Letters | Our ways are not evil

Editor,
I write today with deep concern and unwavering purpose as a member of the Diné Nation, a traditional hataałii, and a steward of our sacred lifeways. A recent performance hosted by The Door Church and shared widely on social media portrayed Diné ceremonies as evil – casting our hataałii, chants, and sacred traditions in a narrative of darkness and demonic influence.

This portrayal is not only false, it is dangerous.

Our ceremonies are not theater. They are medicine. They are the result of generations of spiritual knowledge passed down through hózhǫ́, rooted in Diné Bi Beenahaz’áanii – our Fundamental Law, which guides how we relate to one another, to the land, and to the Holy People. These practices were not born out of sin; they were gifted to us by divine instruction. To call them “evil” is to insult the very foundation of Diné identity.

The spokesperson from the church, in attempting to defend the performance, remarked that their audience is “80% Navajo,” suggesting the criticism comes from within. But let us be honest – that is the legacy of spiritual colonization. The shame some Diné feel toward their own culture was not inherited – it was taught. It came through boarding schools, forced conversions, and decades of being told our ways were primitive or dangerous. If our people now speak out against their own traditions, it is because that spiritual suppression worked – not because those traditions were wrong.

Let us be clear: there would be no hatred toward our hataałii if not for the rhetoric seeded by institutions like this one.

The goal of these portrayals – intentional or not – is to divide our people, to turn us against our own healers, and to erode the sacred sovereignty we have fought to retain. We must reject this.

To our young people, to our elders, to those still finding their way: you are not evil for honoring your roots. Our ceremonies are not demonic. Our culture is not a threat – it is a blessing. We do not need to be saved from ourselves.

We are still here.

We are still sacred.

We are Diné.

Titus J Nez
Springstead, New Mexico

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The cost of coal

Editor,
With millions of U.S. citizens peacefully protesting against U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s “Indian Fighter policies” which are contained within the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” and 47’s approach to adding a minimum of $2.4 trillion over the next decade, it is time sleepy Old Navajo speaks up against any ideas of mining coal on the 27,413 sq. mi. reservation of the Dine.

Mind you, if it was not for coal being mined in the 1960s, I may not have been born. Coal perhaps, allowed Indian Self-Determination to occur on the Navajo Indian Reservation, with the creation of the Navajo Tribe as a quasi-sovereign government. My parents worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Window Rock, Arizona, back then. It truly was a different world than what we live in now.

Our Navajo Nation president does not know this difference and it shows. I enjoyed reading your articles through the decades, providing a glimpse into how this complex operation of Indian Self-Determination works for all Diné people.

However, we have come to the crossroads.

Through my brief entrepreneurial experience domiciling a C-Corp in Shiprock’s former Fairchild building, I learned that there are millions of gallons of water under the trust lands of the Diné. Through Indian Self-Determination, I wanted to see households have a power source to bring that water up to quench the thirsts of many but I was blocked.

Give the people what they want! There is money in Window Rock to expend on these projects that will better the lives of the Diné, money provided through Republicans and Democrats in the House and formerly, through the White House.

This current White House wants the coal for free, so let us show him he cannot have the best cuts of Navajo economics now or tomorrow. Dooda Yee Yah Man!

Patrick Murphy
Albuquerque, N.M.

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