What inspired you to write your memoir?
I discovered a family link to the Wounded Knee massacre through research my journalist mother did. A planned motorcycle trip to the Bacchanalia of Sturgis Bike Week turned into a spontaneous pilgrimage to Wounded Knee. The experience opened my mind and heart to a deeper understanding of my family’s history of relations with Native Americans. It also shed light on my motivation for “mission” work I have done in Nepal.
About your Book:
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.
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.”
How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
Having successfully published my first memoir, “Bringing Progress to Paradise”, through a traditional publisher, I am enjoying the freedom and control of direct publishing through Amazon KDP.
Author Bio:
Jeff Rasley is the author of seven books and has published numerous articles in academic and mainstream periodicals, including Newsweek, Chicago Magazine, ABA Journal, Family Law Review, American Athenaeum, Pacific Magazine, Indy’s Child, The Journal of Communal Societies, The Chrysalis Reader, Faith & Fitness Magazine, Friends Journal, and Real Travel Adventures International Magazine. He is an award-winning photographer and his pictures taken in the Himalayas and Caribbean and Pacific islands have been published in several journals.
Rasley has engaged in social activism and philanthropic efforts from an early age. In high school he co-founded the Goshen Walk for Hunger. In law school he was an advocate of residential renters’ rights as a lobbyist and president of the Indianapolis Tenants Association. He is the founder and president of the Basa Village Foundation USA and currently serves as an officer or director for five nonprofit corporations.
Jeff is an avid outdoorsman and recreational athlete. He leads trekking-mountaineering expeditions in Nepal and has solo-kayaked around several Pacific island groups. He also loves to read and considers completing Marcel Proust’s 3600 page Remembrance of Things Past as great an adventure as climbing Himalayan peaks and solo-kayaking Pacific islands.
Rasley is a partner in the e-book publishing enterprise Midsummer Books through which he also provides writer coaching and editing services. He is U.S. liaison for the Nepal-based Himalayan expedition company, Adventure GeoTreks Ltd. He has taught classes for IUPUI Continuing Ed. Program, Indiana Writers Center, and Marian University. He currently teaches philosophy of philanthropy at Butler University.
Jeff is a graduate of the University of Chicago, A.B. magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, All-Academic All-State Football Team and letter winner in swimming and football; Indiana University School of Law, J.D. cum laude, Moot Court and Indiana Law Review; Christian Theological Seminary, M.Div. magna cum laude, co-valedictorian and Faculty Award Scholar. He has been admitted to the Indiana, U.S. District Court, and U.S. Supreme Court Bars.
For chairing the Indiana-Tennessee Civic Memorial Commission Rasley and the Commission received Proclamations of Salutation from the Governors of Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania and he was made an honorary Lieutenant Colonel Aide-de-Camp of the Alabama State Militia, a Kentucky Colonel and honorary Citizen of Tennessee. He was given a Key to the City of Indianapolis for serving as an intern to Mayor Hudnut and preparing a report on the safety conditions of all Indy Parks. Rasley has received the Man of the Year award from the Arthur Jordan YMCA and the Alumni Service Award from the University of Chicago Alumni Board of Governors.
Rasley has given serious and humorous interviews to many broadcast programs and provided programs for service clubs, community organizations, and churches.
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