Pueblo, CO in 1978 with the Longest Walk

[Artist's rendition of the LW78 Camp outside of Pueblo next to a reservoir. More northern nations have joined as well as Nipponzan Mihogji buddhist friends. "It felt like this region might hold places where Chief Crazy Horse or others might have traveled and / or met with Dineh or Jicarillas."]

Pueblo, CO in 1978 with the Longest Walk: Blessings from Big Mtn. Dineh delegates & Words from the LW78 Rally


Pueblo, CO March 1978 I was really crashed-out inside my makeshift tent made from my orange tarp and there was barely any light, yet, in the morning when I heard that familiar voice calling my name. At about the third call, I was awakening more when that familiar voice was my mom saying, “For what purpose are you still asleep? Rise immediately because you have visitors.” At least she wasn’t calling and telling me that the sheep are already out and that I should quickly go after them. I know my mom was glad to see me and instead of the great white people greeting hug, she simply gave me a soft, loving handshake. We walked together down the hill to the main camp area and there, I greeted our medicine man of Big Mountain who had prepared offerings for me before I left to join the Walk. It was also nice to see other relations from the land. I never asked my mom how she found my camp because those security guys always know what’s going on but I’m glad they guided her up to my camp.

As the March spring morning sun was rising, the relatives had a fire and bread doe going and someone else what preparing some mutton to grill. It was one great Indian breakfast I had missed. They had much questions about how the Walk was going and of course, I had so many stories to tell. After we all got caught, I went to where the medicine man was tooling about among the bushes and trees. He was a very joyful person and smiled a lot, plus he liked to joke around and laugh. He informed me that we should do another prayer chant ceremony to make an appreciation for the offering made to the sacred Colorado River back in Fruita, and to pray for the Walk to be successfully. Then I asked him if our Dineh ways would allow us to make a staff and carry that special one for this Walk. He explained why that would be appropriate enough and he also thought that this may be the only Dineh staff of its kind. We found a nice healthy juniper tree that had a straight branch going out towards the east direction. The ceremony was held which included the making of a special staff as the medicine man gave specific instructions as to how to handling it and care for it.

-©Sheep Dog Nation Rocks, 2008

John Trudell, AIM Spokesperson (His talk excerpts at the Pueblo LW78 Rally.):

“We are the indigenous peoples of the western Hemisphere. For a 100,000 years, we were the indigenous people, and 500 years ago some white men came here and called us, Indians. And they called us: heathens and savages, they called us hostiles and renegades, they called us ‘Red Niggers,’ communist, but they have never ever called us, The People.

“We don’t understand power anymore. The government comes in and say: ‘we have Congress, we have money, we have guns, we have laws, we have courtrooms, we have prisons, and therefore we have power!’ That is a lie! These are things that are tools for oppression. These are artificial forms of power. But because (they) take us when we are young and they take us down that artificial road. We need to take the time to understand natural power. The peoples have the potential to have natural power. And there is no government in existence on this earth, that can stop natural power. They can not stop a hurricane. That is natural power. They can not stop a tornado. That is natural power. They can not stop a blizzard. That is natural power. And so, the peoples have the potential for that natural power. But (they) want to lead us down that artificial road so that we will not recognize, as a people, our potentials for natural power.”


John Redhouse, Dineh Executive Director of National Indian Youth Council (His talk excerpts at the Pueblo LW78 Rally.):

“The earth and the peoples are of one. We all come from a common Mother Earth. We are of her and we are from her. The land and the peoples are of one, and to destroy the land is to also destroy the peoples. We have a very special and unique physical and spiritual relationship with the land and with the earth. It is the basis for our survival and our existence as a people –as a tribe, as tribe --as a people. So, we are protecting a physical and spiritual basis for our existence and for our survival as a People. That is what’s at stake and that’s what is endangered. And again, we have what the white man wants and again, we are in the way. Once again we are in the way of progress in this country.

“I am from the southwest. The southwest I believe is going to be next battle ground over which the issues of sovereignty, treaty, land, water, and natural resources were going to be fought over. One of the main reasons with this so-called ‘white backlash’ is because we have what the white man wants. We have always had what the white man wants. History shows that our people lost their lands, fought for their lands, and many died for that and so, the white dominant society has always wanted the natural resources that lie under our lands.”

