Sacred peaks lure Longest Walk
Katie Clark - April 10th, 2008On March 26, The Longest Walk II visited Flagstaff with leaders and activists for Native American rights and presented to a packed auditorium in Cline Library.
The Longest Walk II started in San Francisco in Febuary as a walk across the nation to commemorate sacred Indigenous lands and is proposed to end in Washington, D.C. in July.
Dennis Banks, the founder of the walk and a Native American leader who co-founded the American Indian Movement, was the first to speak.
“With the walk, what fascinates me is survival — how our people can survive despite the atrocities, the bad treatment, the painful treatment and the mean treatment,” Banks said. “But we have survived and we are very strong people.”
Banks discussed the sacredness of all life and the motivation behind the first walk.
“We could walk across the country and we will collect signatures along the way,” Banks said. “Our people have been on forced walks all our lives and people of all walks of life will join us.”
The original Longest Walk of 1978 began with 17 participants in San Francisco and ended five months later with 30,000 in Washington, D.C. It was able to halt 11 pieces of legislation in Congress that would have abrogated treaties that protected Native American sovereignty.
The walk also helped spur the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Banks said the reason for the walk this year was to create change and to protest the effects of global warming.
“There have been terrible actions going on in this country, not only in this country but also worldwide,” Banks said. “So we walk with that purpose in mind — to bring about change and to offer protection (to) the last remaining sites that we call sites that are being trampled on.”
Banks talked about the youth who will now need to step up and become active.
“(They will need to) challenge any government and challenge them all and do what is right,” Banks said.
The next speaker, Alberta Nells, the President of the Navajo language club and member of the Youth of the Peaks, epitomized what Banks described as active youth.
“As a young person I look around and everything in life is sacred,” Nells said. “We look at everything in life and we take it for granted at times.
Nells discusses the theme of the night’s presentation “All Life is Sacred,” and the sacredness of the San Francisco Peaks.
“We are children of this earth and as the next generation we have to preserve what we have left of our sacredness ways of life,” Nells said. “We are all walking together, uniting.”
Valencia Herder, the Southwest director of Native Movement, spoke next of her experience of being relocated as a young child.
“When it happened, I realized that relocation is happening and I became dislocated from my family,” Herder said.
The Native Movement’s vision is for young leaders to motivate the world’s peoples toward balanced relations with each other and nature.
Calvin Johnson of the Navajo tribe spoke next and was involved in protesting secret deals that would allow Peabody Coal to use pure aquifier water.
Johnson riled the audience by yelling “protect sacred sites” and the crowd would in turn chant “defend human rights.”
Catherine Smith, the next speaker, who speaks Navajo, was translated by her daughter and discussed her relocation where resources and land were limited and permits needed to be used.
“What the U.S. government has done is divide and conquer by instigating conflict between tribes,” Smith said.
Smith views the history of the U.S. government in relation to indigenous people and their lands as one of conflict and deceit.
“The way I see the American flag is that each time land is taken from indigenous people, each time indigenous people are killed, there’s a star that goes up on the flag until you reach 50 stars,” Smith said. “The flag is a symbol of a killer.”
She advises the walkers to make their own flag and obtain a lawyer. The flag will be a symbol of true community. Smith, like Banks, believes it is time for the youth to stand up.
Bucky Preston, the last speaker, is a traditional Hopi Tribe knowledge-holder and long-time activist. Preston said he was raised to be an activist and stand up for people and issues that cannot speak for themselves.
“We need to understand who we are. Ask yourself who you are and what is my responsibility, because it is that responsibility that you need to find,” Preston said.
Currently, there are 119 walkers on the Longest Walk II, but the number is constantly fluctuating.
At the completion of the walk Banks will use the information he gathered from meeting tribes to write a manifesto and address congressmen, senators and the Environmental Protection Agency.