Focusing on home, family

WINDOW ROCK, Sept. 4, 2008

They may be outnumbered almost 10-to-1, but the woman delegates on the Navajo Nation Council all know their purpose on the Navajo Nation's legislature.

As the Navajo Nation Fair celebrates, "Navajo Women - Our Strength, Our Endurance," some women lawmakers discussed what they saw as their ever-increasing role on the tribal council.

The council holds 88 delegates representing each of the Navajo Nation's 110 chapters. Of those, nine are women.

"And we need to inspire more women to run for the council," said GloJean Todacheene, a first-term delegate representing Shiprock.

Like other women on the council, Todacheene said it is their job to shift debates back to the home with an eye toward family.

"It's Diné philosophy that men and women work together," Todacheene said, "so that there's true balance."

While in the past the council might have been a men's club, several of the delegates said, they have never felt mistreated or underestimated on the council.

"Not one bit," said Katherine Benally (Dennehotso). "There is no belittling of women, they see us as truly equal to themselves."

Overall, the delegates say it has become the woman's role on the council to bring the issues home, focused on family, education and community development issues.

"We bring the issues down to the hogan level," Benally said. "I think we see everything from a mother's point of view, it's about family values."

Of course, that's not to say that their male counterparts don't bring these issues up. But they tend to be more broad-minded, Benally said, looking at the issues from a government level.

"We remind them, 'Hey, you're coming from a community, too,'" Benally said.

Harriet K. Becenti (Manuelito/Rock Springs/Tseyatoh) said she notices the men focus on industry and business growth.

However, she tries to steer debates to look at developing home life for residents in rural areas that might still lack essentials like running water and electricity.

She and Todacheene agreed that it is also equally important to further develop the economy. This would further entice younger community members to come back to the reservation after going to school, inciting a cycle of continuous development.

But first, Todacheene said, the tribal government would have to go under some major reform. She wasn't referring to reducing the membership of the council, which has been at the forefront of reform talks in recent months.

"That wouldn't change anything," she said.

Instead, the government needs an overhaul that would institute change in every branch and reduce the bureaucracy and red tape that people must go through while applying for homes or business leases.

"We need drastic changes in all types of levels," Todacheene said. "From how the departments work to how their workers treat our citizens."

Overall, most the woman delegates said gender was almost never an issue.

However, Hope MacDonald-LoneTree (Coalmine Canyon/Toh Nanees Dizi) said she didn't think being a woman would matter when she first ran for office. But that changed, when she was first elected in 2002.

"When I first ran for office, I had no sense of running as a woman," MacDonald-LoneTree said. "It wasn't until I got to the council that I realized that gender did play a role, sometimes it was negative."

She was hesitant to expand but did say that there were delegates who "had views that were not complimentary of women."

However, now, even just in her second term, MacDonald-LoneTree said she has already seen much change.

Reflecting on her colleagues' observations, MacDonald-LoneTree, who has worked on the Public Safety Committee for six years, said she'd like to see the council address more family issues. Particularly youth issues, the overall livelihood of children.

"We have a high rate of youth suicide, drug abuse and the aftereffects of dysfunctional families," she said. "I'd like to take that deeper and look at the needs of our Navajo children."