Friday, March 29, 2024

Letters: One step closer to hozho

Letters: One step closer to hozho

Now is a perfect opportunity to change the health message from “Eat healthy and be physically active,” to “Here’s where you can get healthy food and here’s where you can be physically active.”

We can change the message by moving up further in the ecological model to the community level where institutional factors, community factors, and public policy can guide health behavior by focusing on changing policies, settings, and environments to promote health and prevent disease. Here are some ideas that I believe could increase access to healthy foods and increase access to safe physical activity areas:

  1. Partner with non-traditional health partners. Local business owners are often the most flexible, as they are not tied to corporate business policies. For example, Mikasa 2 in Window Rock recently started serving brown rice as an alternative to fried rice or white rice. Hummingbird Café in Fort Defiance offers an adobe oven-baked healthy pizza (veggie delight). These are businesses that are making a healthy option available. So, when a diabetic patient meets with their physician or health educator, professionals could recommend these places to eat rather than simply saying “eat healthy.”

Fair Vendor Policy. There are more than six fairs that happen throughout the year on the Navajo Nation. Each fair committee or the Parks and Recreation Department could provide a vendor discount for those offering at least one healthy food item. The healthy food item could be as simple as a grilled chicken breast salad or as elaborate as a salmon fillet. One of my favorite places to eat when I was living on the reservation was a local hamburger stand. Looking back at it, I wish that I could’ve approached the owner and requested that at least once a week there be an option for turkey burgers. If you are reading this, I hope you can make this a reality.

  1. School districts should take a look at their facility and grounds policies to make them open to the public for health purposes. This can be done by eliminating fee usage for community open gym hours. In Arizona, the Arizona School Board Association has created comprehensive templates of shared use facility agreements that meet best practice standards. Partnering with local governments through inter-governmental agreements can cover the provision of community liability coverage.

I understand that my recommendations can have increased administrative work, but strategies that reach the community level have the most impact. If we work to ensure that there is increased health food and physical activity options where we live, work, and play, we can be one step closer to hozho.

Dominic Clichee
Tucson, Ariz.

Escalade would bring ‘new dawn’

Our most sacred and precious resource is our extended Navajo family. We are all related by clan, heritage, and culture. Today, one out of every two Navajos lives off the Nation. Most left to find jobs and, if we continue to ignore our natural advantages and fail to expand our job base, more families will continue to move away.

Navajo voters in the last two elections have made it very clear that they want the president and the Navajo Nation Council to create more jobs for them and their children. In the last election, candidates for president and council promised to make job creation one of their highest priorities.

As a council delegate, I intend to keep my promise to the Navajo people. I sponsored the Escalade legislation because I believe it will create 3,500 desperately needed jobs, begin rebuilding the former Bennett Freeze area, and provide renewable revenue for the nation.

Most if not all of the comments against the Escalade legislation argue that Escalade should be defeated to benefit the Hopi and other Pueblo tribes, the National Park Service, Grand Canyon Trust, Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association, commercial river runners, river guides associations, and the list of outsiders goes on.

But the only arguments that should matter to the council are the benefits this legislation can bring to the Navajo families. I remind everyone that the area commonly known as “The Confluence” is Navajo land and the Navajo Nation has full and complete legal authority to determine the use and activities on that land. We cannot and will not allow other Native American tribes, federal government agencies, and outside interest groups along with their paid protestors to hold veto power over sovereign Navajo land such as the Confluence. To do so would render all Navajo land subject to the approval of outsiders.

With regard to “sacred sites” at the Confluence, the legislation requires a complete cultural investigation with documentation according to Navajo law to protect any and all sacred sites. Unlike today, where the Confluence is unprotected and river runners, hikers, and others visit and desecrate without regard to damage or impact. It is the elders and the families that live in the area that have the connection to and the history about the project site that should matter in the cultural determination process. These are the people that need to be heard and listened to.

The Navajo Nation and its people have a long history of integrating tourism and sacred sites with the cooperation of and benefit to the local people. Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Antelope Point, Chaco Canyon, and many other locations have successfully protected sacred sites while developing sustainable and responsible tourism facilities nearby. That is why the Escalade legislation specifically requires compliance with the Navajo Nation Cultural Resources Protection Act, the Navajo Nation Policy to Protect Traditional Cultural Properties, the Navajo Nation Endangered Species List, the Navajo Nation Biological Resources Land Use Clearance Policies and Procedures, the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Act, and the Navajo Nation Clean Water Act.

