The film “Dakota 38” will be screened at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct.17, in the Great Room (Room 100) of McNeely Hall on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
Following the screening, Jim Miller and Alberta Iron Cloud Miller of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation will lead a discussion of the Dakota history and spirituality introduced in the film.
Riders on a 330-mile trip from South Dakota to Minnesota.
The program is sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and the Department of Justice and Peace Studies at St. Thomas in collaboration with the Healing Minnesota Stories initiative promoted by the St. Paul Interfaith Network. It is free and open to the public.
In 2005, Jim Miller had a dream about riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Prior to waking, he found himself at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. Miller said that, at the time, he knew nothing of the largest mass execution in U.S. history, which was ordered by Abraham Lincoln on Dec. 26, 1862.
"When you have dreams, you know when they come from the creator,” Miller said. “As any recovered alcoholic, I made believe that I didn't get it. I tried to put it out of my mind, yet it's one of those dreams that bothers you night and day."
Four years later, after embracing the message of the dream, Miller and a group of riders retraced the 330-mile route of his dream on horseback from Lower Brule, S. D., to Mankato, Minn., to arrive at the site of the hanging on the anniversary of the execution.
“Dakota 38,” which documents their journey, is a story of hope and healing as they confront the painful history it represents and the plight of their communities today.
