No NYC Marathon to run for group of Native Americans who were racing to inspire hope, raise funds for the Pine Ridge reservation
End Zone: Now the race day is here, except they won't run 26.2 miles through five boroughs; they will help a struggling city overcome devastation of Hurricane Sandy
COREY SIPKIN/NY DAILY NEWS
Nupa White Plume trains in the Pine Ridge Reservation, in South Dakota.
COREY SIPKIN/NY DAILY NEWS
Amanda Carlow
WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. — On a pine-covered ridge a few miles north of here, Nupa White Plume is beginning another day of training, his long, black ponytail bouncing as he goes. He will run for 18 miles through the vast brown barrenness of his native land, past stark and spectacular landscapes, and brutally crushing poverty, sometimes all in the same mile.
The place is called the Pine Ridge Reservation, but most everybody knows it as the Rez. Nupa White Plume, 28-year-old father of two, runs with wire-rim glasses and a fluid, athletic stride, and a very occupied mind. He sets out on the ridge, a short horseback ride from a mass grave and a monument surrounded by a beaten-up chain-link fence, a grim commemoration of arguably the single darkest day in the history of Native American peoples. He thinks about what he’s going to do for work, and money. He thinks about his kids’ future, and about the pall that sometimes hangs over Pine Ridge like a storm cloud on the prairie.
Where else do you see roadsides dotted with signs with a big red X, and the words “Why Die?” on one side, and “Think” on the other. They put up the signs wherever somebody has died in an alcohol-related car wreck.
The place is called the Pine Ridge Reservation, but most everybody knows it as the Rez. Nupa White Plume, 28-year-old father of two, runs with wire-rim glasses and a fluid, athletic stride, and a very occupied mind. He sets out on the ridge, a short horseback ride from a mass grave and a monument surrounded by a beaten-up chain-link fence, a grim commemoration of arguably the single darkest day in the history of Native American peoples. He thinks about what he’s going to do for work, and money. He thinks about his kids’ future, and about the pall that sometimes hangs over Pine Ridge like a storm cloud on the prairie.
Where else do you see roadsides dotted with signs with a big red X, and the words “Why Die?” on one side, and “Think” on the other. They put up the signs wherever somebody has died in an alcohol-related car wreck.
COREY SIPKIN/NY DAILY NEWS
Nupa White Plume trains in the Pine Ridge Reservation, in South Dakota.
At this moment, though, Nupa White Plume’s mind is elsewhere, focused on what impact there might be from a Sunday in New York, a city some 1,700 miles east, where he and four other young Native Americans from the Oglala Lakota Nation were supposed to run in the ING New York City Marathon Sunday morning, seeking to raise funds for a new youth center on Pine Ridge, and raise awareness about the grip of problems on the nation’s second biggest reservation, and the efforts of a group called One Spirit to address them.
“Stuff like this – running in the New York City Marathon – doesn’t happen to people coming from the Rez,” Nupa White Plume says. “Maybe children will be inspired and try to do something different – and see what they can do with their lives.”
The 43rd running of the ING New York City Marathon is now, of course, the latest victim of the wreckage left behind by Sandy, done in by the growing firestorm about holding the race in a city with neighborhoods that look like the Gulf Coast, post-Katrina. The marathon, at its core, has always been something much more than a world-class road race — a teeming tableau of causes and missions, a quirky celebration of the human spirit, a day that elevates and unites the city. When it became clear this year’s race was stirring more vitriol than euphoria, it was doomed, and the Pine Ridge runners, who know about deprivation, found themselves robbed of their 26.2-mile opportunity to improve their lot.
“Stuff like this – running in the New York City Marathon – doesn’t happen to people coming from the Rez,” Nupa White Plume says. “Maybe children will be inspired and try to do something different – and see what they can do with their lives.”
The 43rd running of the ING New York City Marathon is now, of course, the latest victim of the wreckage left behind by Sandy, done in by the growing firestorm about holding the race in a city with neighborhoods that look like the Gulf Coast, post-Katrina. The marathon, at its core, has always been something much more than a world-class road race — a teeming tableau of causes and missions, a quirky celebration of the human spirit, a day that elevates and unites the city. When it became clear this year’s race was stirring more vitriol than euphoria, it was doomed, and the Pine Ridge runners, who know about deprivation, found themselves robbed of their 26.2-mile opportunity to improve their lot.
COREY SIPKIN/NY DAILY NEWS
Nupa White Plume
Living in a place known for harsh weather and an even harsher life, the One Spirit runners vowed Saturday to make the best of it; at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, their plan is to go to the Oakwood Beach area of Staten Island, not far from what would’ve been the start of the maration, and spend the day helping devastated Staten Islanders with the cleanup.
Jeri Baker is the founder of One Spirit, an all-volunteer organization that seeks to support the efforts of the Lakota Tribe (part of the Great Sioux Nation) to improve life on Pine Ridge.
“People on the reservation were more excited about the marathon than anything that has happened in a long time,” Baker says. “Now, for understandable reasons, it isn’t being held, so these kids are going to do the next best thing – and go out and run to help others. The fact is that three of our runners will return home to a living situation back home that’s very similar to what people here are facing. I think it says an awful lot about what kind of people they are.”
Jeri Baker is the founder of One Spirit, an all-volunteer organization that seeks to support the efforts of the Lakota Tribe (part of the Great Sioux Nation) to improve life on Pine Ridge.
“People on the reservation were more excited about the marathon than anything that has happened in a long time,” Baker says. “Now, for understandable reasons, it isn’t being held, so these kids are going to do the next best thing – and go out and run to help others. The fact is that three of our runners will return home to a living situation back home that’s very similar to what people here are facing. I think it says an awful lot about what kind of people they are.”
