JERRY FINK

MANAGING EDITOR

Some run for fun. Some run for exercise. An international organization of Indigenous natives run for peace and dignity.

Since 1992, every four years the Indigenous First Nations organization have dedicated themselves to joining together to run the entire length of the Americas carrying sacred prayers for all nations.

In the 2024 Peace and Dignity Journeys, participants have embarked on a seven-month prayer run from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, converging at El Cuaca, Colombia.

This journey emphasizes the commitment to prayer, underlining the obligation to strengthen spiritual connections among Indigenous Peoples across Abya Yala (Western Hemisphere).

“The purpose is for peace and dignity for all life. It’s a prayer run. A spiritual run,” said Vanessa Quesada, an Indigenous Chicana from San Antonio, Texas.

She describes the event as a ceremonial run that fulfills the prophecy of the eagle and the condor, “which reconnects peoples from north and south.”

Quesada likened the run to the days when tribes had no means of mass communications, no telephones, no cars.

“Runners would go from community to community, taking messages,” she said.

Quesada is with a group of seven runners who passed through Eufaula.

They travel about 75 miles a day.

Their path was down U.S. Highway 69, escorted by Lighthorse police officers.

Members of the Eufaula Indian Community invited them to their community center on Birke’s Road where the runners were fed and then they rested before heading for continuing south to McAlester, where they would spend the night in the community center before going on to Texas and eventually Mexico.

She said the intratribal event is a way for the tribes to share their cultures.

“Different people, different tribes, different nations, different lands. It’s a way for us to get to know each other again,” Quesada said.

She described the run as a kind of relay. Runners alternate. One group runs and after about two miles a van picks them up and another van drops off a different set of runners.

This is the third time Quesada has participated in the event.

“The beautiful part is that it’s not just about running, it’s about sharing messages and about community,” she said.

The Peace and Dignity Journeys are supported by donations.

If you would like to contribute, visit the official Peace and Dignity Journey website at https://pdjrun. com and consider contributing the GoFund-Me campaign at https:// gofund.me/c73697a3 Run History

The Peace and Dignity Journeys originated in 1990 in Quito, Ecuador. In July of that year, Indigenous Peoples from as far north as the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and representatives from the Caribbean gathered to address the state of Indigenous Peoples.

This assembly in Ecuador under the Eagle and Condor Prophecy marked the first time Indigenous Peoples from Throughout Abya Yala had come together.

The Eagle symbolized the Indigenous Peoples of the North, and the Condor symbolized the Indigenous Peoples of the South.

The gathering leaders encouraged participants to embrace the prophecy as a guiding principle.

In 1991, participants from Quito and other Indigenous organizers met in New Mexico, leading to the birth of the Peace and Dignity Journeys.

The first Peace and Dignity Journeys were realized in 1992 with a commitment to organize these intercontinental spiritual runs every four years. The commitment was briefly interrupted in 2020 with the advent of COVID-19.