Tribe members run 200 miles to commemorate Trail of Tears

[Judi Lynn]

Tribe members run 200 miles to commemorate Trail of Tears
By GREG MOBERLY
Today's News-Herald
Published Monday, April 23, 2012 2:05 AM MST



For Hualapai Tribe members, it was three hot days of running in the desert from Ehrenberg to Peach Springs.
It sounds simple in concept and a little difficult to complete, but the run itself meant much more than recreation to the tribe, which has a reservation north and east of Bullhead City.

The run, known as the Hualapai La Paz Trail of Tears, is done every four years to commemorate the U.S. government’s forced relocation of hundreds of Pais in 1874 to the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Parker. This year’s run had more than 30 participants.

“My thought is we’re taking our people — those that died at La Paz — home (with the run),” said Jolene Marshall of Parker who was running the event for the first time.

During the forced relocation, tribal members were marched for two weeks to Parker. Children, elderly and those who were already sick died. And more died of disease and starvation during the yearlong internment in what was referred to as La Paz, which is at the northern tip of the Sonoran Desert. About a year later, the surviving tribal band members escaped imprisonment and returned to their home in northwestern Arizona.

More:
http://www.havasunews.com/articles/2012/04/23/news/doc4f94d5c239b59776699637.txt

[LoisB]

1. TEARS

Every time I read or think about this or Wounded Knee, I don't know whether to cry or get mad.