Lovejoy candidacy prompts review of role of Diné women

The general election is two months away and the Navajo Nation is closer than ever to electing its first female president.

However, some Navajos are using traditional teachings as a way to oppose Lynda Lovejoy.

No one so far is willing to be the public face of this view, but in casual conversation and on the Internet, it is there.

Among the reasons to oppose Lovejoy is that Navajo custom limits the role of women in traditional ceremonies. Other objections are tied to the traditional role of women in Diné life.

Yet other Lovejoy skeptics point to the foul weather that occurred on the day of the primary election, when Navajo voters narrowed the presidential field to two candidates. Intense monsoon storms brought floods in several areas and a tornado touched down near Many Farms, Ariz. Three people on the reservation died from storm-related causes that week, two by lightning strikes.

Taken together, these elements have prompted some people to say Lovejoy's election would be a bad omen for the Navajo people, despite the tribe's matrilineal heritage.

Anthony Lee, president of the Diné Hataali Association, said his association is not endorsing a candidate for Navajo Nation president because its members are devoted to healing people and making an endorsement could work against that.

However, he noted that women leaders have long been a part of Navajo oral tradition.

"It's inherent in the (Navajo) stories and songs. I don't know why we would argue over a woman president," Lee said.

He added that women are so entwined in Diné fundamental beliefs that a leader's gender shouldn't be an issue.

Lovejoy said she consulted medicine people before her first run for the Navajo presidency four years ago and reached the same conclusion.

"Our identity is first with our mother, so almost everything that we do in life, fundamentally and traditionally, it begins with the mother," she said.

Philmer Bluehouse, an advisor for the Diné Hataali Association, said women have always been a vital part of traditional teachings and that a woman president would fit within the scope of Navajo oral tradition.

"The original law," he noted," was basically for healing."

Bluehouse said men and women have specific roles within society but no story or song explicitly states that a woman can't be the primary Navajo leader.

Nevertheless, there is debate among the healers themselves about the point. Bluehouse said that at a recent meeting of three medicine men associations, some medicine men agreed that the Navajo Nation shouldn't have a woman president - a position that he likened to eliminating women from prayers and songs.

"Should I eliminate them from all my prayers?" he asked.

Lynette Willie, 43, who ran in the Aug. 3 primary to represent the new Navajo Nation Council district made up of Oljato, Navajo Mountain, Shonto and Ts'ah bii Kin chapters, said being female definitely worked against her.

She placed last among the council candidates in her district, which has a largely traditional base. The reason people did not vote for her had to do with the sanctity of Navajo womanhood, Willie said.

"It's not that (they) hate women or don't value them. It's coming back to the mindset that women are sacred," she said.

Putting a woman in a position of harm could hurt a family in ways that go beyond the physical realm of life, Willie said.

"(Traditional Navajo) people never want a woman to be criticized," she said, adding that ceremonies could be done to protect a woman leader from harm in that case.

Lee ascribed some of the resistance to a female president to Western acculturation. Politics was a strictly male preserve in the U.S. until the last few decades, and only recently have women been admitted to the highest offices of government, elective or appointed.

"It's more of the contemporary (Navajo) people that speculate (about a woman's fitness to lead). This (Western influence) could be a primary cause," he said.

Bluehouse agreed and added that Navajo leaders have absorbed the Western taste for money and power, which adds to the disharmony undermining Navajo government. A traditional government, he noted, would be founded on healing.

Bluehouse sees distinct leadership differences between a man and a woman, and believes the woman's contribution could be beneficial.

"A woman is nurturing," he said, adding that women aren't as ambitious as men.

Lovejoy said she sees herself as a more inclusive leader, and attributes this to having a female perspective.

"Everyone has a different leadership style," she said. "Women are more detailed, more cautious and they are more, in some ways, more aware of issues, how it needs to be approached."

She added that in her political experience she has worked with many men and understands their way of leading.

"There's not a whole lot of differences. Women are more inclusive. Women's approach is more from a family point of view," Lovejoy said.

As to the significance of the extreme weather battering Dinétah on the day of the primary, both Willie and Lee disagreed that it was an omen for Navajo voters.

"From what I understand, those things happen when things are not in harmony," Willie said. "Those things would happen when we're not in the beauty way of life."

Lee agreed, adding that people who conclude the weather was a warning about female political leaders haven't considered all of the traditional teachings.

Their skepticism "comes as a result of not being grounded," he said, adding that certain ceremonies can explain events like a flood or tornado, but that the interpretation applies on an individual basis, not at an organizational level.

Lovejoy, meanwhile, is hoping voters will stick to the facts.

"I respect the elders of the people, but let's deal with facts," she said. "How enormous was the tornado? How many people died? How many homes were destroyed? What does this have to do with me? That is where, factually, do I have any involvement in Mother Nature and the rain that night?"

"Let's deal with facts," she said.

Back to top ^

Text size: A A A  E-mail this story