Letters: The nighttime animals are cheating

Speaking truth to power: To combat the oppression of money in politics (Citizens United), college students across the nation are not asking but demanding their university administrators “divest” (deny or dissociate) from the fossil-fuel industry as one of the greatest divestment movement in history to remove their dominance.

The students saw a way to do their part as their future is at stake. Our brilliant young minds who found it hard to find jobs and facing an environmental crisis began a movement from their campuses.

A great number of supporters are growing greater and greater year after year and will trigger organized group protests against other injustices caused by “corporatocracy” across the states. The young college students are fed up, more so than adults who can’t stand up for them. We “Baby Boomers” done messed it up for them.

This was the conscience movement of “Occupy” momentum to throw out the many injustices of an oligarchy government. It is hoped the young people will take money out of politics and give it back to the people. In contrast, the Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona doesn’t make me think about my wallet. It makes me think about the future of my children and grandchildren.

An article written in the opinion section (“Steyer initiative will only hurt Navajo Nation,” July 12) made it sound like there is nothing to turn to. Do we leave nothing for our future generation? That is not the legacy we want to leave. And some of us think like the billionaire mentioned: environmentally conscious to find a better and cleaner energy source. Only if a lot more billionaires would think like he does, the faster we would change to alternative energy resources.

What is surprising is that Germany, the most productive country in the world, is leading the world with alternative clean energy — and they have no shortage of jobs. Remember the Owl in the Shoe Game story? He hid the yucca ball in one side of his claw and the daytime animals were down to the last two yucca straws and the next wrong guess would mean the end of the daytime world. The whole daylight world was riding on their backs.

Quickly, the daytime animals huddled and came up with a strategic plan. Gopher was asked to dig a hole and burrowed up to each shoe and reported back what he found. He was panic-stricken when he came back saying, “Hey! Guys! Guys! I found no yucca ball in the shoes!” The nighttime animals were cheating! All kinds of thoughts went through their heads. How are we going to win? Sometimes there is no place to turn, especially when we turn against each other. It is at these times we need to return to our old stories of tradition for interpreting the metaphors.

Some have dire moral implications as this example does. After being put through a whirlwind of despair, the original team of daytime animals came back together and an idea came to them as they looked at their opponents up and down, stared at them real hard, some repeatedly — “Which one?” So, they huddled one last time. The cheers, stomping, mocking, and taunting noises were coming directly at them, and they could hardly hear themselves.

The nighttime animals smelt victory as dawn drew near for a new day. Was it going to come? One guess was made after deliberation — the Owl. Gopher was asked one last time, “Go burrow underneath Owl.” He came back and found the yucca-ball in his left claw. He immediately volunteered the striking stick and “Pow!” the left claw of the Owl was struck…and the yucca-ball rolled out. The house was brought down with the daytime animals cheering their lungs out.

Father Sun came up in the east horizon once more and the game was declared a tie. To this day, the Animal World is living in their chosen habitat, night or day. Who is who metaphorically in the Shoe Game story and not playing by the rules? As rural and isolated we are from the cities, we feel the same hunger for energy because we’ve seen the rest of the world. Clean energy is cheap and endless, whereas, coal and gasoline are fast depleting and expensive.

Given the only two options, we need to make the smart choice. Technicians are installing more and more solar panels all over the world and is the fastest growing industry in the world — even in China. Let’s turn the whole scenario around. What if all we had was solar energy as our primary power source like back in the day of our ancestors. If you took just a small section of the Navajo Reservation we could power the whole Navajo Nation.

Remember, any time land is involved and you get little or nothing in return, someone is not upfront with you. Per capita, the greatest capacity to install and deliver solar energy is land and we have that. We must understand the exchange of money taking place on grazing land, even though it seems to have nothing to offer, especially during drought seasons. Mother Earth is never forgetful about her children. The same could be said about the wind source to produce energy from Mother Nature.

Teddy Begay
Kayenta, Ariz.

A translation of ‘Sa’ah Naaghei Bik’eh Hozhoon’

Kindly permit me to express my heartfelt wonderment regarding the excellent letter submitted by my Tacheeni uncle (“Tuba City thankful for Diné College,” Navajo Times, July 5, 2018).

Sa’ah Naaghai Bik’eh Hozhoon was never translated. Since I grew up in a home where my father, the late Doc Maize Scott, former Tuba City Chapter president, practiced as a Dineh medicine man as I slept (behind the yelth) through many of his ceremonies early in my youth, I can attest to the use of Sa’ah Naaghai Bik’eh Hozhoon in traditional ceremonies of the past. He had two uncles who were medicine men who trained him.

Whenever they would visit us at Old Indian Camp, Navajo Ordinance Depot, during the late 1940s, I would listen quietly as they “talked shop” and prayed to Sa’ah Naaghai Bik’eh Hozhoon — “One Who Walks Around Old Age Sovereign PeaceMaker” — our Dineh Creator God.

In addition, I have spoke often with Pastor Harold Noble who also had received medicine man training early in his young adult life. He agrees wholeheartedly with my assertion and belief. Pastor Noble was kind enough to speak at my father’s funeral on Oct. 11, 2017, at Middle Mesa, 15 miles northeast of Tuba City.

