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Pilgrimage: Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home Again, a Memoir (Memoirs of a Thoughtful Traveler Book 5) by [Jeff Rasley, James Rasley]

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Jeff Rasley

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

by Jeff Rasley (Author), James Rasley (Illustrator) Format: Kindle Edition

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In his 7th book Jeff Rasley continues his search to find, explore, and explain authentic community. Pilgrimage: Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home is a very personal Memoir in which the author traces his roots to the bloody massacre of the Sioux at Wounded Knee. He deconstructs a local myth of his childhood in Goshen, Indiana about an Indian attack on the town, which never occurred. And then compares his experience in working with the Rai people in the Nepal Himalayas to the genocidal treatment of the American Plains Indians by his ancestors. It's all about finding meaning in the deep connectedness of human community.

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, an 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 or 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 -
   Bringing Progress to Paradise; What I Got from Giving to a Mountain Village in Nepal describes an astounding Himalayan adventure which becomes a critical reflection on the damage charitable giving can do to the intended beneficiaries.
   The rest of the story of Basa Village is told in Light in the Mountains - Namaste, Rakshi, and Electricity in a Himalayan Village and its prequel India - Nepal Himalayas In the Moment (an honest Three Cups of Tea).
   To get out of the snow and mountains and onto sandy beaches and swaying palms, check out the lyrical Island Adventures.
   For a change of pace curl up with False Prophet.It's a romantic mystery and inspirational tale based on a case Rasley handled in his 30-year Indianapolis law practice.
   If you enjoy sports action, history, humor, romance,set during the cultural revolution of the 60s, check out MONSTERS OF THE MIDWAY 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Football.
   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.
   Hero's Journey - John Ritter, the Chip Hilton of Goshen, Indiana; a Memoir is a meditation on what makes a real hero and a nostalgic reminiscence about childhood heroes.
    Polarized in the Time of Trump mourns the unhealthy polarization of the US body politic and proposes a cure.

Print length

93 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

November 8, 2013
File size

1366 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jeff Rasley moves us into a different type of history: incidents which occurredlong ago but nevertheless retain all their relevance today. ... Jeffdiscusses his family's connection to one of the most shameful events ofAmerica's past and describes how a recent trip to South Dakota helped illuminatesome of its modern-day repercussions." Synchronized Chaos Magazine Feb. 2013 synchchaos.com/?p=7470

"I just finished reading Pilgrimage:Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home Again, a Memoir by Jeff Rasley and I agreewith him almost entirely, especially about the communalism and spiritualism ofthe Native Americans. Like me, he wonders how much better off our environmentmight be if we'd learned to live with them rather than killing them. ... Rasleydescribes his visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation, one of the bleakestplaces in the U.S. Not only is the land the Whites "gave" them some of the mostbarren I've seen, the people who live there deal with a scourge of alcoholism. ...On the whole, I appreciate his acceptance of cultures that are different fromhis own, including that of Indians, and his work to make people's lives betteron the other side of the world. I just hope that American Whites will let go ofthe assumption that the Indians' struggle ended at Wounded Knee. There arestill opportunities for redress of the wrongs our ancestors did to theindigenous people of this continent, or at least to stop ongoing exploitation."March 4, 2013 by FaithAnn Colburn, People Who Are Different From Us
faithanncolburn.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/people-who-are-different-from-us/comment-page-1/#comment-92

From the Author

A Pinterest photo album related to Pilgrimage may be found on Jeff Rasley's Pinterest boards at pinterest.com/pinner362436/
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00B0Q71A0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Midsummer Books (November 8, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1366 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 93 pages

Customer Reviews:
4.0 11 ratings

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Jeff Rasley

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Jeff Rasley lives on the White River in Indianapolis with Alicia and Poppy. His first published writing was poetry in the Hanover College Fine Arts Journal. Over 80 feature articles on law, travel, spirituality, politics, and human interest followed in Newsweek, Chicago Magazine, ABA Journal, and other periodicals. Jeff is the author of 14 books.

