Pilgrimage: Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home Again, a Memoir (Memoirs of a Thoughtful Traveler Book 5)

 

Pilgrimage takes the reader on a journey that starts with a motorcycle trip and then detours back through the history of the Indian Wars and the forced removal of Native Americans from Indiana. It leads the reader to the high Himalayas of India and Nepal, and back home to Indiana. The journey ends where we all begin.

The author planned to whoop it up with biker friends at the Bacchanalia of Sturgis Bike Week in South Dakota. Instead, a spontaneous pilgrimage to Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation leads to confrontation with a troubling family history. One ancestor fought in the Indian Wars and died from a wound sustained at the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee. Another helped the last of the Pottawatomie avoid starvation during a harsh winter in Indiana. Prior to his pilgrimage to Wounded Knee Rasley's only personal connection to Native Americans was a faux one for playing on his high school sports teams, the Goshen Redskins.

The journey arcs across the Pacific to the Himalayas. In a remote mountain village Jeff Rasley found a community much like the traditional Sioux of the Black Hills. Rasley explains how the Rai of Nepal, however, recognized the danger to their communities and successfully fought off British invaders. Jeff's work with Basa village is not about atonement for the near genocide of Native Americans. It is about reconciliation between white Westerners and indigenous people through recognition of our common humanity and respect for cultural differences.

"It's wackier, sexier, and even more thoughtful than Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

Other books by Jeff Rasley -
GODLESS - Living a Valuable Life beyond Beliefs makes the case that beliefs divide us, but values unite us. So we should fight religious and political violence with positive values.
Bringing Progress to Paradiseis a real adventure story combined with an uplifting message about the strongest and kindest people in the world.  Check out its sequel, Light in the Mountains.
To understand where 3 Cups of Tea went wrong, read India - Nepal Himalayas in the Moment.
Want to get out of the snow and mountains and onto sandy beaches and swaying palms, check out the lyrical Islands in my Dreams, a Memoir.
If you enjoy sports action, history, humor, and romance or the sex/drugs/rock 'n roll cultural revolution of the 60s, check out MONSTERS OF THE MIDWAY - Love and Redemption in  College Football.
For a change of pace curl up with False Prophet, a Legal Thriller, romantic mystery and inspirational tale based on a legal case Rasley handled in his Indianapolis law practice.