MASS Design Group

The Northern Cheyenne Healing Trail is a commemorative landscape of gathering, tradition, and remembrance along the historic route of the Fort Robinson Breakout and Massacre. In 1878, after being imprisoned in Indian Territory, tribal leaders Morning Star (Dull Knife) and Little Wolf led 353 Northern Cheyenne people on a 1,100-mile journey back to their homeland in the northern plains. U.S. troops pursued the Northern Cheyenne through military engagements, and at least 12 Northern Cheyenne died from violence or illness before the group reached Nebraska (Southern Agency).

Roughly half of the band was captured and imprisoned at Fort Robinson, where they were denied heat, food, and water in an attempt to force their return. On the night of Jan. 9, 1879, the group escaped and fled for their lives. The military pursued them, killing 64 and violently detaining more than 70 people. Today, a modest monument marks the Breakout site on land that Northern Cheyenne people hope to reclaim, reshape, and activate through collective memory and cultural healing.

This five-mile landscape—from Fort Robinson, a site that has long commemorated frontier military history, to the massacre site—offers an opportunity to tell this history through an Indigenous lens. It is a sacred place for healing, remembrance, and reflection.
Designed in close collaboration with Northern Cheyenne community members and Tribal leaders, the memorial trail will encourage all who visit to remember, honor, preserve, heal, and forgive.

The Northern Cheyenne Healing Trail will be more than a memorial—it will be an act of truth-telling, cultural continuity, and healing that ensures future generations can walk this landscape knowing both the sacrifices of their ancestors and the enduring strength of the Northern Cheyenne Nation.

We're honored that our short film about the Northern Cheyenne Healing Trail screened last week at the Little Bighorn Film Festival, helping bring this story of resilience, sovereignty, and remembrance to new audiences during the 150th commemoration of the Victory at Greasy Grass, also known as the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Craft Futures is a design innovation initiative by MASS that advances regenerative manufacturing through locally sourced sustainable materials, bio-based product development, and craft traditions. By combining material innovation, traditional knowledge, and entrepreneurship trainings, the initiative creates environmentally responsible products while strengthening local economies and supporting sustainable livelihoods.

Over the past few months, the African Design Centre (ADC) fellows at MASS engaged in a series of material investigations with the Craft Futures program in Kigali.

Together the fellows have been looking at natural dye systems, tracing more transparent and sustainable timber supply chains, and uncovering the material potential of sugarcane pulp as an emergent biomaterial.

Through testing, iteration, challenges, and happy accidents, the work continues to unfold as an ongoing process of material inquiry and experimentation with great potential.

This research continues the ADC’s mission of equipping and elevating African designers to shape and lead transformative models of equitable, regenerative development.

Applications are open for the next cohort of the ADC fellowship, learn more and apply on our website!

“Designers in Africa have an equal responsibility to contribute aesthetics to beauty in the world,” said Christian Benimana, MASS Co-Executive Director. “At MASS, we’ve built our work on that foundation. We’ve demonstrated that world-class design can emerge from local craft traditions, producing materials and furnishings for buildings across the continent and build-up context appropriate economies in the process.”

Learn more in our latest newsletter linked in our bio!

We’re excited to continue our collaboration with Embrace Boston as they reach a major new milestone in the evolution of The Embrace, the memorial, created in collaboration with Hank Thomas Thomas, on Boston Common.

With the acquisition of 33–41 West Street in Downtown Crossing — steps from The Embrace and the 1965 Freedom Plaza — Embrace Boston is advancing its vision for a permanent civic and cultural gathering space in the heart of Boston.

This new space will create a year-round home for arts, culture, storytelling, and civic life. We’re honored to be part of the ongoing partnership helping shape this next chapter alongside artists, community members, and civic leaders.