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| Walking for a cause - Native Americans participating in the Longest Walk 2 walked from Clarksville to Southside Virginia Community College recently. Participants hope the walk will bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth. The walk commemorated the Longest Walk that was held 30 years ago |
Native Americans walk coast to coast to proclaim,
"All Life is Sacred - Save Mother Earth"
On Feb. 11 Longest Walk participants embarked on a 5-month journey from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to arrive on July 11. The Longest Walk south route is being led by AIM co-founder Dennis J. Banks. It is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth, sacred site issues, and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original longest walk. Linda Carter said two different local Indian groups are involved. Barry Carter heads the Virginia Occoneechee group. She is with the Eastern Siouan/Eastern Blackfoot Descendants Association who can trace their ancestry back to the Saponi people of Southside Virginia.
According to information provided by Carter, in 1978, when 11 bills in Congress threatened to abrogate the U.S. government's treaties with Indian tribes, hundreds of Indians walked from the West Coast to Washington, D.C. in a peaceful, spiritual effort to educate the public about Native American rights and the Native way of life. The 3,600-mile walk from the West Coast to Washington D.C. was successful in its purpose: to gather enough support to halt proposed legislation abrogating Indian treaties with the U.S. government. In addition, the walk resulted in the passage of the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act of 1978, allowing Native Americans to practice their traditional religions for the first time since 1492.
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Along the same northern route covered in the 1978 Longest Walk, the 2008 walkers' mission is "Renewing the Spirit by Walking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors," while another group walks a southern route in the Clean Up Mother Earth campaign, in which walkers will pick up trash along the way. Together, the two groups will cover a combined total of 8,000 miles on foot.
On Wednesday, June 25 the southern route brought the walkers from Virgilina through Clarksvile to Occoneechee State Park, where the Occoneechee-Saponi Tribe of Virginia received them.
On Thursday June 26 there was a private ceremony in honor of the 1676 massacre of Occoneechee people by Europeans on Occoneechee Island, the grave robbery that continued on Occoneechee Island for hundreds of years and the careless bulldozing and desecration of Occoneechee graves in 1952.
On Friday, June 27 a council meeting was held at Occoneechee State Park to share concerns about threats to the environment and local communities. Indigenous Americans across the nation and Southside Virginia citizens bear in common such threats as uranium mining and the sacrificing of agricultural lands and forests for "biofuels." This council presented an opportunity to consult in unity and solidarity in support of the protection of Mother Earth and her human communities.
On Saturday, June 28 the walkers left Occoneechee State Park for Brunswick County, walking on US Highway 58 east through Boydton and on toward South Hill. The walk will stop briefly for a prayer at the old Boydton Jail in honor of Tom Cole, an Occoneechee Indian who was lynched there in the early 1900s. The destination in Brunswick County was Southside Virginia Community College where they spent the night before heading to the Pocahontas State Park.
Carter said the walkers believe in the quote, "One people, One land" because the people and the land are interrelated.
"If you harm one, you harm the other. Protecting the environment is getting a little more attention but there is so much work to do to educate people," Carter said.
Carter said the walkers are very concerned about what they believe are threats to Mother Earth such as uranium mining in Pittsylvania County that could pollute the water and excessive clear cutting of trees.
"We are very concerned about the proposal to mine uranium because of the effect it will have on the water system. Clear cutting trees is another concern. Timber companies are cutting indigenous trees like oak and replanting the land with loblolly pines. The trees will mature in 20 years but they will not have the value of an oak or maple and they will change the ecosystem," Carter said.
Carter said some timber companies are misleading property owners and not paying them what the trees are really worth.
"For example, a person might be told his trees are worth $2,500 but in fact they are worth $25,000," Carter said.
Carter is also concerned about the issue of immigration. He said man invented the borders.
"Let's say a man travels from Tijuana to California to work and I travel from Virginia to California to work. He is an immigrant when he travels 200 miles and I am not an immigrant when I traveled 2.000 miles. I would like to see more dialogue on the immigration issue that would include the rights of the immigrants," Carter said.
http://www.vancnews.com/articles/2008/07/08/brunswick/news/news01.txt
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