The Peace Walk to
Vancouver
began
with an Interfaith Ceremony at the sacred burial grounds of
Chief Seattle on Bainbridge Island WA on the beautiful
morning of the 9th June 2006. As the group of 20
International walkers circled Chief Seattle’s burial
site to honor a great leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish
Indian Tribes they listened to the many prayers offered for
world peace and a strong walk.
With strong prayers we walked through the beautiful land of
Bainbridge Island to end our day at the gates of the Naval
Submarine Base Bangor. The Trident Submarine Base at Bangor,
15 miles west of Seattle is the last active nuclear weapons
depot on the West Coast and is the place of deployment for
approximately 1,760 nuclear warheads.
In July 2005 Lockheed-Martin and the US Navy announced a 9.2
million dollar contract to develop a new submarine launched
intermediate—range ballistic missile (SLIRBM). The SLIRBM
will be capable of delivering a 1,000 pound pay load, 1200
miles within 15 minutes of launch.
The next planned direct action at Bangor will be on August
6th and 7th 2006 in commemoration of the 61st anniversary of
the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
For more information: www.gzcentre.org
The Suquamish United Church of Christ supported the walk
incredibly with providing two overnight stay places and food
for all the walkers. Thank you so very much.
Most of us woke the following morning to the usual prayer
drums of Nipponzan Myohoji who lead the interfaith prayers.
Its not hard to get back into the routine of the day
beginning with prayers, followed by packing, eating,
cleaning and saying our goodbyes to the new friends we had
made.
Organizing ourselves quickly we gathered at the Dojo of
Nipponzan Myohoji before walking to catch the 8:40 am ferry
across to Seattle.
We stopped at the Lazarus Day Centre, a homeless shelter for
people over the age of 50. After a small history talk Sister
Julie offered prayers of thanks and a protected journey.
We walked through downtown Seattle with many people
stopping, watching and asking what we were doing. We stopped
for “light refreshments” of delicious home baked cinnamon
rolls and tea and coffee at the Interfaith Community Church.
Taking the back streets and through residential homes
we eventually made our walk to the statue of Sadako near the
edge of University Bridge. ‘Sadako’ was adorned with 1,000’s
of peace cranes and the beautiful colorful gardens made for
an impressive sight. We offered prayers, and incense and as
we rested on the grass listened to the moving voices of a
homeless women “Angel” and Tyler offering their prayers in
song.
That night we stayed at St Josephs’ Church and was blessed
by a visit from Harold Belmont and his partner. They joined
us for dinner and afterwards Harold spoke of the strength of
all nations coming together, red, black, yellow and white
and the importance of the whole family. He offered a
powerful prayer song with his sacred drum and then presented
Gilberto-shonin with this drum as an offer of his gratitude
for being asked by Gilberto-shonin to support the walk. He
called upon the four native walkers, Charlie, Larry, Bob and
Daniel to join together in the middle of the circle and each
spoke or offered a song of prayer. He then explained their
importance and responsibility to the drum during the walk.
From St Joseph’s Church we transported walkers back to
Sadako’s Statue and began walking from here to Lake Forest
Park. We were on a time schedule to be in Forest Park by
12:00 noon, Utsumi-shonin led the walkers in a relatively
moving pace.
As we neared the Shopping Centre the cheering and clapping
got louder and louder. Lake Forest Park for Peace welcomed
us
with such overwhelming excitement and energy gifting us with
beautiful peace cranes and providing lunch for us.
Lake Forest Park for Peace, a grassroots anti-war group
holds public vigils for peace every Saturday between 11:00
am to 1:00 pm on the corner of Ballinger and Bothell Ways NE
by the Lake Forest Park Shopping Centre.
Many of the Peace group members joined us after lunch with
their great enthusiasm and energy. We stopped for prayers at
Margaret’s house near Lake Park Shopping Centre who has just
had many of her homes for children with disabilities closed
because of residents complaints. Moved to tears from the
stories Margaret shared with us of how the children will now
go back into institutions because of the insensitivity from
residents—each of the walkers offered their prayers.
Monday 12th June—Lake Park Forest to Everett
Tuesday 13th June— We walked from Everett to Tulalip Indian
Nation
and was greeted by Lisa from Tulalip Indian Nation who
organized our overnight stay places for the next two nights
and food for all the walkers. It was great to walk in with
her nephew and his 3 boys all playing their drums.
Again we had were greeted with the presence of Harold
Belmont and his partner, Joy
as we walked into Tulalip Nation. After a delicious snack of
homemade cherry pie and cold drinks we had a beautiful
ceremony under thearbor by the river. We have been blessed
on this journey by the beauty of bald eagles circling near
by.
