PORTLAND — Three walking, driving grandmothers made it to their destination Monday and pronounced their journey “awesome.”
Rhonda Markishtum, Dotti Chamblin and Gail Adams, members of the Makah tribe and residents of Neah Bay, set out at 4 a.m. last Wednesday.
Their intention: To raise awareness of Native American treaty rights the women believe have been disrespected for too long.
At the end of the 330-mile trip, the trio walked into Portland, Ore., on Monday, just as they had planned, and headed for the Bureau of Indian Affairs office to deliver a simple message.
In treaties with the U.S. government, tribes all over this country traded their lands for basic human rights such as health care and education — but the United States hasn’t held up its end of the deal, said Adams.
She lost her husband to cancer in May, and wonders whether he might have received better treatment if he’d lived somewhere besides the Makah Reservation.
In Neah Bay as in other remote Native American communities, tribal members struggle to get good care, said Adams, who at 68 is the eldest of the travelers.
