Group taking 'Spirit Walk' to preserve tribe's heritage (fwd)

[Phil Cash Cash]

Thursday, August 21, 2003

Group taking 'Spirit Walk' to preserve tribe's heritage

By Scott Richardson
Pantagraph staff
http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/082103/new_20030821028.shtml

EL PASO -- American Indian John LaFountaine is walking 1,700 miles from
South Dakota to Washington, D.C., to stop America's "original culture"
from fading away.

Before arriving at the Freight House Exchange in El Paso on Wednesday
afternoon, LaFountaine, 48, president of the board of the Seven Fires
Foundation, said "Spirit Walk" supports the South Dakota-based Lakota
Project and other groups working to preserve American Indian heritage.

The walk, which began 870 miles to the west at the Lakota Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota, is timed to coincide with the start of the
bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, when there
may be increased interest in American Indian issues the Oregon-based,
non-profit foundation is involved in.

Averaging about 24 miles a day and walking when temperatures some days
were more than 100 degrees, LaFountaine and three companions expect to
arrive in the nation's capital Sept. 26.

There, Seven Fires Foundation representatives will lobby for passage of
Senate Bill 575 that would allow federally-recognized tribes and
institutions of higher learning to seek money for programs that
preserve American Indian languages and cultures. Designation of that
day as National Native American Day also is a goal.

The group had seven members for the first leg of the journey. Upon
reaching Peoria on Tuesday, two teenagers returned home for school and
another left to go back to work. The remaining four will continue the
walk today on U.S. 24 through Gridley and Chenoa and spend the night in
Fairbury.

Along the way, they are sharing American Indian culture through dance
and story-telling.

"We are sharing with them not only the Lakota culture, but what the
native traditions have to offer. They are the original traditions of
this land," said LaFountaine, adding, "The support we've received is
heart-warming."

LaFountaine is Annishinabeg, a tribe commonly known as Chippewa. He was
a self-described "urban Indian" when he moved to the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in Porcupine, S.D. The Lakota accepted him, sharing their
traditions and private ceremonies. The experience energized his own
yearning to explore his tribal roots; LaFountaine now speaks some
Lakota and Annishinabeg.

The Spirit Walk is his way of saying, "Thanks."

"I've spent 16 years learning from the Lakota," said LaFountaine, of
Reno, Nev., and former curator and archivist for the Leer family of
Learjets. "I felt in my heart I would like to give back to them in
small measure."

Today, less than 2 percent of the 100,000 Lakota living at Pine Ridge
know the Lakota language, he said. Oglala Lakota College estimates
fewer than 25 percent of the tribe can speak their language. Most who
know it are tribal elders, LaFountaine said, and the college estimates
they will comprise just 10 percent of the total Lakota population in
the next generation.

"The native language is dying out," agreed Tammy Van, another walker and
executive director of the Seven Fires Foundation. "When the language is
gone, the culture is gone."

Lakota families often are financially strapped, and both parents work,
leaving little time to pass on traditional ways, said LaFountaine,
noting reservations see higher than usual rates of school drop-outs,
infant mortality and drug abuse.

"Through the assimilation process, much has been lost," said Van, whose
heritage is German, Irish and Dutch. "I'd like to help make that
right."

Contact Scott Richardson at srichardson at pantagraph.com