Letters: ‘Hozho is living the loving way’
I worked for the Navajo Nation government from 1971 to 2001 and would like to speak to some major issues.
One is education.
A society that does not control its education does not control its destiny. Navajo education is controlled by the federal government and churches who have intentionally destroyed Navajo language and culture.
Language is the doorway to culture. The purpose of western education was to replace Navajo thinking with a white mind. Thinking is powerful and influences one’s whole life. Navajo people forgot we are holy people and now believe they are “sinners”, which destroys spiritual identity.
Two, economic development is set up to fail.
Money is simply creative ideas, labor and assets we own. For example, women make rugs from the wool from the sheep they own and use their hands to weave creative designs. They sell it to get money. Men do the same with jewelry.
Selling their products off-reservation is not “economic development”. It is cheap labor for someone else to get rich from Navajo creativity. Job creation is economic development, but the jobs are in production and manufacturing and the Navajo Nation exports these jobs.
Three, every business on the reservation could be 100 percent Navajo owned by turning the dollar around three or four times before it leaves the reservation. Yet, when the people get paid, they rush to Gallup and other border towns.
Four, a long-term issue is that the BIA divided the reservation into 26 grazing districts when we are not livestock.
More practical, the IHS divided the reservation into eight service units, which is for people and this makes more sense. Chapters were created for a town house meeting concept for the BIA Area directives were established to tell the Navajo people what to do. Chapters were not intended to be self-sufficient government units because of this purpose and they are too small.
Five, government reform has not worked because it is amending an illegal government and the amendment becomes illegal.
Instead, replace the governing structure with Navajo thinking originating in hozho and k’e from the chapter level and instituting Navajo language and culture through the general election, not in a special election. A “constitution” is not the answer because that is like the U.S. taking their constitution to the King of England to sign it.
White mind conditioning is for greed and control through the Western education system. Church doctrines made “sin” an industry by using fear for survival.
We came from love, are made of love and are on Mother Earth to love creator, each other and ourselves to return to the love. We are the holy people because we were created perfect. We are already saved and we are responsible for our own lives.
Hozho is living the loving way as a way of life.
Ralph Davis
Native American Embassy
Albuquerque, N.M.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow