THIS MORNING: Native American Leader to Embark on Historic Bike Ride for Biodiesel

Pikuni Blackfoot Nation leader Zachary Running Wolf breaks out of the box and rides his bicycle from Oakland, California to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Braving crowded two lane highways, semi-trailer trucks speeding by just a few feet away, hostile and perplexed motorists and leering law officers, the brother found the gall and wherewithall to pull of such a task. I just rode and supported the first 500 miles of the 2,000 some mile journey with Running Wolf this week. I never conceived of the possibility of such a thing. Work that Zack has called the work of a stone-carrier, a title that he has received from his elders. Zack is definitely doing the heavy lifting. I just left the brother Friday at 29 Palms about to head into the Mojave dessert with 7 days to reach the Gathering of the Nations pow-wow in Albuquerque. With little provision other than electrolyte fluid-replacement drink, breakfast under his belt, a patch kit and a few dollars this Pikuni warrior is off to show some folks a few things about integrity, determination, and the possibility of a better world.

It is the assertion of my brother Running Wolf that much traditional leadership has failed to realize the pressing realities of environmental catastrophe and have proceeded with much self-serving and hypocritical behavior. To indulge in all of the amenities and luxuries of this modern society without seeing how these actions are grossly destructive of the environment and entirely contradictory to sacred tradition is the height of ignorance, but yet seems to be the status quo. It is our aim to help as we can to bring sacred tradition in line with environmental consciousness. These two seem to be obvious partners but have somehow evaded one another in these times. We intend to bring them together in full cooperation.

To witness the use of land in the central California valley was a slap in the face. It does not appear the same from a car. To proceed at twenty miles an hour through vast oil fields perched atop a thin bike, rolling along at the mercy of huge speeding petrol death machines going south on California Highway 33 was humbling to say the least. To see the vast raping of the earth through agribusiness and the actual realized conversion of native peoples to a sub-slave class of workers called Mexicans in the same week that they picked a new Nazi as the spiritual leader of the white world. I bugged out on the fact that it was these same Roman Nazis that raped the indigenous, stole their lives, stole their lineage, made them perform exploited work and forced them to leave their native ways. Those people are being portrayed as religious people but I don’t think that they have any grasp of the sacred and they are in many ways responsible for this mess and they will have to make amends by choice or by force.

I say the King of Fools John Pope is Dead, forever the Pope is dead, and he died on April fools day. The King of Fools died on April fools. All I have to say is how about when the Mexicans realize their true indigenous legacy? How about African-Americans, who have so much native blood? How about when they turn indigenous? How about the native nations themselves? They are returning. When they wake up to this pressing reality, then what? Black, brown and red nations. Oppressors beware.
And who am I? A ‘clean cut’, ‘white’ Irish-American from the middle-class of this time. Why do I have a driving conscience about the true ownership of this land? Why?!?
The oppressors are in some serious trouble, man.
I fear for their fate.

I have a sticker on my bike that says ‘cycle jihad’ and Zack asked me about the meaning. It was a concept I had conceived of years back combining my traditional Islamic influence with good s.f. activism like critical mass and opposition to war.
Jihad is ‘war’ and it is also ‘struggle’. The first struggle with a bike is to get your lazy butt on the darn thing to do some work. So even according to the traditional definition of jihad, the primary struggle is to oppose ones own laziness and lack of effort. So first and foremost that is what ‘cycle jihad’ means.

But don’t stop there, this ain’t no fitness show! The ‘struggle’ also inextricably entails some engagement with those duplicitous forces of the lower self (laziness and greed) that have manifest on an organized level, such as the modern state, namely the one we reside in, The United Snakes of Amerika.

In fact my people, the Irish, achieved their independence from the occupation of Britian by implementing guerilla tactics against snitches and informants to the English Crown. The militant Irish youth rode up on bikes and assassinated the informants, precipitating Irish independence. That is cycle jihad as well. I definitely felt myself engaged in some serious level of struggle as I rode behind this Pikuni Native leader combating all these forces of petrol, steel, concrete, business, government, and sham culture.
We were on a serious jihad, just riding our bikes across this state.

Running Wolf and I prayed while we rode that the Creator would show us a sign.
I did not see the owl on the side of the road needing ceremony and burial. Zack was shown the owl by the Creator, and was given one wing intact, a clear sign, to use this wing in ceremony, to brush away evil spirits. Running Wolf was initiated by the Creator as I witnessed, to lead the native youth in their fate, ever so strong.


Four Directions. All Nations.
All Native Lands, Sea to Sea.