AHO! –Sheep Dog Nation, 2008

Outside of Salida, CO: Walk Ceremonials Becoming Stronger

LW78 Brief Rest Stop: Healing & Spirits, was the Walk Ceremonials Becoming Stronger?


March 1978 – Outside of Salida, CO The walk camps were situated on a flat hill among the Rocky Mountain’s foot hills, and the Arkansas River was down below just across the highway. The area was definitely rocky I thought as I hiked about by myself into the hills where there were abandon mines or prospect holes. Giant holes were almost everywhere on the side of these large hills. Spring was just starting and those couple of days were warm enough especially having the camp on the southern slope but the nights still brought frost. Some walkers were talking about checking out some hot springs, and I had a lucky opportunity to come along. This brother had an Indian truck rather than an “Indian car.” The forest green truck, a chevy, had a beat up camper and full of stuff including two mounted speakers. The ride took us through a short winding valley which had a little creek surrounded by a spruce pine forest. It took about a half hour before we came up on to a long flat valley where you can see far into the distances. The afternoon was warm as the breeze blew all the “wild” Indian hair about as our chauffer blasted out some Pink Floyd. The music was “okay” but I thought I’d rather be jamming out to Black Sabbath or The Ramones.

The paved road got rough as if it does not get maintained from there on, and there was a handmade sign that pointed out “Mineral Hot Spring.” The place looked like a modern day ruin with one building still standing with windows. There were low-lying, concrete walls all around and some had pools. I have never been in a hot spring but one of the brothers that was looking for a good pool told me that, “it’s like a sweatlodge.” Like a sweatlodge the ladies got the pool in the building and, us, guys will have the outside pool. One of the brothers took out some tobacco and offered it as he said a prayer for the Walk and asked Mother Earth for healing. It was my very first time to go into a hot, steaming pool and when I put my feet in, it felt it was going to burn me. I went in anyway because that is how a sweatlodge feels sometime. My sweat bath in the earth’s pool was just what I needed after being cold since I joined this Walk. We went back again the next day when an old white man met us after we were done. He lived across that rough highway and he told about how an entrepreneur once was so hot-headed that he attempted a resort there, but he abandoned it after he went broke. The old white man said, “I really believe this is holy ground, cause I heard dem spirits drums out, yonder, before. I just think that it must be the spirits of dem Indians from long ago that use to come to these springs. I gotta lot of respect for this place.”

The Arkansas River or its headwaters was the closest I’d been to a real mountain river since I come from lands with many dry washes. The moon was rising one evening and it was still bright enough that I decided to walk down to the river since I’d been down there during the day. Walking along the rushing river, something caught my eye which was across the river. First, I thought it was black horse but looking more at the huge black blob I immediately thought of a bear. It certainly wasn’t moving like a horse and why would a horse want to be wondering near a river at night? The hair on my back were standing up as I scrambled up the steep roadside slopes and hurried across the road as I tried to look back but I noticed nothing.

I returned to the camp and quietly got into that old school bus and found myself an empty seat and my sleeping bag. My mind started thinking about what that black blob was and if it was really a bear –or my imagination. Then my thoughts wondered to what the Big Mountain medicine man told me once about gathering sacred corn pollen off certain animals. One story he heard was about a powerful medicine man in the old days that went to the Chuska Mountains to seek the making of this sacred pollen. The powerful medicine man was in the mountains and found fresh bear tracks, and he made a circle from pollen with an opening and began a special ancient chant. Soon, a bear came and enter the circle just as a person would and sat down like a person would. The medicine man with power communed with this bear just like he would with another holy man. Though, I was frightened I felt great. It felt like I received much healing, here and with all that in just a couple of days. I was prepared for the remaining long journey to wake up “the great white father in lands of white buildings.” I fell asleep eventually, but those memories have never gone away.


-©Sheep Dog Nation Rocks, 2008

Into the Backbone of Turtle Island, 1978 Longest Walk

Into the Backbone of Turtle Island: Original LW78 Dineh of Big Mtn. Recalls

(Again, brothers and sisters of the Northern Route, Longest Walk II, my thoughts and prayers are for you daily.)