Finally, job creation is one of President Begaye’s “four pillars” of a “new dawn” for the Navajo people. And the “One Nation One Voice” agreement among the president, speaker, and chief justice makes job creation a “common priority” of the Navajo government. While I have repeatedly heard that there must be other alternatives to revitalize and bring jobs to the former Bennett Freeze area, to date Grand Canyon Escalade is the only viable alternative to create a meaningful impact.

Escalade is not the answer to all the problems of the Navajo Nation or the former Bennett Freeze area, but it is a good first step. The Council’s approval of Escalade will truly bring a new dawn of prosperity to the Navajo people.

Ben Bennett
Navajo Nation Council Delegate
Window Rock, Ariz.

Vote yes on GO Bond C

This November, voters in McKinley County will be asked to invest in New Mexico’s public colleges, universities, and specialty schools.

General Obligation Bond C (referred to as GO Bond C) is asking voters to release $131,106,200 statewide to New Mexico’s institutions of higher education. Here in McKinley County, $1.5 million is being requested for the University of New Mexico-Gallup Campus to be used for planning, designing, construction, and equipping of a new physical plant facility.

While approval of funding for a new physical plant building will bring enormous benefit to our campus and community, a vote for GO Bond C will not increase taxes.

Our current physical plant building shares space with our Early Childhood and Family Center, which is an inappropriate arrangement that forces small children and heavy equipment to share walkways and driveways.

The new site will be fully developed with appropriate access and egress driveways, fenced equipment yards, heavy equipment storage, and secure parking for campus safety and transportation vehicles. The enhanced structure will also provide our physical plant staff greater capabilities to maintain and improve all campus facilities.

For many of New Mexico’s colleges and universities GO bonds are the only source of much-needed funding that allows for repair, upgrading and replacing of aging structures. These voter-approved funds will be a critical component of ensuring that UNM-Gallup is safe, well maintained, and attractive to all current and potential students.

We pride ourselves on the strength of our facilities and the benefits a strong learning environment gives our students.

While GO Bond C investments provide direct funding to colleges and universities, projects funded by GO Bond C also inject life into the local economy by creating jobs for architects, builders, and contractors.

For additional information about GO Bond C, visit www.nmbondc.com and click on the “My Community” tab. Thank you for your consideration of support for the students of UNM-Gallup.

Dr. Christopher Dyer
Chief Executive Officer, University of New Mexico – Gallup branch
Gallup

Inmates offer prayers for Standing Rock

We Native sisters at Perryville Women’s Correctional Facility in Goodyear, Arizona, San Carlos Unit, came together tonight (Oct. 6, 2016) on the basketball court to voice our prayers, strength, and the importance of unity as we too stand in solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Nation and all our indigenous Native nations across Mother Earth who are peacefully protecting our Native lands, resources, culture, language, and way of life.

Although we are unable to physically or financially help our relatives at the Sacred Stone Camp, we are sending our prayers and we are personalizing what is happening in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, and around Native America. We would like to thank all of our five-fingered relatives who are being of service. Thank you!

Thank you for inspiring us incarcerated Native women, for giving us direction and purpose, for renewing our passion to acknowledge, embrace, respect, and protect who we are, where we come from, and each other.

Despite our current circumstances, tonight we Lakota, Diné, Camp Verde and Fort McDowell Yavapai Apache, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache, Pima, Ojibwe, Chippewa-Cree, CRIT Mojave, Kiowa, Hopi, Tohono O’odham, Zuni, Ute, Laguna Pueblo, Acoma, Yakamha, Quechuan, Agua Cahuilla, Soboba Luiseno, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Cherokee women proudly stood peacefully, shoulder to shoulder, as we took turns reading 12 articles from the Navajo Times and Indian Life (September/October issue) about the events that have been unfolding with the Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as the Gold King Mine Spill, Grand Canyon Escalade, Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Snow Bowl Ski Resort, and Hopi water issues.

We are proud and amused how beautiful and powerful our sacred hoops are when we unite for a common goal. Protecting Mother Earth; walking in beauty, harmony, balance; respecting Creator’s creation; learning to speak our Native tongue; living a sober, healthy, responsible, purposeful lifestyle; and becoming the women, mothers, teachers, leaders that Creator meant for us to be. These are some of the values and goals we were reminded of and encouraged one another to internalize.

