Native American Youth On Peace, Unity Tour

NORTH CAPE MAY — Fresh from the excitement of an address to the United Nations in New York City, a group of Native American youth and elders arrived in Cape May County Aug. 14 on a tour from Canada to Virginia promoting peace and unity on behalf of indigenous people.
Two Native American young men carried staffs — poles made out of tree branches, decorated with feathers — while running along Route 9 in Rio Grande, then through Erma, on their way to catch the 4:30 p.m. Cape May Lewes Ferry here. The runners were accompanied by four vans from Ontario filled with supporters.
The tour is a Native tradition that dates back to 1986, according to Stacey Green, 25, one of the youth organizers, from Six Nations Territory near Toronto, Ontario.
“In 1986 we had an elder from out west in South Dakota — he had a vision,” Green explained. “That vision was to retrace the footsteps of our ancestors and to wipe the tears from our eyes from all the trauma that we’ve been through as a people,” she said.
The Peace and Unity Tour thus was born.
It started with the Lakota people, who retraced on horseback where their ancestors would travel. They took the sacred staffs with them, as the youth do, today.
“You can see they’re taking care of them there,” said Green, pointing to the fellow group members who were protecting the staffs. “They (the staffs) are our elders. A lot of thoughts and prayers — a lot goes into those — that’s what leads this run.
That’s how it’s been since the first day it started.”
Different groups have the honor of carrying the staffs and making the tour in four-year cycles, Green said. This cycle, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people are running the tour.
Youth were chosen at a summit of the Six Nations in Ontario in 2004, Green said, to lead the tour. Youth leading the run was a first in the history of the tour.
Green explained how that decision came out of several converging events: the prior unity tour arrived to open the Six Nations Summit, and a youth group at the summit were working on a declaration there, as part of the conference.
“It just so happened that there was a youth group that formed out of this summit because there we worked on a Youth Declaration,” said Green. “So at the end of it we said, ‘OK, we created this Declaration we need a group to carry it through.’
That’s where Spirit of Youth evolved from … This unity ride had just come into the summit, and through their prayers and ceremonies, they determined that the unity ride for the next four years was going to be passed onto youth.”
Missy Elliott, 17, is heading to university this coming year. She was one of the Native American youth who presented the group’s declaration at the United Nations.
“We ran through the night from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. — no sleep, carrying the message, carrying staffs. We ran there to give them the message of peace and unity and also our declaration,” she said.
The group had 8-10 minutes allotted for the presentation of their declaration, which they’d worked on and revised over several years, before the United Nations, but ended up being allowed almost 30 minutes.
“It was really powerful,” she said. “People came up to us afterwards; they were so touched by our words. Some of the people want to come and run with us after the conference,” she said. “One from New York City, one from Switzerland and one from England that we met that want to come with us.”
“We had so much support from all these youth from different countries.”
The message the youth presented coincided with the United Nations national celebration of International Day of the World’s Indigenous People celebrated on Aug. 9.
The message of the declaration was organized under various topics including:
Voice of Youth, emphasizing respecting young people’s voices.
Treaties, urging them to be respected under national and international law.
Education, and the opportunity to learn Native American culture.
Language.
History, reflecting historical events, which include the Native American experience and perspective.
Culture, honoring Native religious holidays, in employment and government.
Media, no more media blackouts on indigenous issues.
Elliott gave as an example a recent story on a conflict which reached a head in April last year, in which the Six Nations in Caledonia, Ontario, Canada, clashed with police over a reclamation of territory that was slated for development.
Heavy-handed police action reportedly resulted in injuries.
“It is the longest standing occupation, we (Native Americans) call it reclamation, in history. We’re taking back our land, they want to develop more and more on our land,” said Elliott.
“There was a raid that happened, Police came in about a month and a half into the reclamation and beat our women, and elders, and arrested them and took them away,” Elliott said. “But we pushed them back.”
The media did not report the event on a wide scale, according to Elliott. There was scant coverage of the clash in United States media, according to Indian Country Today, a large, national newspaper devoted to Native American issues.
“So no one really knows what’s happening with the negotiations,” she said.
The environment was also included in the declaration.
“Our connection to it, and how we don’t want any more destruction of it. We’re its protectors we should be protecting it and keeping that connection open,” said Elliott.
Contact Avedissian at (609) 886-8600 Ext 27 or at: savedissian@cmcherald.com.