Sacred Peace Walk
March 23-29, 2024
In this season of wars, a worldwide refugee crisis and the climate thrown into chaos, when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves up its doomsday clock to 90-seconds before midnight, the Nevada Desert Experience invites you to join us in an event of hope and resistance in the desert.
Over Holy Week, March 23-29 this year, as for most of the past 40-years, NDE will host the Sacred Peace Walk, an interfaith journey of approximately 60-miles from Las Vegas to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS, formerly the Nevada Test Site) through the Mojave in Nevada, on the beautiful traditional lands of the indigenous Western Shoshone and Paiute peoples.
The NNSS, established on land stolen from the Western Shoshone nation, was the primary testing ground of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992; 928 announced nuclear explosions occurred there, making it the most bombed place on earth. Since then, it has continued to be the site of "subcritical" nuclear tests and other research for new nuclear bombs and for the "life-extension" of old ones. Even as we walk to the NNSS in March, it is expected that parts for the new “Scorpius” linear induction accelerator will arrive there before we do. This machine, the length of a football field and 1,000 feet below the ground when completed in four years, would conduct experiments with high-energy bursts of X-rays and plutonium. Government scientists call these experiments “tickling the dragon's tail” and insist that they are necessary to ensure that the aging stockpile of nuclear weapons will be “good to go” if the decision is made to use them and exterminate most life on the planet.
Creech Air Force Base, about halfway from Las Vegas to the test site, is the center of drone warfare and assassination for the U.S. military and the CIA. NDE began protesting there in 2009 and since then, war from a distance by remote control, has grown to be a staple of U.S. policy, and instrument of terror that exacts a horrific toll on civilians abroad and moral injury on troops at home.
The walk will end at the NNSS with a "Nuclear Stations of the Cross" procession from the historic Peace Camp to the gates. With permission of the Western Shoshone National Council, some will enter the test site, risking arrest. After more than 30 years of not prosecuting activists arrested at the NNSS, local authorities have recently begun charging those who cross their line with trespassing.
March is a beautiful time to camp in the desert along the way and there may be limited indoor accommodations. Walkers are asked to bring their own camping gear, but some equipment is available to borrow. Support vehicles will follow along the route to provide water, snacks, first aid supplies and porta-potties. All meals will be provided. You are free to walk the portion of each day's route that is comfortable for you. Volunteers are needed each day to support the walk by providing/serving meals, driving support vehicles, donating snacks and supplies, and other tasks.
The suggested registration fee for the SPW is $125 general, $75 for veterans, and seniors or students for $20 per day.
Please join us to resist nuclear weapons and endless war, stand up for indigenous rights, and create a peaceful, sustainable future. Together we can transform fears into compassion and apathy into action during NDE's annual Sacred Peace Walk!
March 23-29, 2024
In this season of wars, a worldwide refugee crisis and the climate thrown into chaos, when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves up its doomsday clock to 90-seconds before midnight, the Nevada Desert Experience invites you to join us in an event of hope and resistance in the desert.
Over Holy Week, March 23-29 this year, as for most of the past 40-years, NDE will host the Sacred Peace Walk, an interfaith journey of approximately 60-miles from Las Vegas to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS, formerly the Nevada Test Site) through the Mojave in Nevada, on the beautiful traditional lands of the indigenous Western Shoshone and Paiute peoples.
The NNSS, established on land stolen from the Western Shoshone nation, was the primary testing ground of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992; 928 announced nuclear explosions occurred there, making it the most bombed place on earth. Since then, it has continued to be the site of "subcritical" nuclear tests and other research for new nuclear bombs and for the "life-extension" of old ones. Even as we walk to the NNSS in March, it is expected that parts for the new “Scorpius” linear induction accelerator will arrive there before we do. This machine, the length of a football field and 1,000 feet below the ground when completed in four years, would conduct experiments with high-energy bursts of X-rays and plutonium. Government scientists call these experiments “tickling the dragon's tail” and insist that they are necessary to ensure that the aging stockpile of nuclear weapons will be “good to go” if the decision is made to use them and exterminate most life on the planet.
Creech Air Force Base, about halfway from Las Vegas to the test site, is the center of drone warfare and assassination for the U.S. military and the CIA. NDE began protesting there in 2009 and since then, war from a distance by remote control, has grown to be a staple of U.S. policy, and instrument of terror that exacts a horrific toll on civilians abroad and moral injury on troops at home.
The walk will end at the NNSS with a "Nuclear Stations of the Cross" procession from the historic Peace Camp to the gates. With permission of the Western Shoshone National Council, some will enter the test site, risking arrest. After more than 30 years of not prosecuting activists arrested at the NNSS, local authorities have recently begun charging those who cross their line with trespassing.
March is a beautiful time to camp in the desert along the way and there may be limited indoor accommodations. Walkers are asked to bring their own camping gear, but some equipment is available to borrow. Support vehicles will follow along the route to provide water, snacks, first aid supplies and porta-potties. All meals will be provided. You are free to walk the portion of each day's route that is comfortable for you. Volunteers are needed each day to support the walk by providing/serving meals, driving support vehicles, donating snacks and supplies, and other tasks.
The suggested registration fee for the SPW is $125 general, $75 for veterans, and seniors or students for $20 per day.
Please join us to resist nuclear weapons and endless war, stand up for indigenous rights, and create a peaceful, sustainable future. Together we can transform fears into compassion and apathy into action during NDE's annual Sacred Peace Walk!