We are doing our best to positively embrace this temporary timeout in this “gated community” by investing our time and energy in positive, productive, and healing activities that’ll help us come home to our families and communities — healthier, stronger, focused, determined united women, and be part of the solution in a healthy way.

For many of us, this part of our lives, this part of our journey is a “blessing in disguise,” especially the two nights a month we are fortunate and blessed to have our allotted time and space to utilize our talking circle.

May Creator guide and protect us all as we continue to move forward with peace in our heart and service on our mind. With infinite love and gratitude, thank you for motivating and allowing us to be part of the solidarity movement. We welcome all the love, encouragement, support, suggestions, updates, and donations for our sweat lodge and talking circle.

Barbara Burnside
Goodyear, Ariz.

‘We are not hopeless or helpless’

It came as a shock to me to hear about what is taking place in North Dakota.

I currently sit incarcerated in Goodyear, Ariz., and although I am in the Department of Corrections we, as Native sisters, stood together in a circle as the sun was setting over the mountains in the west, to offer up our prayers.

Our thoughts are with those that are on the frontlines, those that are making their way there, and each and everyone affected by the decision to go ahead with the pipeline.

Us Native Americans are a peaceful people but one issue has caused us to raise awareness to the choices someone is making that will affect generations of Native Americans to come. We are not hopeless or helpless. Together our Red Nation will overcome and continue to thrive here on Mother Earth.

Marcella Baker
Goodyear, Ariz.

Sadness and anger at DAPL

My name is Charlotte Lopez. I am Navajo (Diné) and CRIT Mohave. Currently I am incarcerated at the Perryville Women’s Correctional Facility in Goodyear, Ariz.

The events in North Dakota awaken in me feelings of sadness and anger. Sadness because as a people of the earth we have a unique connection to the ground we walk on. Earth was not created to be robbed, raped, or depleted of precious natural resources, scenery and life. Our earth is a living breathing entity gifted to us by our Creator. We are admonished to take enough for sustenance but also replenish what is taken along with periods of rest to create balance.

I am angry because once more, promises, contracts, and deals given to our Native people are at risk of being ignored, broken and smoothed over with more promises by a greedy corrupt government. Once again we are fighting to protect what is ours. Once more we are stationed for battle. Only this battle we are United States of Indigenous Nations. We are armed with strength of solidarity, knowledge, and Creator’s blessing.

Us women here stand with all our relations in spirit. We send prayers to our mighty Creator having faith that He hears us. We send our one strength to stand tall and strong.

My beautiful peaceful people, our voice will be heard.

As Sitting Bull said, “If Creator would have wanted me to be white it would be so. I am a red man. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.”

Charlotte R. Lopez
Goodyear, Ariz.

‘Fight—in a united way’

Oct. 10, 2016, my family and I learned Charles Irving was admitted to Lovelace Hospital in Albuquerque. Mr. Irving, a landowner of Allotment Number 2073 appears in the September 2016 issue of in These Times magazine along with his daughter and granddaughter. Mr. Irving is battling cancer and bedridden.

Mr. Irving played an important role in our successfully story regarding BIA and Western Refining corruptions on Indian lands written by Reporter Stephanie Woodard of In These Times.  During my visit with Mr. Irving at the hospital while he was holding my hand, he said, he lived with this corruption most of his life along with the likes of Mary B. Tom and Tom A. Morgan. He is  “glad” that he was part of the effort to reveal the wrongdoings of the government and big corporation.  More stories must be written. He is saying this because:

It is time for clean energy on the Navajo Nation. These people on Allotment Number 2073 and the others on 43 allotments in the Eastern Navajo Agency area don’t have adequate infrastructure for their houses. They don’t have adequate energy infrastructure. They don’t have adequate highway infrastructure. And yet they’re looking at a Western Refining $6 billion pipeline that will not help them. It will only help Western Refining harvest much more profit of our land. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee will not help us with their mandated laws of Fiduciary and Trust Responsibilities. It is sad, he said that even the U.S. Department of the Interior mandated laws in protecting migratory birds is much more enforced. Western Refining openly implicated the Navajo Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Rights without proper notification in a condemnation lawsuit Western Refining filed in the District Court of New Mexico against us. Navajo Nation is not doing anything about it and not supporting its own tribal members of Allotment Number 2073. Instead, they rather travel far to the east to support Standing Rock Sioux Nation, not to say that is not good, because we are all family. And that is why we are here. We are here to protect our lands.

