If the church is dodging the tribal court's jurisdiction, then it is appropriate to expel the Christian church from the Navajo reservation today.
Our Navajo Nation leaders crucially need education on the role of the Christian church in the Navajo People's history. We need education on the role of the church in the genocide of Native Americans, especially Navajos, in American history. We need to learn about the Church's role in the legal history of the United States.
When we become educated and aware, we learn that these instances of genocide and racism, rooted in Christianity, continues and persists today. For instance, a Navajo woman in New Mexico claims racism in the Albuquerque Public Schools. ("Parents call for APS overhaul at first community forum"). A boy got his long hair cut by a school official. This was the practice in boarding schools when children were kidnapped from their Navajo families and their hair was cut off. The boarding school policy is based on the Christian Doctrine of Discovery. In Utah, a former Navajo Council delegate keeps facing challenges to his residency in attempt to keep him off the County Commission which involves a lot of the racial politics of southern Utah and Utah Dine. ("Judge rules that Greyeyes does indeed live in Utah, affirms Navajo Dems spot on San Juan County Commission"). The purpose of these challenges is to keep the commission majority white and LDS. This is not to mention the recent national incident of the Christian Covington boy staring down at a Native veteran activist Nathan Phillips. America has a problem with race rooted in Christianity.
The woman from New Mexico articulately puts it, "It's hard to heal when the knife is still in your back."
It is well known, and documented, that Christian churches have targeted Native Americans as a part of the colonization and assimilation process, to destroy the Native American language, culture and way of life, and replace that with English language, and Christianity.
If our tribal leaders have courage, they would learn about and acknowledge the church's negative impacts on our Dine people, and start removing their influence by banishing church officials from the reservation and vacating their land withdrawals, especially now, since the church refuses the law and order provided by our Window Rock District Court and Navajo Supreme Court. If the church is going to operate in the Navajo Nation, then it is only logical that the church accept the tribe's jurisdiction. It is not right that members of the Christian chuch sexually gratify themselves while harming our Dine People, and then walk away without consequences. Our Dine People are suffering this historical trauma and deal with it by resorting to alcohol, drugs, and violence.
