Today marks the first day of a 156-day demonstration, “The Longest Walk,” 48 years ago, when 24 Native Americans hike coast-to-coast, across the U.S., from Alcatraz Island to Washington D.C., joined along the way by thousands of fellow Indians, to bring attention to a series of bills being considered by the U.S. Congress to abolish indigenous sovereignty in backlash to several recent federal actions strengthening it. The new laws would end all treaty obligations, abolish hunting and fishing rights, and divide all tribal assets amongst individual members. Congress drops the bills and instead passes a law protecting the rights of Native Americans to maintain traditional beliefs and spirituality and to practice the ceremonies and rites they have practised for thousands of years.