The Roots of Plenty

Tales from the "hippie peace corps"

The Longest Walk 1978

Daniel Luna, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Demonstrators from over 100 Indigenous Nations walked from San Francisco to Washington D.C. in support of native rights.

The Longest Walk was a protest demonstration in which more than 100 Indian nations participated. From San Francisco to Washington D.C., 3,200 miles, the Walk symbolized a heroic response to the forced movement westward over the years of European settlement and the United States government “resettlement” of Native People of North America. It also symbolized opposition to eleven bills in Congress designed to limit further the autonomy of the Indian people.

Plenty, through our Farms and city centers across the country, helped marchers along the way and supplied a medical team and ambulance from Pittsburgh to Washington D.C.

David Frohman, Douglas Stevenson, Dwayne Shenandoah, Mark Madrid, 1978, Washington, D.C., Medical Relief, Native Rights, Plenty Ambulance Service
Mark Madrid, Dwayne Shenandoah, and Douglas Stevenson, Plenty volunteer ambulance personnel on the Longest Walk.

Mark Madrid: On the Longest Walk, I was the Plenty medical director. We picked up the Walk somewhere after Ohio, somewhere in Pennsylvania. I was still in recuperation from the typhoid I had contracted in Guatemala. On the Farm, out on Schoolhouse Road in the newly dubbed “Longhouse” we had trained Dwayne Shenandoah. We had a young guy; we had a couple, Angie (Ojibwe) and Jay Mason (Mohawk). I trained him to be an EMT. We had a crew of Dwayne, Jay, Angie, and Doug Stevenson as our radioman.

José Barreiro, Mark Madrid, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights, Plenty Ambulance Service
José Barreiro (Taino) and Mark Madrid (Muscogee) and the Longest Walk.

When the marchers got to Washington D.C. they went to the White House and announced to President Jimmy Carter — “The Landlords are here!”

One purpose of the Longest Walk was to protest and lobby against eleven bills before Congress altering treaties between the U.S. government and various Native tribes. These bills would have restricted tribal sovereignty, limited hunting and fishing rights, and shut down Native schools and hospitals. All of the proposed bills that had provoked the Longest Walk were defeated in the United States Congress.

Don Edkins, Oren Lyons, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Longest Walk arrives on the National Mall, February 11, 1978.
Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Activists gather at the Longest Walk.
Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
“The truth is hidden from the American people about Native people.” — Phillip Deere, Muskogee/Creek Elder

The truth is hidden from American people about Native people. That is why you never heard about The Longest Walk. That is why you never heard about some of the bills that are affecting the Indian people. That is how come you don’t know how much rights the Native people have. People in America don’t understand what life is on reservations.

This is not the end of The Longest Walk — we are going to continue to walk and walk and walk until we find freedom for all Native people.

— Phillip Deere, Muskogee/Creek Elder

Daniel Luna, Don Edkins, Leonard Peltier, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
The day we walked into D.C. I carried that Peltier banner about half the way. There was a crew of us that took turns. — Daniel Luna on the Longest Walk
Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Thousands of people from over 100 tribes joined the Longest Walk.
Clyde Bellecourt, Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
At the Longest Walk: Clyde Bellecourt, White Earth Ojibwe, cofounder of the American Indian Movement (AIM).
Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Tribal elder listens to speeches at the Longest Walk, February 1978.
Phillip Deere, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Phillip Deere in front of the United States Capitol.
Daniel Luna, Dick Gregory, Marlon Brando, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Dick Gregory and Marlon Brando joined the Longest Walk in Washington, D.C.
Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Woman listening to speeches at the Longest Walk in Washington D.C., shades her eyes with feathers.
Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights, Plenty Ambulance Service
Plenty Ambulance and Longest Walk marchers in front of the FBI Headquarters in Washington,D.C.
Daniel Luna, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Tipi on the Mall with the White House in the background.
Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Eleven bills before Congress would have altered treaties between the U. S. government and Native tribes. They were all defeated.
Don Edkins, Fuji Guruji, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Fuji Guruji (seated), Japanese Buddhist monk and close friend of Dennis Banks.
David Frohman, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
Police watch the Longest Walk in the nation’s capitol.
David Frohman, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
D.C. motorcycle police at the Longest Walk.

Don Edkins, 1978, Washington, D.C., Native Rights
This is not the end of The Longest Walk — we are going to continue … until we find freedom for all Native people.