Letters | Water security

Water security

Editor,

After all the times I’ve spoken with Jonathan Nez, I have learned that he understands that water is life. The former Navajo Nation president and candidate for Arizona’s second congressional district knows that getting Colorado River water to our communities and agricultural fields is not a simple task. There are numerous problems with the Colorado River Compact’s unequal water distribution among seven thirsty states with little money to deliver the water.

Arizona and Southwestern states are now forced to use less water than what our agricultural production and economies demand.

I find it wise for Congress to pass funding to convert agriculture from wasteful flood irrigation to smart drip irrigation. This could save millions of acre-feet of water annually that could provide drinking, household, and industry required water.

I also think it would be smart for Congress to reform taxes to give farmers and ranchers an economical way to save water.

I trust Jonathan Nez to make the right decisions with our water in Congress. He has proven himself as a person who can expand water infrastructure and invest in new technology that conserves every last drop.

Nez knows that having better water stability will help farmers, ranchers, and small communities in CD2 who, like you, have already tightened your financial and water belts.

Nez is not here to play games like Congressman Eli Crane. He’s here to get things done and provide water for Arizona. It’s time to vote for him on or before (mail) Nov. 3.

Bryan Bates
Flagstaff, Ariz.

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Uranium threat

Editor,

Navajo people are painfully aware of what uranium mining has done to the health of our land, water and people. So I was shocked when I heard that the federal government, under Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, wanted to open Eastern Navajo land to more mining – lands right on the doorstep of Chaco Canyon, Tsé Biyah Anii’áhi.

How could this possibly take place when so many Navajo families are still living with the devastating consequences of abandoned uranium mines (AUMs)?

Beginning in the 1940s, Navajo miners were asked to work in and around uranium mines with little warning of the radiation risks and no protection. More than 520 abandoned uranium mines remain across Navajo lands today, many are still contaminating our soil, water, and air.

This painful history is precisely why the 2005 Diné Natural Resources Protection Act (DNRPA) was established to stop new uranium mining on Navajo lands. The DNRPA grew out of a historic gathering of more than 500 people at the Strengthening Diné Unity Against Uranium Mining Conference at Shiprock High School on July 19, 2003.

Sponsored by the Diné Bidzil Coalition, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, Southwest Research and Information Center, and Diné College Uranium Education Program, community members joined Navajo Nation leaders and supporting organizations to testify to the pervasive impacts of uranium mining across the Navajo Nation. Those attending the Strengthening Unity Conference adopted a resolution calling for four Navajo policies to address the uranium legacy: ban new uranium mining and processing, clean up AUMs, fully compensate uranium workers and families through RECA, and conduct health studies to determine effects of uranium exposures.

By contrast, the federal government is putting mining companies first. Buried in an Interior Department document released in July 2026, the same document that would allow harmful oil and gas drilling around Tsé Biyah Anii’áhi is a proposal to take away Public Land Order (PLO) 7923, and usher in a new era of uranium mining on more than 330,000 acres of federal land around Tsé Biyah Anii’áhi. Very little public debate or discussion of this proposal has occurred, despite the Navajo people’s long-standing objections to new uranium mining.

Secretary Burgum even refused to consider an option that would uphold existing protections (established in 2023) to prevent mining companies from staking new claims around Tsé Biyah Anii’áhi. The Interior Department wrote that doing so would leave “energy-related minerals such as uranium” unavailable and would therefore fail to meet the purpose of the PLO 7923 proposal.

In other words, keeping uranium in the earth was treated as a shortcoming to be corrected by an extraction-focused administration. For those of us who live here, keeping uranium underground with no extractive mining away from our drinking water, homes, and families is exactly what we want.

Making matters worse, the lands the federal government wants to reopen for uranium mining are one of our people’s most significant cultural landscapes. Chaco Canyon is not just a boundary on a map. It is a living cultural landscape in Diné Bikéyah, surrounded by communities who treat this as a sacred land and resources within the land. We treat our living entities as relatives. We have a duty to safeguard it, to protect our relatives.

