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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Reverend Lars Clausen

Aired August 18, 2002 - 11:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A cross-country trip by car is long enough. But imagine traveling 5,000 miles on a unicycle. Well, unicyclist and Reverend Lars Clausen did just that, on his "one wheel, many spokes" tour. Would you do this? He started in Washington state and ended up at the Statue of Liberty. That clever little map right there. Pastor Clausen's unicycle trip raised money for the Inupiat Eskimos of the Seward Peninsula of Alaska, and Lutheran Pastor Lars Clausen joins us live from Washington now to talk about his adventure. Washington, D.C., of course. You wouldn't turn around and make that trip again without having explained all of this to us. Thanks for joining us.
REV. LARS CLAUSEN, LUTHERAN MINISTER: Thank you very much, good morning.

WHITFIELD: Well, good morning. So what was it about the plight of these Eskimos that made you want to make this journey all across the country in order to spread the word?

CLAUSEN: Well, I served my first call as a pastor there in Nome, Alaska, from '93 until the end of '96. And people there, they live with a 12,000-year-old culture. And when we arrived, they embraced us and welcomed us and allowed us to experience what their life is like. And so for us, this is a bit of a way of saying thank you to some people who have treated us just most kindly. And the endowment that we're raising money for will help them to tie together this incredible culture that they have together with this modern world of CNN and different things like that.

WHITFIELD: And you felt like it was important to try and educate people about the preservation of this 12,000-year-old culture. And along the way, you've also collected money. How will you help use that money to help preserve this culture? In what way?

CLAUSEN: Well, the wonderful thing about this endowment is it gives complete freedom and responsibility to the people on the Seward Peninsula to make those decisions about how they want to tie these pieces together. They have had a Lutheran tradition for 108 years, this outside world that many of us are from has been there for about 200 years. And anybody that knows about native traditions in our land knows that there is kind of a tension in how those fit together. This gives people who have lived the history resources to make those decisions. So they'll make the choices about what they want to do.

WHITFIELD: And along the way in this journey, you've helped to educate people in so many different ways. Particularly, we have some pictures of some young kids that I guess by default you ended up recruiting on part of your journey, some elementary school kids out of Washington state who kind of decided to get on their unicycles as well, and follow your lead. What was that like, to know that you're getting this kind of support that really kind of crosses all generations?

CLAUSEN: Exactly. You know, I saw that clip playing before we started this interview. And that just made my day again to see that. That's Sultan Elementary School in Sultan, Washington, and that was like the first week of the trip. They closed down the highway as we came into town. The police escorted my riding partner, Robert Martin (ph) and I into town, and these 62 unicyclists were there waiting for us. And the piece we're seeing is that parade to their elementary school.

WHITFIELD: And I guess I've overlooked the most simple question of all -- why a unicycle? Why did you decide to make this kind of journey?

CLAUSEN: Well, I started unicycling when I was 10 years old, and I have been unicycling ever since. And 15 years ago, I bicycled across the country, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. My wife and I, we honeymooned on a bicycle. And so the unicycle seemed like a natural thing to do this time.

WHITFIELD: And what is it about the crowd's response that you hope kind of verifies or kind or kind of underscores the importance of you having made this journey for the Inupiat Eskimos?

CLAUSEN: I think people are thankful to know that there are still native, traditional cultures in our world that are thriving, even though they're at the margins of society. And I think that people -- a lot of people come to realize, or already understand that this is a treasure. You know, if these cultures go away, they're gone. Neither you nor I can replace those. We don't have the experience of living in the Arctic with traditions going back 12,000 years. So it's a great gift and a treasure to the rest of the world, and it's something that I think people have been responding to well with their interest.

WHITFIELD: So, Reverend, how are you going to get home?

CLAUSEN: I'm going to unicycle back. I've had such a great time. We're turning around, and heading to the Pacific.

WHITFIELD: You're kidding? Oh, my gosh! And so how long is this going to take you altogether?

CLAUSEN: I'd like to celebrate Christmas back in my hometown of Los Angeles.

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right, congratulations on having made the journey, then. I guess you're at the halfway point. I thought you were done with your journey, but congratulations on that, and best wishes and good luck on your journey back home.

CLAUSEN: Thank you very much, and it's great to be able to let people know that we made it across.

WHITFIELD: All right, Reverend Clausen, thank you very much, appreciate it.

CLAUSEN: Yeah, thank you.

WHITFIELD: Good luck to you.

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