Mid-March 1978 It was before Delta, CO that I wanted to take a turn to walk with others whom volunteered, also. We felt that abandonment as the major part of the walkers went on to Montrose and the cold snow storm didn’t seem it was going to let up. It also seemed that we haven’t seen the sun since we left Fruita, Co and that, seemed like it was days ago even though we just left earlier that day. I remember very well that wind was out of the southwest and it battered our faces from the right side as we all took turns going east. We also knew we were in the midst of the mountain range as it became more dark grey while the sun was setting somewhere beyond the thick low clouds. Like a commander general in a quiet brown tank Max Bear called it a day from his Indian wagon, because the snow mixed with rain posed a hazard with traffic that were passing us. A sign informed us where there was a Rest Area. We turn into a stop that had three picnic ramadas with concrete tables and benches.

“Roughing it,” it was called referring to something like that evening’s supper that composed of “AIM steaks” (baloney and cheese sandwich), juice or soda, and a handful of hard candy from a big can for dessert and for midnight snack. A few of us didn’t have tents but we got our beddings and that life-saving tarp, and we tried to find whatever niches we could in the middle of this flat mountain valley. I had no choice but that concrete table under that steel canopy, and so I rolled myself up like a nice warm burrito inside that tarp and fell right to sleep. Numerous times throughout the night, the hallowing horizontal winds and its snow-blast woke me up but I stayed dry and warm. It was a good rest despite the intense weather all night, and we began the Walk after another “rugged” breakfast with one hot cup of coffee. The sun tried to peek through the stormy clouds as we greeted it while we walk towards its rising. Awhile after we began, the fresh faces of relief-walkers showed up that late morning which was another welcome sight.

I was beginning to realize that this sacred and spiritual Walk was a continuous ceremony of modern and youthful Indians trying to re-learn what our ancestors had left for us. I realized more even though I come from a culturally-rich Big Mountain land that, prayers of all that are walking, running or driving the haul was key to our accomplishments everyday.

Montrose, CO presented me my first opportunity to give a talk to an audience. I prepared my thoughts for my presentation about why we are walking and about what is happening at Big Mountain. The little, beautiful white-faces of a third grade class listened to me very attentively as I spoke. They had many interesting questions since they had their class divided into names of Indian tribes. They learned about protesting or being opposed to unfair laws, that day, even though their teacher referred it to as freedom of speech. Soon, we were in Gunnison, CO and we rested in a comfortable gymnasium at a Community College. This town was located at about 8,000 feet and the surrounding landscape was all snow-covered with the distanced, snowcapped mountain peaks and for a change, the sun finally beamed some warm energy on everything. The local radio reception warned about avalanches throughout the mountain summit regions. There were concerns and talk about that the Walk Chief might need oxygen tanks to make it over Monarch Pass. This pass, a little spot on the backbone of Turtle Island, would be the highest elevation (11,320 feet) that this spiritual Walk would “climb” over.

For some strange reason, no one was willing to drive that U-Haul kitchen truck that everyone else was prohibited from entering except the kitchen master, Johnny "U-Haul" Berns. Johnny coordinated meal preparations and he often enforced space area for kitchen staff. I happened to encounter this discussion about a need for a driver for the U-Haul rig. And again, I don’t recall how I got involved but I remembered being asked if I had a driver’s license, and the next thing I noticed was I was behind the wheel of a two axle rig full of supplies and about 20 people in the cargo space. The final stop before going over Monarch Pass was a mere, wildwest like outpost called, Sargents. It was dark already when we climbed towards the ultimate summit.

The moon was out as we took a brief stop at the summit where we were confined by twelve foot high snow banks on each side of Highway 50. I had to get the load of supplies to Salida where the walk brigades were probably expecting their beddings and foods. It would be all down “hill” from the summit but it turned out to be one of the scariest moments on my Walk experience. The load was just a bit too much for the steep highway to Salida. I tried my best to shift gears and apply the breaks but soon it seemed like I might lose control of the descent. My nearly runaway haul was like a bunch of gypsies risking it all. Someone in the back had dared to lean out and wave a flashlight which meant that this rig had to stop. Miraculously, the U-Haul truck was able to be maneuvered into a stop and the courageous passenger told me that the brakes were burning. After everything was “kooled,’ we eventually rolled into Salida where the keys for the truck were taken away as mysteriously as it was put in my hands.