Chaco is not the only sacred place that’s being made available for uranium mining. A dozen new exploration and mining projects are proposed in and around the Mount Taylor’s Traditional Cultural Property and in other culturally sensitive areas in McKinley, Rio Arriba and Catron counties.

The Trump administration is trying to fast-track these new projects, too, but widespread opposition to new or rekindled mines has arisen among grassroots communities in Canjilon Lakes, Churchrock and Pie Town.

We have also seen how quickly these mining companies move to exploit lands once protections are lifted. Just one month after the Trump administration shrank Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, over 72 new mining claims were staked on land that fell outside the monuments’ revised boundaries. Could this preview what could happen at Chaco Canyon if the existing protections are revoked?

We cannot allow more extractive development at a sacred site with deep history. We must uphold the four policies from 2003’s Strengthening Diné Unity Against Uranium Mining Conference for Navajo communities before considering new mining. Secretary Burgum must keep the existing protections around Chaco Canyon in place. Uranium mining has already harmed our communities enough. We should not be forced to risk our future on its return.

Wendy Atcitty
Huerfano, N.M.

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Rethinking education

Editor,

Pursuing knowledge is a worthy cause. Contemporary Native and Indigenous education can be redesigned through lived experience, by re-envisioning humanity’s relationship with nature, centering authentic Native knowledge and advancing scientific frameworks that deserve renewed discovery and serious attention. Authentic Indigenous education should not copy the content, focus, or future of the education many Indigenous people experience. We cannot replicate hegemonic models that have produced, and continue to produce, deteriorating outcomes for Native people. For the next generation, continuing along this path may be unforgivable.

Contemporary educational institutions continue to struggle with identifying and applying meaningful “best practices” in Native and Indigenous communities and schools. This challenge is especially evident in efforts to: sustain and revitalize traditional knowledge as foundational to impactful education; strengthen Indigenous languages as living systems of knowledge and identity; and honor Native peoples lived relationships with the earth as a vital foundation for learning.

For many contemporary institutions, this work remains difficult because it calls for a deeper transformation of educational purpose, practice, and relationship – one grounded in authentic, sacred and traditional knowledge. Many Native people remain intergenerationally connected to this knowledge through lived experience, family inheritance, community memory, and sacred responsibility. These intergenerational links that are genetically distinct, the genetic signatures, exegetically explainable through science and quantum physics, cannot be casually dismissed or erased; they deserve much more thoughtful attention and respect in educational settings.

This uplifting transformation requires schools to respect the sacred dimensions of traditional knowledge, recognize spirituality as central to authentic Indigenous education, and rebuild educational practice around respectful relationships with people, place, language and the natural world.

Sacred terms such as k’é need to be understood more from the genuine, authentic Native interpretation and understanding. K’é carries the meaning of collective, communal responsibility, often expressed to those who sought education so they could return and help their people: Nihi dah nijidah implying the central traditional teaching of k’é. The word k’é cannot be understood or used in isolation. The sacred dimension of educational redesign must be treated with deep respect; its importance cannot be overstated.

Revitalizing, revaluing, and transmitting ancestral knowledge and Indigenous language can help recapture a worldview grounded in “love for the earth, Mother Earth, nature, spirituality, and medicine” – one in which the “rainforest is not a resource, but a source of life” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGG8Ds5zZnY).

Our current generation is calling attention to the profound significance of heritage language in our lived experience today and for the future, as reflected in Shalby Del Villar’s guest column, “Is learning Navajo not as important?” in the Navajo-Hopi Observer on Aug. 25, 2026.

Our systemic traditional knowledge has always been our guiding light, originating from within and deeply embedded in our worldview, interpretation, and understanding of the natural world. It has recently foregrounded its profound connection to contemporary science and quantum physics. Our school children and students deserve challenging academics that give them the tools to re-envision humanity’s relationship with nature and rediscover the importance of authentic Native knowledge within true Native philosophy and schooling. It is important to reconsider, invest in, and deepen our understanding of humanity’s connection to nature, authentic Native knowledge, and the advancement of scientific frameworks. Much authentic traditional knowledge is preserved and sustained in sacred prayers and prayer-songs. These areas are worthy of renewed educational discovery and meaningful exploration for our generation and generations to come.