We walked to the Boys & Girls Club, where wewould be staying
for 2 nights thanks to Lisa.
Lisa had organized a ‘feast’ and cultural exchange program
with the Canoe Family who donated the incredible food
prepared for the evening. About 80 of us gathered for a
great night of sharing many stories, beautiful songs,
drumming and dancing by the young women.
After a few of the walkers shared their experiences of the
walk and offering some inspiration to the youth that had
come to listen, a local women got up and spoke .
She began by saying “I have had a hard day, I have struggled
today…...I have breast cancer, and my husband has thyroid
cancer from living out near Yucca Mountain from the uranium,
the nuclear industry”. Everyone in the room went silent, and
I am sure was moved to tears as she continued her story. I
really felt that the night was more than a cultural
ex-change it was a healing circle. A gathering for people to
offer prayers, and stories to share, and this is why it is
so important to continue these walks. It brings so many
people together to share, to become family and to support
each other. She said that by coming tonight she felt so much
better to see people praying and walking for peace. Of
course these are the stories that we remember when we are
walking to continue offering prayers to this women and her
family.
We stayed 2 nights at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club, so from
here we walked to Stanwood and then transported the walkers
by car back to Tulalip. This was a gorgeous walk over the
mountains and through forest to occasionally get glimpses of
the water. It’s a great time of year to be walking as there
are so many wildflowers bursting with color.
The walkers again give a huge thanks to Lisa and the Tulalip
Nation for giving us so much support and energy. We hope to
return one day.
From Stanwood we walked onto our next stay place through
another beautiful part of the country towards Swinomish
Nation.
Today it was Bob’s Birthday—Thursday 15th June so the
morning began with many birthday wishes and excitement. Also
through-out the walk we were treated with many surprises.
First we rested in a place with homemade Japanese food which
we all feasted on. Some local people came out with a
donation of fresh strawberries, another person came out with
some water, and a local man donated some money to the walk.
We had a great lunch place with plenty of green grass to
laze about on and beautiful colorful hanging baskets…..with
the grocery store donating free coffee to the Aussies!!
We arrived at the Assumption Parish after a huge 20 miles
and was greeted by the Tribal Council President, Father
Dennis and local members. It wasn’t long before the women
who prepared another feast for us told us to gather for
dinner.
We offered prayers and thanks and sat down to an incredible
dinner of salmon, crab, salad and bread. It was a great
treat, especially as we had a beautiful birthday cake for
Bob to finish off a fantastic day.
Happy Birthday Bob!!
And a huge thanks to the Swinomish Nation for all their
support and energy.
Today we rest.
We wake up with the familiar sound of the drums and the
sounds of Morning Prayer. Yesterday was a rest day everyone
doing laundry and trying to catch up on emails and even
having a little afternoon nap. The greeting here at
Swinomish Indian Nation has been wonderful. On top of the
fantastic food and conversation (including a discussion
between Jim and Father Denis about the Cincinnati Pittsburgh
play-off game last year) we were also invited to visit their
Long House and got the tour and history with the caretakers
of the Long House.
Today we are off to the small town of Bow WA
we are staying at the Chuckanut Alpaca Ranch. The day was
beautiful the sky was blue and you could see the mountains
to the right of us and the bay on the left. Walter and Lois
Schulter owner and caretakers of the ranch warmly greeted
us. They invited us to relax and enjoy the ranch we were
able to go into the fields and enjoy the Alpacas, enjoy the
comfort of the guess house and also go for a swim in their
solar heated pool! Most of us went out to the fields and
enjoyed our visit with the Alpacas. They are very timid
creatures but also very curious.
They had a group of very young ones that were the most
curious. After our visit with the Alpacas we all started
rotating in and out of the pool taking a break for dinner.
The pool was perfect for a bunch of us with sour feet, legs
ect.
Today we are off to Bellingham WA we have to go over the
mountain. I have to say that being from the mid west I am
always amazed at the diversity and the beauty of the west
coast. We are going over the mountain on Chuckanut drive
this road is surrounded by forest, animals and views of the
islands. We stopped often to view and appreciate all
different animals we saw along the way Eagles, Raccoons and
deer small and large.
I would like to thank Larry, Bob, Charlie and Alice for
their great effort in flagging to keep everyone safe today.
As well as everyone who flagged during the walk but today
had a very narrow shoulder with many curves up and down the
mountain so there were a lot of blind spots.
In town we were greeted by the Raging Grannies.
They were singing and dancing and ready to walk the rest of
the way with us through town to our next overnight. After we
got settled into where we were staying for the night we
walked and shuttled to where we were going to meet with the
community share dinner and stories of the walk.
