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Longest Walk 2 enters Oklahoma 
 

By Jami Custer
Staff Writer
 
POTEAU, Okla. – To honor the 30 year anniversary of the first “Longest Walk,” a new group of walkers is traversing the continent. Along the way they will assist communities by doing community service and listening to Indian people’s needs and concerns. The walkers began on Feb. 11 in San Francisco, Calif., on Alcatraz Island and they will finish in Washington, D.C.
 
The first walk began in 1978 when bill HR 9054 was going to be brought to Congress.
 
“They were going to abolish some Native American rights like mineral and fishing rights and abolish all treaties that existed at that time. A group of Natives got together with some elders and they wanted to find a peaceful solution to this,” said Southern Route Coordinator Larry BringingGood, who is Cheyenne Arapaho and Otoe Missouria. “They made the suggestion that they walk across America and let them know what is going to happen and how this is going to affect us in all people and all nations across this nation.”
 
During the first walk in 1978 they wrote a manifesto about all health and environment issues concerning the people. The 2008 group is retracing the routes that were taking then and seeing if there are any issues or changes to the issues that have been made in the last 30 years. They are focusing much on the status of the environment.
 
“We have to live in harmony with the earth,” BringingGood said. “We have to look at the fact that contamination of our air, water and soil, these are things that not only affect Native Americans, but they also affect other people. There is a delicate balance between human kind and Mother Nature and this thing has to be mended.”


    

        

            

        
        

            
Larry BringingGood, southern route coordinator shakes hands with fellow Longest Walk member during a circle up to show a sign of respect for other people and their cultures. (Photo by Jami Custer)
        
    

 
The Longest Walk 2 Southern Route is organized and led by American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis J. Banks, elders and original 1978 Walkers. The walkers take two routes, the northern and southern. The southern route included a stop in Tahlequah, Okla., on May 9 and 10.
 
“We travel 30, 40 and sometimes 100 miles a day,” said Nathan Leroy, Omaha/Ponca/Lakota/Northern Cheyenne.
 
They spent two days at the Cherokee Cultural Grounds recuperating and resting before more travel.
 
“I feel the importance of this walk and our message is that all life is sacred,” BringingGood said. “Pay attention to mother earth, pay attention to health issues and pay attention to human rights. Us walking, every step is a prayer and every day that we walk, every day that we run we think about these things and the change becomes within ourselves.”
 
BringingGood continued to say that if we can change ourselves and we can reflect that change maybe we can inspire other people and maybe it will spread.”
 
Many different cultures are represented in the southern route. BringingGood said they have nearly 80 individuals within their group and they expect to pick up more by the end of the walk.
 
Andrei Jacobs is Yup’ik/Eskimo and is originally from Anchorage, Alaska. He began traveling with the group in April.
 
“I thought their mission was consistent with my own values and what I wanted to do as a young person and how I wanted our seventh generations to look like,” he said. “I wanted to contribute and be a part of that.”
 
Jacobs said there was a girl who cried with the group in Tulsa, Okla., and he said he forgets that what they are doing can affect those around them.
 
“Knowing that we are influencing them it breaks your heart and it’s one of those feelings you are going to remember for the rest of your life,” Jacobs said. “As I’m coming along and walking day to day, every step I am learning more about myself. I have heard that in order to become great you have to overcome adversity, this is how you do it.”
 
For more information about the Longest Walk Southern Route, contact Michael Rojas at (510) 338-8694 or Larry BringingGood at (209) 242-1162 and on the web at www.longestwalk.org.