The river has passed, I am in mourning.

When we are first conceived in the organic world of our matriarchs, we are water. When we grow and are molded into human form, we are water. When we leave our matriarchs womb we are water. When we take our first breath we are water. The Creator God gave us life and we are able to live a good life, but only if we have water in it. Water is Life.

I am a desert ancestor of the waters that flow through a beautiful desert valley on the northwestern area of the Diné lands, or as you may now it, the Navajo Nation. It was instilled in me that my Indigenous matrilineal clans are derived from the sacred element of water.

As a surviving and living Indigenous person I am witness to the death of a holy Diné ancestor. I am a Diné and Hopi woman who is in mourning for her water relative who has died.

 

On August 5, 2015 the waters of my desert people's river died.

I was raised in the ‘beauty-ful’ San Juan Valley in northwestern New Mexico in the Americas. My family history includes story about the Animas and San Juan rivers that have come to be named by those who 'colonized' the area as such, but many histories before they arrived to the area, the river community was called Tó by the Diné. The river was named a 'sacred' place or site and to this day the river is a place of spiritual power, but it is only know to those who understand and recognize it for the true purpose of it.

Long before the arrival of the Euro-American to the desert and mountainous lands of Indigenous peoples including the Diné, Ute and Apache the rivers of our community had ‘beauty-ful’ Indigenous names. My Diné called the rivers, Tó. Such a term is a sacred expression. It is an exhalation of the soul, for it is a holy name that can never be fully described in the English language, for it way more complex that. The name given to the rivers by my Diné ancestors concerns ‘Life,’ so therefore is a continuation of Creation.

The pollution of the Animas and San Juan rivers is the murder of monumental proportions, for the effects of the contamination have staggered the cultural ways of my Diné community. I think that we each mourn the loss of our relative, we do this in our own way, but for many of us we just cry. It is an act that humbles us as humans, but it is also a recognition of our Creator that we must have faith and continue to worship and praise for what we have been given.

At this time, many Diné are suffering the loss of their crops including sacred corn and squash. And, at this time many Diné are comforting each other and helping each other to confront the issues of the loss of water in their lives. One could easily argue that this so called “accident” acted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an act of cultural genocide to the Diné.  This is how I see the ordeal, and for me this is a continuation of what the colonialist government started 1492.

As Diné we will struggle, but we will always survive. WE will endure because no one can take away our beliefs, ways of being and our prayers. We will always be water.

Bless each other.


-Venaya Yazzie-

Tó, water is Our strength

Today I sit amongst my beautiful Navajo people in Shiprock, NM located on the northern area of Navajoland near the belove Animas and San Juan Rivers.

Today, a young group of Diné (Navajo) called Tó BéNahídziil has called a community 'Teach In' meeting with goals to dialogue on the current and ongoing situation of contaminated waters from the Animas River and San Juan River. As many now now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "accidently" let a flood of highly toxic, metal-laden water flow from the abandoned Gold King Mine near Silverton, CO, into the Animas River. Later that water from the Animas could converge into the clean waters of the San Juan River in NM.

Though most of the national converage of this dire issue has faded out, the issue is still relevant a severely critical for the Diné community of farmers and ranchers of the San Juan valley including: Kirtland, Upper Fruitland, Hogback, Shiprock and into the Navajoland in southern Utah. The plain truth is that the plants (Navajo corn, melons, squash, Alfalfa) are dying and, as a result many of the Diné people are suffering; mentally, spiritually and physically. As water continues to be a scarce element the community suffers. And, due to the politics and propaganda of the government(s) tribal and non-tribal- and national interests, the individuals of the community are not helped.

The 'Teach In' meeting of Tó BéNahídziil works to bring awareness of water on the Navajo reservation, and also to educate on critical issues specifically related to the Navajo Nation. Today, we as community members of the San Juan Valley and concerned citizens all 'converge' for one reason: to find solutions to this water crisis. We converge to share, discuss and brainstorm on the problems and issues facing Dinétah (Navajo Nation) at is time and look for solutions to assist.

