Walk On

By: Candace Begody

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.—It's been a grueling 1,000 miles of passage through Arizona's sizzling desert and the San Francisco Peak's freezing cold, but the 157 men, women and children of the Longest Walk 2 northern route reached the Navajo Nation's capital last week in high spirits.


"It's been absolutely awesome," Dennis J. Banks, American Indian Movement co-founder and Leech Lake Ojibwe, said of the walk. "We ought to change the name from the Longest Walk to the Longest Buffet — the Navajos have been feeding us tons of food."

The Longest Walk 2 is a nearly 3,000-mile, coast-to-coast trek to promote harmony with the Earth and social justice for indigenous people. It began Feb. 11 at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco.

The walk has two routes. Those on the southern route, led by Banks, are scheduled to travel through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.

Those on the northern route, led by Jimbo Simmons, a Choctaw, are scheduled to journey through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Both routes will converge in Washington, D.C., where the group will voice their concerns on sacred sites issues, pollution of the earth and social justice, and commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first Longest Walk.

Read more here: http://www.reznetnews.org/article/feature-article/walk