Jeff dropped out of college, saved money from factory work, then hitch-hiked across the USA. Money earned on a road crew financed travels in Europe and motorcycling from Indiana to Mexico City. Marriage and 2 children reduced his travels for a time, but since 1995 he has led treks and mountaineering expeditions in the India-Nepal Himalayas, and he has scuba dived throughout the Caribbean, and sea-kayaked in Palau, Tonga, and the Greek Isles.

Jeff's commitment to social activism and philanthropy began in high school when he co-founded the Goshen Walk for Hunger. In law school he fought for renters' rights and organized the first rent strike in Indiana as president of the Indianapolis Tenants Association. As a young lawyer Jeff founded free legal clinics at two inner-city churches in Indianapolis. He was lead counsel on class action suits for prisoners which resulted in the construction of two new jails in Central Indiana. Jeff was the lead plaintiff in a class action requiring clean-up of the White River after it was polluted by an industrial chemical spill. He spent 5 days working for NOLA Habitat for Humanity after Katrina, and funded the Jeff & Alicia Rasley Internship Program for the ACLU of Indiana.

Jeff is the founder and president of the Basa Village Foundation, which funds culturally sensitive development in Nepal. He is the president of the Indiana Scientech Foundation, which financially supports STEAM education in Indiana. Jeff has served or is serving as a director of many other nonprofit organizations, including the Indianapolis Peace & Justice Center, University of Chicago Alumni Club, Phi Beta Kappa of Indiana, and Earlham College. He is U.S. liaison for the Himalayan expedition company Adventure GeoTreks Ltd. He has taught courses on "culturally sensitive development" and philanthropy at Butler and Marian Universities and memoir writing at the Indiana Writing Center.

Jeff's BA is from U of Chicago magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, All-Academic All-State Football, letter winner in swimming and football; JD Indiana University Law School cum laude, Moot Court, Indiana Law Review; MDiv Christian Theological Seminary magna cum laude, co-valedictorian and Faculty Award Scholar. He was admitted to the Indiana, US District, and US Supreme Court Bars.

Jeff describes reading Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past as great an adventure as climbing Himalayan peaks.

Contact through: http://www.jeffreyrasley.com

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

11 global ratings

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LindaC

Thought provoking introspective reflection

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 6, 2013

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Pilgrimage:Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home Again, a Memoir captures the spirit of adventure set in the backdrop of Mr. Rasley's journey to deeper self-awareness. He describes how a spontaneous trip to Sturgis, South Dakota, Bike Week turned into an exploration of his ancestry, Native American history and the Wounded Knee massacre. He engages the reader through personal revelations to consider how the dominate culture we are born into positively or negatively affects how we treat others. Along the way, he reflects on the outcome of broken promises he made to himself and in a larger sense, governmental promises broken to an entire culture.

Mr. Rasley begins his adventure by telling his love/hate relationship with motorcycles. Love representing his wild free spirit out to experience the thrill of the open road via a 7,000 mile trip from Indiana to Mexico. The downside was a series of accidents leaving him with serious injury. He described one specific motorcycle accident that resulted in surgery at a Mazatlan hospital while he was under police guard.

This book is a story of becoming disillusioned with the Sturgis mystic and searching for reconciliation with history. He leaves the Sturgis bull-riding stripper, alcohol induced frenzy, testosterone soaked snakepit motorcycle tribe and hits the road to explore iconic historical sites of the western United States. A serendipitous side trip takes Mr. Rasley to the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, site of the Wounded Knee massacre. Jeff's ancestor, Lieutenant James D. Mann was a military leader in the 7th Cavalry U. S. Army engaged in slaughtering over 150 Native American men, women and children.

Mr. Rasley writes about the Native American aspects of his hometown Goshen, Indiana. He notes the irony of our Hoosier state being named for "Land of Indians" yet there are no recognized Native American tribes left in Indiana. The Miami, Potawatomi and Miami tribes in the north and the Delaware and Shawnee tribes of central and southern Indiana were killed or forcibly removed. I am a Hoosier. I readily identified with the harm inflicted by our predatory ancestors and residual prejudice.

