They are acts of cultural continuity — of connecting the living people to the specific landscape through which their ancestors traveled, of maintaining a physical relationship with the route and the places along it.

The horses matter.

The nimíipuu are horse people — the Appaloosa breed is associated specifically with them, and horsemanship is a thread of cultural continuity that runs from before 1877 to the present.

Riding the 1877 route on horseback is not merely a symbolic act; it is a way of experiencing, however partially, what the landscape demanded of the people who crossed it.

The commemorations at battle sites — at Big Hole, at White Bird Canyon, at Bear Paw — bring together nimíipuu community members, NPS staff, historians, and members of the public.