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:
http://www.earthcycles.net/

Photos at Censored News Homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

 



 


        


Reprinted as an historical reference document under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html