Jeff has trekked and led mountaineering expeditions to Nepal Himalayas multiple times since 1995. He has written extensively about his close relationship with the Sherpa and Rai people of Nepal. He was instrumental in organizing the Basa Village Foundation, USA. He is an experienced attorney and holds a Masters degree in Theology from the Christian Theological Seminary. His multifaceted personal, professional and spiritual life gives him a unique perspective in this book to provide comparison and contrast of the Native Americans and the people of Nepal.

Pilgrimage: Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home Again, a Memoir, allowed me to hop in Jeff's Sebring named Goldie and hang on for the ride. Without becoming sappy, Mr. Rasley shared his viewpoint of historical and current events with a nostalgic flavor. I recommend Pilgrimage as a vehicle for introspective reflection.

One person found this helpful

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J Gerald Janzen

Jeff Rasley's Pilgrimage

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 30, 2013

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After a first reading of Rasley's Pilgrimage, I turned to the review by LiveAtWoodstock and wondered if we'd read the same book. So I read it again, and sat down to write a longish review myself. On finishing it I find that, in the meantime, LindaC has done a better job of what I was trying to say, so I shall content myself with simply seconding her review.
But I will add that what strikes me above all in the book is its tone of moral humility. So many prophetic critiques--especially of the anti-war variety--strike a posture on the moral high ground that makes the rest of us feel like moral slobs. Rasley's appreciation of the ambiguities of the moral life comes through in two ways: first, in his dedication where, identifying his book as an anti-war tract, he dedicates it to the eleven members of his family, past and present, serving in the military; and second, in his sense of bondedness to both sides of his spiritual ancestry--the storekeeper in Goshen who dealt amicably and helpfully with local native Americans ("Indians" otherwise unwelcome in "Indiana"), and the young man who left Indiana to fight Indians and, participating in (and perhaps precipitating) the massacre at Wounded Knee, died of wounds received there. Perhaps unwittingly, Rasley has given us, in the fate of that ancestor, a parable of the fate of modern western technological profit-driven society, doomed to die of wounds probably incurred from friendly fire(!).
So I conclude that LiveAtWoodstock perhaps read the book simply as a travel narrative rather than as a pilgrimage. No wonder he stopped reading half way through. The payoff in any pilgrimage comes at its end, and so it is with this book.

3 people found this helpful

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Antille T Andrews

A Dreamer of the Golden Dream

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 23, 2013

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This highly personal memoir from Mr. Rasley takes you from the bacchanalian strangeness of Sturgis to an emotional journey of both ancestry and personal reflection that is both informative, on many different levels, and poignant. There was another review from a reviewer that gave the book 2 stars, which, I believe, is utterly inaccurate. First, I have no connection to biker culture, nor most of what Mr. Rasley writes about, except for that fact that I am 1/8 American Indian. The book was very personal, honest, and the writing well conceived. What I find even more interesting about the memoir was Mr. Rasley's background. He mentions in the book that he has a Masters Degree in Christian theology. Taking that into account, he does not recuse himself from his biker past as he moves from one stage of his life to another, both with self reflection and perspicuity. Now, as everyone knows, American Indians are not Christians. His exploration into this subject matter (which is probably unique for this author's background despite having a distant relative associated with the massacre at Wounded Knee - and I am personally using the word massacre specifically ), is without bias or condemnation, but viewed with an altruistic encompassing that really expands the personal narrative into something truly meaningful. At one point in his travels from Sturgis to Wounded Knee, he comments, "We have no home towns. We are modern Americans." These kind of observations are from beginning to end in the book, and I was reminded of Joan Didion's essay "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream". With all that in mind, I (obviously) highly recommend this book.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

C. Saunders

The part about Wounded Knee was interesting but sad. However

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 16, 2015

Verified Purchase

I was somewhat amused by the change from rally biker after going to Sturgis. The part about Wounded Knee was interesting but sad. However, the author lost me when he extended the memoir to a more religio-philosophical treatise. I'm sure others will like it more but I found it somewhat dull.

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