Rebellious Acts

I am Red-Streak-Running-Through-the-Water (Ta’chii’nii) clan and I am born for the Bitter Water (To’dichiinii) clan.  In Dine' (Navajo), you are your mother’s clan and most of our clan names are tied to the earth.  The land that I am from in northern eastern Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation, is female.  

Black Mesa's Northern most face on the Navajo Reservation

From my home I can look out over a sagebrush covered valley and I can see pinion and juniper trees covering the hills and the mesas.  Across the valley from my home is Black Mesa, a long flat topped rise stretching many miles across.  I see the stark northern face of Black Mesa from my home and I know it extends many many miles south where it slowly tappers off, becoming the mesas that are home to the Hopi villages.  

We are taught that Black Mesa is a female and her head is Navajo Mountain, just north of my house.  Dine' creation stories echo the power and the beauty of this land; as women we learn that each of us is a reflection of this land - the female. 

A small section of Peabody Western Coal Company's Black Mesa mine operations

Yet on Black Mesa there exists one of the largest coal mining operations in North America.  As Dine' we say that this coal is the female's liver - an organ that helps to cleanse the body.  Peabody Coal Company has been mining her liver for over 40 years now, and they have been pumping up her life's blood - the ground water - to mix with the coal for transportation purposes.  

The destruction that this mine has caused has no doubt been both social and environmental. Yet the pain of this mine has also been cultural and physical; it has represented for decades the tearing apart of our women.  

As I participated in the "Indigenous Women's 2nd Symposium on the Environment and Reproductive Health" this past weekend in Chickaloon Village, Alaska, I was reminded of just how much this concept is real for Indigenous PeopleS today and in particular for Indigenous women.  As Indigenous women from throughout the world we sat together for 3 days and shared with one another the traumas our communities have survived and the fights we are still waging today.   Whether the assault on Indigenous women be through uninformed sterilization or domestic violence from our own men or the poisoning and degradation of our lands, the effects on our people as a whole have been strikingly the same.

During the weekend in Chickaloon the children from the tribal school performed for our group, singing songs and telling the stories of their people.  These children reminded us all that the continuation of our cultural knowledge is largely in the hands of Indigenous women.  The weight of our collective battle is made all the more severe in the United States by the imposed "blood quantum" regulations - an effective tool for "legally" decreasing our populations.  Without being said it rang clear throughout the gathering that the continued survival of our endangered populations is balancing on the reproductive health of Indigenous women. 

Non-Violent Direct Action Training in a community on Black Mesa - getting ready to protest in Denver, CO against the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and the Dept. of Interior

Therefore, it is no surprise that in Indigenous communities throughout the world we find women at the forefront of organizing grassroots campaigns to protect their communities.

Navajo and Hopi people protest in Denver, 2008

Yet, just as important in the process of seeking justice is the process of seeking healing.  While the destruction of the earth has in so many ways torn at the physical, mental and cultural being of Indigenous women, we must continue to emulate the path toward wellness by our everyday grounding in the land.  It is with this relationship in mind that come every spring I engage in rebellious acts: I plant.

 

Friends of mine planting corn in our community field