Systemic traditional authentic knowledge – consecrated in ceremonial prayer-songs and prayers – has consistently served as a guiding light for our people and our communities for thousands of years. There is an earth-based, nature-based sacred wisdom, foundational to our interpretation of the natural world, a sacred, meaningful connection to it that has anchored and upheld our purpose and unity, guiding our people from generation to generation. This worldview – rooted in the serenity of greeting each new day with sacred offering to the deeply interconnected transformative light of dawn – deserves greater attention in education and in our daily relationships.

Greeting each new day with a sense of serenity stems from embracing a worldview that is both profoundly sacred and relationally resonant. This perspective, deeply rooted in tradition and authentic Native knowledge, our ontological and epistemological philosophical constructs, brings a sense of peace and purpose to daily life. Its haunting divineness lies in its ability to guide individuals and communities with wisdom that has endured through generations.

Such a worldview is not only valuable for personal well-being but also holds significant importance within the educational sphere. By incorporating this perspective into educational practices and relationships, educators and students alike can enrich their understanding of the world and foster meaningful connections. Recognizing and honoring this worldview in daily educational practice ensures that its wisdom continues to illuminate and inspire future generations.

This wisdom is deeply rooted in our worldview, shaping our interpretations, understanding, and interaction with the natural world. Through these practices, our communities have maintained a strong sense of connection, well-being, and purpose, allowing traditional knowledge to serve as a foundation for understanding and relating to our environment across generations. Our traditional wisdom has long guided our worldview and understanding of the natural world, influencing even modern physics today.

Students should receive rigorous academics to gain the tools to explore authentic heritage language and the connection between Native perspectives and scientific inquiry.

There is a need to pay serious attention to how Native knowledge and scientific frameworks converge to re-envision humanity’s deep relationship with nature. In doing so, our school children and students today, not next year, or the following year, or the year thereafter, deserve rigorous academic opportunities and access to college courses and technological advances in CTE, no matter their zip code.

Enriched, engaging, stimulating educational resources abound today in K-20 that Native, Indigenous schools can access to support critical, meaningful, wholistic school transformation. Within the Navajo Nation, the fact that there is only one exceptional school, Navajo Prep, and that it has capped enrollment should send a clear message that parents and students are looking for and hopeful about new, similar schools opening. The limited number of Navajo Nation scholarships awarded should also make clear that many students aspire to higher education yet need greater access to rigorous, challenging academic pathways to qualify for scholarships.

Regional higher education partnerships and community leadership can expand access to dual credit, rigorous coursework, and meaningful CTE pathways for Native and Indigenous students. These opportunities should be strengthened through partnerships that honor tribal priorities, community knowledge, and the lived realities of students and families. Greater Navajo Nation Council investment in education, however, is urgently needed to: build additional Native-centered impactful colleges within the Navajo Nation; expand dual credit and CTE options through regional colleges, universities, and workforce partners; support and strengthen community-led efforts to revitalize heritage language, culture, and traditional knowledge; encourage highly effective educational models that challenge conventional approaches while honoring Native and Indigenous ways of knowing.

The call from traditional, knowledgeable spiritual practitioners and the new generation for stronger community leadership deserves trust, respect, and honor. Their vision can guide schools toward learning environments that affirm heritage, strengthen identity, and prepare students for academic, cultural,

professional, and life success.

Education, government, and economics are not separate entities; rather, they are interrelated and interdependent. Education, governance, and economic development must work together: schools prepare students for meaningful

futures, leaders create the conditions for opportunity, and local investment helps sustain pathways rooted in community values. Re-envisioning humanity’s relationship with nature through Native knowledge and scientific frameworks deserves serious attention.

Harold Begay
Tuba City, Ariz.

 

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