Today a Diné elder, farmer and Hogback resident who is present at the event shared his current experience on dealing with the contaminated Navajo waters. He expressed that attention needs to be focused back to 'K'é' which is the basis of the Diné ways of life, or 'epistemology.' He voiced that the EPA's contamination of the Animas and San Juan rivers is about "cultural trauma." Furthermore he stated that the negative experience of contaminated water on Navajo Nation concerns 'colonization' perpeptuated by American government as colonizers. But, above all he stated on the importance of Navajo individuals working to "de-colonize," and to find solutions on our own without always looking to the American government to help. In his emotional address, he said that we need to support our Diné community.

Though water is a physical necessity of human life, the current issue of the contamination of the Diné waters moves deeper, more organically. Water is Life. It is a concept of our Diné existence, one that many of us learn from the time we are children. This understanding of water concerns the spiritual first and foremost. Water is a part of our prayer life, it is a element that begins and ends our tangible rituals for healing. Truly, you must understand for we Diné, water is Our strength.

-Venaya Yazzie-

Animas River Contamination, the EPA and the People

The River We hold Sacred
by Venaya Yazzie (Dine'/Hopi)
New Mexico, USA



Truly, we don't know what the future holds.

On August 4, 2015 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 'accidently' released heavy-metal laden contaminated water from the abandoned Gold King Mine into the flow of the Animas River in southwestern Colorado. The warning to the people and communities down river was not given until the next day, when world went out to the immediate communities in Colorado, then later to the state of New Mexico. A formal acknowledgement of the river contamination disaster was finally admitted four days later by the EPA when the federal entity began a series of public meetings.

As an Indigenous citizen of the area and a member of the Eastern Navajo Nation in New Mexico I watched in alarm to what occurred.  For the Animas River and San Juan river are were my Dine' people have 'converged' for prayer, ceremony and celebration for time immemorial. The water of these two rivers is embedded in the DNA code of the Indigenous people of this community.

As Indigenous peoples of the desert and mountain areas of the Four Corners community: the Dine' (Navajo), Ute, Apache and Pueblo all have a strong connection, the water. The Animas River has always played a major role in the cultural lives of the above mentioned tribal people. 'Water is Life,' as the Navajo express. If we have no water, we cannot nourish our physical bodies and too, if there is no water we cannot nourish our spiritual being.

As a Navajo person dwelling in the community of the San Juan Valley I grew up with water as a constant in my life. The two rivers that flow through Farmington, New Mexico are the 'life blood' of the those that live there. It is true that all people need water, so please do not take offense when I say that water is about tribal ways. Water to the Indigenous desert person is about ritual and ceremony. Water is the life of the People and the waters of the Animas have deeply rooted cultural significance in our world.

The devastating effects of tainted toxic river water hurt many people in the communities of Durango, Aztec, Farmington, Upper Fruitland, Kirtland, Shiprock and beyond across the Utah areas of the San Juan River. And people whose business is about utilizing the Animas RIver took a deep loss in revenue as the contaminated waters were closed for about a week. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was the government entity who 'accidently' released age-old gold mine tailings via toxic heavy metal-laden water into the Animas River. And now, our river is toxic.

But, for the Navajo the waters from the San Juan River, a tributary of the Animas River is their life. The Navajo have been very blessed to be farmers and raise livestock in the San Juan Valley, many continue running generation-old family farms. And, many of these Navajo families perpetuate a rich spiritual tradition of ceremony. So, the toll the contamination of the river reached deeper that tangibly not having access clean water for the crops or the livestock, this dilemma have deeply affected the spiritual ways of being for many Navajo individuals.

You see, water truly is life. When you talk about Navajo beliefs and epistemology water is the beginning, it is everything. Without water the ritual, the ceremony is incomplete, therefore 'unbalanced' and 'hozho' cannot be perpetuated and the People (Navajo) are incomplete.

I have heard many in the community say, "The Navajo need to stop crying about the water..." and I want to scold them for saying such a thing. Though we Navajo have assimilated to American culture in our dress, work, language, we still hold on the most sacred beliefs of our culture. Acknowledgement of water is one of these steadfast beliefs, we often express "To' ei 'iina'" which loosely translates to "Water is Life." And, because of this mantra we as Dine' (Navajo) have balance in our lives.

Blessings.
-Venaya Yazzie-