Navajo Nation Archives - Page 4 of 5

These American Families Live Without Running Water

12/06/2013

When most people think of dirty water, they think of places like rural Africa. But water poverty affects hundreds-of-thousands of Americans too.

One shocking example? Nearly 40 percent of the 173,000 Navajo in the U.S. don’t have a tap or a toilet at home. (For non-Native Americans, that number is just .6 percent).

Water poverty affects everything: health, education, personal security, economic growth. 44 percent of Navajo children live below the poverty line, twice the national average, held there by issues like water insecurity. But poverty isn’t the only problem here. Since these communities are just hours from major cities like Los Angeles and Albuquerque, poverty is linked to crime, depression and substance abuse.

Life without water in the U.S. doesn’t look very different from life in rural South Sudan. Every morning, thousands of Navajo men, women and children set out to find water. Many make the trip by car, which can be costly. Some can’t drive, forcing them to walk miles to livestock troughs contaminated with bacteria and even uranium.

Lindsey Johnson is one of the many Navajo elders facing water poverty. She lives with ten of her family members in a small trailer without electricity or running water in Smith Lake, New Mexico. Since she was a child, Mrs. Johnson has relied on neighbors’ taps, local ponds… even snow for every drop of water she uses. Now nearly 80 years old, her struggle to find clean water hasn’t changed much since she was a child.

Today, Mrs. Johnson and 250 other families within a 70-mile radius receive some water by truck. The lone water truck in Smith Lake is operated by St. Bonaventure — a Catholic mission — and it can’t reach every home. By the middle of the month, most families are forced to collect extra water from other (often unsafe) sources. The water that arrives is stored in buckets or barrels outside, prone to contamination in the summer and freezing in the winter.

This holiday season, DIGDEEP Water is partnering with St. Bonaventure to bring reliable clean water access to over 250 homes through the Navajo Water Project.

The community-led project includes a new 2000 ft. well and storage facility. For the first time ever, families will benefit from free, trucked water delivery in an amount that meets international human rights standards. The project will also provide emergency access to water on site.

When finished, the Navajo Water Project will provide every home with an elevated water tank and solar heating element, using gravity to feed sinks and toilets all year long. As with every DIGDEEP system, the project is community-led and unique to the people it serves. The active participation of families, Navajo Chapters and regulators will ensure its long-term sustainability.

DIGDEEP is the only international water organization operating here in the US, and the Navajo Access Project is just the first of its kind. We’re proud to empower communities like Mrs. Johnson’s to defend their human right to water. It’s a stark reminder to Americans everywhere that water poverty isn’t as far away as you think.

Visit navajowaterproject.org to join the fight for clean water here at home.

Navajo Energy Policy Legislation Passed and Signed by President

Source: Native News Network

WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA – On Thursday Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly signed legislation enacting the Navajo Energy Policy of 2013 during a signing ceremony in his office. The policy will allow for the Navajo Nation to have direction and guidance for energy development and other initiatives.

For three years, President Shelly has been advocating to update the Navajo Energy Policy, which was created in 1980.

“I want to thank the Navajo Nation Council for the cooperation and the spirit of working together to pass the energy policy. It’s been a long journey. Much work from both branches of government went into today’s ceremony. Now we can move ahead with our future of renewable and non-renewable energy,”

Navajo Nation President Shelly said before he signed the legislation.

President Shelly also signed legislation allocating about $4.1 million to Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) and a third legislation that changed the operating policies of NTEC.

“This is a great day for the Navajo Nation,”

President Shelly said after he signed the documents.

For three years, President Shelly has been advocating to update the Navajo Energy Policy, which was created in 1980. The Energy Advisory Committee that was chaired by Fred White, Natural Resources division director, created the updated Energy Policy and submitted the policy to the Navajo Council to initiate the legislative process.

“I am happy the Council passed the Energy Policy,”

White said shortly after the legislation passed earlier this week.

Navajo Council Speaker Johnny Naize, who sponsored the bill, called the Energy Policy.

“a basic framework for which our Nation can work with other entities to effectively use our resources for energy development.”

In addition, President Shelly has stated the Energy Policy puts the Navajo Nation in a better position to advocate for funding from federal sources for energy studies, projects and other programs.

The legislation pertaining to NTEC allocated $4.1 million to the company for costs relating to start up and expenses acquired during the due diligence investigation related to the acquisition of the Navajo mine.

