Walkers seek protection of sacred sites, native rights

Several people are reliving a walk of 30 years ago from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to promote that all life is sacred, whether it be the Earth, sites or life itself.

Participants arrived Fallon on Thursday and stopped at the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Reservation. They will rest there through the weekend before resuming their journey to Austin, Eureka and then Ely.

While traveling along the Reno Highway on Thursday, they carried a banner that read: "All life is sacred. Save Mother Earth - protect sacred sites."

Mari Villaluna, media relations director for the Longest Walk 2 Northern Route, said the route is identical to the one that took place in 1978. A southern route walk is also occurring at the same time, and the two groups will converge on July 11 in Washington, D.C.

"All life is sacred to protect the Mother Earth," Villaluna said in describing the walkers' message.

The purpose of this year's walk is to listen to American Indians' concerns before documenting and delivering them to Washington, D.C.

In July 1978, thousands of American Indians converged on Washington, D.C., to oppose and successfully defeat 11 pieces of legislation by Congress that would have annulled American Indian tribes. As a result of the 1978 walk, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed.

Villaluna said there was a lot of discussion about their land being taken from them as well as not allowing them to use clinics for free on tribal land.

She said certain sites in the county are sacred and need to be protected, including Grimes Point, Sand Mountain and Fox Peak in Churchill County.

"We are very committed to what happened with the land and environment," said Villaluna, who has been on the walk ever since leaving Alcatraz Island Feb. 11.

People should never forget where they are from and where they were created, she said.

Local resident and American Indian activist Adam "Fortunate Eagle" Nordwall said the walk is designed to protect and preserve sacred sites, which people have been destroying.

"It is an issue that all people should be aware of," he said.

Villaluna said the group is walking about 30 miles a day and expects to arrive in the nation's capital on July 11.

The walk is for the seventh generation of the youth, peace, justice, the healing of the Earth, diabetes, heart conditions, alcoholism, drug addiction and other diseases that afflict American Indian tribes.

Villaluna said people are joining the walk at all times because of the common ground they share.

"All people do believe Mother Earth needs to be protected," she said.

As the group walked, Yukio Iimura, a Buddhist monk, played a drum while chanting prayers.

Darlene Graham of the Duckwater Shoshone Reservation said when she heard about the walk, she knew it was something she had to join.

She said the walk is important to all Shoshone tribes.

"A lot of people do not know about the sacred places," she said, mentioning Grimes Point as one location.