-©Sheep Dog Nation Rocks 2008, NBK

My First Sight of the 1978 Longest Walk

Way before cellphones and the internet, I was hungry and tired trying to locate the Walk as I started to hitch hike west from Salina, UT. A van full of Indians passby and all those Indian faces inside returned the looks but they were going the opposite direction. About an hour later, that van pulled over and one of the nice ladies asked me where I was going. Told them that I'm trying to meet with the LW. They took me to Richfield, AND AFTER Henry Dominquez and Chiska 'purified' me with sage smoke, they took me on to Scipio. It must have been around 9 o'clock in the evening when I hopped off Henry and Chiska's ride, and after being "mildly" interrogated on the way up from Richfield about me possibly having drugs. I remember mentioning to them that Dennis Banks told me, on the one and only, phone conversation I 'ever' had with him: "Yes, brother bring some strong medicine and some good tobacco!" I brought the Dineh sacred mountain tobacco blend. Well so, I hopped off still hungry as I stumbled through the darkened campground like a baby lamb being tossed into a corral of stranger lamb and kids. I found food near a U-Haul truck. The Walkers were coming around the bend and many in the campground started towards the highway to greet them. I just stood back and watched the silhouettes of the Walkers with vehicle headlights behind them. It was cold, of course, and I could see their breaths as they crossed the highway being assisted by the Walk Security Detail. They all parked themselves as the greeters surrounded them, and the sacred staffs and the pipe were appropriately given to the Keepers.

-NBK or the sheepherder on that long vacation in 1978, 2008

A Tribute to Laura Ann Villegas, 1953 - 1992:

[Photos: Left image is from a 1978 newspaper clipping & right image shows Laura in 1984 with the late Big Mtn. Matriarch, Roberta Blackgoat.]

A Tribute to Laura Ann Villegas, 1953 - 1992:
“The Xicano Warrior Woman, Mother / Walker of LW78, & Sister to the Black Mesa Struggle”

Laura was born in 1953 in East Los Angeles at a time the Chicano communities were struggling to be accepted within the white dominant societies of LA’s suburbs. Her family was one of those that got caught up in abandoning their Xicano roots and assimilating into the mainstream Hispanic world. Eventually, Laura’s parents were impacted intensely from the conflicts of identity as her father, Ernesto, felt he was still an Indigena from Mexico’s province of Vera Cruz. Her mom, Carmen, came from a familia that moved to LA from the U.S. state of Tejas, and Carmen also tried to battle the American forces to change identity. In Laura’s own words in 1980, “My parents became separated because of this assimilation process of Hispanization. To be more accepted as ‘Caucasians,’ it was ideal for Xicanos back then to move to South Pasadena, and my father couldn’t accept that and he wanted to stay in the los barrios of east LA.”

Laura was attending Garfield High School in east LA when the Chicano Moratorium was taking place which was a nationwide protest to the U.S. racist and slavery policies implemented on the United Farm Workers and all others of Mexican descend. She chose at this time to believe in what is right and that was to stand with la lucha de pueblos. She became an organizer for human rights when there were “walk outs” organized in protest, being a youth volunteer and being present when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, collaborating with the Brown Berets, and eventually building solidarity between the Xicano struggle and the American Indian Movement. Laura once recalled, “Everyone that I knew in this city wanted to leave the city and live in the country, and if some of us were lucky, we would end up living with nature the way the traditional natives do like on Black Mesa. I, too, had committed myself to leave this city back then.”

A small group organized to work with and support the issues of traditional, indigenous peoples was run by Felix and Stella Montoya during the 1970s. Laura coordinated fund raising and sponsorship of mainly Hopi elders to come to testify at the Los Angeles Water & Power headquarters. Traditional Hopis were very concerned for the fate of Black Mesa’s natural pristine environment because of what their prophecy outlined and because Peabody coal company had contracted to solve southern California’s energy needs. Laura and the Montoyas finally visited Hopi country and New Mexico. These travel experiences reinforced Laura’s commitment that she must get out of the city. Her unexpected way of leaving the city came in 1979 when she helped a Big Mountain elder’s visit to LA and when she met the father-to-be of her daughter, her third and last child.

