An invitation to join World Peace and Prayer Day events
Global gathering returns to area
By Carleen Wild
Moody County Enterprise
Posted 6/12/24
Moody County anticipates an influx of participants from around the globe as the 2024 World Peace and Prayer Day events draw near. Horseback riders, runners, and walkers from across the region and world plan to converge on the area for a series of gatherings aimed at fostering unity and healing.
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An invitation to join World Peace and Prayer Day events
Global gathering returns to area
Posted
By Carleen Wild
Moody County Enterprise
Moody County anticipates an influx of participants from around the globe as the 2024 World Peace and Prayer Day events draw near. Horseback riders, runners, and walkers from across the region and world plan to converge on the area for a series of gatherings aimed at fostering unity and healing.
Local members of the Flandreau Santee Sioux are extending an invitation for all to join them, starting on June 17th, as a Horse Ride originating in Sisseton arrives into Flandreau. Runners from Santee, Nebraska, and walkers from Six Nations in Ontario, Canada, will join them as a symbol of a collective journey towards harmony.
Events are then scheduled in Pipestone at the Quarry, Sundance Grounds, Hiawatha Lodge and at the National Monument from June 18th-21st.
Founded in 1996 by Chief Arvol Looking Horse in the Black Hills, World Peace and Prayer Day seeks to honor sacred sites and foster a global commitment to healing the Earth. Events are held annually around the summer solstice.
The following is from a portion of a letter Looking Horse wrote ahead of this year’s gathering;
Hau Mitakuyapi (my relatives),
Once again I am sending my voice to all Nations upon Mother Earth, those who can hear with their hearts - my sincerity - to unite together at our Sacred Sites creating an energy shift of a great healing on June 21st. We need to see and listen to the wamakas’ka (the animals) who are showing their sacred color of white more than ever now as there are now so many. This color represents the direction, when physical life now goes into the spirit journey. They are trying to warn us to pay attention to our responsibilities as a Global Nation. We have no choice but to now make positive decisions together, to protect the remaining sacredness that is trying to survive upon Mother Earth, which includes even our own children.”
Local Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal member JB Weston is helping organize local events. He hopes that everyone feels both welcome and compelled to attend.
“The bottom line,” Weston said, “is as crazy as the world is right now, we’ve got to focus on prayer. But we’ve got to get everyone involved.”
This event truly is of global scale. The first ceremony took place in 1996 at Gray Horn Butte in Wyoming where more than 2,000 people reportedly took part. In 1997, the event culminated at the Joseph Bighead Reserve in Canada. Since then, it’s been held in Pipestone, a traditional sacred site, and hosted by tribes, churches, and others working toward peace in Costa Rica, Ireland, Durban, South Africa, where the event was coordinated with the help of Ella Gandhi, the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. More than five thousand people reportedly participated in the event that year. Other annual gatherings have happened in Australia, at Mt. Fuji and in HIroshima in Japan, in New Zealand, Brazil, and in a number of other host sites and through tribes across the nation and world.
The Horse Ride this year comes into the area on June 15th as riders move from an overnight in Watertown to Nunda. The 16th, riders make their way to Flandreau early in the morning. Breakfast and dinner both nights will be held in Flandreau at the Waciocaga Otipi Community Center on Broad Avenue.
Volunteers are sought to help with meals and groceries. To learn more about how you might get involved, log onto worldpeaceandprayerday.com, email wppd2024@gmail.com or call (507) 735-8378.