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WINNER OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL PRIZE LA CENSE FOR HORSE PHOTOGRAPHY (2025)

WINNER OF THE NADAR GENS D'IMAGE AWARD (2025)

Every year in December, in North and South Dakota, members of the Lakota (Sioux) tribes gather to undertake a 450 km (2,000 mi) horseback ride over 15 days, in temperatures that can drop as low as -20°C (-4°F). They follow in the footsteps of Chief Big Foot's tribe, whose 300 members, mostly women and children, were massacred at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890.

Currently, the Lakota live on reservations in extremely precarious conditions, kept dependent on the American government. Confined to an inhospitable territory in the heart of one of the world's major powers, their standard of living is comparable to that of the developing world. Violence, drugs, alcohol, and unemployment plague the reservations, and the life expectancy for men is 45 years. In 2024, some families still lack sanitation and access to running water.

And that's exactly what the international media usually portrays of Native American reservations in the United States: a caricature of poverty. Yet their resilience is immense, the power of their spirituality intact, and their pride undefeated; a people who have suffered some of the worst atrocities in history but who continue to live and move forward, united and strong.

This is what this series attempts to show through this ride (Omaka Tokatakiya / Future Generations Ride) where, for two weeks, elders take care of the young, taking them out of their daily routine, teaching them to ride, to be kind to them, but also exposing them to the soul and history of their nation. As they say, it's not a ride but a spiritual journey.