October | 2024 | Water is Life

Over the past couple weeks, you may have seen stories or social media posts detailing the terrible treatment of the Muwekma Ohlone People by federal agents on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It pains me just to write this, but government officials threatened to kill their horses and arrested tribal members at the tail end of the Muwekma’s cross-country “Trail of Truth” journey, in which tribal members sought government-to-government consultation with the U.S. Department of the Interior to restore their rightful federal recognition.

I have more to say on that below, but first I ask you to take action now. Tell your reps: End the cycle of colonial violence and respect the sovereignty of the Muwekma Ohlone People. Congress must restore federal recognition to the original inhabitants of California’s San Francisco Bay Area by writing, sponsoring, and passing the “Restore Muwekma Bill.”

The San Francisco Bay region has been the homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone People for more than 10,000 years, and congressional censuses acknowledged them throughout the early 20th century. And yet, today they’re landless and unrecognized by the federal government. This egregious oversight negatively impacts tribal members, who lose out on a myriad of important benefits when their sovereignty is ignored. The Muwekma Ohlone People have spent 40 years presenting valid evidence and struggling to reinstate their federal status, and the Department of Interior’s continued indifference amounts to a perpetuation of the cultural genocide of the Muwekma Ohlone.

With high hopes that an Interior Department now led by Deb Haaland of the Pueblo of Laguna would be more receptive to their message, the tribe, led by Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh, set out on horseback from San Francisco in August on their Trail of Truth. Sadly, they — including women, children, and elders — were violently assaulted by the National Parks Police upon arrival in D.C.

On Oct. 15 — the day after Indigenous Peoples’ Day — National Parks Police officers immediately moved to take the horses, which were provided by Lakota allies, specifically Percy White Plume (a direct descendant of Red Cloud) at the Horse Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The police then arrested tribal members who tried to prevent the horses’ capture. Those actions were inconsistent with the law and far out of line, and these are some of the reasons why, in partnership with Muwekma, I plan to share more about various aspects of their story with you soon. In the meantime, please assist by taking action and telling your reps to restore federal recognition to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe today.

Wopila tanka — thank you for supporting tribal sovereignty of the Muwekma Ohlone People!
Chase Iron Eyes
Director and Lead Counsel
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

Today, I share with you an uplifting new video detailing our participation at this year’s Run Crazy Horse marathon. I have been attending this event for 12 years; in fact, it was my first marathon ever! I have deep respect for those who put themselves through the training, the discipline, and the process of a marathon, half marathon, or any form of distance running. And I’m happy to say that, throughout the years, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of Indigenous runners participating in this annual tradition. Because promoting healthy living is extra important in tribal communities, we’re extremely proud to support Run Crazy Horse.

Watch: I’m proud of our team’s performance — but the best part is sharing this healthy and challenging pursuit with everyone participating, including those who helped us set up and run our hydration station. After all, water is life!

At this year’s run, Sacred Defense Fund and Lakota Law were honored to host a hydration station. My mother and leaders of the Native American Youth Organization personally served over 1,000 runners with much needed water! I give a big thank you to Wally Little Moon for the Mni Wiconi/Water is Life sign, which all the runners saw as they passed by our teepee on the Mickelson Trail in the Black Hills.

Because of what I’ll term controversial dynamics, Native People have undergone a process of attrition with respect to food and medicine — or lack of food and the need for good medicine — from western society. This scarcity of healthy food and adequate medicine for our people goes back centuries, to the time when we were originally confined to prison camps during the Indian Wars. These days, the Native body still often has trouble adapting to the sugars, the flours, and the processed poisons pushed on the American public.

One way to stand up against that attrition is to move your body. Every runner has a story of how they came to give of themselves and their bodies in the search for healing, their own meaning, their own purpose, and their own medicine. What we all have in common is that, when we run, we are engaging in a healthy movement that provides the ability to find ourselves.

Sacred Defense Fund wants to promote physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness for each and every runner in the Crazy Horse marathon. More broadly, we want all people who engage in communion with the outdoors to experience a heightened consciousness during mind-body practice. We want those who seek recreation or any meaningful engagement with the natural world to understand that we need help in defending it — the sacred sites, lands, waters, and ecosystems constantly under threat from corporate extraction.

So I want to say a genuine thank you to everybody who organizes events such as these. Sacred Defense Fund looks forward to facilitating more participation, more interaction, and more empowerment of the mind, body, and soul with our friends and relatives.

Wopila tanka — my gratitude to you for supporting tribal health and safety!
Chase Iron Eyes
Director and Lead Counsel
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund