THE RUNNER
Where History is Shared and Stories Continue
January – March 2025
Kunoopeam Netompaûog
Welcome Friends
Hello Readers. You may have noticed our newsletter’s new name. “The Runner” acknowledges and honors traditional ways of sharing news.
Running was an important part of Indigenous cultures across this country. Apache runners were said to be able to run 100 miles in a day across the desert. And the Navajos’ Kinaaldá – the coming of age ceremony for young women – incorporates running two to three times a day for the four days of the ceremony.
The running ritual is said to make the women strong and prepare them for the adversities of life. And, long before cellphones, the Internet, television, and daily newspapers, runners proved invaluable in providing communication and coordination between villages, towns, and territories.
During the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the various pueblos communicated with each other via runners. This coordination resulted in the Pueblos pushing the Spanish colonizers out of the Southwest.
It was the same mode of long-distance communication for the Narragansett People.
Before the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620, the Narragansett Tribe consisted of an estimated 30-35,000 people. Their villages were spread across the area known today as Rhode Island.
Runners were essential in bringing news and passing information between the various villages. For the Narragansetts, running was not based solely on competing, but connecting with community, ancestry, and a representation of something much larger than themselves.
This tradition lived on throughout the generations. Running to deliver messages as a child, Narragansett Tribal Member and Marathoner Ellison “Tarzan” Brown would run between family homes to deliver messages, continuing this tradition among a community devoid of telephones in the 1920s.
Later as a marathon athlete, winner, and named olympian, he represented his community and country and became a hero among his people, not just for his running prowess, but for his representation during a time of invisibility and written erasure of the Narragansetts by the State of Rhode Island; a topic to be discussed in a later issue of The Runner.
This year our theme and purpose is “The Preservation of History, and each quarter the writers of this newsletter will feature historical and/or contemporary events that have had significant impact on the Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island (U.S.).
The majority of preserved history about the Natives who inhabited these lands for thousands of years and predate the United States has been written and taught by non-Natives.
Each writing herein will share the Native perspective on these events and how they have impacted the existence and continuation of Native culture and peoples. Contributions by Native people who lived and continue to live through the changes of these lands will be acknowledged and celebrated.
~Education Team