‘This is Native land’: Diné park rangers are protectors of Bidáá Ha’azt’i

Posted by Kianna Joe | Oct 5, 2023 | Community |

PHOENIX – Two Diné park rangers became the eyes and ears of the canyon and strive to preserve the canyon.

Navajo Times | Kianna Joe
At the Yavapai Observation area, tourists take advantage of the shade to see the contrasts of colors in the Grand Canyon.

On the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (Bidáá Ha’azt’i), Kelkiyana Yazzie, the acting deputy tribal program manager, wants to ensure the Indigenous people of the Grand Canyon are seen and heard through education.

Yazzie is from Shonto, Arizona. She is Bit’ahnii and born for Lók’aa Dine’é. Her maternal grandfather is Bilagáana, and her paternal grandfather is Tábąąhá.

Yazzie has been an interpretive park ranger for the past two years but has years of experience in the National Park Service.

Navajo Times | Kianna Joe
Kelli Jones, a Diné park ranger for the Grand Canyon, began working for the Grand Canyon three years ago and strongly supports the associated tribes of the canyon’s voices who she has seen been left out.

In 2016, she became an interpretive park ranger at the Navajo National Monument, leading tours to the cliff dwellings.

Long before Yazzie was born, her great grandfather, Hubert Laughter, was one of the first Diné park rangers at Navajo National Monument in the 1950s. Becoming a park ranger is a sentimental journey.

On top of being a park ranger, Yazzie said Laughter was a medicine man and a Navajo Nation Police officer.

According to the park service, the Navajo National Monument was created in 1909 to protect the remains of three Puebloan ruins – Kits’iilí, Bitát’ahkin, and Ts’ahbiikin.

“From 1909 to the 1950s, it was nothing but euro-American male park rangers, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that they had local representation there,” said Yazzie.

Read the full story in the Oct. 5 edition of the Navajo Times.