The other legislation amends the operating policies for NTEC.

‘Drunktown’s Finest’ explores Navajo lives in border town

Navajo filmmaker bases Drunktown’s Finest in life in Gallup, New Mexico, a border town near the Navajo Nation:

Drunktown’s Finest is a movie about finding hope in the bleakest of circumstances. Director Sydney Freeland grew up in the real Drunktown: Gallup, N.M. Or at least that’s what ABC’s 20/20, the cable newsmagazine that gave her hometown that dreadful moniker in 1990, would have her believe. Instead of resigning herself to a life of addiction, Sydney found a source of hope in her Navajo culture. She wrote Drunktown’s Finest to share that hope with the world, and to show that the wisdom of Navajo tradition can be a powerful force for good in our modern society. An important tenet of this Navajo wisdom is respect for the Nadleeh, or third gender. Since long before the LGBT movement, the Navajo have had a sensitivity for people born with gender identities across the entire spectrum of possibility. They reject the notion of dyadic gender and view relationships in terms of gender identity first, then in terms of sex, meaning that a man in a relationship with a male-bodied Nadleeh is not considered homosexual. This seemingly postmodern concept of gender is actually hundreds if not thousands of years old and still informs Navajo culture today.

Get the Story:
Jasper Zweibel: Native American Transsexual Actress Stars in New Film (The Huffington Post 10/23)

Navajo Nation officials say the tribe’s parks aren’t affected by federal government shutdown

Window Rock Mational ParkPhoto source: Wikipedia — Window Rock National Park
Photo source: Wikipedia

By Associated Press,

Published: October 1

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Navajo Nation officials say the tribe’s parks aren’t affected by the federal government shutdown.

Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department Manager Martin Begaye announced Tuesday that “all Navajo Nation tribal parks are fully operating and open to the public.”

The Navajo tribal parks are open seven days a week with the exception of Christmas, New Year’s and Thanksgiving.

The parks include Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park, Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Four Corners Monument, Bowl Canyon Recreation Area and Window Rock Navajo Tribal Park.

On Fate of Wild Horses, Stars and Indians Spar

By Fernando Santos, New York Times

It seemed at first like a logical alliance for boldface names in the interconnected worlds of Hollywood and politics. Bill Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico, and the actor Robert Redford, a staunch conservationist, joined animal rights groups in a federal lawsuit to block the revival of horse slaughter in the United States, proclaiming that they were “standing with Native American leaders,” to whom horse slaughter “constitutes a violation of tribal cultural values.”

Soon, though, the two men, who recently started a foundation to protect New Mexico’s wildlife, found themselves on a collision course with the Navajo Nation, the country’s largest federally recognized tribe, whose president released a letter to Congress on Aug. 2 asserting his support for horse slaughtering.

Free-roaming horses cost the Navajos $200,000 a year in damage to property and range, said Ben Shelly, the Navajo president. There is a gap between reality and romance when, he said, “outsiders” like Mr. Redford – who counts gunslinger, sheriff’s deputy and horse whisperer among his movie roles – interpret the struggles of American Indians.

“Maybe Robert Redford can come and see what he can do to help us out,” Mr. Shelly said in an interview. “I’m ready to go in the direction to keep the horses alive and give them to somebody else, but right now the best alternative is having some sort of slaughter facility to come and do it.”

The horses, tens of thousands of them, are at the center of a passionate, politicized dispute playing out in court, in Congress and even within tribes across the West about whether federal authorities should sanction their slaughtering to thin the herds. The practice has never been banned, but stopped when money for inspections was cut from the federal budget.

In Navajo territory, parched by years of unrelenting drought and beset by poverty, one feral horse consumes 5 gallons of water and 18 pounds of forage a day – sometimes the water and food a family had bought for itself and its cattle. Read More »

Navajo President Ben Shelly Signs $3 Million Drought Relief Bill

Under a state of emergency and watching its horses die of thirst, the Navajo Nation is getting $3 million of relief from the tribe’s coffers.

“We need to get help out there to the communities,” said President Ben Shelly on July 25 upon signing a bill to provide $3 million in relief. “We declared an emergency because of the drought, now we need to make resources available to help our people. We are in difficult times and thankful for the recent rains, but we still have to create plans to manage the drought.”

