But even prior to the pandemic, the Navajo Nation was in a crisis of losing its traditional culture. The crisis came to head in the 2015 Navajo Presidential Election. Some tribal leaders tried to support the traditional values by putting in a requirement that our leaders speak Dine. However, the Navajo People themselves voted out that requirement by making it meaningless by giving it back to the people to decide by their election vote. Since then the Navajo People have mostly ignored and avoided this culture-loss issue, perhaps because the Navajo People don't want to deal with the loss of language and tradition within their own selves, families, and circles, and it is too hard to relearn. Perhaps the Dine people avoided this issue because their families have switched to other beliefs, or they engage in interracial relationships. After the election, it was apparent that we were losing our language and culture rapidly, but few people took any real measure to save our language and traditions. Meanwhile our elders, the people who are knowledgeable and carry the culture, have been dying at a fast rate, so fast that we are now losing endangered ceremonies to extinction. Like Ty Davis says, the Covid pandemic has exacerbated this trend.
The article goes further highlighting other medicine practitioners who blame colonization and the church. Medicine Man Avery Denny blames President Jonathan Nez for imposing a foreign religion on the Dine by selecting a pastor for a vice-president, having his Monday morning meetings with Church evangelicals, covering up and protecting the virus break-out from the church rally gatherings in Chilchinbito and other western agency chapters, giving exemptions to Church faith groups to meet during the lockdown, disrespecting Dine traditions by going to Israel to praise a religion foreign to our ancestors.
One Navajo Council delegate posted that the virus came to the Dine because President Nez ran to Hweeldi where he broke a major restriction set by our Dine ancestors to avoid Fort Sumner. Our people say thar our people, particularly Dine leaders, should respect our ancestors and our people and going to Hweeldi is plain disrespectful to the ancestors, elders, and people.
Currently, a lot of people are concerned that President Nez vetoed the Navajo Council's plan to spend the $600 million CARES funding because he claims that the Council's proposed plan was not comprehensive. People are particularly concerned that Vice-President Lizer has been meeting with a national evangelist. (Franklin Graham visits the Navajo Nation to offer support for COVID-19 response efforts) I hope that the President does not pay his Church buddies using the CARES funding. How much more can the Dine people tolerate to have their inherent beliefs trampled on by the most visible Navajo leader? Do the people care?
Overall, the article was a great article. It highlighted some strong issues that the Navajo are contending with during this world pandemic.
