The International Indian Treaty Council and Longest Walk's human right forum

EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois – The International Indian Treaty Council and the Longest Walk focused on human rights as inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples, as the walkers arrived for prayers at Cahokia Mounds and the St. Louis Arch, the gateway to the west.

Police from the South Dakota State Police and Charles Mix County Sheriff's Department illegally arrested 40 Yankton peacefully protecting their sovereign land from the construction of a disease-producing large-scale hog farm in the heart of their community, one-half mile from the Yankton Head Start.

While women, children and young men stood in peaceful protest, more than 50 police patrol units arrived and sharpshooters were stationed on a rooftop.

By Brenda Norrell

Indigenous Peoples are under assault throughout the Americas, with represssive police actions of Mohawks in Canada, Lakota in South Dakota and Zapatistas in Chiapas.

Mohawks in Tyendinaga are asking for support, following the arrest of five persons defending their land on Friday. Yankton Sioux are also defending their sovereign land from an assault and occupation by South Dakota State Police. Police arrested more than a dozen people protesting a hog farm on Indian land.

The horror of the genocide in Canada's Indian Residential Schools became public, as the locations of 28 mass graves of Indian children were revealed.

An unknown number of Indian children died in captivity at Indian Residential Schools in Canada.

The murders included children killed in electric chairs. Some of the bodies were incinerated in the school furnaces, while others were buried in mass graves.

Eyewitness Sylvester Greene described how he helped bury a young Inuit boy at the United Church's Edmonton residential school in 1953.

Kumiai (Kumeyaay) in Baja, Mexico, host a reunion with the National Indigenous Congress, in Juntas de Neji, Baja, Mexico, on May 3 and 4, 2008

Invitation from organizers: CONVOCATORIA

Tercera Reunión del CNI Noroeste,
Comunidad Indígena Kumiai de Juntas de Nejí, Baja California, México,
3 y 4 de mayo del 2008.

GREENSBURG, Kansas -- The Longest Walk Northern Route offered a grand feast for the community of Greensburg, Kansas, where a two-mile wide tornado wiped out 95 percent of the town on May 4, 2007.


As Longest Walk cooks, including Marie, Toby and Daniel and others prepared the feast, community members and volunteers shared their stories on the Longest Walk Talk Radio broadcasts throughout the day. It was a day of sharing for the Longest Walk, who used their donated food items to prepare a feast for the community, including Indian tacos, stew, salads, hot dogs and more.

SAND CREEK, Colo. – The word "massacre" is too mild for what happened here to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe babies, children, women and men murdered here by the Colorado Militia.

Over the weekend, the Longest Walk came here with respect to offer prayers for the victims of US genocide.

Marty Chase Alone, Oglala, representing the Red Cloud people and a Tiospaye of the Big Road Band, led ceremonies at the Sand Creek Massacre site to release the spirits and wipe the tears.

Chase Alone's relatives were descendants of White Antelope and Yellow Wolf, murdered at Sand Creek. Chase Alone said the ceremonies were held to let the ancestors know that they could go on now.

Before first light on Saturday, April 5, the Longest Walk arrived. Some of the walkers had seen the spirit women dancing and clapping during the women’s walk toward Sand Creek.

PUEBLO, Colo. – Bahe Katenay, Navajo from Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation, said the US media created the stories of the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute, which was orchestrated by Peabody Coal and US politicians, the same way the US orchestrates the war in Iraq for its resources.

DENVER, Colorado: Gov. Bill Ritter issued a proclamation proclaiming March as Longest Walk Month in Colorado. After Gov. Ritter’s proclamation was read on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol on Monday, March 24, Long Walkers proceeded in a prayer vigil to Newmont Mining Corp., where security guards called Denver Police.

MONTROSE, Colo. Walking through the snow, the Longest Walk Northern Route arrived at the Ute Indian Museum on Sunday, March 16, after crossing on foot the states of California, Nevada and Utah. Walking with sacred staffs, American Indian walkers and their allies are carrying the message to protect sacred Mother Earth.