Indigenous-led prayer run set for Saturday
Run will, in part, advocate for the release of Leonard Peltier
The 28th Rio Grande Water Walk will pass through Taos County this weekend, and organizers are welcoming representatives of the American Indian Movement and local tribes to lead the firstever prayer run for indigenous rights and the protection of the Rio Grande and its tributaries.
The prayer run, which specifically calls for the release of imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday (April 16) at Michael’s Mini-Mart in Velarde, 1410 N.M. 68, and conclude between 5 and 6 p.m. at the Taos Horseshoe Curve Overlook, where a prayer circle will be held until sundown.
“This is going to be huge,” said organizer Mike Davis, noting that the event will likely cause traffic delays along State Road 68. “We’re working with the BLM, the state Department of Transportation, the state police, the sheriff’s department, and also Taos Pueblo tribal police and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. And we want to get the word out in case more runners and youth of Taos want to join this wonderful event.”
“There could be traffic delays,” Davis said. “We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but the cause is worthy.”
Participants in the annual Water Walk, which embarked from Santa Fe on April 10, arrived in Velarde on Wednesday (April 13), where they set up camp and began three days of trash pickup along the Rio Grande and nearby roads. Also new this year is the walk’s final May 10 destination: the headwaters of the Rio Grande near Creede, Colo.
“This is the first one to go all the way to Creede,” Davis said. “Our goal is to effect change at the local and county levels, and then statewide and even nationally.”
As in years past, organizers this year are calling for global peace. But for the first time, the group is also calling for legislation to grant “legal personhood” status to the Rio Grande.
“The Maori effected this in New
Zealand, and it was also done in Ecuador,” Davis said. “We want to make the river a legal person so if some corporation is polluting the river,” for example, “the river — represented by a council of indigineous people — can take them to court.
“Corporations have legal personhood in America and can sue for damages,” Davis added. “If a corporation can do that, why not a river?”
For more information about the Rio Grande Water Walk, as well as the organization’s upcoming Earth Day Festival in Kit Carson Park on April 22-23, visit waterwalk.com.