Mr. Irving also has an issue with the U.S. government Indian Land Buy Back Program. I will not allow my land to be acquired by the Navajo Nation through this program, he said. I want our lawyer to draft up a will for me, which will ensure my land is kept in the family, not the Navajo Nation, he instructed his family from his hospital bed. The U.S. government is offering “peanuts” for our land, he said. Take care of your land, he instructed all of us. This past week, he was able to sign the will.

We will not go down without a fight, he said. We are here because BIA and Western Refining broke the rules and laws, which they will not admit they did, he said.

Charles Irving died of cancer on the evening of Oct. 21, 2016, at Lovelace Hospital in Albuquerque. Cancer is a brutal disease. No one should minimize Mr. Irving’s fight with cancer just because he died. Some people fight cancer with everything they have, every day that they take a breath. Don’t put that in a win or lose scenario.

We will miss Mr. Irving at our meetings where we will continue to fight BIA and Western Refining’s wrongdoings in the same way Mr. Irving always wants us to fight — in a united way.

Patrick Adakai
Tijeras, N.M.

Much needed nursing home

Recent action by our tribal government is totally unbelievable, denying financial support to build a new increased capacity nursing home in Chinle.

I recently attended the Budget & Finance Committee meeting last week and was astounded when the committee blasted Wayne Claw, Chinle Nursing Home CEO, accusing him of raiding the Navajo Housing Authority of funds to build the new 120-bed nursing home.

The CNH Board of Directors was approached by Aneva Yazzie, NHA CEO, last year and she agreed to give CNH $21 million to build a new nursing home for 120 tenants, which the CNH Board accepted.

As you know, Mr. Claw was on the NHA Board at that time when NHA’s $400 million unspent funds were to be returned to the U.S. government. Mr. Claw resigned from NHA and requested the unspent funds to rebuild the nursing home, which was accepted by CNH and under no circumstances were NHA funds raided from the established building account.

It is also noted that the tribe received over a half billion dollars from the U.S. government. We requested $8 million from this fund to build a new nursing home. This was disapproved by the Navajo Nation Council.

With the decreased funding the CNH will revert to building a nursing home for 90 tenants instead of the proposed 120.

These funds would benefit Navajo families needing care for their loved ones greatly. Too bad the Council is more concerned with building casinos than helping their elderly.

Wallace Hanley
Window Rock, Ariz.

Destroyers vs. Protectors

In struggles throughout history there is a positive and negative side, justice versus injustice, good against evil. The standoff at Standing Rock is such a story. The Energy Transfer Partners with its Dakota Access Pipeline and supporters on one side; the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and supporters on the other.

Standing Rock and multitudes of people oppose inflicting more damage to the earth. The pipeline will destroy waters of life and further contaminate the environment. The permanent consequences of climate change will be inherited by our grandchildren.

In this confrontation between the destroyers and the protectors, the destroyers have the power of physical advantage and the protectors have the power of spiritual advantage. The spiritual always prevails over the physical.

The only recourse the destroyers have is to exert more brute force, which has its raw limitations. The arrogant taunting with massive and lethal physical force can do two things: intimidate its target into submission or provoke injury and possible loss of life. The show of force has failed in its intent, as the protectors are not intimidated.

It is clear who will prevail and who must back off. We want life. DAPL and such “developments” across the world threatens all life. The confrontation is beyond the pipeline, it is a battle over the waters and earth that will sustain the life of our children into future times. It is an ultimate stand that may determine the future of life on the Earth Mother.

Chili Yazzie
Shiprock, N.M.

McCain for Arizona Senator

I am not a citizen of Arizona but the current electoral situation in our country is of such a serious concern to me that I am forced to write this letter. It is not intended as a political endorsement for any other office than that of office of Arizona senator.

Mrs. Clinton will probably win the election. The events of the past week have helped her immensely. However, her overall record does not inspire confidence her administration will be transparent, fair, partial, or objective. Her statements as to the Benghazi incident were conflicting. Her reasons relative to the private use of emails, while conducting official government business as secretary of state lack credibility. Her statements relative to the fundraising efforts suggest a pay for play attitude and mentality. She is prone to social engineering. Her relationships with many of the sitting senators are either poor or non-existent and there seems to be no hope for improvement. Therefore, her ability to “work with Congress” appears to be in doubt.

