DukeEngage Life Continues in the Navajo Nation
Hi everyone, this is my first blog posting, so for this one I’ll try to give a little picture of what exactly we’re up to on the Navajo Reservation. I’ll also try to keep up with updates for the next 2 weeks or so as we (unfortunately) wrap up our time here.
We wake up everyday to our North-facing building at the Mariano Lake Community School with bright sun already baking the landscape. We have a great view of arid hills across the street with distant mesas in the background. (There is a dirt road that can take you North through a mountain pass to Crownpoint, but as it’s a little hardcore, our regular route is to go around all that to the East on our way to Diné College everyday) Because of this orientation, we get awesome sunrises and sunsets to our right and left every morning and evening - and as those who have been here before know, these times of day in the southwest are epic to say the least.
Since we’ve been here, we’ve had the opportunity to be taught general and specific elements of Navajo culture. Unlike typical Western society, where belief is restricted to an hour of practice every Sunday, Navajo spirituality is relevant to, and encompasses every-day life. In this regard, there is a story to be heard about every relationship in nature, between people, and between people and the world around them.
It is a huge gift that those we have met here are so open and willing to share their lives and culture with us. Typically, Navajo communities can be extremely reserved to “anglo” outsiders (a term used for any non-Native), and understandably so. There are a number of examples of subjugation by non-Natives on the Navajo people, and I’d like to mention two of them. In the mid 1860’s Kit Carson and the U.S. army executed a genocidal removal policy that forced the Navajo out of their homeland to a miserable area far away. In the 1930’s the government imposed a sheep reduction in an attempt to prevent overgrazing. The procedure was poorly executed, and did not effectively take into consideration the fact that killing livestock in that way conflicts with Navajo beliefs and would also severely hurt their economy. Many consider this 20th century policy as the 2nd Long Walk. Navajo livelihood is rooted in a connection to their land and to the livestock, which they consider family, so the removal of these things was a travesty. All of what I’ve brought up we’ve learned about since being here, and makes the warm reception we’ve received by many all the more impacting. To be offered hospitality, endless information, and friendship on lots of occasions is a serious privilege.
For more on the Long Walk, read Dee Brown’s chapter in the book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.
For more on the sheep reduction, read The Navajo Indians and Federal Indian Policy, 1900-1935 by LC Kelly.
Philip Gnaedig