Big Mountain’s traditional Dineh (Navajo) needed a more affective coordinator and organizer, and Laura took up this major task. With in two years and with Laura’s great peaceful energy, Big Mountain elders were networking with the world and forming stronger alliances with other Indian nations. Non-Indian support groups grew and the first Lakota Sun Dance in Dineh country took place by 1983. Laura was that bright problem-solver that came among Big Mountain’s traditional matriarch society and nearly began to build a nation. Her city life beginnings became the past as she meditated and sat in the ceremonial circles of the Indigenous world. Unfortunately, the human toll still existed even far away from the city as her personal life encountered much hardship.

By 1992, she wanted to continue what she always loved to do and that was to help in organizing a spiritual Walk across the country in celebration for the 500 years of Indigenous survival to European colonialism. She was again happy and felt rejuvenated but at the same time she expressed to her former companion, “I know that Great Spirit will call on me someday. Remember that whenever that happens; don’t let (them) take me back to the city. I want You to make sure that I am laid to rest out here on these lands.” Then she began to wear sunglasses all the time saying, “This is my mask. I don’t want my face seen too much.” One afternoon while working as an organizer for the spiritual walk, her driver fell asleep as she was napping from fatigue and their car crashed head on, and Laura’s duty as a warrior, in this world, ended.

- © Sheep Dog Nations Rocks on behalf of Laura’s daughter, 2008

Dineh Matriarch Honored for Her 30 Years of Serve to the Way of the Warrior

October 2007, Big Mountain – Honors are usually done in a very formal manner like being conducted before a room full of people as the Honoree receives their reward along with the proper handshake and applauses. At Big Mountain where a (unpopular) peoples resistance has been taken place for more than 30years, a elder woman warrior was honored with not a huge audience, but was properly done with valuable words and blessing from the cedar smoke. So, why is this resistance movement unpopular? Because these traditional Indians do not consider themselves as being a part of the United States, they believe they are not conquered, and they still believe they are a sovereign nation based on their treaty statuses and based on their ancient religious obligations. Also, because the rest of America and American Indians believe what the mass media has told them, which was that, “Big Mountain is involved in a ‘land-dispute’ with the Hopi tribe.” Such “land-dispute” or “tribal range war” theories have never been proven.

This warrior elder has stood for the ancient ways of the Dineh for 30 years. She has been harassed over and over, and local tribal officials have tried again and again to force her to sign away her aboriginal rights and relocate. Government officials really believe that this traditional Dineh elder does not understand “America” and its “great” laws of the land! This elder warrior knows all about the schemes of Peabody Western Coal and certain U.S. Congressmen, and how (they) pushed a relocation law through the U.S. Executive Branch in 1974. This great warrior woman was educated by her neighbors, the traditional Hopi elders, about the B.I.A. tribal lawyers and Peabody’s creation of a ‘false’ Hopi tribal council back in 1962. Oh yes, the rightfully Honored Elder Warrior knows about the “American Laws.” That is why she stood in defiance on behalf her peoples, the future generations and their ancestral territories.

-Sheep Dog Nation Rocks, 2008

A Dineh & Longest Walk 1978 Participant, Recalls

(March 12th, 2008, I wish I was out there with you again, my brothers and sisters. I try to think and pray that I am there with all of you in spirit.)

March 1978: We left Green River, UT, and the red sandstone plateaus reminded me of Dineh country, northeastern Arizona. It was just decided that only a few Walkers & Runners were needed and so, I was one of those that volunteered to walk the rest of the day and into the evening. The rest of the walkers and crew would do set-up far ahead since this would be a long and lonesome stretch to Fruita, CO. It seemed like we have been hammered with wintery breeze and cold since we left Richfield. We walked into the night in relays, a Pipe Carrier and two Staff Carriers. Max Bear's Indian wagon, an old dark-brown dodge van, was behind the walkers that evening as the cold wind whipped against the cliffs next to the highway. We took turns until it was passed midnight and we found a flat spot off Highway 50. Those of us that slept out on the ground were lucky to not have it snowed overnight.

We all got up early and there was a fire with fresh coffee and some warmed up left over foods. The sun had not risen yet as we huddled around the fire. You begin to not feel the fatigue after a while of continuous walk even after having only slept four hours. It was a beautiful early morning with red buttes and cliffs all around as I remembered what I learned on my first morning with the 1978 Walk at Scipio. Chief Eagle Feather told the morning Sun Rise Circle at Scipio: "Continue to make strong prayers again today. Tunkacula will hear you. As you pray look about and you may see signs in the trees or in the clouds. Pray to those signs and symbols. It might be a buffalo, an eagle or a deer. Remember those visions all the time as you walk to Washington, D.C."

