Longest Walk, in defense of Mother Earth and vanishing rivers

2.5.08

By Brenda Norrell
Human rights editor
UN OBSERVER & International Report

TOPEKA, Kansas – Dennis Banks, cofounder of the American Indian Movement, and Kickapoo Chairman Steve Cadue joined forces on the steps of the Kansas Statehouse to draw attention to the destruction of Mother Earth, vanishing rivers and assaults on American Indian rights.
Standing with the Longest Walkers, Kickapoo Chairman Cadue said his people in northern Kansas have been hauling water around the clock because the Delaware River is dry, threatening the economic and cultural survival of his people.
Although Kickapoo water rights are ensured by treaty and federal law, the Kickapoo must now spend enormous amounts of money to obtain water and their right to water for the future.
“If the Kickapoo tribe loses our argument for water in the court system, we will cease to exist as a viable sovereign Indian Tribe in the next decade,” Chairman Cadue said.“We had the right to the water and the land before the establishment of Kansas,” Chairman Cadue said. The federal court case, the Winters Doctrine, established the rights of Kickapoo to water. The Winters Doctrine gave American Indians first rights to water over the states, he said.
Now, threatened with the loss of their economic development, culture and survival, Chairman Cadue asked Dennis Banks to carry the message of the Kickapoo people to the President of the United States.
“Tell the President that the Kickapoo people need water, the treaties need to be honored,” Chairman Cadue said.Speaking on the statehouse steps, Dennis Banks, coordinator of the southern route of the Longest Walk, thanked the walkers from the northern route for their tremendous effort and being part of the historic journey.
Banks said during the Longest Walk of 1978, walkers gathered 1,500,000 signatures to ensure American Indian rights. He said the Longest Walk was successful and defeated anti-Indian legislation and countered the Washington legislators who sponsored it.Banks, describing the combined 8,000 mile journeys of the northern and southern routes of the Longest Walk 2, said, “We are doing this because of the gravity of the situation.”
Banks said the Longest Walk is underway because of the destruction of Mother Earth and sacred sites and the assaults on American Indian rights that Native people are confronted with daily.Banks appealed to Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to intervene and ensure water rights for the Kickapoo. “The water is being siphoned off for other purposes,” Banks said.“American Indians were the first people on this land and they are the last people to receive the resources.”
Banks said when the Longest Walk began in 1978, walkers spoke out in defense of sacred San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona. San Francisco Peaks are sacred to all American Indians Nations in the region, who continue to conduct sacred ceremonies and gather medicine plants there. However, the Peaks are once again under attack by the corporate plan to use sewer waste water for fake snow production for recreational skiers on the mountain.
“We are going to challenge Sen. McCain wherever he stops,” Banks said of the issue of protecting San Francisco Peaks.
Further, Banks said chromium contamination is threatening the survival of the Mohave, Havasupai and Hualapai in Arizona and California.
Pointing out the crisis on the national scale, Banks said it is time for U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton “to stop their squabbling and focus on what is going to save this country.”Banks said Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius’s name has become associated with protecting human rights and the environment, including opposing new power plants in Holcomb, Kansas, where the northern route walked through.Banks, however, urged Gov. Sebelius to ensure that Kickapoo have water. “Can you imagine, a river without any water. That is painful to see.”
Banks said the earth and rivers are being destroyed by corporate America, which is obvious sine rivers are catching on fire in America. Banks also recalled the uranium tailing contamination pouring down the Navajos’ Rio Puerco in New Mexico and Arizona and the Jackpile mine surrounded by Acoma and Laguna Pueblos in New Mexico.Banks recalled when 14 Native miners heckled Native activists opposed to the uranium mining at the Jackpile Mine. The miners said the mine provided jobs.Banks told them, “It is not a job when your lives are at risk.”
Now, all of those 14 men have lost their lives from cancer and diseases of uranium mining.
Banks said American Indian people are stewards, with the responsibility of protecting future generations. “There will be no Seventh Generation if we don’t say anything, do anything.”
Water, he said, is both a right and a basic necessity of survival.“We all need water, we need water for our ceremonies; we are born of water.”
During the capitol rally, Stephanie Cole, spokesperson for the Sierra Club in Kansas, spoke of the partnership of the Sierra Club and American Indians in protecting the environment, including the nearby Haskell Wetlands, a sacred site on the Longest Walk. Cole also spoke of the threat of new power plants in Holcomb. She said most of the power won’t even go to Kansas.
“We will be draining our water resources in western Kansas to generate power for Colorado and Texas,” Cole said.
Raelin Butler, president of the Haskell-Baker Wetlands Preservation Organization, said the cultural and environment issues of protecting the wetlands are a focus of the walkers on their journey through Kansas.Kansas Governor Sebelius’ Proclamation of the Longest Walk was also read during the rally. Gov. Sebelius’ proclamation celebrates the 30th anniversary of the walk and praises walkers for their efforts to protect the environment.
Calvin Magpie Jr., Cheyenne Arapahoe coordinating the runners on the Longest Walk Northern Route, explained that the staffs carried by the walkers contain a feather or contribution from each community the walkers have passed through since leaving Alcatraz on Feb. 11, 2008. Magpie also presented Banks with one of the staffs.Banks praised the walkers on the northern route, who walked over the Sierra Nevadas in Nevada and Rocky Mountains in Colorado, including the 11,000 foot Monarch Pass in Colorado, so far on their 3,600 mile trek to Washington D.C.
“We’re getting sunburned on the southern walk, these guys were getting frostbite,” Banks said.Following the presentation at the Kansas Capitol, Dennis Banks, with a delegation from the southern route, walked into Lawrence, Kansas, with the northern route. Walkers were welcomed at Haskell Indian College with a feast of buffalo and roasted corn.
Banks and the Earthcycles radio crew, Longest Walk Talk Radio, left immediately after dinner, driving through the night, to support the Yankton Sioux in South Dakota. More than 40 Yankton have been arrested in two waves of arrests by the County Sheriff deputies and South Dakota State Police, as Yankton struggle to protect their sovereign land from a large scale, disease-producing hog farm under construction in the heart of their community, one-half mile from the Yankton Head Start Center.

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