The bill, known as Legislation CJY-44-13, will give about copy.4 million to the Department of Agriculture for feral horse round ups, and $202,761 to the Department of Resource Enforcement and the remainder to the Navajo Department of Water Resources for well and windmill repairs, the Navajo Nation said in a press release. The money will come from the Undesignated Unreserved Fund Balance, the tribe said.

The tribe said that Western Agency’s precipitation is 65 percent below normal for the year, Fort Defiance Agency is 63 percent below normal, and Northern and Eastern agencies are 55 percent lower than normal. Chinle Agency is 30 percent below average, the tribe said. Despite that, the seasonal monsoon rains, while welcome, are compounding the problem by causing flash flooding in dried-out areas, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

All executive departments have been instructed update and revise a drought management plan, Shelly said.

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The Navajo Nation has been plagued with drought for several years, but the effects are of late ever more dire. Roaming horses desperate for water are dying after wading into sticky mud puddles that turn into virtual quicksand. Shelly declared a state of emergency on July 1.

Drought was the opening subject of Shelly’s State of the Navajo Nation address on Monday July 15, the Navajo Times reported.

“We are in some challenging times right now as we look to the Holy People to continue to bless us with moisture,” he said.

“I support drought relief, and I am thankful that we could work through the laws of our Nation to provide much needed resources to our Navajo departments and Rangers,” Shelly said in the drought-relief statement, alluding to some budgetary snafus that had caused him to veto a bill earlier in the month.

“We are going to help our people through these tough times. I know it’s difficult with little vegetation for our livestock and small yielding crops,” he said. “We are strong people and we will persevere through these challenging times.”

Group Argues That Tribal Court Has No Jurisdiction Over Non-Indians

Fairfield Sun Times

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

DENVER, CO – A nationally known, nonprofit, public-interest law firm with decades of experience addressing constitutional and legal issues as to American Indians today urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold the holding of an Arizona federal district court that a Navajo District Court has no jurisdiction over non-Indians in a civil lawsuit filed for allegedly tortious conduct on an Arizona highway. Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), which had been urged to file a brief by the tribal court but whose arguments were rejected, urged the appeals court to uphold the federal district court’s ruling that the tribe lacks jurisdiction. In August 2012, the federal district court ruled that the Navajo tribal court has no jurisdiction over the non-Indians sued in the case. MSLF, which has been involved for decades in state and federal courts with regard to the authority of tribal courts over non-Indians and American Indians from other tribes, relied on U.S. Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rulings in arguing that the appellate court should uphold the lower court’s ruling.

“The highway is alienated, non-Indian land, no treaty or statute allows the Tribe to govern non-Indian conduct there, and no exception to these general rules applies,” said William Perry Pendley, president of MSLF.

In September 2004, an automobile/tour bus accident occurred within the exterior boundaries of the Navajo Nation on U.S. Highway 160 near Kayenta, Arizona. The tour bus passengers had stayed overnight at a hotel on Navajo Nation land, and the following day the bus, driven by Russell J. Conlon, left the hotel. As it proceeded westward on Highway 160 the bus collided head on with a 1997 Pontiac that contained two members of the Navajo Nation. One Navajo passenger was killed and the other passenger was injured. In December 2006, relatives and the survivor filed a lawsuit for allegedly tortious conduct, seeking compensatory and punitive damages, against the tour bus owners, operators, driver, and insurance company in the District Court of the Navajo Nation for the Kayenta District.

Those sued were all non-Indians; therefore, they filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in the Navajo District Court, alleging that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The District Court entered an Order denying the motion and ruled that it had jurisdiction. Those sued then filed a Petition for Writ of Prohibition with the Navajo Supreme Court asking that the Navajo Supreme Court bar the District Court from proceeding with the case. In March 2010, the Navajo Supreme Court issued an Order asking that MSLF and others file amicus curiae briefs; MSLF filed the sole brief in April 2010. The case was argued in May 2010 and decided in September 2010.

Mountain States Legal Foundation, founded in 1977, is a nonprofit, public-interest law firm dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system freedom. Its offices are in suburban Denver, Colorado.

Caffeine High: Navajo Zoo Partners To Sell Gourmet Coffee Blends

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Over the past year, a joint venture has been brewing between the Navajo Nation Zoo and Kachina Tea & Coffee Company. On July 9, the parties unveiled four unique coffee blends they will sell, each hand-packaged in seven-ounce bags featuring one of four Navajo Zoo animals selected to represent the character of the coffee.

