DC office observes a ‘different’ inauguration

Posted by Cindy Yurth | Jan 21, 2021 | Politics |

WINDOW ROCK

Normally, the entire staff of the Navajo Nation Washington Office would have walked the half-mile from their office near Union Station to the U.S. Capitol to watch the inauguration of a new U.S. president.

Afterward, they would have been tidying the office in preparation for welcoming Native American dignitaries and spectators from around the country, and picking out something to wear to the Native American inaugural ball.

“Inauguration week is probably the time when the most Natives come to D.C.,” said NNWO Deputy Director Maxine Hillary. “There are powwows and all kinds of social events.”
This year would have been particularly exciting, as the first woman of color to be elected vice president was sworn in and the new cabinet, including a Native American from New Mexico, took the helm.

But, like many workers in the nation’s capital, the staff was unable to get to work, with public transportation shut down and security road blocks making Hillary’s seven-mile commute into an hour-and-a-half–long nightmare.

“Like everyone else, we’re watching the inauguration on TV from our homes or wherever we are,” NNWO Director Santee Lewis said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“I can’t quite put my thumb on what I’m feeling right now,” added Lewis. “It’s just been different, but all of 2020 was different for all of us. We just have to take it as it comes.”

Hillary said she was feeling an odd combination of excitement and dismay — dismay that the nation’s normally hospitable capital looks like a war zone with eight-foot-high fences and 30,000 National Guard troops milling around, and excitement that things are about to change, hopefully for the better.

“I’m not even talking about the whole Democrat-Republican thing,” she said. “Of course, I do believe it will be easier to get our agenda passed under a Democratic administration, but there have also been Republicans, like the late John McCain, who were friends of Native America.

“What I’m really looking forward to is an end to the vitriol, an end to the rhetoric, an end to the nastiness that always seemed to be coming down from the previous administration,” she said. “We really do believe in the ‘walking in beauty’ thing in this office, treating everybody with respect.

“That’s been really hard when there’s people riding the train with you in Camp Auschwitz T-shirts, carrying Confederate flags, and you just feel like slapping them across the nose,” she said.

Lewis said she and her staffers walked down to the Capitol last Thursday and were shocked to see “National Guardsmen everywhere” and the huge fences surrounding what are normally inviting public spaces.

“I felt kind of sad,” she said, “but also thankful the Washington, D.C. mayor took the steps she thought were necessary to maintain security. Regardless of whether it’s justified, we just have not had this kind of thing in Washington before.”

As the director of the office, Lewis said she worries about the safety of her staff — but usually the threat is from foreign adversaries. Hillary, who was working in D.C. during the 9-11 attack, said the residents of the nation’s capital are used to feeling a bit vulnerable.

“We’re the seat of government, we have all these military installations — we’d obviously be a target of an external threat,” she noted. “As far as the mob who stormed the Capitol, that made me more angry than afraid.

“As I see it, our job is to make sure that type of thing never makes its way to the rez,” she said, “on behalf of my relatives and all the Navajos who served a country that didn’t always value them.

“I don’t feel I have the luxury of being afraid,” she added.

Lewis said she’s looking forward to working with the most diverse cabinet ever, including Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo. “President Biden’s speech was about trying to work with everybody, and to me he’s proven that by surrounding himself with diverse people,” she said. “Deb Haaland’s appointment has given me a lot of hope for Indian Country, and we join Indian Country in welcoming her and the rest of the Biden-Harris team. “Our job is to advocate for the Navajo Nation and all of Indian Country,” she added. “We have a long list of things we’re working on and we’re anxious to get back to it.”