When all of these factors are considered in their totality, it becomes increasingly imperative that a system of “checks and balances” be in place in order to restrict the power of the administrative branch to run roughshod over Congress and in particular the Senate as to certain appointments and executive orders.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick is partisan to the nth degree and can be expected to side with Mrs. Clinton on almost all issues and regardless of their merits. In this regard Mrs. Kirkpatrick voted against the reject the giveaways by the administration relative to the Iran Nuclear Agreement, an act Mrs. Clinton endorsed. Furthermore, she has no history or reputation of compromising with “the other side” in order to get things done.

On the other hand, Sen. McCain’s record in the Senate shows that he will “reach across the aisle” when necessary in order to get things done, an attitude in short supply by the Senate. His entire life commends him. Sen. McCain has already shown by his actions that he puts the welfare of the country above his own. One example of this was when in captivity in Vietnam, he rejected an early release from prisoner of war prison because it would be seen as a propaganda effect detrimental to the United States as his father was the Navy Pacific Commander when the release was offered. He has been an effective and positive voice for Arizona during his entire political career.

For these reasons, Mr. McCain is by far the better choice for the Office of United States Senator from Arizona and should be re-elected to that position. Please do America and Arizona a favor and vote for Sen. McCain.

Marshall O. Potter Jr.
Ashburn, Va.

You’re either with us or against us

Dear Senator John McCain:

We, of the Apache County Republican Committee, evidenced by a unanimous vote of our Precinct Committeemen, are somewhat confused that you are not supporting our party’s nominee for president.

Over the years, you have made decisions with which many of us have not agreed, however, you are the Republican candidate for the Senate. Our question is: If we don’t agree with everything you stand for, should we ignore party lines and vote for a Democrat?

If you don’t vote for Donald J. Trump, you are essentially voting for Hillary R. Clinton. If we don’t vote for John McCain, we are voting for Ann Kirkpatrick. Which will it be?

We hope you reconsider so that we can have a Republican president and senator in 2017.

Tom Samoff
Chairman
Apache County Republican Committee
Concho, Ariz.

Words of wisdom for new DC president

My name is Dr. Brad Messerly and I am a former candidate for the Diné College president position. Having the experience of a doctor, educator, farmer, and businessman, I see the vast potential in Diné College and our amazing students. As the new College president will soon be named, I want to wish him/her the best on their journey and to encourage them to always keep their students as the top priority.

Having the experience of working at different colleges over the past 12 years, it has become evident that the most successful colleges employ a few basic rules and I would like to share these with the future president of Diné College.

  1. Students are your primary concern, period. Sometimes, that means butting heads with board members, family members, faculty, and the students themselves. It happens. How you conduct your college’s recruitment, enrollment, retention, and placement strategies should all contribute to an exceptional college experience for your students. Your college and your actions should exceed your student’s expectations on Day One and at every level.
  2. Value and respect your faculty, staff, and employees. An effective president should be highly visible and accessible to not only students but also to the “gears” of the institution in which they serve. Effective leadership is established through quality guidance, earned respect, loyalty, and teamwork.
  3. Never settle for “good enough” and “getting by.” Be aggressive! Be creative! Look for new ways to grow! Seek out new funding streams for new programs and improving physical facilities. Develop and nurture partnerships with area employers to encourage student placement following graduation.
  4. Build your “brand.” Establish that Diné College is the first and original tribal college, then claim your place and persist. Diné College has immense potential but for one reason or another has stalled and failed to be what it could become. As the first tribal college, we should be leaders, innovators, and the measure by which all others are gauged.

It is with great sadness to learn that I will not be further considered for the Diné College president position. It would have been my honor to lead Diné College into a new era of growth, job creation, faculty/employee career satisfaction, and academic excellence. I feel in my heart that I would have been a true champion for the Diné students and Navajo Nation as a whole.

At this time, I’d like to express my sincere thanks for an awesome welcome and the experience I received at Diné College from the students, faculty, administration, and employees. Serving the Navajo Nation and the students of Diné College was and always will be one of the greatest experiences of my life. The Diné, the College, the scenery, the friendships, and the memories will have a special place in my heart and will be cherished.

Dr. Brad Messerly
Tsaile, Ariz.

