Letters: Miss Navajo article minimized concerns

As a former Miss Navajo Nation titleholder, I write with grave concern and utmost urgency in regards to the Navajo Times editorial, “Miss Navajo contestants complain of mistreatment,” from Nov. 23.

To start, the title of the article minimizes the actual matter in question – the systematic degradation of positive self-image of Navajo women due to poor leadership in the Office of Miss Navajo Nation – and diminishes the impact of the experiences of each woman to mere acts of complaining. The manner in which the title frames the accounts thereby subjects the pageant contestants to automatic scrutiny and disregard given the word “complain” specifically.

Having an opportunity to meet and speak with six of the nine women as well as the most recent former Miss Navajo Nation, Alyson Shirley, I can attest that these young women are neither complainers who were too sensitive nor opportunists vying for attention. The treatment they so unfortunately endured during the competition week – and perhaps much longer for Ms. Shirley – revealed a truth of appalling discrimination endured by young women behind the walls of the Office of Miss Navajo Nation. The truth bravely expressed by these women – our daughters, sisters, and granddaughters – was simply diminished by the overall nature of the article.

In addition, the photograph used with the article is highly inappropriate as it depicts pageant contestants of the wrong year. The Navajo Times must understand that Miss Navajo Nation photographs cannot be used interchangeably simply because they depict a “Miss Navajo.” The photograph, which is from the unveiling event of the new crown in September 2015, was of a positive memory that has been exploited by the article contents.

The most consistent concern revealed by the six young women that was overlooked in the article was the verbal abuse used by the Office of Miss Navajo Nation staff in regards to the appearance of the young women. This one act alone seemingly conveys that the attitude of staff in the office to view the pageant as a simple beauty competition – something that the Miss Navajo Nation has been distanced from as it is widely known to be a competition focusing first and foremost on the leadership skills and cultural knowledge of our young Navajo women. There is one question that must be asked: Why is this type of treatment of young Navajo women normalized? With the highest rates across the Unites States of sexual, emotional, and verbal abuse, Navajo women as Native woman are expected to accept such treatment and then be persecuted for speaking the truth.

As all nine young women entered the competition for the prestigious title, each surely arrived with high hopes and a dream to become a proud leader for the Navajo Nation. This is the manner in which all young women should move through their lives. However, after the last scheduled event of the 2016 Miss Navajo Nation Pageant, the young ladies left with heavy hearts and a distorted view of their dream. Each of the six young women I spoke to left with prominent memories of embarrassment and humiliation.

As a former titleholder, I have paramount reservations regarding the treatment of these young women as well as the way in which the Office of Miss Navajo Nation is being cared for by current staff. I reaffirm that the intent of the article should have been an opportunity to move the Office of Miss Navajo Nation and the pageant in a positive direction. The stories of these young women are accounts of abuse that should have resolution and necessitate apology.

As a matter of truthful reporting, I respectfully urge the Navajo Times to publish a new editorial that addresses any inaccuracies and accurately reflects the experiences of these young women.

McKeon K. Dempsey
Window Rock, Ariz.

We need legal action against energy companies

A number of us Navajos from the rez are pleased and proud that the Navajo Nation is asking President Obama to intervene at Standing Rock on behalf of the Sioux Nation against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

We don’t know the specifics of the intervention being requested of Obama, but our humble recommendation is that President Obama urge the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior to consort and collaborate with the U.S. attorney general to immediately initiate and relentlessly pursue legal action in the highest of the U.S. Supreme Court against all entities doing or intending to do earth-disturbing, environmentally-damaging consequences; to have specific impact studies negotiated and agreed to with all groups to be impacted before they are permitted to continue development in all of America.

This plea is pursuant to the peace, tranquility, and happiness guaranties of the U.S. Constitution as taught in federal boarding schools and other learning institutions in America. Our plea is also in “piggyback” of the Sioux Nation’s current relentless efforts to stop oppression by greedy, shortsighted owners and sponsors of energy companies.