The companies signed a Memorandum of Agreement, billed in a press release as a “culturally lateral collaboration,” which was approved February 23 by the Navajo Nation Council and the Tribal offices of the president and vice-president.

Keith Duquitto, owner of Kachina Tea & Coffee, shares his passion for helping the Navajo Nation Zoo and using the best ingredients at his store. (Geri Hongeva, Division of Natural Resources)

Under the terms, net proceeds will be divided equally between the Navajo Nation Zoo and Kachina Tea & Coffee Company. The Navajo Zoo will invest the money in caring for the animals and the future development of the Zoo. Kachina Tea & Coffee Company will direct its profits toward a proposed facility for the roasting and production of the coffee in or near Window Rock—along with a number of complimentary, healthy culinary items. Details of the planned headquarters are included in the Memorandum, which identifies the project as not only “community supportive” but as “community inclusive.”

The Navajo Nation Zoo—home to injured and orphaned animals—is the only Native-owned and -operated zoo in the country. Formed in July 4, 1977, in Window Rock, Arizona, the Zoo cares for animals unable to live in the wild, describing itself as “A Sanctuary for Nature and the Spirit.” Most of the creatures housed at the Navajo Nation Zoo are native to the Four Corners region and significant to the traditions, legends and stories of the Dine People.

Kachina Tea & Coffee Company was conceived in Malibu Canyon, California in the early 2000s. The company’s original concept was to create a line of natural botanical tea blends in an effort to lend nutritional and psychosocial support to friends and family experiencing certain types of functional inconveniences or those simply pursuing a healthy lifestyle from the inside out. Founder Keith Duquitto has garnered more than 25 years of clinical practice as a respiratory therapist and has cultivated a diverse collection of healthcare professionals as colleagues.

David Mikesic, zoologist at the Navajo Zoo, introduces each coffee blend as he describes the character of each animal at the tribally sanctioned zoo. (Geri Hongeva, Division of Natural Resources)

For the Navajo Zoo and Kachina Tea & Coffee Company, choosing the coffee blends was a meticulous and creative process, and they then astutely matched each blend with a package design featuring one of four representative animals from the Navajo Zoo.

The coffee blends and animal pairings include:

1) Espresso Italiano—a medium-strong espresso roast featuring the orphaned Kay-bah, the Navajo Zoo’s rugged lioness (cougar);

2) An Elegant Kona Blend—a simple and elegant roast blended with Hawaiian Kona beans with notes of tropical flowers and ripe persimmon featuring the orphaned Naabahi—one of the Navajo Zoo’s endearing male bobcats;

3) Chuska Chai’s Hazelnut—a fruity, smooth coffee with a hint of natural flavoring from Oregon-grown hazelnuts featuring the Navajo Zoo’s native tassel-eared squirrel; and

4) A Regal Decaf—a rich, deeply dimensioned and sweet decaffeinated blend aptly represented by the Navajo Zoo’s male Ringtail.

Presently, a Northern California-based seasoned coffee importer and roaster packages the beans, which are then shipped to a Las Vegas-based young master coffee roaster and good friend of the Navajo Zoo, who is artfully blending the coffees.

Each coffee blend will be offered in seven-ounce quantities—intended as an ideal sample size for discovering one’s favorite coffee, or as a Zoo supportive gift for family and friends.

Coffees will be available for sale at the Kachina Tea Company store in Las Vegas, and on the company’s website in the near future. In Window Rock, the coffee will be sold at the Navajo Nation Zoo, The Navajo Nation Museum, and other locations in the near future.

Grave robber’s loot

400 confiscated artifacts returned to Navajo

By Shondlin Silversmith, Navajo Times

(Times photo – Shondiin Silversmith)U.S. Army Corps of Engineer workers Julia Price, right, and Ron Kneebone, left, unload artifacts that were recovered from South Dakota. — (Times photo – Shondiin Silversmith)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineer workers Julia Price, right, and Ron Kneebone, left, unload artifacts that were recovered from South Dakota.

July 9 was a good day for the Navajo Nation. More than 400 artifacts that were stolen from Navajo land were finally returned.

The Navajo Nation coordinated with the U.S Army Corps of Engineers’ Omaha, Neb. District to have the stolen artifacts returned.

The individual responsible for the theft is Donald B. Yellow, who stole a total of 710 artifacts, with 425 of those items being from the Navajo Nation.

