2 JULY 15, 2007
Veterans' Pow-wow Pullout Smoke Signals
For Lowe Airadl CouMry
Tribal Elder and Vietnam Veteran Steve Rife makes the Trail of Tears walk.
By Ron Karten
When Tribal Elder and Vietnam
Veteran Steve Rife lost his wife,
Margie, to lung cancer last Sep
tember, he was already planning
to walk the 265-mile Trail of Tears
in her memory.
"I had been planning to do this
for her, and for cancer awareness,
and especially for veterans exposed
to Agent Orange (in the Vietnam
War)."
Both Rife and his wife were diag-
a.m. on the Saturday morning of
June 23rd. He was accompanied
by Springfield friend Mike Roberts,
who drove the Rife motor home to
provide sleeping accommodations.
But by the time they hit Eugene,
at the rate of about 20 miles a day,
Roberts got a job offer.
"I couldn't stop him from taking
a job," said Rife, so Rife's brother,
Ron, also a Vietnam Vet, took over
at the wheel of the motor home,
and drove it the rest of the way to
"I had been planning to do this for her,
(wife Margie) and for cancer awareness,
and especially for veterans exposed to
Agent Orange (in the Vietnam War). "
Steve Rife,
Tribal Elder, Vietnam Veteran
nosed with cancer the same week.
His came from exposure to Agent
Orange in the war.
"She had lung cancer and I was
diagnosed with lymphoma. We
were both seeing the same cancer
doctor and we let her do the radia
tion and chemo, and I laid off for
awhile so I could stay healthy and
strong to take care of her."
It was not a good year for the fam
ily. His sister, Tribal Elder Marcia
Bolton, passed over in December,
and his aunt, Carol Carpenter,
passed over this last March.
He started from Big Table Rock
just outside of Medford and 10
miles from Interstate 5 about 9
Grand Ronde.
On the second day of the walk,
between Medford and Grants Pass,
he passed a rattlesnake, about three
feet away. "It was alongside the
road in the shade by the guard rail.
I stepped out away from him and
kept on going. He said goodbye real
pleasant with a shake of the tail."
Later on, he was within 15 feet of
three nice looking buck deer. "Just
on down the road from that, a flock
of turkeys were standing out there
saying, 'You're a damn fool.' I fit
right in with them."
"I had a couple of kids in a car.
They passed by me just before
Canyonville. In Canyonville, they
bought me ice
cold water, a
hair braid for
the eagle staff,
and a packet of
tobacco.
"We were abut
10 miles out of
Canyonville.
They bought
me this stuff in
Canyonville and
drove all the way
back. They took
the exit behind
me and then
came back up the
road. We said
a little prayer
and I thanked
them, and kept
on walking."
When he had
walked almost
250 miles, he
laughed and
said, "I'm hav
ing a little prob
lem with my
feet. I change .
socks twice,
three times a day."
Channel 6 in Eugene came out and
interviewed Rife on Sunday, July 1.
"They aired it on TV and misquoted
me and I was very upset with them,"
he said. "They said I wanted the
troops to come home. I do want
the troops to come home, but after
they've won. I don't want it to turn
into another Vietnam."
All along, through traffic and four
days of the big heat wave, he stayed
on or ahead of schedule to walk in
at Grand Entry on Saturday, July
7th at noon.
In 2002, Tribal Elder Steve Bobb
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6
Tribal Elder and Vietnam Veteran
Steve Rife at this year's Veterans' Pow-wow.
and Tribal member Brent Merrill,
made the walk. "I think what Steve
did was a great thing in honoring
his family," said Merrill. "It's not
an easy journey, even in the mod
ern day." .
- To me, I'm trying to heal because
my wife was the love of my life,"
said Rife. "We didn't have that long
together. She was taken from me
too soon."
Asked how he was doing at the
start of the trip, and again a few
weeks later when he was north of
Eugene, he replied the same: "One
step at a time." D