SEAL BEACH : Tribal Runners Plan Ceremony Saturday

A group of runners who set out in May from Alaska will stop Saturday in Orange County during a journey to Mexico.

Peace and Dignity Journeys 1992, whose runners will converge on Mexico City on Columbus Day, was organized by native tribes throughout the hemisphere. A public ceremony blessing the runners will start at 9 a.m. at Eisenhower Park, with performances by Aztec dancers, American Indian drummers and Inca musicians.

A core group of 15 runners has continued from the run’s beginning in Alaska and has been joined along the way by other runners from each community the group visits, said Orange County run coordinator Mario Voce. Another group of runners set out from Argentina in May.

Local organizers said that up to 100 people have indicated that they would join in the Orange County run and that more are encouraged to participate.

“Running is spiritual for many of the indigenous people, and people who are running now who are not of native backgrounds say they get a spirituality from it,” said Reva Olson, another Orange County coordinator.

The idea for the run started as an alternative to this year’s Columbus Day activities, which will mark the 500th anniversary of the European discovery of the Western hemisphere and which many indigenous peoples have decried as outright disregard of their presence.

Community celebrations along the way have been planned as educational as well as spiritual events, Olson said.

“The whole thing is for awareness and education,” she said. “It’s much more than a run.”

Organizers also plan to plant a native tree within Seal Beach to commemorate the event.

The runners will continue south to Laguna Beach on Saturday and then on to Oceanside and eventually into Mexico, where they will meet a contingent of runners traveling north from South and Central America.

They will converge at the pyramids of Teotihuacan, north of Mexico City, on Oct. 12.

The public is invited to the Saturday ceremonies at Eisenhower Park, at the head of the Municipal Pier at Main Street and Ocean Avenue.