Canku Ota

(Many Paths)

An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

October 19, 2002 - Issue 72

Lakota and Arapaho Carry Sovereignty Message Through Heartland

PINE RIDGE, S.D. – Stretching to join the Sovereignty Run across America, Lakotas Shawn Yankton and Douglas Pourier, both 24, say running to carry an urgent message is nothing new for Lakota.

"It's what our people used to do. It is our tradition," Pourier says as this link begins in the bordertown of Scenic.

Yankton adds, "Before we had horses, we were messengers ourselves. Now, we are messengers carrying this message."

"We're not just running for Lakotas, we're running for all Native people," Pourier said.

Sponsored by the National Congress of American Indians, Quinault Indian Nation, National Indian Gaming Association, and others, the Sovereignty Run is gaining runners, dollars and spirit to combat anti-Indian decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Speaking out for sovereignty and human rights in the Badlands of South Dakota were Lakota Marlene Locke and family members Wesley Peneaux, 7, and Galveston Lone Wolf, Jr., 9.

"In the past, Porcupine was very active with the Freedom Runs in the state for the political prisoners in Sioux Falls in the 70s," Locke said.

"The truth is people got too lazy. They're into modern technology, microwaves, cable TVs. I'm in there myself – couch potatoes," she says with a laugh.

Locke said seven-year-old Wesley has been aware of human rights violations since he was a toddler.

"When I told him about the run, he just got up and put on his clothes and said right away, ‘I want to go.' He is the one who motivates me," Locke said.

Yankton and Pourier, friends since running cross-country on a championship team in Pine Ridge in high school, said Lakota were running with a mission.

"We're running for the people, for the Stronghold and the community,"Yankton said.

Yankton and Pourier wear tee shirts from the Stronghold in the Badlands, where traditional Lakota have established a resistance camp to protect burial sites of Ghost Dancers from a planned fossil excavation by the National Park Service.

Yankton said the young men have come to represent the Stronghold and the sacredness of the site.

As for running, he said, "We just got it into our system in high school. I had inspiration from Billy Mills. Right now I'm chasing my own dreams."

The day before, in the grasslands of Montana, near the borders of Wyoming and South Dakota, twenty Northern Arapaho young people from Wind River, Wyo., the Sand Creek Runners, were running into the future.

In this wide-open, big sky country, the Sand Creek Runners ran another relay link in the 2,800-mile, coast to coast Sovereignty Run. Arapaho youths said they ran for spiritual healing, to uphold treaty rights and sovereignty.

"This run is for spiritual healing," says Jake Lujan, 21, from Arapaho, Wyo., as their run concluded in pronghorn country near Devil's Tower, S.D. "It is bringing people together, families together!"

Dennie Ridgley, 23, from Ethete, Wyo., said the Sand Creek Runners run to create awareness, the kind of awareness that led to Sand Creek lands being returned to the tribe and placed in trust.

"We need to be able to do this for our people to survive," said Northern Arapaho Co-Chairman Ben Ridgley, from Wind River in central Wyoming, as the young runners finish the stretch on the road to Lame Deer.

Co-chairman Ridgley said Arapaho joined in the run because the purpose is to unify Indian Nations and educate state governments about Indian sovereignty and treaties. He said health care and improved state relations are priorities.

In the Arapaho support crew is Leonard Moss, one of four Northern Arapaho spiritual leaders. "I came with the Sand Creek Runners to pray with cedar for healing for what the Calvary did to the Indian Nations.

"It makes me feel good to see my grandkids running. Many years from now, they'll look back at this and feel good. It will give them a sense of accomplishment," Moss said.

Co-chairman Ridgely says the runners appreciate Moss for coming with them.

"It gives our people extra strength; they know our elders are with us. We still have that respect Americans."

Meanwhile, when Sovereignty Run coordinator Fawn Sharp isn't driving 10 miles per hour across America behind the runners, she's running up to 26 miles a day.

Although she is an attorney for the Quinault Indian Nation, she has a month's leave from the tribe, one of the run's core sponsors. She travels from Washington state.

For Sharp, the run to Lame Deer and stay with the Northern Cheyenne was one of the highlights of the run through the West.

"The Northern Cheyenne set up camp for us and we were able to participate in a sweat with them. It was very moving. The Northern Arapaho were there with us, so it was a real highlight.

"They fed us well and gave us a place to stay and made us feel right at home!"

One of the greatest moments was at the kickoff on Quinault tribal land in Washington, when the run was dedicated to Joe Delacruz in the opening Congress of American Indians and a noted leader throughout Indian country," Sharp said.

Sharp envisioned the cross-country coast-to-coast relay run as a way to raise public awareness for American Indian and Alaska Native tribal sovereignty – the right to self-government.

The "Sovereignty Run" began on Sept. 11 and will end on October 7 at the steps of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Organizers said this is the site of a number of devastating court decisions that have been delivered against tribes over the past two decades.

The Supreme Court decisions leading the assaults on Indian country include Nevada v. Hicks and Atkinson Trading Co. v. Shirley. Both high court decisions have accelerated the 20-year trend of removing tribal jurisdiction within tribal territories.

The path of the Sovereignty Run goes through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

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