The Ohio River Walk is the third Nibi Walk led by a group of Anishinabe grandmothers who pray for the water and raise awareness about the pollution that plagues this element that is essential to life. Sharon Day, Ojibwe, is leading this walk.

"Carrying the water in a ceremonious way every day creates transformation," she said.

She and others believe that this act of ceremony will change the way people view the water in a personal way.

"When we spend time respecting and thanking the water for keeping us alive, it becomes impossible to abuse it," she said. "When we spend time praying for the water, we spend time praying for ourselves; in praying for ourselves we pray for all of our relatives."

Although my mom and my famous Auntie Pat, the strongest Ojibwe women in my life, have passed, I realized that Cleora's call was also their call to attend to an urgent matter -- the health of the Ohio River that flows less than one mile from my house. And so I was blessed to join them for a day, adding my small light to their sum of light, illuminating the desperate state of our waters and the need for action.

Like so many of us, I often choose to selectively ignore troubling facts like the health of the nibi that flows so close to my family's house. Rather than conduct ceremony here in my adopted home where the dirty Ohio flows, I return home to Wisconsin where the waterways are far more attractive.