Our superheroes in disguise

One day during the afternoon in the month of August 2016, a hero in disguise was formed in an instant. The day was normal and sunny, but soon became cool. A breeze developed that would change a person’s life, perchance more than one life.

A small child’s life was placed in the hands of an older sibling to extent the love, care, and support that a parent should hold. The parent was taken away for DUI by law enforcement to easily be allowed the release of parental responsibilities. Alcohol and drug addiction is all too real with our Native people and habitual offenders should be required mandated rehabilitation and parents to parent training.

I look in amazement and wonder how parents can be this selfish, so unconcerned for their children’s care, their lives, and not realize what they do affects their child’s future. Children so young without any choice of their own are placed in strange surroundings, new homes, new faces. These faces are their new caretakers, our superheroes in disguise who now take on the role of Mommy and Daddy.

My parents have always taught us to love, respect, and take care of each other; regardless of what life holds, you work hard for your family —  for your children. The teaching of my parents I have continued to preach to my kids, they work hard to support the best they can for their children.

Our superhero in disguise is our daughter Kellilyn Benally, who took the hand of her 2-year-old little brother in August 2016 because no one else could. With fall upon us and the holidays approaching, Kelly will ensure her little brother’s happiness and that support is continued for as long as she has him.

We are very proud of you and everyone else out there, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and relatives who have taken on this huge responsibility regardless why, all without reservations.

A.J. Beyal
Tohatchi, N.M.

McCain the right choice

Choosing a candidate to represent the Navajo Nation and Arizona in the United States Senate is an easy choice once again. John McCain without question is the only choice.

As a Navajo I had the privilege of being appointed by Sen. McCain to serve as his staff person on the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. I witnessed firsthand his commitment not only to the Navajo Nation but also for Indian Country as a whole. His commitment is seen not only in the bills he sponsors but also in the numerous bills and amendments he has opposed because they were not in the best interest of Indian Country.

A few examples of McCain’s leadership include being an original co-sponsor of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, sponsor of the Indian Family Violence and Child Abuse Prevention Act, original sponsor of the National Native American Veterans Memorial, and driving force to make permanent the Tribal Self-Governance Act, a tribally initiated piece of legislation.

McCain not only listens to Indian Country, but when necessary, he is also willing to challenge Indian Country. Over the years he has challenged tribal leaders to become less dependent on Washington, D.C., and to truly make Indian self-determination a reality. Local control, less regulation, and stronger tribal economies are becoming a greater reality and a leader like John McCain is fighting to keep it that way.

McCain’s longstanding service on the Indian Affairs committee and his seniority in the United States Senate were on vivid display during the Gold King Mine disaster.  McCain demanded hearings, gave the EPA a chance to explain itself, and secured a rare committee subpoena when the EPA refused to act with any sense of urgency.

Doubt his commitment? Here is a U.S. Senator from Arizona aggressively seeking answers for an environmental disaster that occurred in Colorado, flowed into New Mexico, and holds unknown consequences for farmers on the Navajo Nation. You can count on McCain to hold the next administration accountable to address this matter with the sense of urgency it deserves.

There is only one candidate with the depth of experience, seniority, and commitment to the Navajo Nation and Arizona. I urge the Navajo people to support the re-election of John McCain.

Dan Lewis
Phoenix, Ariz.

Editor’s note: Lewis is former Republican staff director of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and former executive staff assistant to Chairman Peterson Zah.

On Bennett Freeze and Escalade

Yah’ah’teh’, I am a Diné and long-time advocate for social, environmental, and economic justice for my people. I am a community and voting member of Bodaway-Gap Chapter. I grew up in Gap and Cedar Ridge. My ancestral lands are along the Eastern Rim of the Grand Canyon within the Bodaway-Gap Chapter boundaries where we still have our sheep and goats.

I often wondered why we lived in Third World living conditions with no electricity or running water, while the border towns surrounding our reservation were prospering.

When I returned from college, I began attending Forgotten People community meetings to better understand the oppressive Public Law 93-531 and saw firsthand the devastating historical trauma that many of my elders and contemporaries were confronting. For years I’ve been advocating for the Bennett Freeze Rehabilitation to begin.

I have served as president of the Forgotten People CDC since 2009 and in 2010 Forgotten People filed a lawsuit against the Navajo Hopi Land Commission to force them to produce an accounting of the funds expended intended to rehabilitate the Bennett Freeze … the suit stalled after producing a seven-page expenditure report with no detail.

