Letters: Join us for Indigenous People’s Day

On Monday, Oct. 8, the annual “Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day” event will take place from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Gallup Cultural Center, located at 201 East Highway 66.

This marks the 14th year in Gallup that I have been organizing this particular event while I have joined other nations and organizations across America during my travels since 1992, when Congress, by Public Law 102-188, designated it as the “Year of the American Indian.”

“Indigenous Peoples Day” actually began in July 1990 when representatives from 120 Indian nations from every part of the Americas met in Quito, Ecuador, in the First Continental Conference (Encuentro) along with many human rights, peace, social justice, and environmental organizations to recognize 500 years of Native resistance against the continued colonization of our original homelands.

It was also in preparation for the 500th anniversary of Native resistance to the European invasion of the Americas from 1492 to 1992. The Encuentro saw itself as fulfilling a prophecy that the Native nations would rise again “when the eagle of the north joined with the condor of the south.”

In the face of the deaths of millions of indigenous peoples through the rampant slaughter of innocents, war, famine, forced relocations, poverty, and disease, there has been the celebration of life and the Native civilizations that promote the ideals of self-governance and tireless determination that are the framework of our nations.

In the ensuing years, “Native Americans” have provided important contributions to American society that include agriculture, medicine, art, infrastructure, music, and the basis for the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights appropriated from the Six Iroquois Confederated Nations — Haudenosaunee (“People of the Longhouse”) – by Benjamin Franklin who was befriended by them.

And then there was the contributions of the Navajo Code Talkers, who in World War II not only sacrificed their lives in service of the United States, but used our language as a secret code that could not be broken by the Japanese and helped end the war with their surrender.

Here in Gallup, it is very fitting that this be recognized even as much as the city touts itself as the “Indian Capital of the World.” The many contributions that Navajo individuals made can be seen everywhere from the exquisite artwork and murals to the land base that once was Navajo territory before the founding of the city as the gateway to the “Wild West.”

With more that can be added, suffice it to mention that the city of Gallup passed a 2017 resolution (R2016-40) declaring the second Monday of October as “Indigenous Peoples Day” into perpetuity. McKinley County also approved a resolution/proclamation (No. OCT-17-085) designating the second Monday in October of each year as “Indigenous Peoples Day.”

You are invited to join us on Oct. 8 as we celebrate “Indigenous Peoples Day” from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Gallup Cultural Center, located at 201 East Highway 66. Bring your signs, banners, and prayers.

Mervyn Tilden
Gallup, N.M.

I am totally embarrassed

I am totally embarrassed (“Doo bigha da” = not good).

Thank you for featuring my proposal to the Dineh Nation Council on behalf of Hosteen and Mrs. Kenji Kawano (“ A proposal for Mr. and Mrs. Kawano,” Sept. 20, 2018).

I am embarrassed because I did not get the correct dates for my first meeting with Hosteen Kenji and the summer I was on the campaign trail for the Dineh Nation presidency. The corrected dates should be late 1980s and 1990.

I am a history major and dates are cast in stones and that is why I am embarrassed beyond belief — just as a redneck should be by trying to pass as a “real Skin.”

Kindly consider my observations of the Ahasteen cartoon about the “2018 Election Circus” in the same issue. Why is Anglo listed right under Navajo at the top and Mexican at the bottom of the scale?

I speak now as a molecular biologist: Full-blooded Anglos have 0 percent of their total DNA complement as Native American genes, whereas Mexicans have 50.002 percent of their total DNA complement as a result of the 30 genes on their mitochondria DNA as Native American genes.

Why? Mexicans are mestizo (mixed blood), meaning they have the following as original ancestors: Spanish (Anglo) male and Native American female.
Why? The female egg is endowed at conception with cytoplasm in which are located 30 genes situated on mitochondrial-DNA — in addition to the chromosomes residing in the nucleus of a single egg gamete.

Fathers, on the other hand, contribute only 49.998 percent of total DNA on the basis of the chromosomes located in the nucleus of a single sperm cell.

OK, enough discussion on sex (process initiating a new generation). Remember, molecular biologists talk about life as it is — really.

Now back to the cartoon, Anglos should not even be mentioned — rednecks (“bikosi da lichii; red spot on the neck”) don’t even have Native American genes in those funny little red spots — whereas all Native American tribes should be “within an eyelash of a difference” of each other on the vertical scale as so many of members of the eastern tribes and Mexicans have intermarried with Anglos for the past 600 years.