Thank you kindly for printing our humble request.

Dan Vicenti
Crownpoint, N.M.

Tribal officials always judged lightly

There is somewhat of a social understanding that tribal officials (council delegates and chapter officials) are typically judged less harshly than average citizens when it comes to breaking the law, just getting slapped on the wrist for those crimes with partial payback and limited or no jail time.

The level of inconsistency between sentencing for elected tribal officials and average citizens is a major concern. The main reason that Diné laws and punishments for violating laws are written down is so that consistency can be maintained.

To be clear, there is the chance that elected tribal officials are not always guilty of the crimes they have been charged with. However, it does seem their former roles and social status has a direct impact on the degree to which Navajo judges apply laws to them.

At the present time, there is not a more prevalent example than that of the Council delegates who were sentenced, but the fines and punishments are not what they should be. Most, if not all, have been given light sentences, and a fine that is far less than the crime they committed.

The legal system of the Diné Nation needs to hold former elected leaders to the same standards to which it holds the rest of us. That standard must include the same degree of punishment, or higher.

It makes you wonder if their prior status and previous relationship with Navajo judges is a significant factor for receiving light sentences and sometimes out of trouble entirely.

Meanwhile, common citizens who have committed lesser crimes spend years in jail. In some cases, these average citizens are released years after their sentencing when the case is reviewed or new evidence is discovered.

Maybe it is time that elected tribal leaders be judged more harshly than we would expect to be judged ourselves, because, after all, they are given a special status and the fact that they were elected to protect Navajo people and the Diné Nation.

The principle of the jail system is behavioral modification. If our legal system truly believes that their jail system works, why should it not sentence former leaders to a stricter standard because they have a very special privilege status, which they take for granted and abuse?

If we are going to stop elected leaders from taking advantage and abusing the system, then the measure of justice for each of them should be more stringent than given to the average Navajo citizen.

Wallace Hanley
Window Rock, Ariz.

Words of advice to Shiprock Chapter president

An editorial from the Farmington Daily Times dated Nov. 13, 2016, prompts me to state my views. The candidates for Shiprock Chapter president all had their bids and votes for a new term, now the community knows who will serve them for the next four years.

It is unfortunate that numerous community projects slated by the outgoing president did not get done or even started. The 100 projects posted at Shiprock Chapter House by the former administration were great to see, but how many did get completed?

It seems there were about 8 or 10 picnic tables scattered here and there, but not really anything else. There are many projects that could have been worked on such as improvements at the cemetery, making fences, and fixing the grounds.

The Shiprock Senior Citizen Center has been closed the whole year, forcing people to go to Hogback or Farmington. It is a place that could have served many senior citizens, providing room for various activities, and for meetings, and greeting family and friends.

Other projects that could have benefitted the community were skate parks, basketball courts, and playgrounds for youth of all ages, giving them opportunities to enjoy physical activities.

About serving the community of Shiprock, a trailer park could provide spaces for many mobile homes, but with none available people are forced to relocate to border towns. This takes business out of Shiprock and into other off-reservation locations, and this brings up the absence of any new business establishments.

Continuing to other possible project completions that the Shiprock Chapter president could have accomplished reaches into roadwork. Road conditions on the Bluff Road (NR542) and neighborhood access roads at the Indian Village are no better than they were four years ago, eight years, and even 60 years ago.

What does all this point to? It seems the administration can make a list of projects, but is there any real planning and implementation?

The community of Shiprock remains stagnant. We may be known as a Native town, but anyone can be “native” when they are indigenous to their locale. Wherever people live, they are “native” to their habitations. We are the Diné people and if we are to be proud of our community, our chapter president needs to begin by serving the whole community and finish projects.

Wilford R. Joe
Shiprock, N.M.

