I first met Corbin Harney when he was in his late seventies while I was a callow youth just past retirement age. At that time I was engaged in another of my life-long public protests against the use and deployment of atomic energy and the attendant havoc it has wrought on humankind. He was the spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone Indian Nation and a healer, sharing his gift at Poo-Ha-Bah, a Native American healing center in Tecopa, California, north of Death Valley. We met during a Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) Holy Week march -- from Las Vegas to the Nevada Test Site (NTS), 60 miles north of the city -- culminating in a Stations of the Cross ceremony at the main gate of the facility.

For his part, Corbin led us through a tunnel to a hole rent in the fence surrounding the facility. We infiltrated the test site grounds and participated in a Native American sunrise ceremony as we danced the sun up over the horizon. At that point it became clear to me that Corbin saw the material plane not just as bits of matter obeying blindly the laws of Newtonian physics, but as individual manifestations of the spirit that enlivens us all.

As I was to learn later, Corbin's healing techniques, too, depended not on the treatment of symptoms, but on bringing the patient into focus with the spiritual light from which it manifested. He was not just a repository of traditional Native American lore, but a practitioner who made its techniques current in our modern age.

Corbin Harney was born March 20, 1920, in Bruno, Idaho. Even as a youth, riding his horse alone in the mountains of southern Idaho and northern Nevada, all of nature was his loving companion, not a beast to be brought to heel. As he grew in the knowledge of ancient lore of his people, the Newe Sogobia (Western Shoshone), he also acquired the wisdom to apply it to the current situation. Corbin said "One Sun, one Sky, one Water, one Mother Earth" to describe the entire ecosystem as an interdependent whole. He accepted his role as a steward of the earth, preserving it for his children and their children "unto the seventh generation."

He may have been content to live out his life as a respected and beloved spiritual leader of his people. But then the U.S. government usurped land that rightfully belonged to Newe Sogobia under the Treaty of Ruby Valley (which has never been abrogated) to build the Nevada Test Site to develop horrible weapons of mass destruction -- setting off blasts in the air and under the earth, poisoning the environment for ages to come.

Corbin did not sit idly by as this raping of his beloved Mother Earth continued; he set about developing an international organization, the Shundahai Network, to bring an end to nuclear proliferation. He organized protests at NTS that attracted thousands of people from all over the world.

As an international traveler from Washington, DC to the U.N., in Europe, Russia, and Japan, Corbin used his people's songs and legends to describe the attendant evil that accompanied the conversion of matter into energy. He abhorred the disappearance of species; of fresh, pure water to drink; of unpolluted air to breathe; and of the willful genocide of innocent indigenous to extract the earth's energy resources. His method? To reawaken people's vision of the pervasive spirit that animates us all: we are all interconnected parts of the same whole. What affects one, affects us all.

Despite his growing international reputation, Corbin never forgot his roots as a healer. In the 1980s, he founded Poo-Ha-Bah (meaning Doctor Water), where healing is based on traditional Native American methods, incorporating the natural hot springs and hot volcanic mud that abound in the area. As a measure of the man's character, he accepted his talent as a gift of the Great Spirit and provided his services free to those who suffered and sought relief, regardless of race or creed.

To the end of his days Corbin lived a simple life, unadorned with riches. He built Poo-Ha-Bah entirely with donated and/or salvaged materials utilizing volunteer labor from all over the world. I was honored to be one of those who gave their time and effort to an institution that existed entirely beyond the realm of profit and loss, that freely gave to whomever in need, that exemplified the notion "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

Such a man was Corbin that he attracted individuals whose selfless devotion to a cause made them willing servants to his ideal. Such people became militant in pursuit of their goals. And we had militants! Militant nonviolent pacifists, vegans, socialists, ecologists, anarchists -- the whole spectrum of folks opposed to the enrichment of the few to the impoverishment of the rest.

As with all groups, conflicts naturally arise. Corbin's way of handling internecine struggle: whenever someone came up for criticism, he found something good to say about the individual in question. I think that's why he was such an effective healer. By seeing the good in everyone, Corbin created a harmonious atmosphere in which healing could take place.

His Spirit Remains a Driving Force

Among his many honors, Corbin was the recipient of the 2003 Nuclear Free Future Award. But he didn't rest on his laurels. In his last year, he led the struggle that resulted in the cancellation of Divine Strake, a planned detonation of 750 tons of explosives to simulate an atomic bunker buster that would have spread radioactive dust from the NTS into the atmosphere, once again putting downwinders at risk.

He died on July 10, 2007. In my view, a great man walked among us whose memory is an inspiration for the ongoing struggle to protect our Mother Earth.

Acknowledgements:
Gratitude to--
Chelsea Collonge of Nevada Desert Experience and Shundahai Network, for collaborating with Llwyd Watson on this story
and to Shundahai Network and Nevada Desert Experience for the pictures.