Tacheeni Scott
Flagstaff, Ariz.

Lost resources means lost revenue

When I worked in the oil and gas fields, I learned how important the energy industry is to our local Navajo Nation and national economy. It sustains jobs to support many households and helps bring in Navajo Nation revenue.

But my work in the oil and gas fields also exposed to me the constant flaring and pollution happening on a daily basis.

I certainly know that the oil and gas industry has the ability to reduce this waste, and that this lost product means less benefits of American energy for communities like ours that need it.

As a member of the Navajo Nation I’m especially concerned to know that these flares mean oil companies operating on our lands are not using common sense practices to conserve our Navajo Nation resources.

That’s why I was especially disappointed when Secretary of the Interior Zinke this month finalized rules that continue to allow this unnecessary waste of energy owned by tribes and American taxpayers. This loss of natural gas, which is mostly methane, means less revenue (from lost resources) for our Navajo Nation to fund our schools, roads, and more.

As Navajos we make every effort to be responsible in the use of the natural resources from Mother Earth, and it’s unfortunate that this move by Secretary Zinke means oil companies working on our lands will be able to knowingly waste valuable energy.

Methane issues are within the Greater Aneth Oil Field in Utah and Eastern Navajo Agency in New Mexico. For the past 60 years of oil and gas extraction in the Greater Aneth area, Navajo Nation revenue was lost in the billions of dollars, burnt and released into the atmosphere.

As of today, the Navajo Nation is not aware of the methane pollution situation that adversely affects community members with health complications.

Lost revenues could have been utilized towards scholarships, recreation complexes, road development, housing projects, economic development, and more.

Also some previous major oil and gas operators have left the impacted areas without cleaning up the contamination.

I hope the new, elected Navajo Nation leaders will do something to make sure this methane loss can be captured and controlled through the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and Minerals Department.

Sam Dee
Montezuma Creek, Utah

Endless lists passed on to next generation

A multimillion-dollar budget, $767 million, according to the Navajo Times (Sept. 23, 2018, “Council OK’s last budget; tries to safeguard funds”), was once again adopted by the Navajo Nation Council with, “…$33 million going to the chapters.”

Although critical priority health and human services may have been funded, this huge budget cannot obscure the fact that much of our population continues to seek greater economic/job opportunities or if employed having found a small victory in making ends meet.

Enough has been said about the entrenched endless list – the unacceptable high unemployment rate, road conditions, infrastructure, issues with housing, education, the need for a self-sufficient Navajo Nation economic plan/development, Navajo Nation banking/impact investment system, health care, on and on.

Questions as to what has been accomplished with the preceding year expenditure budget should be of the highest priority yet accountability for the funds expended seems to be an elusive topic for many in far too many organizations.

The intent here is not to point fingers but to shed light on the elusive question as to what has been accomplished with the multimillion-dollar budget adopted each year by the Navajo Nation Council and other organizations in our communities.

Historically, we’ve always had a governmental entity with a bureaucracy in place, only now we see a huge bureaucracy with the Navajo Nation budget as reported reaching $767 million with some $33 million going to the chapters.

Yet, as we look around our communities, the compelling ground-level question on the endless list seems to remain well hidden. It is long past time to turn living room conversations to results-driven budget, the outcomes from the expenditure of scarce funds, public funds or otherwise.

The one blatant message from all this would appear to be that the current process of budget allocation and expenditure should not be allowed to continue to fund and support the existing economic distress index, the endless list.

While there are always enough pointing fingers to go around, this convenient bureaucratic and/or political answer gets in the way of the hard, hard work needed to address and solve the staggering sociodemographic issues and challenges. Maybe we should look deeper for meaning in the adage, “…show me your budget and I’ll show you your values.”

It is a given that the U.S. runs a combined highly competitive-high poverty economy, but it just seems Native peoples should not have to tolerate nor condone having to take the brunt of the alarming increase in race-based socioeconomic inequality.

Clearly, with the multimillion-dollar budget process as is, our children and grandchildren are destined to repeat the cycle of the nation’s most persistent disenfranchised sociocultural language group in America.

In the interest of our current and future generations, I’m certain many are asking when do we demand demonstrable-results budget allocation and accountability for the expenditures of scarce funds? When do we strengthen public policy to abate deep economic disadvantage and not have to pass the endless list to the next generation?

Harold G. Begay
To’Nanees’ Dizi, Ariz.

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