Education on Piñon Pipeline Project urgent

The Water Protectors at Oceti Sakowin are working tirelessly to create temporary homes for the thousands of elders, families, and Water Protectors there willing to freeze rather than abandon this sacred land and our plight for our planet. They have been working tirelessly to ensure everyone’s safety but as their numbers grow, so do their needs.

This is not a “Native American” issue as millions of others down the line also depend on the clean water source they are defending with their lives regardless of the “Trust Responsibility” and Treaty rights that are threatened by Energy Transfer Partners in their haste to meet a Jan. 1, 2017 deadline of their contractors to start the flow of oil. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not grant permission for the pipeline to cross under the Missouri River, and ordered that the project undergo an environmental review.

And while the Morton County Sheriff’s Department and Dakota Access Pipeline cohorts cry foul and spew propaganda against the peaceful Water Protectors, ironically they continually spray the frontline of defense with water in sub-zero weather, shoot them point blank with rubber bullets, use stinger (concussion) grenades and massive amounts of OC pepper spray, the pain-inducing long range acoustic device, viciously beat them with fists and batons, sic attack dogs upon them, circle the camps with surveillance planes and helicopters, jam their cell phones, bar and arrest the media, shoot the Water Protectors’ drones down, block key access roads preventing medical personnel from reaching and tending to the wounded, and even attacking them while the Protectors are arrested, strip-searched, and jailed in dog kennels with their arms marked with Nazi-type numbers, their vehicles are impounded, property lost, and sacred items destroyed.

With over 100 Diné at the DAPL frontlines, it is only fitting that the Navajo Nation take a stand with the Water Protectors and call upon the Obama administration to intervene before Jan. 20, 2017, while the Navajo Nation flag, which was placed there by Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye, still stands at Oceti Sakowin.

Saturday gatherings will educate the public about the ongoing Piñon Pipeline Project in the Eastern Navajo Agency, which will destroy traditional cultural properties and sacred sites, including the historical Chaco Canyon site and directly impact wildlife, sacred sites, home-site lease areas, and water quality. There is ongoing exploratory drilling before public meetings are happening and this needs to be reversed as soon as possible. The Diné Medicine Men Association, Inc. (Diné Bi Nahaga Yeé Da’ahoota) needs to be included in the entire process as well as the local chapters of Nageezi, Lybrook, Pueblo Pintado, Whitehorse Lake, Baca-Prewitt, and Counselor chapters.

President Begaye has not attended any local meetings regarding the PPP and he needs to make it clear that what is on the surface and underneath, belongs to the Navajo people, not the corporations that intend to rob us of our natural resources and Hózho future. The Navajo Nation Council and Human Rights Commission would do well to step forward on the Navajo people’s behalf and their God-given rights.

With the NoDAPL Water Protectors being subjected to a literal war zone at Standing Rock, the need for public education is urgent as the similar Piñon Pipeline Project is already underway in the Eastern Navajo Agency.

Please join us throughout December every Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Gallup Cultural Center, located at 201 East Highway 66, to make this happen.

Mervyn Tilden
Church Rock, N.M.

An open invitation to Rep. Paul Gosar

Rep. Paul Gosar misled the public (“Communities deserve to be heard in designation process,” Navajo Times, Dec. 1, 2016).

Without checking the facts, he writes that “tribal governments” support the Grand Canyon Watershed Monument. Arizona consists of 26 independent governments that control 26 percent of land. Hopi Tribe is in favor of expanding the Grand Canyon National Park to protect Colorado Plateau from uranium mining and other threats.

Black Mesa Trust, founded in 1998 by Hopi elders who hold Colorado Plateau as a sacred ecological landscape, has written a letter urging President Obama to expand Grand Canyon National Park. Arizona surveys have been done showing overwhelming support for the legislation introduced by Rep. Raul Grijalva.

