May 2022

Water is life and water is sacred.

In partnership with Hopi Elders, and under the leadership of Vernon Masayesva, Red Road Journey raised the $5,000 necessary to organize a Sacred Run for prayer and protection of Sípàapu, the Hopi place of emergence in the Grand Canyon, which is currently under threat from record drought and human development.
 

Over the course of 3 days spanning 254 miles, six leading traditional Hopi runners, along with Red Road Journey co-founders Tony and Antonio, carried a State Proclamation from Polacca, First Mesa to Steele Indian School Park in Phoenix.
 

This Proclamation, held in traditional buckskin, is an Arizona State legislative act which recognizes water's importance to sustain life, and more specifically, its sacred connection to all Indigenous peoples.

December 2022

Hippocrates Institute is a wellness center in West Palm Beach, Florida that focuses on healing the body through a whole food, plant-based vegan diet.  As said by Hippocrates himself: "let food be thy medicine".

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Red Road Journey was invited to experience Hippocrates' 7-day wellness transformation program as a form of best-practice to adopt for Red Road Project.

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Similar to Hippocrates, Red Road Journey believes in the healing promise of food and the importance of a balanced diet with exercise to achieve peak physical performance. 

 

Where Hippocrates' cutting-edge scientific innovations address modern health issues, Red Road focuses on our strength as tribal people, using ancestral technology and tradition to reawaken our strength to heal from within.

September 2023

Voted as the one of the leading health spas in the world, Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico consists of a 4,000 acre campus, cooking school, winery, garden and spa that inspires the complete well-being of all people.

Red Road Journey was invited by President and Director of Rancho La Puerta, Sarah Brightwood, to participate in a 7-day wellness program.  We were also given the unique opportunity to present our organizational vision to the 150 guests of the ranch.

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Our co-founders, along with Council Knowledge Keeper Rosa Yaotonalcuauhtl, and fiscal sponsor Julio Reyes-Alvarado, led talks on Indigenous thinking, as well as organized group prayers for the earth and nearby sacred mountain, Kuchamaa, that sits at the top of the Ranch.

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Red Road Journey's reception was so well-received that we have been invited to return in the future to host mulitple talks throughout the year centered around healing through ancient modalities.

July 2024

The San Carlos Apache Nation came together, united by food and community, in support of twenty families whose homes were destroyed by a wild brush fire, affecting the lives of hundreds of local tribal members.

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Having spent more than two weeks in nearby hotels awaiting word from tribal authorities on efforts to rebuild their homes, these families were out of touch from their community and traditional foods.

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Recognizing the role as medicine which food has always played for her community, Red Road Journey board member and renowned traditional cook, Twila Cassadore, along with co-founder Tony Skrelunas, arranged a potluck for the families affected by the fire.​

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This potluck included help from the Navajo Nation, as well as local nonprofit organizations, and featured food trucks and buffets of traditional Apache and Navajo food.  Ultimately, over 275 local tribal members were fed.

July 2022

Summer 2022 proved to be a particularly damaging time of forest fires in Arizona.  The San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff, known to the Diné as Doko'o'osliid, was particularly under increasing threat from encroaching flames.

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Doko'o'osliid represents one of four sacred peaks to the Diné, as well as home of the Kachina Spirits to the Diné and Pueblo Nations.  The health of this mountain represents the spiritual and cultural health of the Diné and Pueblo people.

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In July 2022, Red Road Journey, through community grassroots outreach, raised $8,000 to organize an intertribal pilgrimage of Diné, Hopi and Zuni medicine men, for prayer of rain, healing, and protection of Doko'o'osliid.

 

These medicine men travelled for two weeks across Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, gathering medicines and herbs from each of the three other sacred peaks, to restore the strength of Doko'o'osliid and the strength of their people.

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June 2023

Arkan Lushwala, a Quechuan Elder from Peru, is a published author and renowned Indigenous activist and ceremonial leader, known mostly from his books Deer and Thunder, and Time of the Black Jaguar.

 

Arkan leads campaigns through Pachamama Alliance, an organization that seeks total protection of earth and ensures Indigenous peoples' rights as guardians of earth's resources.

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Red Road Journey's co-founders were invited to Arkan's home in Arawaka, New Mexico for a 3-day earth ceremony, as well as to discuss a shared vision of our two organizations working together in the near future.

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With sincere gratitude to Arkan's generosity, Red Road Journey received our first major monetary donation, which has allowed us to jumpstart organizational development and continue our support for local tribal initiatives.

January 2024

Red Road Journey believes all tribal people possess the skills, tradition and knowledge to truly affect positive change in our communities.

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In January, Red Road formalized a partnership with a local, Hopi-run community development organization called A'ne'ma Enterprise.

 

Under this partnership, Red Road will leverage our network, non-profit status and leadership to advise A'ne'ma Enterprise on the execution, development and construction of a community wellness space in the village of Sipaulovi, Second Mesa.

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Red Road continues to be inspired by the dedication of Gwen Dyer, local community leader, who oversees this project.  Under her leadership, Sipaulovi will host its first oasis of healing, founded upon the ancient ways of Hopi wellness.