Nome Cult Walk begins in Chico, honoring Maidu ancestors’ 1863 march to Covelo

Dozens of Native Americans gathered Sunday morning in Chico to start a long and emotional walk to Covelo as part of the annual Nome Cult Walk.

The five-day, 100-mile walk commemorates a tragic moment in American history when beginning on Aug. 28, 1863, 461 Konkow (or Concow) Maidu were forcibly marched by the California State Militia from Chico to the Nome Cult Reservation in Round Valley. The walk took almost three weeks, much of it through what is now known as Mendocino National Forest.