The sun was starting to rise over the beautiful red sandstone landscapes that displayed many images of Indian people of all ages. We made a little circle as water and some warmed-up food was set aside as offerings to the Walk Pipe. Once we prayed in the Circle it was time to continue on east along Highway 50, and most of us walked this time. As the sun got higher and as we crossed over a large mesa, we began to see the Rocky Mountain range in the far distance with their snowcapped peaks and dark forested slopes. My legs and feet were beginning to tell me if I'm going to give them a break, but then I try to go back to my prayers and think about why I have to walk. Just in time, some cars and vans showed up with fresh Walkers some of those who went ahead from Green River. I climbed into the back of a pickup truck and took a break among some fresh walkers. An older brother, John Thunder Shield, was sitting at the rear of the truck with a traffic caution flag and he joked and talked about things as he waved on approaching traffic.

Then, I had to jump off because I noticed a ravine with tall bushes up ahead. I climbed off as the truck was going slow and I said, "I gotta go to da John." Thunder Shield said to me, "Hey, that's my name! --Ee'eh!" He laughs as I ran toward the ravine. Sometimes, you have to run about a quarter of a mile if no one waits for you after you had your relief. This time a couple of us had to make a visit to this wash, and Thunder Shield and crew waited up ahead so we didn't have to run to catch up. By this time, I had long passed the "blister stage" where I didn't get blisters on my feet anymore, but my knees hurt like it might start to swell. A lot of times a swollen knee can hurt so much that it was hard to walk anymore. You had to give it at least a 24 hour rest.

Our last long rest was in Richfield which seemed like it was weeks ago as I looked forward to the next rest stop. There will be time then to prep for the next long stretch, wash the few clothes I had and especially check on the socks situation, and have plenty of good cooked food. At this point, I had went along with the innovation where you find a new can and wrap some twine around it then, form a handle onto it. Wala! I had a perfect coffee mug and it can even be attached to my belt loop.

Those of us who walked most of the night went ahead leaving the fresh walkers to take over. The Rockies looked very intimidating as I wondered that, only a bunch of Indians would attempt to march into its midst during the unstable climate of late winter.

NBK

Big Mountain Sovereign Dineh Support (Northern Route) Longest Walk II

Yaa'at'eeh Sh' Dine'eh,
(Good Greetings My Relatives)

In the late 70s not long after Wounded Knee 1973 and the capture of political prisoner Leonard Peltier, Indigenous nations of Turtle Island (western hemisphere) came together to do a spiritual walk across the US from San Francisco to Washington D.C. The 1978 Longest Walk was to bring attention to eleven, anti-Indian legislation that were about to go before the US Congress. These legislations were supported by racist, white organizations and their elected representatives. Legislations were intented to carry out numerous aspects of racism and inhumanities like abolishing all Indian treaties and the sterlization of Indian women.

The traditional Dineh elders at Big Mountain in 1978 were resisting federal relocation laws being enforced in the name of Peabody coal companies. Despite their full time resistance movement at home, they decided to support the 1978 Walk. They had one local volunteer who decided to walk all the way to educate other Indian nations and to bring attention to the injustices occuring on Black Mesa. A medicine man conducted a ceremony for the 78 Walk and gave the volunteer walker a sacred bundle with instructions to offer it to the sacred (Colorado) River before the Walk crossed it.

A few elders came to Richfield, Utah to show their support and solidarity for the Walk of 1978. About a week after the first Big Mountain delegate visited to the 1978 Walk, indigenous spiritual leaders of the Walk and a few walkers came to the river's bank outside of Fruita, Colorado to offer the Dineh bundle's contents. Corn pollen were offered in prayer and the sacred stone offerings were gently dispensed on the water's edge. The Longest Walk of 1978 then proceeded across the bridge over the sacred (Colorado) River. This spiritual walk was becoming stronger with more walkers joining, more awareness that there were still Indians in the U.S., and a busload of Dineh walkers showed up soon after the Walk crossed the Colorado River. The early spring snow storms was harsh as the Walk approached the Backbone of the Turtle Island (The Rockies), and the prayers of the peoples' Walk were only getting stronger, too.

