WE DID IT!! I yelled to my son Rob as we drove back from Mono Lake to Yosemite Valley. WE WALKED ACROSS THE SIERRA MOUNTAINS!!!. Well actually we only walked from Yosemite Valley to the Farrington Ranch near Mono Lake. A walk that took us five days to cover nearly 50 miles. We crossed the summit of the Sierra at Mono Pass; 10,599 feet above sea level according to the USGS marker.
It all started last year (1994) when I was invited (or was it a challenge?) to join the Miwok-Paiute Indians in their Traditional Walk across the Sierra. At that time, my son Rob and I were only able to join the trek at Tenaya Lake and walk for two days to Yosemite Valley. That was one of the toughest two days I had spent since the Army and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it again when asked again 1995.
The sign at the intersection of State Highway 120 with Highway 390 said YOSEMITE VALLEY....74 Miles. We were back in the Valley in a little less than two hours, a trek that had taken us five days by foot. We were back in “real world” time now but things were different.
As we drove along, my son and I recalled various landmarks we had visited which were visible from the highway. We reminisced about incidents on the trail, people, the things we saw; soon we fell into silence.
It all started last year (1994) when I was invited (or was it a challenge?) to join the Miwok-Paiute Indians in their Traditional Walk across the Sierra. At that time, my son Rob and I were only able to join the trek at Tenaya Lake and walk for two days to Yosemite Valley. That was one of the toughest two days I had spent since the Army and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it again when asked again 1995.
The sign at the intersection of State Highway 120 with Highway 390 said YOSEMITE VALLEY....74 Miles. We were back in the Valley in a little less than two hours, a trek that had taken us five days by foot. We were back in “real world” time now but things were different.
As we drove along, my son and I recalled various landmarks we had visited which were visible from the highway. We reminisced about incidents on the trail, people, the things we saw; soon we fell into silence.
Somehow, Yosemite had changed for me as I’m sure it had for Rob.
This trip had not been about physical accomplishment or sight-seeing; it was about healing. I remember Jay Johnson talking and praying to the creator for help in “healing this injured land”. I remember Jay telling me that the people are part of the land and so we needed to heal as part of the process; our healing is an important part of the process.
What was different was that now I felt closer to this postcard gliding past my window than I had in the past 18-years in this area. I felt a little closer to the “spirit” of this land, and yes, the healing process had begun for me.
Like all of us, there were to be many trials ahead for this group of Indians. They face all of the problems of other people and organizations yet somehow I think that they will work through their differences and continue this trek in search of community. I don’t have any idea how the knowledge they are gaining is transferable to people of other races or regions but I know the problems they face are similar to those of people all over the country. They, at least, seem to understand the nature of their problems and have Yosemite to heal them. We to have somehow become alienated from the land upon which we reside; maybe we need a Traditional Walk of our own.
We don’t ask permission; we take for granted that bounty of the earth as ours. The Indian people of the Yosemite region need help and they are seeking it. It occurred to me, as we watched the sun set across the San Joaquin Valley, that we also need help. Nature has become an abstraction, even to self-styled environmentalists.
This trip had not been about physical accomplishment or sight-seeing; it was about healing. I remember Jay Johnson talking and praying to the creator for help in “healing this injured land”. I remember Jay telling me that the people are part of the land and so we needed to heal as part of the process; our healing is an important part of the process.
What was different was that now I felt closer to this postcard gliding past my window than I had in the past 18-years in this area. I felt a little closer to the “spirit” of this land, and yes, the healing process had begun for me.
Like all of us, there were to be many trials ahead for this group of Indians. They face all of the problems of other people and organizations yet somehow I think that they will work through their differences and continue this trek in search of community. I don’t have any idea how the knowledge they are gaining is transferable to people of other races or regions but I know the problems they face are similar to those of people all over the country. They, at least, seem to understand the nature of their problems and have Yosemite to heal them. We to have somehow become alienated from the land upon which we reside; maybe we need a Traditional Walk of our own.
We don’t ask permission; we take for granted that bounty of the earth as ours. The Indian people of the Yosemite region need help and they are seeking it. It occurred to me, as we watched the sun set across the San Joaquin Valley, that we also need help. Nature has become an abstraction, even to self-styled environmentalists.
To the Miwok-Paiute people, they are as much a part of nature as the trees and the rock of Yosemite. They see the world around them as a work in progress and they are part of the process. This concept of belonging, conservation and preservation seems very different than that of most of our environmental organizations as I understand them. We are not in charge; the world around us is not ours to manage and control. We are part of nature and we must respect nature as a whole.
That thought extends to the food we eat, the cloth we wear and the shelter we build.
These notes were written shortly after our return to Mariposa from the High Country in 1995. As I've re-read them, after all these years, they still ring true. I'm posting them here to remind myself that once I seem to have had a deeper understanding of the world around me than I sometimes have today! Good Morning Bob, its time to wake up.
