CONNECTING INDIGENOUS YOUTH WITH THEIR TRIBAL HORSE CULTURE, SAGE TO SADDLE HONORS AND CELEBRATES THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF NATIVE AMERICAN LIFE.
In the summer of 2018, Nate Bressler and Stan Brewer began a conversation that would last four weeks, a marathon brainstorm session between the photographer and Oglala Lakota horse racing legend that covered all things regarding the plight facing Pine Ridge Reservation youth — the lack of resources, the high dropout, unemployment, suicide rates — as well as the many opportunities to enrich their lives in meaningful ways, culminating in a plan for a horse riding program that would be available to Res youth in need of connection, guidance, and inspiration.
While Sage To Saddle worked to open an indoor riding arena for regular horse programs during winter, the group also been organizing youth participation in weekend group trail rides and longer yearly memorial rides during which Brewer and Bressler, accompanied by community leaders and elders, guide kids of all ages on horseback journeys through wild landscapes that tests their skills and endurance, while also allowing for plenty of freeplay and exploration. These are an extension really of trail rides Brewer participated in as a kid under the mentorship of his uncle, William “Shorty” Brewer, an elder Pine Ridge horseman who has been working with youth and organizing rides since the early nineties, including a multi-day memorial ride to Little Bighorn that honors the victory of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull over Custer’s U.S. 7th Cavalry – a major defeat over the U.S. army and one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains tribes to preserve their ancestral way of life.
“I've been going to Little Bighorn since I was seven years old,” says Brewer. “I've been going for a long time and seeing my uncle do it for years, just bringing in kids who wanted to go, who didn't have the opportunity, things like that. So I always wanted to do that for people also, to return the favor that was given to me, because if it wasn't for my uncle I wouldn't have had the opportunity either.”
“These memorial rides have been going on for some years,” adds Bressler,” but due to lack of funding and lack of support, participation has been really dwindling. As Stan says, when these rides started, there'd be over 200 participants, and now it's lucky if they're 75. So that was kind of our starting point, getting people involved in these important rides.”
Since getting involved, the Little Bighorn ride has evolved into a week-long affair, with participants traveling nearly 30 miles per day on horseback, until arriving to the battlefield memorial, where they charge the final hill at full speed and then sit among elders as they tell the story of the battle and the significance of their continued presence on the land.
Of course, coordinating riding events with over 70 people is no small task. Brewer often takes 20 to 30 of his own horses for the kids to ride, as well as trailers, fuel, food, and animal feed. Nevertheless, with a little logistical ingenuity and luck – and plenty of help from Brewer’s wife Elle, and other family and friends – these rides become experiences where lifelong memories and relationships are forged.
In January 2023, years ahead of their initial projections, Sage To Saddle was able to open the doors of its indoor riding arena, providing local youth with daily opportunities for horse riding and animal husbandry during the dreary and dangerous “suicide season” of Winter. That same summer, they did their first “Sobriety Ride,” another group ride that evolved from one started by Shorty Brewer and friends in the ‘90s, but which died out nearly a decade ago.
“Once we settled in to doing all this stuff, I went to Nate and discussed bringing back the Sobriety ride because it felt like it had good intentions and good purpose,” says Brewer.
Now a three-day affair with nearly 100 kids participating, Brewer describes the ride as one that “memorializes what drugs and addiction can do to one’s family and community, while kind of celebrating the power of being sober.” The ride culminates with the group entering town on the first day of the Oglala Lakota Nation Fair & Rodeo, considered the biggest week of the year.
“Its a lot fun,” says Bressler, “and it means a lot to the reservation and the town of Pine Ridge to have a group of young riders come through like that. You know, the horse is so symbolic and means so much, you can see it on the faces of the kids and the elders and other people watching, it's just a super powerful experience.”
Though November is usually a slow month for Sage To Saddle, a time to focus on cattlework and to prepare for harsher climes, Brewer and Bressler are planning for a long and arduous group ride at the end of December to commemorate the massacre of 300 Lakota people by U.S. soldiers near Wounded Knee creek on December 29, 1890. Known as the Bigfoot Ride, named after the chief of those killed, Brewer will be leading a group of kids on a 120 mile ride in the dead of winter to commemorate this historical event.
“During the ride we just kind of focus on remembering our ancestors,” says Brewer, “how they were getting marched all that distance on foot, men and women and children marched on foot as they were getting forced into the reservation.”
The Bigfoot Ride, Little Bighorn ride, and others like it are beautiful examples of the ways in which connecting youth with these powerful animals can serve as a conduit for heritage and identity, capable of engaging them in both the tragedies and triumphs of their shared history, instilling within them a sense of belonging, pride, and hope that seems as necessary and natural as riding a horse.
“That's what it's all about,” says Brewer. “Be proud, because we're still here as a people. The U.S. government tried to kill our people off, to get rid of our whole nation, our whole history, everything. But, we're still here. We're still celebrating, and we're still honoring our past and our present and our future with these rides.
