Mohawk artist Tracy Thomas remembers a cross-country run that took over 54 days in honor of the late Jim Thorpe
A lot has happened since 1984. In the forty years since that notable year, as of 2024, Mohawk artist Tracy Thomas remembers a cross-country run that united Native nations all across Indian Country. The run was called The Jim Thorpe Longest Run.
On May 28th, 1984, The Jim Thorpe Longest Run commenced from Onondaga Nation just south of Syracuse, NY, ending 10 miles east of L.A. The run coincided with the 4th annual Native American games in which the late great Jim Thorpe was being honored.

In that same year, the Haudenosaunee National Lacrosse team (then known as the Iroquois Nationals) was petitioning their case for re-admission into the World Lacrosse Federation. In the 1890s, the team was barred from competition because the Federation did not see the team as representing a country. The team would go on to be recognized in 1988.
Dennis Banks, Ojibwe (1937-2017) helped organize the run while he was staying at Onondaga Nation while dealing with legal issues and the federal government.
The Jim Thorpe Longest Run spanned 16 states and saw various Indigenous runners from as far away as Alaska.
The run took 54 days and covered over 4,000 miles.
Recently, I had the honor of sitting down to interview one of the 27 runners who ran the entire distance, Mohawk artist Tracy Thomas.

Alex Hamer: Is the Onondaga Nation where the event started?
Tracy Thomas: It started at the Onondaga Nation fire barn, and we ran to the South end of the Rez. Which connected to Route 20 and ran (West) that way. There was a runner who went further as he carried the staff we would bring up from New York City.
Alex Hamer: What were some of the stops along the way?
Tracy Thomas: We went to Standing Rock and Pine Ridge. When we first ran, we went to Avon, NY. Stayed there and went to Cattaraugus, and then we went across Route 20 west. Then we ran to Chicago, the Twin Cities (Minneapolis), then Standing Rock and cut over. We ran to South Dakota, Wyoming, then Colorado, and then connected to Utah, Nevada, and California. So, each of the parts of the run was where other nations could meet us and run for a bit. See, they were going to host us. So in the beginning, Margo Thunderbird, our co-ordinator—she’s Shinnecock—and two others went ahead and mapped it out in a car. So they set it up so the other Nations could meet us.
Alex Hamer: It’s easy today to organize with social media and cell phones. How did you guys pull it together in 1984?
Tracy Thomas: Dennis (Banks) was already here, and he had the idea that he wanted to have this run to honor Jim Thorpe. So he started asking different people, and I had a few Lakota runners in my group. One guy was from New York City but lived on a Lakota Rez. He joined us in the beginning. The different runner groups where from different parts of the country that came to Onondaga to start. We had one guy from Arizona, 3 Cherokee from North Carolina, and I remember one guy was from Canada.
Alex Hamer: Did Dennis Banks have this idea while he was here, or was it an idea before he came to Onondaga?
Tracy Thomas: I know when he lived in California, he had runs out there. So maybe from that idea before he was here.
Alex Hamer: How many started the run with you?
Tracy Thomas: I’m going to guess this; I would say 40 in the beginning. I think once we got going, we had more. From the original group of 40, 27 made it all the way across, through 16 states and 54 days. So, in between that, different runners ran with us as far as they could go. Some joined us in South Dakota and made it to the end.

Alex Hamer: Did you wear the same sneakers the entire time?
Tracy Thomas: I had two sets of sneakers; I ran cross country in high school. When Dennis asked me about it, I said, “I ain’t ran since high school. I’m 26 now. But I’ve been out west before, and it would be nice to go back and look around”. I started practicing by running around the Rez a little bit. Dennis had a group of young people, runners here called the Cross Country Eagles. They were going to join us later in Nevada. So I think there were about 14 of them; they joined after school let out in June, I think.
Alex Hamer: Where were you greeted when you arrived?
Tracy Thomas: When we got to California, we were met by 8 Indian teams who were going to do the 500-mile marathon to L.A., plus us. So, we had been running for over a month and a half, and I don’t want to say competition, but there was some friendly competition. On the way, though, we ran through the rain, heat in the Mojave desert, Rez roads and paved streets; no snow, but we would have run through it.
Alex Hamer: Did you have to fend off Rez dogs?
Tracy Thomas: No! That was a surprise, especially in Onondaga. (Tracy let out a hardy laugh and continued). We had to run through Chicago; we were on the interstate, but we had a police escort. We ran around that loop by Lake Michigan to the Indian center in North Chicago, where we were going to rest. When we were running, it was like a relay because we had that staff we would pass, and it had medicine on it. So, if you had 25 miles to run, you could take the staff and run 4 miles of the 25 for the day. That’s how we did it all the way across. I think it was new to a lot of us. I had never done anything like that before, and I had run across the country.
Alex Hamer: I don’t think many people have had that experience of running across the country.
Tracy Thomas: This is where the Spiritual part comes in. That medicine on the staff—that was the goal—to get that medicine to L.A. My mindset was that this is what the ancestors did, like when we took that old route in NY. This is what the ancestors did when they ran to another village. I think the run was protected by the ancestors and the Creator—in this way, no one got hurt.
Alex Hamer: How did you get back home?
Tracy Thomas: I wasn’t going to run back home or take the damn bus. (Tracy laughs again before continuing). I got invited to Northern California to see Sundance because some of the runners were Sun Dancers. So I stayed a little longer and then flew back home.
Alex Hamer, a Oneida descendant, is a photojournalist in the Onondaga Homelands in Syracuse, NY. He has covered events at Standing Rock, Washington D.C.’s Climate March and the Women’s March. Alex has also covered local environmental issues in central New York and cultural and historical gatherings. Alex’s photographs have been shown at the Everson Museum, the Cayuga Museum of History, and the Fenimore Museum. When not photographing events or people, Alex enjoys spending time with his family and tending to his garden.
Website alexhamerphoto.com
Instagram alexhamerphoto