Indigenous ‘water walk’ to travel the St. Croix River in September

On Sept. 1-5, Ojibwe spiritual leader Sharon Day will lead a Nibi Walk along the St. Croix River, which starts in Gordon, Wisc. (northwest of Hayward) and runs about 170 miles to its confluence with the Mississippi River near Prescott, Wisc.

A year ago, Day, who serves as executive director of Minneapolis’ Indigenous People’s Task Force, spent a month leading a 1,200-mile Nibi Walk (nibi is the Ojibwe word for water) around Lake Superior. The journey was one of more than 20 Nibi Walks that Day has led over the decades — some as short as Minnehaha Creek; others as long as the Mississippi River.

Nibi Walks are not like advocacy walks for AIDS or Alzheimer’s, with throngs of walkers in matching shirts. They are an Indigenous ceremony, where each walker carries a water-filled copper pail, relay style, for about a mile, to express gratitude for the water and pray for its health.

For the St. Croix walk, the group will collect water at the river’s source and walk as close to the water as possible on roads and trails. It will travel on the Wisconsin side to Sunrise Ferry, near North Branch, Minn., and then cross the river by canoe and continue on the Minnesota side.

Day says she expects the trip will be “almost like walking two rivers,” because the section north of Taylor’s Falls is relatively remote, while the southern section passes though developed areas including Stillwater and Hudson. “It should be very beautiful,” Day said.

Nibi Walks are open to all Indigenous and non-Indigenous walkers, though only women carry the water (men can accompany them carrying an eagle staff). Those interested in joining for a portion of the journey, or its entirety, are asked to attend an orientation meeting on Friday, Aug. 23, in Shafer, Minn. (See Nibiwalk.org for orientation and sign-up details along with Nibi Walk protocol.)