In 2015, Russell Begaye became president and partnered with Speaker Bates’ 23rd Council to make the rehabilitation their priority as defined in the Navajo Nation Three Branch Agreement. It was then the Forgotten People withdrew their lawsuit and began working with the new administration to begin identifying a planning process for rehabilitating the impacted chapters.

I am happy to report that President Begaye and Speaker Bates have been working with all divisions and the BIA to advance an Integrated Resource Management Plan that would support United States Congress in allocating funds for projects. The chapters were instructed to update their Community Based Land Use Plans that include projects.

In 2016, I was nominated and voted president of the Bodaway-Gap Community-Based Land Use Planning Committee. I encountered opposition by the chapter leadership and the CLUP Committee from participating in the process for meeting the requirements set forth by the Navajo Nation and BIA for rehabilitating the Bennett Freeze. I began insisting that the chapter leadership get on board, because the people deserved a more pro-active leadership. As a result, I was removed as CLUP president by current chapter president Perry Slim, with the assistance of Council Delegate Tuchoney Slim.

I contend that the past and current chapter leadership and Council delegates have been deliberately obstructing any projects because it conflicted with their promoting of the Escalade Project, even though the community twice voted against the proposed project in previous resolutions. It’s important the public know that the chapter leadership was under the guidance of former president Shelly’s directive to advance a subsequent Resolution BA-09-092-12 reversing the two opposing resolutions and approving the proposed Escalade Project on Oct. 3, 2012. This action was nothing less than an illegal vote now being touted by the Confluence Partners LLC and the Navajo Nation.

I am known to be opposed to the Escalade Project because it does nothing to advance the protection and preservation of our people with respect to our culture and traditional Diné lifeways. The proposed project will only further exploit our people, lands and culture under the guise of promoting economic opportunities as a solution for beginning our rehabilitation. I support economic advancements that empower our people to develop community-based capacities required to rehabilitate our lives, homes, and homelands. I believe that the people impacted by the Bennett Freeze deserve their voice be heard and respected when developing rehabilitation plans and not be forced to accept a project that does nothing to promote self-determination and self-governance.

I grew up learning about our sacred lands from my elders and our traditional holy ways for protecting our homeland and culture from those who would have us disappear. Our people have suffered many generations following the Long Walk, boarding schools, livestock reduction, Bennett Freeze, forced relocation, and a judicial system that by design disenfranchises and marginalizes the Diné lifeways by supporting the dominant society’s continued exploitation for our natural resources.

Our ancestors died for our rights and negotiated treaties that were ratified by Congress to protect our way of life, land, and resources for future generations. As Diné and as holy people we have an obligation to continue to fight for our rights to self-govern, but too often our leaders are sell-outs motivated by greed, insisting on the reliance of outsiders to act and speak on our behalf. I understand the first priority of the Navajo Nation is to ensure its own bottom line as a corporation but as I see it, they should be empowering their people, not competing with their people. It would be in the best interest of all to streamline and remove all obstacles for establishing independent businesses that support social and economic opportunities for Diné to be independent and prosper.

We must stop and assess our individual and collective acts/actions that promote the continued assault of our motherlands, traditions, and cultures. I am running for president of Bodaway-Gap Chapter to stop the predator that has been preying on our weak-minded, selling them lies, and/or bribing them to act on their behalf for personal, professional, and/or monetary gain. I understand systemic structural violence as a tactic of the oppressor to prey upon the uneducated minds of our leadership. I believe cognitive dissonance is the by-product of the oppressed and underscores indoctrination and assimilation into the dominant society’s values and belief systems of profit over people. Trust that neo-liberalism and neo-institutional models are well-devised mechanisms to blind us and move us away from hozho’. If we are to thrive into the future as Diné we must remember and honor our indigenous lifeways.

In closing, I support my indigenous brothers and sisters in North Dakota and elsewhere who are on the front lines defending our mother lands and rights to potable water for all future generations.

If elected president, my goal will be to empower my people with jobs that support stopping the exploitation of our resources and culture. I support the Navajo Nation to move away from dirty energy production that’s contributing to our humanity’s demise and begin exploring opportunities for alternative renewable energy sources that won’t further contaminate our people’s water, air, and land.

Raymond Don Yellowman
Cedar Ridge, Ariz.


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