The Circle
News from a Native American perspective
http://www.thecirclenews.org
February 1995
Peace Walk to Focus on Treaty Rights, Nuclear Threat
by Carol Kalafatic
On the almost tropical morning of January 15, 1995,
approximately 20 people began a spiritual walk from
the United Nations building in New York City to the
Gandhi Peace Plaza in San Francisco, California.
The Global Peace Walk opened with a sunrise prayer
ceremony at Ralph Bunche Park, directly facing the
building where member nations are said to gather to
carry out their mandate to save future generations
from the ravages of war and, among other things to
establish "conditions of respect for the obligations
arising from treaties." With the birthday of slain civil
rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. as their starting
date, the walkers are scheduled to arrive in San Francisco
on or before June 26, to mark the 50th anniversary of
the signing of the UN Charter.
"It's also the 50th anniversary of the invention of the
atomic bomb," adds Wonono Rubio, a member of the
Coastal Band Chumash Nation of southern California
and one of the coordinators of the walk. "The world
is in a unique position because we can destroy the
world with pollution, weapons and warfare. But
because of technological advances in telecommunications,
awareness can be widespread. We also have the ability
to save the world...we're all responsible, despite who
caused the problems." For the past two decades, Wonono
has worked with other Natives to resist and prevent
industrial development on sacred lands such as Point
Conception near Lompoc, California. The other coordinators
of the walk are also peace activists: the Reverend Yusen
Yamato, a non-sectarian Buddhist monk and former
co-coordinator of the Long Walk for Survival in 1980,
and David Williams, a physicist.
As a Japanese activist who has worked in solidarity with
North American Natives since 1980, the Reverend Yamato
recognizes a painful historical link between two peoples:
The uranium used to create the bombs dropped on the
Japanese people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, came
from Native American lands. He sees it as his mission to
"support all traditional indigenous peoples," and therefore
initiated this walk. To explain the significance of the walk,
he recalls the Hopi Prophecies and their partial fulfillment
in 1992, when Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya traveled to
New York to address the UN General Assembly for the
International Year of the World's Indigenous People.
"He visited the Mica building in '92. Many spiritual leaders
came, and rain, rain, rain. Long, long time indigenous
peoples have been waiting for this period (when) all human
beings will recognize the globe as one vehicle...that the
globe is really important -- not any organization that belongs
to some government."
In the US, most walks such as this one have begun in the
West, with Washington, DC as their final destination.
By walking from east to west, Yamato and other walkers
hope to symbolize what they call a "new direction for humanity."
"With the rising sun we bring a rising awareness of our
relationship with the earth and with each other," says
Wonono. "We hope to represent the possibility of
enlightenment...we're not trying to petition or lobby anyone."
The coordinators say they are participating in a ceremony
of walking and prayer for global peace, rather than making
a political statement.
But they have designed the itinerary of the walk to include
various sites in which states develop and test nuclear devices.
They also invite and encourage Native individuals and
organizations to endorse and/or join the walk, or to use
the walk as an opportunity to present their own issues(s)
and distribute pertinent information.
On March 28, the Global Peace Walk is scheduled to reach
Leavenworth Prison in Lawrence, Kansas, where the walkers
plan to visit Leonard Peltier, the Anishinabe-Lakota AIM
leader serving two life sentences for allegedly murdering
two FBI agents. The walk has received the written support
of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Corbin Harney
of the Western Shoshone Nation, and Coretta Scott King,
civil rights leader and widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Additionally, the Grand Council of the Six Nations Confederacy
is expected to draft a statement of support by late January.
Among those who have already extended their blessings or
endorsement are the following native leaders: Thomas
Banyacya; Pauline Whitesinger and other Dine'; AIM member
Dennis Banks (expected to join the walk in Ohio); Archie Fire
Lame Deer, a Miniconjou-Lakota spiritual leader, and Aggie
Guarnica, Chairwoman of the Coastal Band Chumash Nation.
The coordinators hope to assemble a delegation of Native
people to fly to Tokyo, Japan after this walk to join another
peace walk scheduled to arrive in Hiroshima on August 6 and
in Nagasaki on August 9 -- the respective anniversaries of the
cities' atomic bombings by the US during World War II.
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