Tour Itinerary
Tour Booklet
Tour Posters and Advertisements

Artists
Links to the musicians’ websites

Beneficiaries
Descriptions of the projects and groups that the tour highlighted

National Press Release
Albuquerque, New Mexico Press Release
Lawrence, Kansas Press Release
Montana Press Release
Salt Lake City, Utah Press Release
Denver, Colorado Press Release

As the crisp fall winds blew across the northern plains, Native activists and musicians worked together to draw attention to the plight of a four-legged relative - the buffalo-- and the immense, strategic potential for energy alternatives developed from Native lands.

Honor the Earth, in collaboration with musicians Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Indigenous, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and others completed a fourth concert and organizing tour in October of that year. The Tour spanned the breadth of the Great Plains from the Northern Cheyenne reservation through the deserts of the Navajo and Zuni, back to the north woods of the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin. The message of the music, advocacy and organizing was clear: stop killing the buffalo and end nuclear colonialism in Native America. Instead of repeating historic injustice, we can collectively build a sustainable future based on viable alternatives that include buffalo restoration and safe energy.

This message and these battles lie at the heart of Honor the Earth.

The Honor the Earth Tour leveraged political and financial resources to match and support grassroots Native organizing efforts in diverse and critical ways. In Montana, we supported a strategic push to Get Out the Indian Vote as a means to change buffalo policy in the state. Sponsored by Native Action, the campaign was aimed at registering, educating and mobilizing 60,000 potential Indian voters in order to swing tight state elections whose outcome will determine the fate of the buffalo.

In Salt Lake City and cities along critical nuclear waste transportation routes, Honor the Earth raised the volume of outcry around the injustice of America's nuclear waste policy. We cracked through the wall of invisibility surrounding isolated communities resisting nuclear waste, and built a stronger network for change. While in Wisconsin, we joined forces with Native Nations, groups from Canada and the U.S. and Wisconsin farmers to forge a visible presence in opposition to not only a huge and incredibly destructive mining project, but the mega-dams and power lines that would produce and carry electricity to the mine across farmlands of the pristine north.

As musicians and nationally known Native activists joined in grassroots community struggles not only did the stakes go higher and the press coverage intensify, but the very effectiveness of local organizing efforts was buoyed as Native people came out to be heard, and thousands of non-Indian people got what was often their first exposure to environmental justice issues.

In sum, the Honor the Earth Tour interfaced with a strategic cross-section of Native environmental groups across the country to support a set of innovative strategies for political mobilization, movement building, incisive grassroots resistance, and dreams for the future of our communities. Combined, the strategies and work of these communities represents a vital, powerful force in Native America. We hope our friends and allies will continue to support the front-line efforts of Native grassroots environmental groups and the ongoing work of Honor the Earth as a national advocacy campaign in Native America.