In a "die-in" Monday in front of the federal building in downtown Las Vegas, nuclear abolitionists portray their utmost disrespect for the nuclear chain. Photo by BILLY LOGAN

Thursday, October 10, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Metropolis

Activists walk 800 miles to end nuclear grip on Southwest

When a jet from Nellis roared low overhead last Friday, you could tell by the looks on the faces of the Family Spirit Walkers that, for them, this jet--this deafening noise of war-preparedness that drowned out their circle of prayer--just firmly placed the exclamation point on their demand: Stop the nuclear chain of uranium mines, nuclear bomb tests, nuclear bomb drops and nuclear power and its insidiously dangerous waste. And stop the warmongering against Iraq, too.

Most of the 30 walkers, including Native American spiritual leaders Gilbert Sanchez, a Tewe from the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico, had journeyed on foot for two months and almost 800 miles from Los Alamos, N.M. They wandered through indigenous lands talking to the people affected by uranium mining in several states. And they finally arrived in Las Vegas Thursday night, ready for a string of demonstrations in Las Vegas then the final 60-mile leg to the Nevada Test Site.

The jet passed, and they resumed their ritual on the little patch of landscaping at the foot of the U.S. Department of Energy's headquarters on Losee Road in North Las Vegas. The DOE wouldn't let them come inside the compound--Sept. 11-inspired caution, said Kalynda Tilges, executive director of the Shundahai Network, one of the organizers of the Action for Nuclear Abolition gathering taking place through Oct. 15 at the entrance to the Test Site. While the others formed a circle, planted a burning bundle of sage in the center, and shuffled around it to the low beating of a drum, Tilges talked heatedly on her cell phone outside the circle, seeking to gain a hearing from the DOE.

"I asked [DOE spokesman] Darwin Morgan to come down here, but he said, `I don't see a need to talk about any of this,'" Tilges said after she got off the phone. She admitted the walkers hadn't told the DOE they were coming.

This curtailed their plan for a larger demonstration, said walker Jen Petrullo. Petrullo, from Reading, Pa., said she heard about the walk from a friend. "I live near a lot of nuclear reactors," she said. "So my community in Reading has been told that they're going to start shipping waste right through there" on the way to Yucca Mountain.

She's against that plan. "From what I've heard about Yucca Mountain, it's not a reasonable solution."

Corbin Harney, spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone, joined the group, telling them to "think of the younger generation, the unborn and such."

Among the younger generation on the walk was 15-month-old Malaya, daughter of Michelle and Mateo Peizinho. "Our whole route from Los Alamos to here, we met people that were affected by the mining and the mills," said Mateo. "You know, people would come up to us with stories."

Often they were joined by elders from local tribes, said Michelle. "Every place we came to, somebody local stepped in to guide us through," she said.

They started in Tewe country, went over the mountains into Diné land, and then through Crown Point "where they want to open new uranium mines," Mateo said. "Then we went up through Hopi land, and then up through Marble Canyon and then up on to the North Rim" of the Grand Canyon. "At the North Rim, a Havasupai man came up to meet us and guide us through. Then just outside of St. George, a Paiute-Shoshone elder came to greet us. Then we were met by Northern Paiute. And now that we're here, the Shoshone are with us."

On the weekend, the walkers demonstrated outside the Nellis Air Force Base air show, and on Monday they performed a "die-in" in front of the Lloyd George Federal Building. They're now en route to the Test Site.--Heidi Walters