According to the USACE, the artifacts were found in central South Dakota when Yellow attempted to sell some of them.

“It was a pretty interesting case,” Julie Price, USACE program manager, said because she still doesn’t know how Yellow was able to transport the items from the Southwest to the middle of South Dakota.

The artifacts were taken from Lukachukai, Ariz., said Ronald Maldonado, supervisory archaeologist for the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department.

Maldonado said Yellow was a technician working for the Indian Health Service in Chinle when he found the items and collected them, some from a gravesite in the Chuskas. When he relocated to the Midwest, he allegedly took all his collection with him.

“It’s not a lot of stuff, but it belongs to the people, and it feels good to have it back where it belongs,” Maldonado said.

The artifacts include four grinding stones, a hand-grinding stone, a wooden weaving batton, five whole and partial pottery bowls, a bundle of cordage/rope, 381 pottery shards, 20 stone pieces, 11 stone tools and a corn cob.

“He took something from a Navajo burial. It’s part of the culture that’s being stolen, I don’t know whose grave they took this from but this was a Navajo burial,” Maldonado said, adding he can’t believe people would do that to sell the items for profit. “It’s good to see it returned back where it belongs, back to Navajo. It’s part of the culture, part of the history and people.”

During his trial almost two years ago, Yellow pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. He was sentenced on Oct. 11, 2011. The judge ordered that he be fined $618, pay restitution of $4,382, but no jail and no probation.

ARPA is an act set to “to secure, for the present and future benefit of the American people, the protection of archaeological resources and sites which are on public lands and Indian lands,” states language in the legislation.

Within the documents provided by Megan Maier, field archaeologist with the USACE Omaha District, “the forfeited artifacts were looted from both USACE-managed lands and Navajo tribal lands. This information was obtained through interviews between the arresting officer and Mr. Yellow. The judge ordered that all southwestern artifacts are to be returned to the Navajo Nation.”

“ARPA violations have hefty fines and restitution fees, so with the coordination between multiple agencies hopefully we’re making an impact on people that are destroying these types of items,” said Price.

“If feels very good to bring something back to its homeland where it’s supposed to be,” Price added, noting that this is normally a long, complicated process, but since Yellow admitted where he took the items from they were able to start returning the items after making contact with the Navajo Nation over a year ago.

“Everything went smoothly to bring them back to where they were stolen,” Price said, adding that it was nice being able to work with a tribe they’ve never visited before and return the artifacts to their homeland.

“It shows that sometimes the bad guys get caught and good things can come out of bad situations,” she said.

“The people that are looting and profiting off these artifacts are slowly learning a lesson,” Maier said. “If you are going to be profiting off someone else’s culture, you’re going to get caught.”

Navajo Nation declares drought emergency

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – The nation’s largest American Indian reservation is awash in extreme drought, and that has forced its leaders to declare an emergency.

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly signed the emergency declaration Monday along with a memorandum directing all executive branch agencies to develop plans for responding to the drought and educating the public about its effects.

“We are going to do everything we can to bring our people through this drought. We have many needs, and we are a strong people,” Shelly said in a statement. “Water is precious, and we have to learn how to conserve and change our practices to make sure we prevail through these drought conditions.”

Over the last month, drought on the Navajo Nation – from the tribe’s lands in New Mexico and Arizona to southeastern Utah – has gone from bad to worse. The latest federal drought maps show extreme conditions covering the Four Corners region.

Some areas of the reservation have seen just over one-third of their normal precipitation this year. The soil is dry and wells aren’t producing water like they have in the past, Shelly said.

Making matters worse is summer forecasts are predicting continued high temperatures and below average precipitation for the area. Navajo emergency management officials said that will likely result in lower river flows, which could have negative effects for livestock and municipal wells.

There are about 5,000 stock ponds across the reservation, and officials said as water supplies dwindle, more pressure will be placed on the tribe’s windmills and drinking water wells.

The tribe’s commission on emergency management said drought conditions have already created a critical shortage of water and feed for livestock.

“The land condition will continue to deteriorate and the socio-economic framework of the Navajo Nation will be negatively impacted,” the commission stated. “The livestock owners and farmers will need to plan to protect and preserve their land and their livestock.”

The declaration makes available emergency funds for Navajo communities and clears the way for the tribe to seek a federal disaster declaration.