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-
-Venaya Yazzie-
