Post by Okwes on May 22, 2008 12:12:28 GMT -5
Awareness walk reaching Richmond on Friday 'Longest Walk 2' brings
attention to rights, concerns of Native Americans
May 19, 2008
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www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/NEWS01/80519\
0301
<http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/NEWS01/8051\
90301>
Native Americans and others will walk Friday into Richmond for a two- or
three-day visit as part of the Longest Walk 2. Volunteers and donors are
still needed to assist with the walkers' local stop.
The Longest Walk 2 is a grassroots effort on a national level to bring
attention to issues of environmental injustice, protection of sacred
sites, cultural survival, youth empowerment and eroding Native American
rights, according to the Web site www.longestwalk.org
<http://www.longestwalk.org/> . Along the 3,400-mile route, Native
Americans and their allies are walking behind the banner, "All Life is
Sacred; Save Mother Earth!" They also are picking up trash and sharing
their culture.
The walk commemorates the 1978 Longest Walk, which led to the defeat of
11 anti-Indian legislative bills as well as helped bring about the 1978
American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
The Longest Walk 2 began Feb. 11 in San Francisco, Calif., and is
scheduled to conclude July 11 in Washington, D.C. Walkers are traveling
by two routes, one to the south and one to the north, which includes
Richmond. The number of walkers is expected to grow as the route nears
Washington. Indigenous peoples around the world are making simultaneous
walks.
Earla Printup of Richmond is handling the details of the Longest Walk 2
participants' stop in Richmond. She is Tuscarora, which is part of the
Iroquois confederacy, and she is a member of the Turtle Clan.
She expects at least 50 to 100 walkers to arrive in Richmond along U.S.
40 from Indianapolis on Friday. The walkers are expected to stay
Saturday and possibly Sunday, with their next stop in Dayton, Ohio, on
May 26.
Printup said donations of bottled water, fresh fruit and money are
needed. She also needs volunteers to welcome the walkers and to serve
during a feast planned for Friday. She wants to borrow a large barbecue
for the Friday night feast, to which area residents are invited to bring
a side dish and attend. The details of the feast's location and the
group's overnight stays are being finalized, Printup said.
"I'm just trying to give them every comfort we can," Printup said.
Printup got involved in the Longest Walk effort after learning about it
on the Internet while researching her second cousin, Mad Bear, a
medicine man who took part in the first walk.
"He carried the message throughout his life," she said. "If we come
together spiritually and have tolerance for others' beliefs and pray our
hearts out, something good will happen."
The walk's mission, she said, "just touched me so deeply and the way I
feel about the seasons and the earth ... How Mother Earth is revolting
about so many raping her. It's like the human race is a cancer and we're
killing it and we're killing ourselves in the process."
Printup said she admires the walkers for their sacrifices -- personal,
financial and social -- made to take part in the walk.
"How big of a commitment, how big of a belief, is that?" she said.
attention to rights, concerns of Native Americans
May 19, 2008
*
www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/NEWS01/80519\
0301
<http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/NEWS01/8051\
90301>
Native Americans and others will walk Friday into Richmond for a two- or
three-day visit as part of the Longest Walk 2. Volunteers and donors are
still needed to assist with the walkers' local stop.
The Longest Walk 2 is a grassroots effort on a national level to bring
attention to issues of environmental injustice, protection of sacred
sites, cultural survival, youth empowerment and eroding Native American
rights, according to the Web site www.longestwalk.org
<http://www.longestwalk.org/> . Along the 3,400-mile route, Native
Americans and their allies are walking behind the banner, "All Life is
Sacred; Save Mother Earth!" They also are picking up trash and sharing
their culture.
The walk commemorates the 1978 Longest Walk, which led to the defeat of
11 anti-Indian legislative bills as well as helped bring about the 1978
American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
The Longest Walk 2 began Feb. 11 in San Francisco, Calif., and is
scheduled to conclude July 11 in Washington, D.C. Walkers are traveling
by two routes, one to the south and one to the north, which includes
Richmond. The number of walkers is expected to grow as the route nears
Washington. Indigenous peoples around the world are making simultaneous
walks.
Earla Printup of Richmond is handling the details of the Longest Walk 2
participants' stop in Richmond. She is Tuscarora, which is part of the
Iroquois confederacy, and she is a member of the Turtle Clan.
She expects at least 50 to 100 walkers to arrive in Richmond along U.S.
40 from Indianapolis on Friday. The walkers are expected to stay
Saturday and possibly Sunday, with their next stop in Dayton, Ohio, on
May 26.
Printup said donations of bottled water, fresh fruit and money are
needed. She also needs volunteers to welcome the walkers and to serve
during a feast planned for Friday. She wants to borrow a large barbecue
for the Friday night feast, to which area residents are invited to bring
a side dish and attend. The details of the feast's location and the
group's overnight stays are being finalized, Printup said.
"I'm just trying to give them every comfort we can," Printup said.
Printup got involved in the Longest Walk effort after learning about it
on the Internet while researching her second cousin, Mad Bear, a
medicine man who took part in the first walk.
"He carried the message throughout his life," she said. "If we come
together spiritually and have tolerance for others' beliefs and pray our
hearts out, something good will happen."
The walk's mission, she said, "just touched me so deeply and the way I
feel about the seasons and the earth ... How Mother Earth is revolting
about so many raping her. It's like the human race is a cancer and we're
killing it and we're killing ourselves in the process."
Printup said she admires the walkers for their sacrifices -- personal,
financial and social -- made to take part in the walk.
"How big of a commitment, how big of a belief, is that?" she said.