We were also entertained with some great songs accompanied
by the gazoo, cybles and a ukulele. If you have never had
the pleasure of a visit with the raging grannies I would
recommend it. Check out their web site: http://www.raginggrannies.com
June 19th Bellingham to Lummi Island
Today we walk to the Lummi Indian Reservation. We actually
made it to the overnight by noon and had lunch. While we
were eating we were joined by a few locals who sang us some
songs and a local reporter who joined us for lunch and then
did some interviews with individual walkers.
We still had a few more miles to walk and then we are going
to take a short tour of Lummi Island (of course by foot). As
we waited for the fairy it gave us a chance to visit with
more people from the community. There was a group of kids
from the high school all carrying musical instruments.
I spoke to a young man named Thomas and he told me that the
biggest problem on the island was that the only time that
the community had anything to do with the Native community
was when they wanted them to stop selling shell fish along
the road I looked over to the road and sure enough not a
vender to be found. As I was looking I could imagine how
nice it would have been to see local venders selling fresh
Oysters, Crab and Salmon and thought how sad it was that
there was not more cooperation and understanding. We walked
the mile across the Island and then we all headed to the
local shop for a coffee. Then back across the ferry to load
into the vehicles and headed back to the church.
Back at the church and some ladies and men from the
community had stopped by and made us a surprise dinner. That
was a pleasant surprise considering that as of noon no one
knew we were coming. After dinner the church choir had
practice while they were singing we relaxed and made peace
cranes for give-a-ways. Utsumi-Shoni and Marcus discovered a
Public Declaration in a frame on the wall. It starts with.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This is a formal apology on behalf of our churches for their
long-standing participation in the destruction of the
traditional Native American spiritual practices.
To read the rest just click on the picture.
June 20th
Lummi Nation to Ferndale WA
This was a short day so we actually walked past were we are
staying today to cut down tomorrows miles.
The ladies that came to cook for us were great just full of
life and loved to joke around. They cooked us a feast of
chicken and baked potato’s salad and it just went on and on.
The most spectacular part of today was at sunset. The
mountaintop finally made an appearance. What a beautiful
site.
We also watched a DVD tonight that was done by one of the
walkers on the walk to the Trident Nuclear Submarine Base on
Bainbridge Island (Bangor) last year for the anniversary of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Great job Alice.
June 21st
Ferndale to Blain
Today is are last day in the US tomorrow we cross in to
Canada.
And sometime today Doyle and his mom Willie will join us. A
woman who had seen us walking that day decided to join us
and while we were walking decided that the road was to
dangerous and went home got her hard hat and big stop/slow
sign plus her bright yellow vest and stopped traffic for us
all day. She was really in to it.
(Sorry I don���t remember her name) All I can say is she must
do it for a living she had all the hand signals down and
everything. The big debate for most of the day was one of
the walkers had left their passports at home in Seattle and
were they going to be able to cross into Canada without it?
Finally one of the walkers said lets just go get it we’ll be
back in no time. So some of us waited up for Dole and Willie
to arrive and it was perfect timing they pulled in with
their RV and a surprise Doyle’s partner Janice. When we
finished visiting with them we walked over to the front of
the church and there was the crew from getting the passport.
Everyone’s home for the night safe and sound.
June 22nd
Blain to Somewhere in B.C.
So the game plan for today is to caravan across the border.
Once we are all across to go to the closest park and then
start walking.
Depending on how long it takes to cross the border will
depend on how far we walk. Crossing was relatively Simple we
crossed got to the park and Sinji – Shoni got his map out
and went to town looking for a route. When he got it all
laid out we started on our way. For the rest of the walk and
during the World Peace Forum (WPF) we will be staying at the
Aboriginal Friendship Center in Vancouver. After the walk
today we all gathered back at the center.
Tonight is very special because we are celebrating Willie’s
birthday she is 93 years young and after all these years she
chose to spend it with us. We are truly grateful to be able
to spend it with her. She gives us strength and brings a lot
of joy and happiness.
Happy Birthday Willie !!!!!!
June 23rd
Last day walking into Vancouver
Today we walk into Vancouver through the city finishing at
the Hiroshima – Nagasaki exhibit. Walking through a city is
a great experience. All the honking by the car’s people
waving giving the peace sign talking to people on the street
about what we are doing. The drums reverberating of the
buildings seeming sometimes like the echo never stops
carrying all the prayers on forever.
Steve Leeper from Mayors for Peace (
for more information on Mayors for Peace Click Here)
greeted us at the Storyeum We had our closing circle in
front of the exhibit some of the walkers spoke along with
the monks and Steve giving thanks for walking and praying
for peace. Tonight will be our last night together tomorrow
some of us will start making our way home and others will be
staying for the WPF.