Gifts For The Chief

Since we have been invited to run with the Lakota, I remember my father telling me that it wouldn't be proper manners to show up empty handed. Hell, that was all the way back when the American Indian Movement came through this part of Western Pennsylvania through the "Free Peltier" Campaign around '77. Leonard Peltier, as it turns out, was arrested for his part in the 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation, that's right, the same one we now ride for on the Hoka Hey.
I was in awe of these cats with their traditional dress and teepee community. When my dad took me too meet the chief and his braves we presented him with fresh trout that we had caught for that purpose. I have always felt like the lessons he taught me along the way only come to me now as I need them. So in that same tradition I have set a little time aside each week to collect trout from the stream near my house to make the same offering of my own to the chief that is responsible for this run. On this day, the man upstairs saw fit to provide me with these two beautiful examples of Western Pennsylvania trout that I may find myself in their good graces. Hoka Hey baby!

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