In 1950, my hataali father became a believer in Jesus Christ because he watched his wife mature as a believer for four years. As a bystander he learned Sa’ah Naaghai Bik’eh Hozhoon is our Dineh name for Creator God Jesus Christ as stated openly in Colossians 1:15-20. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things; and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things…”

Personally, I pray to Sa’ah Naaghai Bik’eh Hozhoon as I hike the Grand Canyon and thank Him for creating it as the most beautiful part of Mother Earth.

Tacheeni Scott
Flagstaff, Ariz.

Diné made this warrior feel welcome

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from a report on the 2018 Run For The Wall held May 15 to 24 by a member who made his last run this year.

I-40 passes through the bottom of the Navajo Nation, Gallup being located just outside its boundary. I hold fond memories of the welcomes received from the Diné.

The Navajo revere those who serve in the Armed Forces, seeing us as warriors. I remember one occasion when The People waited in the cold, and later the dark, for our two-plus-hour-late arrival.

Our initial stop was just off I-40 at the senior center, a pause to greet tribal elders. Farther down the road our main welcome came at the Window Rock Memorial. The festivities there included ceremonies, Code Talker demonstrations and a meal. We each received enameled pins featuring the seal of the Navajo Nation. Remarkably, as we stood in the cold evening air during the formalities, I was given a quilt!

A few years later from RFTW Gallup, I embraced my friend Doc’s offer to ride back that night to The Nation for a sweat lodge prayer ritual. Doc’s intent was to bless the tobacco ties he was taking to D.C. Before going to the sweat we followed the drum’s beat to a gourd dance and a warrior’s dance at a local gathering.

Later after the – non-denominational – prayer ceremony I was given an eagle’s feather. All these happenings combined over the years to create within me a calming sense of welcome whenever I am in or near the Navajo Nation.

Saying I felt honored to ride the Missing Man Formation into Gallup was a gross understatement.

Jerry Eibert, aka Evo Red
Santa Barbara, Calif.

Racist, discriminatory law

At a book sale in 2007, I came across a Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th Edition. The first word I looked up was the word “treaty.” The definition was, “an agreement, league, or contract between nations or sovereigns.” It also said it was the “supreme law of the land” as stated in article 6 of the U.S. Constitution.

I later purchased a 6th Edition printed in 1990. It was in this older dictionary that I finally came across a definition of the word “discovery.” I found that this very important definition is missing from the 7th and 8th editions of Black’s Law Dictionary. The foundation of America’s dealings with the Indians said, ”Discovery, International Law: As the foundation for a claim of national ownership or sovereignty, discovery is the finding of a country, continent, or island previously unknown or previously known only to its uncivilized inhabitants.”

It appears to me, the powers that be printed this racist and discriminatory law only for the 500-year anniversary of Columbus’ alleged discovery of America. This definition is found only in the 1990 printing of Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Edition. When the lawyers representing William M’Intosh presented their position before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1823, they said the Indians were “an inferior race of people, without the privileges of citizens.”

Why do we have such a racist law hidden in out-of-print law books today? Because the Supreme Court took that argument right out of the mouths of the land speculators such as M’Intosh and made it their own. They validated colonial law and ruled, “…discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it.” The speculators’ loss was the federal government’s gain of plenary power over all land. Consequently, whenever the government deals with Indian treaty rights, which include land, water, mineral and hunting and fishing rights, the idea of Indian ownership of the land never enters into the mix and neither is it ever verbalized.

The totally insane idea that ownership of the land changed hands when Columbus “discovered it “ is merely entered as the footnote referencing the 1823 Supreme Court decision, Johnson v. M’Intosh.

Leaving a cash-only-take-it-or-leave-it settlement on the table is not justice. The scam is called the “pigeon drop” where the victim is left holding the bag of worthless paper. It works only when the victim thinks he is taking free money. “Take the money,” the government says, “You are not selling the land.”

The effects of this law played out again recently at Standing Rock with the Indians being called trespassers and terrorists. As they used water cannons on the Indians in freezing temperatures, they were offering $1.3 billion in exchange for their treaty rights. The amount of money was based on “the time of taking,” a euphemism for “the time of discovery.” The original $17 million ($1 an acre) has grown with interest since the 1970s.

Along with the cash, they are now offering “trust land,” another euphemism for “the right to occupy federal land.” The BIA officials would say, “Take the money, you are not selling the land.” That is what the BIA officials also told the Paiutes and Western Shoshone of Nevada.

There is a reason our ancestors gave men like these the name “forked-tongued devils.” What is “trust land”? The legal definition of “Indian land,” according to Black’s 8th Edition is “Land owned by the United States but held in trust for and used by American Indians.” We must realize that the law of discovery (Johnson v. M’Intosh) is not just one law but a mindset of racist Jim Crow laws in the 21st Century.

The forked-tongued definition of “Indian title” says, “A right of occupancy that the federal government grants to an American Indian tribe … it is mere possession not specifically recognized as ownership and may be extinguished by the federal government at any time.” “Indian Reservation” is defined as “public domain … under the superintendence of the government which retains title to the land.”

Thirty-eight years ago, I wrote to the Nevada State Journal that the government had tricked the Indians into filing a lien against the government’s supposed title with the formation of the Indian Claims Commission, which we now know, was based on this doctrine of discovery. Our so-called trustee’s elaborate hoax is fraud.

Steve Melendez, Paiute
President, American Indian Genocide Museum
Houston, Texas

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