From San Francisco to D.C.

By: Shadi Rahimi

SAN FRANCISCO - In the three decades since Mohawk student Richard Oakes first dove into the ice-cold waters of the San Francisco Bay and set off a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island, thousands have returned to honor those who ignited a national movement.

This year, as the sun rose above the blue-green waters still tinged with black from a 58,000-gallon oil spill in early November, activists from the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement era vowed more change.

In addition to protests reignited this year around the desecration of sacred sites and burial grounds and the return of ancestral remains from University of California - Berkeley, Natives here are helping to revive the Longest Walk of 1978.

''It's the continuation of the 'Longest War' that started when the first Indian blood was spilled on this land, which is still being done today - it's just more subtle,'' said Bill ''Jimbo'' Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council.

Simmons, 52, walked the entire five-month journey in 1978. Next year, on Feb. 11, he and others will depart after a ceremony on Alcatraz to trek 4,400 miles across 11 states until they reach Washington, D.C.

There, thousands will add the message that ''all life is sacred'' to campaigns around global warming, said Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement. Walkers will pick up debris that public buses will collect for recycling, he said.

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