BY PAT CARR
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. — Riley Ortega, a Hopi teenager from Prescott Valley, has some serious concerns about pollution, particularly when it threatens the water supply of Native Americans.
With support from his family, friends, school, and the community, he is organizing a 1,400- mile honor run from Flagstaff to the Sacred Stones Camp, a water protectors’ campground near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. There, the Standing Rock Sioux are opposing construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline they believe threatens their primary source of water.
While it’s a long way from home, Ortega and his family maintain a spiritual bond with all Native Americans and indigenous people around the world when it comes to pollution.
“Water is life. I want to be able to make a difference to our world and my people’s sources of water,” Ortega said.
“My family was thinking of something to do to support the Sioux and their struggle to protect their water. We decided that an honor run up to their campsites in North Dakota would show solidarity and support,” he added.
Ortega said the run would also serve as a tribute to the memory of his uncle, Danny Poolheco, a Boston marathoner and a member of the Arizona Runner’s Hall of Fame. Poolheco was killed by a drunk driver in Phoenix last year. Poolheco’s son, Steven Poolheco, will be accompanying Ortega on the run.
The run will start from the amphitheater of the Native American Cultural Center on the campus of Northern Arizona University on Oct. 28. Prayers and welcoming ceremonies will begin at 6:30 a.m. It will end on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation nine days later, on Nov. 5.
The relay team will leave Flagstaff in two vans for rotating the runners. Some of the runners and supporters will partake in a first-mile march across the NAU campus to show local solidarity with the Sioux.
When the runners leave Flagstaff, they will run through Kayenta, Arizona; Crescent Junction, Utah; Meeker, Colorado; Rawlins, Wyoming; Spearfish, South Dakota; and finish in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
The team includes members of the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, and Yavapai-Apache Nations. Another team of six runners from the Oceti Sacawon Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation will also participate in the run from Flagstaff. The Sioux distinguished themselves in a run from North Dakota to Washington, D.C., last summer to petition the government and demonstrate solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux.
When they arrive in Sioux country, Riley wants to meet and mingle with some of the thousands of other “protectors” of Native American water sources. Some 200 tribes and indigenous nations have already staked their flags in the campsites.
The gathering is considered to be the largest assembly of Native Americans in modern history primarily because of the national and world-wide attention it has been given through social media.
Last week, a federal appeals court turned down a motion by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt construction on part of the Dakota Access pipeline. Legal remedies now seem to be giving way to additional political pressure.
The Obama Administration immediately intervened with an announcement that the pipeline would not be allowed to proceed on federal lands until the tribes were appropriately consulted.
Former Democratic residential candidate Bernie Sanders has condemned the Dakota Access Pipeline Project and all other pipeline projects on the grounds that “filthy oil” and other fossil fuels are the worst contributor to climate change.
“Leave it in the ground,” Sanders bellows as he proclaims the threat fossil fuels pose for climate change.
In a letter to President Obama last week, Sanders and four other U.S. senators urged the president “to require a full Environment Impact Statement for the federal lands near the Lake Oahe crossing of the Dakota Access pipeline that includes meaningful tribal consultation. Essentially, that decree amounts to a work slowdown but not necessarily a complete stoppage.
“We support the tribes along the pipeline route in their fight against the Dakota Access pipeline project,” Sanders wrote. “It is imperative that the (Army) Corps (of Engineers) permitting process be transparent and include public notice and participation, formal and meaningful tribal consultation, and adequate environmental review.
“Until that occurs,” Sanders continued, “construction of this project must be halted.”
“If there is one profound lesson that the indigenous people have taught us,” Sanders said in his letter to the president, “it is that all of us as human beings are part of nature. We will not survive if we continue to destroy nature.”
It may be too early to begin “counting coup” and anticipating results of political pressure President Obama might apply to the situation. It certainly seems, however, as though the federal government is at least re-examining its relationship with Native Americans.
A recent article by Rebecca Solnit in The Guardian openly questioned whether the protest could be only the beginning of something else.
“The world has been electrified by protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Is this a new civil rights movement where environmental and human rights meet? Solnit asked.
One can’t help but wonder, as Riley and his runners stride alongside the old Cannon Ball River and into the largest modern assembly of Native Americans, if they are somehow running across unwritten pages of another chapter in American history.
Those interested in joining Riley’s honor run or interested in helping with expenses, can contact Riley directly at perseveranceforpreservation@gmail. com, and follow the run by “liking” the page on Facebook: Perseverance for Preservation. Donations can also be submitted on the same Facebook page through either the “Donate Now” or the “GoFundMe” link.
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Riley Ortega, a teen from Prescott Valley, Arizona, is organizing a run.