Time to heed coyote’s warning

By Mark Maryboy

Editor’s note: Mark Maryboy is a former member of the Navajo Nation Council, the Navajo Utah Commission, and the San Juan County Commission.

Will the Trump Administration diminish the Bears Ears National Monument? Navajo and other Native Peoples in the Four Corners have reason to believe that is likely. That exact thing happened in President Trump’s first term. President Biden subsequently restored the original boundaries of the BENM, and his administration recently finalized the BENM Management Plan – emphasizing Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and coordination with tribal entities in protecting and managing BENM lands and resources. Based on history, we fear this Management Plan will have a short life span, and the BENM will soon be diminished or undone completely.

Native Peoples are proud of the BENM. It was a historic, unprecedented process, in which multiple tribal entities worked side by side for years to eventually agree on boundaries and proposed management for the BENM. We talked to many elders to record Native traditions, wisdom, and knowledge; we walked boundaries; discussed sensitive spiritual beliefs and practices. We earned each other’s trust and put aside our differences to protect lands and resources that provide spiritual and cultural meaning to so many Native Peoples.

But now Utah Navajo and many other Native Peoples are concerned the BENM is a pawn in a political show of power. We fear it will be swept into the current administration’s “drill baby drill” campaign, which is music to the ears of the development-minded Utah congressional delegation.

The Navajo Nation and other tribal entities involved in the historic BENM process will almost certainly be hesitant to wage an aggressive fight against the likely attacks from the

Trump Administration and Utah’s congressional delegation to slice, dice, and plunder the BENM – for fear of retaliation. The bargaining powers between the parties are very much out of balance. Tribal entities are at the mercy of the federal government for funding to provide basic services to their people. It’s not a level playing field, and everyone involved knows that.

Sa’ą Naagháí, live in beauty. Navajo have a spiritual relationship with the earth and all of its resources – the air water, land, minerals, plants, animals, insects. Our relationship with the living earth comes from our creation story, where the insects created the earth. All of the creatures co-existed equally and harmoniously. Navajo spiritual existence and well-being depends on the well-being and health of the natural world. Navajo believe earth was created by the creators and should not be disturbed. Sa’ą Naagháí. There’s not a relatable term in English. That probably explains why it is difficult and maybe impossible for non-Natives to understand Navajo and other Native Peoples’ spiritual relationship to the earth air, water, animals and insects.

According to Navajo spiritual lore, one day Coyote and Snake were talking about the end of time. Snake knew well all of the hazardous materials below the earth’s surface – uranium, vanadium, gases. Snake warned that once these hazardous materials were extracted, the materials could never safely be put back by humans and that it was unwise to remove or disturb those hazardous materials. Snake warned that taking these materials out of the earth would make everyone suffer – hastening the end of the earth. Coyote relayed that information to the Navajo. Because of these warnings, Navajo have not wanted to gouge the earth to extract these materials – heeding Snake’s warning to leave the hazardous materials below the earth’s surface. All of this might sound cartoonish to non-Native people. But there are valid lessons in the stories; Navajo have learned this the hard way. We have suffered many deaths and sicknesses from government-approved mining and milling of uranium and vanadium near our homes, water sources, and sheep pastures. The suffering continues through today.

Navajo don’t expect non-Native government officials to fully understand Navajo spiritual beliefs. But the BENM should not be sacrificed for short-term corporate profit. It’s time to start listening to Coyote and Snake. The greater Bears Ears area must be protected from drilling, mining, water diversions and dams, surface energy arrays, and towering communication sites. The plants, animals, insects, air, and lands need protection.

The BENM and its spirit cannot be put back together once it’s gouged, scraped, mined, and torn apart for various energy and other developments.