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.

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