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Sierra Club honors Yaqui animal rights activist
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Rod Coronado was in hiding, walking across the plains of South Dakota tribal land, and fearing, he said, he would be killed by the federal government. Then, his epiphany came.
Pursued for liberating minks, coyotes and lynx from scientific research cages, Coronado watched as a hawk flew above him. He realized that spirituality is at the core of what he holds dear and a sacrifice must be made.
"I was walking the prairie, and I became alive," Coronado told a gathering of the Sierra Club at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.
Coronado served four years in federal prison in Tucson for aiding and abetting arson and destruction of government property. Among his crimes was seizing for ransom a journal from the Little Big Horn, insisting that the genocide of Indian people be included in U.S. history.
"I spent four years in prison -- that was the price that had to be paid. It was so we could remember what it is to be alive," Coronado said.
Released from prison in August, the Pascua Yaqui continues his activism in a South Tucson barrio. During an evening of folk songs and organic foods beneath the night sky, Coronado was honored...