Ken Marchionno: 300 Miles to Wounded Knee

Ken Marchionno: 300 Miles to Wounded Knee by Daniel GeorgeMay 5, 2025

©Ken Marchionno, Backcountry into Red Water, 2018

In early March I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Society for Photographic Education annual conference in Reno, NV and participating in the portfolio reviews. It is always great to connect with others across the table while discussing the work and ideas that they are eager to share. For the next few days, we will look at some projects that I was able to learn about during reviews this year. Up first, we have 300 Miles to Wounded Knee by Ken Marchionno.

Ken Marchionno is an artist, writer, curator living in the Los Angeles area. His work has been featured in exhibitions and festivals throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, including the Multimedia Center of the National Center for the Arts in Mexico City, the Third China Songzhuang Culture and Art Festival, International Exhibition, the California Museum of Photography and Riverside Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institute, the US Embassy in Prague, and the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA. His work has been included in Dr. Betty Ann Brown’s Art and Mass Media, and Robert Hirsch’s Exploring Color Photography and Light and Lens, Thinking about Photography in the Digital Age. He has given talks on his work in the US and abroad, including the US Embassy in Prague, the John Fante Literary Festival in Italy, the Journey Museum in Rapid City, Wellesley College, and CalArts. For ten years Ken worked as a digital and lighting technician with Annie Leibovitz, Steven Klein, Craig McDean, for Vogue, Vanity Fair, Valentino, Prada. He worked as a commercial retoucher on campaigns for Pandora Jewelry, Forum Snowboards, and Daisy Fuentes Fashion. And in the early days of digital cinema, Ken ran seminars for RED Cinema to introduce motion/still technology to fashion photographers in LA, NY, and London. Ken was a stringer for the Associated Press in the mid-2000’s and his photography has been featured in magazines and journals in the US and Korea, including the contemporary art quarterly, X-TRA. He has written criticism for Art Papers and Sajin Yaesul, and his creative writing has been featured in the literary journals Errant Bodies and Framework. Ken was Director of TRACTIONARTS, an alternative video space in the downtown Los Angeles Arts District between 2013 and 2016, and curated exhibitions for Spring Break Art Show in Los Angeles in 2019, and the Deagu Photo biennale in South Korea, 2016. Much of Marchionno’s work is community engaged, social practice. His ongoing project, 300 Miles to Wounded Knee was started in 2004, collaborates with reservation youth and uses social media as its primary platform. Marchionno’s work has received funding from the arts and humanities, and most recently the California Community Foundation, the Society for Photographic Education, and the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust.

Follow Ken on Instagram: @kenmarchionno

©Ken Marchionno, Serena Tail and Waylon Belt Jr Diptych, Wounded Knee, 2014

300 Miles to Wounded Knee

In 2004 I was asked by members of the Lakota Nation to document the 300-mile memorial horse ride to the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre—the Oomaka Tokatakiya, Future Generations Ride. In December of that year I started what would become a multi-decade project in service to the community, often working alongside reservation youth, photographing and posting daily images on social media from the field, creating an archive that celebrates tribal resilience, visualizing the event for the world to see.

The ride started in 1986 when a group of Lakota men and women started the annual tradition, riding horseback across the South Dakota winter tracing the historic trail that led to the massacre that took place on December 29, 1890. It is credited as the final battle of the Indian Wars where hundreds of Lakota were disarmed and killed by the Seventh Cavalry of the United States Army. On the 100th anniversary of the massacre, after four years of the memorial ride, members of the Hunkpapa, the Minnicoujou, and the Oglala Tribes rode to the Wounded Knee site to perform a Wiping of the Tears Ceremony, signifying the end of mourning.

Every year, riders still gather twenty miles from the North Dakota border to start the two-week journey at the location where Sitting Bull was killed. The ride continues as an expression of community empowerment as children as young as seven embody what their ancestors endured, riding up to thirty-five miles in a day, through snow and blizzard conditions and temperatures often reaching -20°F.

Work by youth is integrated into exhibitions and publications, or shown stand alone. Over the years it has been published and displayed internationally, including the Smithsonian Institute, the US Embassy in Prague, the Yuchun Museum in Suzhou, China, the MACHmit! Museum in Berlin, and the Lancaster Museum of Art and History in California. Youth videos from the project were also included in the 2022 Heritage Film Festival in Bethesda, MD, and Contemporary Native American Shorts, 2018 at the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles.

©Ken Marchionno, Riderless Horse, Bigfoot Pass, 2004

Daniel George: I enjoyed hearing about the events that led you to eventually being invited to photograph the Oomaka Tokatakiya. Would you mind sharing with our readers how this project began?