The Big Mountain delegation returned, again, with more of its community members to Pueblo, Colorado where the 78 Walk had a one week rest. The Dineh visit also brought with them their local medicine man and he gathered some Dineh youth walkers to hold a special ceremony to make a staff for the Walk. This Dineh visit also brought the much needed traditional foods like corn meals and fresh mutton. Since the Wounded Knee battle of 1973 (WK 73), the traditional Dineh's solidarity with all Red (Indian) Nations at the Pueblo, CO meeting had re-enforced the continuing alliances of WK 73.

Today and 30 years later, some remaining Dineh resisters and their relatives at Big Mountain wish to show their support again. The targeted date for joining the walkers will be when the northern route of Longest Walk II reach Pueblo, CO. There are other efforts being made to support the two Walks of 2008, southern & northern routes, but for many of you who know about the Big Mountain struggle know that we are a very poor country and that we rely on outside resources to initiate our actions. This time I wish to find possible means to make this commemorative effort possible, again.

Or if you are on the Rez and know of others wishing to visit the northern route at Pueblo, CO., feel free to contact me. My Rez List does not even exist so please forward this to the rest of our Rez families. Perhaps, we can all share resources in order to avoid the high gas prices instituted by U.S. oil companies and to share the efforts in transport. This would be so unique to accomplish such a commemoration and to give the northern route a big boost for their strength and for their prayers that will get them to D.C.

It is very crucial that we communicate and acknowledge one another as the way our ancestors have done throughout the ages. With that and together, we can let all other indigenous and non-native communities know that we are still proud of our ancient beliefs and existence. The northern route as you may know is following the original route of 1978 and as we speak, these walkers' footsteps and prayers are crossing those same rivers, same valleys, same mountain ranges and the same grasslands. The decendents of all our Relations: the Winged People, Peoples of the Water, Four Legged Peoples, Those that Crawled on the Soils, and the Ancestors' Spirits will all know, again, that We have not forgotten them nor have we forgotten our efforts to survive with our coming generations.

Contrary to the times of 1978, our environment is more polluted, our ancient sacred places are evermore desecrated, our wise chiefs and medicine people are nearly gone, our understanding of our human self has become less, and our communications with all our relationships, nature and universe, are more severed. Join the Big Mountain Dineh in bringing not only support but a message of great hope that Mother Earth and Father Sky will have pity on us, for that we will retreive our human identities and begin to recount the proper ceremonies of the human races.

The Longest Walk of 1978 has inscripted its legacies in the indigenous histories, and countless memories and wisdom were born from that era and those events. These legacies are still the driving force of many resistance movements and teachings of today's Native struggles. The Longest Walk of 1978 open the doorway for the Big Mountain traditional and sovereign movement to the world. If it weren't for the Longest Walk of 1978, Big Mountain would have never: joined the Dineh alliances for liberation, created community resource camps, formed alliances with non-Indian environmental groups, and established the seed for the Sun Dances of Dineh country.

Thank you so much for listening.





NBK

Big Mountain, a Struggle in Arizona & its Relationship with Longest Walk 1978

The name, Big Mountain, was applied to a location in the middle of Black Mesa in northern Arizona by the U.S.G.S in the 1930s when it published their official map of the area. To the Dineh (Navajos) of the local region, they have known this location as Dzil'ni't'saa', and which has a summit peak of 7,000 ft. The immediate and most simple translation is, Great Mountain. It means the place of great strength and according to the old stories that were passed down through oral history, the mountain itself and its surrounding area provides healing herbs and natural spring water. Thus, this flat shield-like plateau or a giant shallow mound is 'the great strength' (Dziili') that also refers to healing place and healing power.

Today, more than 350 Dineh residents defy a U.S. Public Law to relocate and immediately accept the benefits and a new modern house elsewhere like 200 miles away in a strange land. These traditional resisters were in solidarity with the Longest Walk of 1978 because they shared the same visions that, indigenous nations must unite in order to survive with their cultures, their coming generations and their lands. The Longest Walk of 1978 generated an enormous awareness about the Red Peoples' (indigenous America) existence and struggle for survival. This spiritual educational Walk of 1978 and with the Big Mountain Elders' participation brought focus to Big Mountain about the human rights violations and religious intolerance that were committed by the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs.

