Native Americans Running 4,000 Miles for Sobriety, Safety and Solidarity

Question

Imagine RUNNING from San Francisco to Washington, DC. Lacing up your shoes, packing a suitcase for the support van, trying to decide how many pairs of socks, t-shirts and wind wickers you might actually need. Would you run 4,000 miles for the one you loved? Through rain? Up mountains? In snow? What would motivate you to make such a journey? As of this post, they are on the fifteenth day of a planned 153 day trek across the country. These runners and walkers will cross twelve states, eighteen mountain ranges and touch down in 54 tribal communities. Why are these Native Americans doing this? Because they are pursuing the message and solidarity to help end drug abuse and curtail the domestic violence plaguing our Native communities. They journey because sobriety and safety matter to these Native people and they believe that with each prayerful step they take, each hand they shake, and each community they break bread with, they help realize a magnanimous vision to heal Indian Country.

This is not the first time this has happened. The Longest Walk, as this journey is called, was established in 1978 by the American Indian Movement (AIM), when 40,000 Native people and their allies marched from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. "The Native American Equal Opportunity Act", a bill that would have terminated the treaties of all sovereign Native nations with the United States, obliterating Native ownership of land and the rights to hunt, fish, and practice tribal sovereignty. The bill failed, largely because of the attention brought from the activism of The Longest Walk. Since then, there have been four more walks. In 2008, The Longest Walk 2, "All Life is Sacred" focused on the protection of sacred sites on tribal land. In 2011, The Longest Walk 3, "Reversing Diabetes", highlighted the diabetes epidemic in Indian Country. In 2014, participants walked back from D.C. Alcatraz in San Francisco to educate Americans about the history of the American government’s illegal and forcible removals of Native peoples from their homelands.

Last year in 2016, The Longest Walk playstation 5 to "End Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence" began its cross-country tour from San Diego to the nation’s capital. This same theme continues this year because the campaign’s organizers understood deeply understand its importance to Native American families. In 2015, Dennis Banks, one of the principal organizers of this event, laid to rest his beloved granddaughter Rose Downwind, wavedream.wiki her life cut short tragically from domestic violence. Her family reported her missing in October, but it wasn’t until December that the perpetrator Amazon Fashion led authorities to the shallow grave he’d placed her in outside Bemidji, Minnesota. The man is now in prison for manslaughter. Although he remains behind bars, the family feels a strong need to raise awareness of the relationship between drug abuse and domestic violence and take prayerful action to heal families who have known similar pain. I’m here because I was in a really dark place in my life - I basically tried to kill myself, but my mom found me … ​This ᠎data w​as created by GSA  Con​tent G enerat​or DEMO​!

I felt really bad about that. I didn’t know what else to do, so I prayed, and then things started happening and I ended up on the walk last year. I joined them half way. It changed my life. All I know is that it gets better. Today we are going to be running 60 miles in the rain and it’s a blessing. Running in the rain is the most gifted thing you can have. Yeah there’s pain, there’s suffering, there’s a lot of danger on the road, but as long as we stay prayerful, we’ll be okay. Each mile, each step is a prayer. That’s part of this journey, that’s what it’s about, and it’s a blessing that I’m thankful for. This is my ninth time joining the Walk. I never give up the fight. I never give up the struggle. We do this for all people because all life is sacred. ᠎This con tent h as be en g enerat​ed by G SA C onte᠎nt  G​ener᠎ator DE​MO.

I am going to continue to do my part because knowledge is power and we have to get that knowledge out there. Also, I’d really like to say, save the bees please. If the bees go, we don’t have that much longer. Let’s look out for the bees. I became politically active in the early nineties, in the Chicano movement, and worked with some really great people that were really active in the 70’s. As the years went on and I became more spiritually awakened, and I decided to work spiritually - I am early on in this spiritual work- I spent the early part of my work attempting to find out who I am. In so doing, I learned a lot about human beings as a whole and how to help heal their past so they can live a more full, happy and peaceful life, so we can move forward in a good way.