Six tired but jubilant Western Shoshone spirit runners and their
supporters arrived at the gates of the Nevada Test Site just after
sunrise this morning, after running and walking 240 miles over their
mountains and desert lands. Newene Sogobi Mava'a Mia, the second annual
Western Shoshone Walk On the Sacred Land, began Monday in Warm Springs,
Nevada, and followed the western boundary of the Nevada Nuclear Weapons
Test Site to its southern entrance at Mercury, Nevada. Next year, they
will follow the eastern perimeter, past Rachel and the notorious Area
51.

The run was organized by Johnnie Bobb, a Western Shoshone National
Council member, artist, and spiritual leader. In the first year, he
traveled to every Shoshone community and gathering and spoke to many
people personally about his vision for a spirit run. A gentle, quiet
man, Bobb is deeply concerned about the survival of the land and water,
the medicines and foods, and the Shoshone people themselves. The
Shoshone Nation, Newe Sogobia, recognized by the federal government in
the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, encompasses the Nevada Test Site and
the site for the proposed Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste
Repository. Survivors of the fall-out from over 1,000 nuclear bombs, the
remaining 6,000 Western Shoshone suffer a high rate of cancer and
thyroid disease.

Says Johnnie Bobb, "We are walking and running for our land and
rights-to take back Shoshone land that our grandmothers and grandfathers
once took care of with their footsteps. Step by step, they went from
place to place to hunt and to gather where food was found, and where
doctoring took place. Most of all, Shoshone people are buried here, and
their spirits are with us. When we pray and sing there will be
happiness, joy and love in our hearts, as we stand strong for our
ancestors."

Johnnie Bobb followed the runners each day, planting willow branches
with ribbon flags of the six Shoshone sacred colors. Each afternoon, he
set up a new camp by the roadside, with beribboned teepee, signs, and
mobile kitchen and latrine. Highly visible to all who passed by, the
camp drew an enthusiastic response from cars and semi trucks alike.
In three mile relays, the six runners carried an eight foot eagle staff
an average of forty five-miles a day. Although heavy with bundles of
medicinal herbs, eagle feathers and other sacred objects from the
runners and other well wishers, the staff is what carried each runner
on, according to Darlene Graham, the eldest and only woman runner.
"The powerful medicine coming through my hand from the staff, the
energy of Mother Earth coming up through my feet- I can't describe the
feeling to you in English- but I could in my own Newe language," she
said, tears coming to her eyes. Darlene, a grandmother of seven, spent
much of her life on the Duckwater Reservation, immediately downwind of
the Test Site. She recalls the mysterious booms and colored clouds of
her childhood. She lost her brother to cancer at the age of 32, and both
sisters suffer thyroid disease. Two of her four children have learning
disorders.

The runners spanned thirty-seven years in age, and traveled from three
states to participate. Jose Corleto, a 20 year old from the isolated
Yomba Reservation in central Nevada, was one of a few runners the year
before. A growing interest in traditional spirituality and political
issues facing Western Shoshone brought him on the road once again.
"It's really worth it," said Jose quietly. "Even though it's hot out
here and your bones are hurting and your muscles aching, when you get to
the end, you know you've done something good. It's the least a Shoshone
person can do for their Mother."

Joseph Allison, also 20, comes from urban Sacramento, California. He
had no idea what to expect and describes his initial feelings as
skeptical. But on his first day an antelope kept pace beside him,
running and walking, until bounding away at his three mile finish
marker. He feels a deep affinity for the land he is praying for now.
Joseph's cousins, Rudy and Santiago Lozada, are raising families of
their own in the Sacramento area. They are both grandsons of Eunice
Silva, a greatly respected Shoshone healer from Battle Mountain, who
passed over a few years ago at the age of 104. Both return to Nevada
regularly to participate in traditional gatherings. Upon hearing of the
suffering of the few runners making the trek the year before, they felt
they had to support the effort this year.

Says Rudy, "This is all very different for me. You learn so much about
the land when you're out there, but you really learn a lot about
yourself. I'm not the same man I was a few days ago."
Santiago adds, "We're here for our ancestors and Mother Earth. Mama
needs us-that's the bottom line."

Chet Stevens is forty-eight, a construction worker from Reno, Nevada.
For the past several years, he has traveled whenever work allows (and
sometimes when it didn't) to help with sweatlodges and other ceremonies.
He is frank about his own efforts to heal from a past of alcohol, and
his desire to give something back for the growth and relief he feels.
"When you are out there, you get a lot of insight spiritually," Chet
says. "You are really opened up to all things, to a different level of
understanding and connection, like in the Sun Dance, like a Vision
Quest."

Evening in camp was filled with starlight and talk around the drum.
Feelings were shared openly about each runner's day, and how to best
convey their message to Test Site officials upon arrival. Issues facing
the Shoshone were discussed in detail, from current transportation of
nuclear waste, to toxic pesticide spraying of medicinal herbs, to
upcoming "controlled burns" by the Bureau of Land Management and
inevitable radiation releases from 'downwind' forests.
The runners have been amply nurtured by the fierce heart and splendid
cooking of Lois Whitney, Director of the Western Shoshone Defense
Project and member of the Elko Shoshone Colony. This author was greeted
with an enormous Indian taco on arrival at the roadside camp, and
followed Sunrise Ceremony and the departure of the first runner the next
dawn with French toast, sausage, coffee and fruit. Lois is very grateful
for more runners this year, but she wants to see a lot more.
"It was so hard to see the suffering of the men last year, when you
know able-bodied people that turn their back. How dare they say they're
Native Americans when they refuse to protect their land?"
Lois is clear about the issues that bring her to the Test Site. "First,
they created these atomic bombs and blew them up here without letting us
know the impacts-my people have suffered terribly from radiation. And,
they used them to blow up other people. Now they want to turn full
circle, and bring their poison back here to Shoshone land for all time."
Says Lois about her role as camp cook, "I am so proud of these runners,
especially our sister Darlene, the only woman out there. I wanted to at
least see them properly nurtured. And I am humbled by the opportunity to
do this. It is wonderful, being on the land, working together. The
suffering we do is nothing compared to the blessings the Creator gives
us."

And what of next year? Everyone hopes to bring more Western Shoshone
into the spirit run, but all people are welcome. Non-Shoshone support
this year provided food, water, support vehicles to accompany runners,
and video documentation.

Chet Stevens explains, "When we pray and run, it isn't just for the
Shoshone. We pray for every plant, every car that passes. We're all in
this together-we all live on one planet Earth, we share the same water
and air. We are praying for everyone."

For more information about Newene Sogobi Mava'a Mia, contact Johnnie L.
Bobb, at (775) 964-2210, or HC61 Box 6250, Austin NV 89310.