Norman “Wounded Knee” DeOcampo (Miwok), a long-time resident of Vallejo, will be taking part in the Longest Walk 5 beginning February 13 at La Jolla Shores in San Diego, California. Wounded Knee is the Founding Executive Director of the Vallejo based organization Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes. (SSPRIT). He is the only person who will have participated in all five Longest Walks.

For many years, Norman “Wounded Knee” DeOcampo advocated for the protection of sacred site, “Sogorea Te” located in the Glen Cove area of Vallejo. A spiritual occupation of the Native American Sacred Burial Site lasted 109 days, beginning in April of 2011 and ending in August of 2011. In 2014, Spiritual Walkers of the Longest Walk 4 arrived in Vallejo and stopped during their walk at sacred site, Sogorea Te. The longest walkers offered prayers to the ancestors buried at the sacred site and held a brief discussion, followed by a pot luck.

Wounded Knee states, “The Longest Walks are held to bring attention to issues that directly affect Native Americans". The Longest Walk 5, will cover 3,600 miles, and will travel through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, before ending in Washington, D.C. on July 15, 2016. Dennis Banks, Co-Founder of the American Indian Movement, will be leading The Longest Walk 5 and has declared this walk to be a “war on drugs”.

Read More | Longest Walk 5 website