How the Mountain made them stay:

Public Law 93-531 which is also known as the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974 began its enforcement of partition boundary fencing and registering traditional families to accept relocation benefits and immediately move out. The traditional matriarchs some whom were healers and along with other local traditional medicine men said that it would be a horrible idea to abandon the sacred place, Dzil'ni't'saa. They all believe that the world and all things on and around Big Mountain would go extinct if the Dineh left. If it was cleared of human beings like the Dineh the deity, Bi'gohchidii (name for the Deity associated to floras and faunas), would no longer give life to Its children and Its vegetation. Natural life would end.

Their fight which were conducted through physical resistance and often there were violent confrontations with federal and tribal police. The boundary fencing stopped, those who were wishing to relocate were intervened by the resisters to reconsider, and Navajo tribal officials tried to negotiate and mediate between the Feds and the local resistance. After the Longest Walk of 1978, some of the young Dineh Walkers went to Big Mountain to assist the traditional resistance. This began the Big Mountain Survival Camp which was an inspired idea from the AIM Survival Schools and the youths acquired this idea during the Longest Walk 1978.

John and Zonnie Katenay, an elder couple, provided their home and resources to help the youth start up the survival camp. Eventually, in 1981 and with other key elder leaders' approval like Kii Shey and Katherine Smith, the Survival Camp was built in the wooded areas in southern Big Mountain. Local coordinator, Bahe (Kat) Katenay, suggested the Camp location due to its strategic location for radio transmission, fuel resources and potential area for sinking a well. 1981 was also the year that the Feds declared that the BIA take complete jurisdiction of the partitioned areas and to restrict all homestead improvements or any types of new construction. Part of the Dineh response to this Fed strategy was to build the Survival Camp compounds.

The Big Mountain Proclamation of Independence 1979 & the Resistance Outpost:

The resistance gatherings throughout 1977 and 1979 produced a declaration signing by 65 local traditional Dineh elders. These signers declared that Big Mountain area (approx. 450,000 acres) as a sovereign country based on the Treaty of 1868 and based on the supreme holiness of the Sacred Mountain Soil Bundle. The Survival Camp would play a major role for the initiatives of the proclamation. It would be the resistance outpost to be maintained by mostly Dineh youths of the Longest Walk 1978. Its key objectives would be to disrupt federal jurisdictional activities related to relocation, fencing, livestock reduction, and surveillence. These objectives would be conducted non-violently according to Elders directives. Additional objectives were to create supporter-network systems on behalf of the elder resisters and facilitate general assemblies for meetings, schools, ceremonies, and other future complexes for elder-care. The Camp's existence (1981-1993) had one of the largest impact for this indigenous resistance to oppression and genocide.

Federal Marshals and the FBI falsely concluded that "this Camp was for militant purposes, and if there were ever to be an armed stand-off and compare that to the Wounded Knee seige of 1973, Wounded Knee would be nothing but peanuts."

Unfortunately, the Feds and the BIA Agency through manipulations and undermining assisted Navajo tribal officials to coerced a few local Dineh to disband the Survival Camp in 1991. The feds and the BIA tribe won majority of the peoples' approval by using the deception that some partitioned lands will be exchanged. Also, the underminings had created much dissension among the resistance that the Camp's merits were being questioned. Longest Walk 1978 participant and local custodian, Bahe Katenay, tried to keep the spirit of the Survival Camp alive but was soon overcome by the backlashes and he seek other alternative means to maintain the Dineh resistance. The last stand at the Survival Camp was the Sun Dance of July 1996 when again federal and Indian police disrupted the attempted re-occupation of the Survival Camp and the reinstatement of Dineh sovereignty.

©Sheep Dog Nation Rocks, 2008

WELCOME WISDOM SEEKERS, THIS IS CHIEF LONER

PLEASE, HAVE PATIENCE AND SOON WE'LL BE UP AND RUNNING TO FEED YOU MANY TALES OF WISDOMS. IT IS HOPE THAT YOU WILL BE ENLIGTHEN WITH TRUTHFUL EVENTS, STORIES AND HONEST PERSPECTIVES ABOUT LIFE AND THE WORLD, AS WELL AS THE UNI-VERSE.