Here is an excerpt from my letter to the Arizona Republic, which was not published:

Sincere Hopi thanks are due Rep. Grijalva for his visionary initiative to create a 1.7 million acre Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument (Republic “Protect land near Canyon,” Feb. 19, 2016). It is an important step in securing a healthy future for Arizona and its diverse people. I urge President Obama to use his executive power under the Antiquities Act to create the proposed monument and enlarge Grand Canyon National Park before he leaves office.

Expanded protections will give great comfort to Hopi people, the first people of the American Southwest, and to all who value this sacred landscape.

As people everywhere recognize, we are passing from one age (rapaciously consumptive industrial) to another (eco-sensitive information age), into a new world and consciousness of environmental responsibility, a new understanding of proper human behaviors essential to global ecosystem security. There is a growing consensus among scholars and scientists, philosophers, politicians, and ordinary folks that a moment of immense opportunity and consequence for life on planet earth is upon us. Expanding protection to secure for generations the health of the Colorado Plateau is consistent with this recognition.

We invite Rep. Gosar to come to Hopi to tell the people why he supports uranium mining when it is not necessary to generate energy, produce jobs and contribute to Arizona’s economy. Tribal lands provide enough land to develop sustainable solar energy. We should focus and support ongoing research to generate clean energy using solar, wind, and biomass, instead of putting if off.

Rep. Gosar, like so many Arizona politicians, takes Native American people for granted, dictating to us what we can and cannot do. This is called colonialism.

A united protest by Native Americans against an oil pipeline at Standing Rock Sioux land has brought tribal nations and people together to fight against future exploitation of sacred lands. This is just a beginning of a movement to protect and preserve sacred lands. Hopis applaud their brave brothers and sisters for taking such a courageous stand.

The next step could be Black Mesa where the world’s largest coal mining has been going on since 1970 to supply Navajo Generating Station with coal to produce energy to bring water from Colorado River to Phoenix and Tucson through a 320-mile aqueduct called Central Arizona Project.

In the process of strip-mining undisclosed number of archaeological village built by Hopi ancestors have been destroyed. Unknown numbers of burial and religious sites destroyed. Over 45 billion gallons of pristine fossil water stored in the Navajo Aquifer since mining started. An initial price of water leased from the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation by Peabody Western Coal Company was $1.67 per acre-feet (one acre-feet holds 326,000 gallons) was approved by former DOI Secretary of Interior, Stewart Udall.

PWCC now want to extend mining operations to the end of 2044 to supply coal to Navajo Generating Station. NGS and PWCC officials are warning that 1,000 Navajo jobs will be lost if NGS and mining shut down and revenues to Hopi and Navajo Nation will end. This is blackmail. There are available ways to save jobs and increase revenues. BMT has prepared one way it can be done.

For more information, contact me at kuuyi@aol.com.

Vernon Masayesva
Kykotsmovi, Ariz.

Husband, wife separated, trying to make contact

I’m trying to make contact with my wife. We were on our honeymoon en route to Athabasca when we encountered unfortunate circumstances separating us. My last letter from her was from the Holbrook Women’s Shelter indicating she was locating us a house in maybe Cameron or Grey Mountain.

Sarah Jensen, a.k.a. Sarah Schenck or Schneck, is the sister of Helen R. Begay, of Fort Defiance, and married to Andrew Begay. Sarah has a daughter named Leslie who has a son named Mekia and daughter named Kateri.

Sarah and I used to make and sell kneel down bread in and around Fort Defiance and Window Rock. She may be seen doing this on occasion. We met at the Window Rock Veterans Park. She may be seen there selling jewelry.

I wish to give her my information so she may know how to contact me. I am at a loss as to how to go about finding Sarah. I will be back to the rez sometime this summer in an attempt to find Sarah and make sure she is OK.

I can be contacted at 480-395-1901 or my daughter Alicia’s number at 925-337-5726, or son Robert’s number at 925-594-0984.

Thank you for any and all you can do for us.

Michael Bischoff
Surprise, Ariz.

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