The next day, December 29, the 7th Cavalry exterminated every man, woman, and child. More than 180 Sioux died there that day. In , ong>toong> honor what remains the symbol of the Indian genocide, members of the Sioux nation vowed ong>toong> follow the trail of their ancesong>toong>rs. On their last journey in , the 100th anniversary of the massacre, phoong>toong>grapher Guy Le Querrec followed the trail ong>withong> them. During bitter cold December weather, ong>withong> temperatures below zero for days on end, Le Querrec shot these gritty, yet compelling images of the Lakota Sioux horsemen. In the words of Jim Harrison, Le Querrec has "the splendid but ruthless eye of the tragedian." "On the Trail ong>toong> Wounded Knee" is both a tribute ong>toong> the massacred Lakota Sioux peoples and a cry for justice, and as Harrison observes, "these phoong>toong>graphs will light a fire in your spirit, a fire which will last forever, if you are a human being worthy of this name."