*ITINERARY 2: BLACK HILLS of SOUTH DAKOTA

AUGUST 26-30, 2012

The Sacred Black Hills & Lakota Cultural Experience

This journey will take you into the heart of Lakota country, the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota.

Call for custom Rates for this Retreat.

As with all of our retreats, the itinerary will be decided by you.  You tell us what you’d like to do, see, experience and we’ll make that happen.  The following is a sampling of your choices:

Hike the gentle Hills and ride the Northern Buffalo Range, home to Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

Discover sacred Vision quest sites for yourself, allowing the spirit of the natural world to renew and re-energize your individual spirit.

Visit Pine Ridge or Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation with a local guide and meet contemporary Lakota people.

  • Fly or drive to Rapid City, South Dakota, heart of the Black Hills country, sacred to the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. We’ll pick you up and bring you to an 1880 era ranch house on the edge of the Black Hills National Forest. You’ll have your choice of traditional tipi accomodations or a room in the house.

  • The first day you’ll find your place in the Tipi and explore the land, then enjoy dinner in the Tipi with traditional stories around the campfire.      
  • The week will encompass visits to sacred Plains Indian sites including Bear Butte (the most powerful vision questing site on the northern Plains) and/or Devils Tower, an experiential journey of discovery and insight, individual to each searcher.

  • Other Choices include:  Exploring the Black Hills National Forest which borders our property; a forest in which all the medicine plants of the prairies and the mountains grow in profusion.
  • A tour of The Journey Museum in Rapid City – A Plains and Prairie Historical museum housing the Anderson collection of Lakota artifacts.
  • A drive through the Black Hills – to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, and ending with a meal and evening in historic Deadwood.
  • A pilgrimage to Wounded Knee (The 1890 Massacre site) – on the Pine Ridge Reservation,  with a visit to a Lakota owned buffalo and horse ranch nearby;  We will travel through the BadLands National Park, a strange landscape of fossils and dinasaurs, colorful rock formations and fabulous vistas.

  • Creation of a traditional medicine bag or other beaded fetish ( if group so desires);
  • Learning how to consciously participate in Ceremony and incorporate it into your life;