Ken Marchionno: In 2004 I worked as a stringer for the Associated Press photographing protest politics. I went to New York to cover the RNC for George W Bush’s reelection. But instead of flying, I drove from LA to do a personal project around sovereignty and occupation. On the Pine Ridge Reservation I met Brandon Ferguson who introduced me to a dozen people who wanted to talk about those concepts. They helped me understand what it’s like to live under the weight of those concerns every day.

On the last day Brandon told me about the ride. He appreciated my process and approached Birgil Kills Straight, one of the organizers of the original memorial (the Sitanka Wokiksuye – Big Foot Memorial Ride) who asked me to cover the ride in its entirety. I would live with the riders for the two weeks, ride a horse and become part of the ride. I was to bring my skills to the community like those who provide food, or horses, or trailers. For the next two decades I was the one bringing cameras.

©Ken Marchionno, Cross Country Toward Red Owl Springs, 2004

DG: At a certain point in the development of this project, local youth began contributing still images and video from the ride (which are fantastic). This led to the creation of the Future Generations Teen Photojournalism Project. Tell us more about this creative initiative and what you believe it contributes to entirety of the work.

KM: In 2005 I brought a point and shoot camera to the ride and gave it to one of the teens I had befriended the year before, Corbyn Bobtail Bear. I asked him to shoot whatever he wanted and I would add his photos to the archive.

Seeing this, Manaja Hill, a youth organizer from Standing Rock, asked if I would teach photography to teens on the ride. It was an opportunity to pass on skills and a way to facilitate their voice. In 2006 I started the Future Generations Teen Photojournalism Project to provide cameras, computers, and internet connection in the field and teach photography and video to youth on the ride.

This ride is for the youth, their point of view is integral to the project. Over the years their work has shown in festivals and museums in the US, Europe, and Asia.

©Ken Marchionno, Finding the Riders in Milt’s Truck, 2006

DG: I am always interested to hear more about the ways in which long-term projects evolve over time. What notable moments stand out to you over the course of this 20-year project that you feel were critical to its development?

KM: Over two decades my presence on the ride has changed from visitor to family. This colors my view as I make new images and consider the archive of overlooked photos from the past.

One of the ways my role evolved was through technology. In 2004 I shot mostly film and had to wait to get home to see the photos. With the current quality of digital imagery and the immediacy of wireless communication, followers see images the same day. There’s no time to linger, it’s a different experience and a larger responsibility.

From about 2006 on, advances in digital technology allowed me to teach local teens to shoot, process, and upload digital files to the web by wireless. While I still made photographs, much of my focus was on facilitating their work.

With advances in cellular technology and social media, much of what I was tasked to do is now done by tribal members. Videos and stills generated by the community are shared widely and my role is now shifting toward archiving.

©Ken Marchionno, Scott and Brandon get Gas with a Bed Full of Tack, 2005

DG: It is evident from our conversation and your photographs (from this project and others) that an important part of your creative practice is social, and perhaps emotional connection. Why do you believe it is important for your photographic work, in general, to actively engage with communities rather than merely portray them?

KM: I consider engaging with community a necessary part of the process because it’s what gives the work nuance and breadth. I think the difference in how you engage depends on how you see your role. I work with the community and take my responsibility seriously. I have a limited view and when I can foster multiple voices from within the community their perspective offers an essential point of view that would not otherwise come forward.

©Ken Marchionno, Wolford Looking Horse with a Hand Full of Horse Hair, 2005

DG: On the 300-Miles to Wounded Knee project website it is stated that “The typical methodology practiced by most photographers who visit the reservation does little to ameliorate the negative effects of transgenerational trauma experienced by native peoples. This project works against that tradition.” How would you say this work achieves that?

KM: People from all over the world visit the reservation to take photos—there are websites created to share Pow Wow photos by people from all over the world. Even before Edward S Curtis removed clocks from his photographs to historicize his representations, the relationship between photography and this country’s tribes invites skepticism.

Professional photographers and news crews come to the reservation to tell stories. They typically engage tribal concerns for short pieces in news cycles. Even long form journalism has a short shelf life and is meant mainly to engage the outside community.

The 300-Miles work is in service to the community. It exists mainly on social media and its interaction with tribal members is immediate. People await daily posts to see relatives and celebrate their strength.

Most followers of the work come from within the tribe, and though there is international visibility, the work was meant for the people from the onset. The project has created a visual archive of generational resilience, elders bring children who then bring their children years later.

The work with teens is essential for the project’s success. One of my favorite memories is from 2019, when Damon Hopkins spoke with his daughter, Love, about working with me. I had photographed him as a teen. She had grown up with those photos and now she was making her own video of the ride.