Longest Walk Talk Radio, live and uncensored
By Brenda Norrell, Narcosphere News
Posted on Mon Mar 17th, 2008 at 09:02:38 AM EST
MONTROSE, Colo. Walking through the
snow, the Longest Walk Northern Route arrived at the
Ute Indian Museum on Sunday, March 16, after crossing
on foot the states of California, Nevada and Utah. Walking
with sacred staffs, American Indian walkers and their
allies are carrying the message to protect sacred Mother
Earth.
Jimbo Simmons, northern route coordinator,
said the walk is a prayer and the snow and cold intensifies
the prayer. “I consider it an honor to walk through
the snow and camp in the cold for Mother Earth,” Simmons
said after Long Walkers walked through the snow in central
Utah.
In Salt Lake City, the Longest Walk
was honored with a powwow for the walkers. At Richfield
Indian Residential School, walkers inspired students
with their message, encouraging Native students to take
pride in their heritage and honor their ancestors.
Along the way, the walkers received
warm clothing, hot meals and stay places from communities,
including Rumsey Rancheria, Miwok’s Shingle Springs
and Pollock Pines in California. In Nevada, hospitality
came from South Lake Tahoe, Carson City, Fallon Paiute
Shoshone Indian Nation and the Home School of Natural
Order and Border Inn in Baker, Nevada.
In Utah, walkers were greeted in Salina by Navajo, Paiute
and Hopi, before gathering with students at the Richfield
Indian Residential School. In Salt Lake City at the
Indian Walk In Center, supplies and meals poured in,
culminating in a powwow and community potluck. In Fruita,
Colorado, the Grand Valley Peace and Justice provided
meals, while walkers camped along the Colorado River.
While the Longest Walk continued on Route 50 through
Utah into Colorado, the Longest Walk Talk Radio on the
mobile bus of Earthcycles www.earthcycles.net/ interviewed
Native people across the country about the destruction
of the Earth and the oppression they live under.
Louise Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain
on the Navajo Nation, described the Navajos’ Long Walk
to Bosque Redondo in New Mexico, where many died of
starvation or were murdered by the Calvary. Now, Navajos
live with the destruction of coal mining and power plants
in the continuation of genocide.
Benally said her grandfather returned
to their homeland after the Long Walk in 1860s. The
Navajo Nation government was created to sign energy
leases. "We have been victimized by that,” Benally
said during a phone call with the live Earthcycles’
broadcast.
In her home community, the "land
swindle" was created by the politicians and corporations.
The result was the relocation of more than 10,000 Navajos
and destruction of sacred Mother Earth.
In an earlier censored interview, Benally
said the Long Walk and war in Iraq are both US sponsored
terror. “The U.S. military first murders your people
and destroys your way of life while stealing your culture,
then forces you to learn their evil ways of lying and
cheating.”
On the Longest Walk Talk Radio, Bill
Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty
Council, spoke on the so-called apology inserted into
the Senate version of the Indian Health Care Bill, section
301, which passed on Feb. 26. The bill includes an apology
for the abrogation of treaties and other atrocities
inflicted on American Indians, including the massacres
of Wounded Knee in South Dakota and Sand Creek in Colorado.
Means, Lakota, said there is no need
for “white washing the past.”
“Apologies don’t really change anyone’s
life or the conditions in which they live,” Means said
on the Earthcycles broadcast. Further, Means pointed
out the disclaimer on the so-called apology bill. The
US apology disclaimer states, “Nothing in this section–(1)
authorizes or supports any claim against the United
States; or (2) serves as a settlement of any claim against
the United States.”
Means, paraphrasing the apology and
disclaimer, said, “We’ll give you an apology but please
don’t use it against us. What is an apology if you put
a disclaimer at the end.”
On the Longest Walk Northern Route,
coordinator Jimbo Simmons said the US mounted a similar
effort 30 years ago during the original Longest Walk,
when the US sent American Indians out to tell walkers
they did not need to continue their walk because the
anti-Indian legislation would be halted.
Speaking of the current apology, Simmons
said, "It is meant to diffuse our efforts.”Simmons
said if the United States is sincere about issuing an
apology to American Indians, it should begin with the
descendants of the original treaty signers and include
the peoples of the world whose relatives have been murdered
and massacred by the United States.
Margo Tamez described fighting Homeland
Security, as the United States attempts to seize the
private three acres of her mother, Elouise Tamez, near
Brownsville, Texas, to build the US/Mexico border wall.
On the Earthcycles broadcast, Tamez spoke on the current
effort by Homeland Security to seize private lands by
way of eminent domain to build the border wall and the
ongoing protest and court fight by Lipan Apache, Jumano
Apache and other residents.
Tamez said when they began to fight
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, they were
told it was hopeless and that there was no hope of winning
a fight with Homeland Security. Tamez’ response: “Well,
we will just have to fight harder.”
“What have we got to lose? They’ve pushed
us all the way to the river.” Remembering 18-year-old
Esequiel Hernandez who was shot and killed by the US
Marines in Redford, Texas, Tamez said the people of
South Texas are treated as terrorists by the US military
and Homeland Security.
“My mother is already considered an
enemy of the state because she is challenging Chertoff
and Bush,” Tamez said.
On the Longest Walk, Dell Steve, Fallon
Paiute, sent a message to Washington DC to return American
Indian ancestors’ remains for proper burial. Dell said
the remains of one of the Paiutes’ ancestors, Spirit
Cave Man, dating back 9,000 to 10,000 years, should
be returned. Wesley Dick, Paiute, shared traditional
buckskin making with walkers, and called for a return
of Paiute hunting and gathering rights.
In Western Shoshone territory, Carrie
Dann was honored with traditional songs in Eureka, Nevada.
Dann, whose horses were seized in roundups by the BLM
and later starved to death, spoke out against the gold
mining now coring out the mountains on Western Shoshone
territory, including sacred Mount Tenabo.
In Austin, Nevada, Western Shoshone
spiritual person Johnny Bobb assisted with ceremonies
and his wife, Bonnie Bobb described the secretive terror
resulting from the nuclear industry, and the resulting
cancer and diseases, and the destruction of the Western
Shoshones’ food source, the pinion pine. In Ely Indian
Colony, Western Shoshone built a float and marched through
the town of Ely with the Longest Walk. A large feast
welcomed the Longest Walkers.
The Longest Walk proceeds to the high
Rockies in mid-March. The Ute Indian Museum and Ute
community members host the Longest Walk in Montrose,
Colorado March 16 – 18. A special memorial is planned
for April 5 at Sand Creek in Colorado, where Cheyenne
and Arapahoe women and children were massacred.
Listen live 10 am to 2 pm Pacific time,
or to 150 audios of interviews and music since Alcatraz:
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Photos at Censored News Homepage:
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