23rd Diné Studies Conference Program
Thursday to Saturday, June 22 - 24, 2023
Navajo Preparatory school, Farmington, New Mexico
THEMe: Diné Bikéyahdi Nihił Haz’ą́ągi Bee Nihidziil
Our place in the Diné homelands is our strength
Click here for PDF of Program
click on session titles to view recordings of the presentations
Please enjoy these words of inspiration from our keynote speakers. Their full talks are available below, in addition to the presentations of of dozens of other conference participants.
The theme for our 23rd Diné Studies Conference is Diné Bikéyahdi Nihił Haz’ą́ągi Bee Nihidziil -- Our place in the Diné homelands is our strength. We believe that as the land is transforming and we feel the impacts of climate change upon our homelands, it is imperative for us to strengthen our bond with the land. Diné k'ehjí, when we introduce ourselves, we always include where we are from. This act establishes our connection to the sacred mountains and to our people between them. It is upon us to continue to defend and protect our sacred homeland. It is also imperative that we continue to learn the history and stories of our homeland so we continue to honor this space. We provide a preliminary program overview online. A printed program will be available at our conference. If you have any changes or concerns, contact us at dine.studies@gmail.com
Opening Reception - Thursday, June 22, 2023
Navajo Preparatory School, Farmington, New Mexico
Click for Campus map
5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Opening Reception
Opening Prayer by Homer Hubbell, Board of Director
Land Acknowledgement by NPS Student
Introduction of Keynote’s Bio by Sam Slater, Secretary, DSCI
Keynote by Shawna Becenti, Head of Schools, Navajo Preparatory School
Location: Outside Tent next to Hogan
Reception catered by Waterbird Catering
Head of Schools Shawna Becenti’s clans are Táchii’nii (Red Running into the Water Clan), ‘Áshįįhi (Salt People Clan), Mą‘ii deeshgiizhinii (Coyote Pass Clan), Tł‘ógi (Hairy Ones or Weaver-Zia Clan). Mrs. Becenti was raised in Farmington, New Mexico, but has family ties to Tohatchi, NM, Crownpoint, NM, Ganado, AZ, and Parker, AZ. She is an alumna of Navajo Preparatory School and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education from University of New Mexico and a Master of School Administration degree from New Mexico State University. She is a proud mother of five children and grandmother of one grandson. Mrs. Becenti has been married twenty years to Kevin R. Becenti of Crownpoint, NM. Mrs. Becenti spent her entire adult years in the area of education. She taught social studies courses at Piedra Vista High School, Rocinante High School, and Navajo Preparatory School. She entered administration at Navajo Preparatory School as an Athletic Director and Discipline Officer. She spent the last ten years teaching at Kirtland Central High School. She spent three years as Kirtland High’s Assistant Principal and Athletic Director, and seven years as the Principal. Kirtland Central High School was named a Bronze Medal School in the US News Best High Schools under her leadership. Mrs. Becenti is honored and excited to return back home to where her educational journey began. She is an example of the school’s motto, Yideeskaago Naataanii.
Day 1 - Friday, June 23, 2023, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Opening Prayer by Mr. David Delmar, Vice President, DSCI
Welcome to the 23rd Conference by Adrian Lerma, President, DSCI
Introductions of our DSCI Board of Directors
Location: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Library, Navajo Preparatory School
Silent Auction Begins, BOSC Library
Continental Breakfast by Waterbird Catering
9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. - First Session Day 1
Track 1: Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F126 Biology
Bears Ears and Using National Monuments to Protect Sacred Lands by Dr. Angelo Baca (Diné) Rhode Island School of Design (History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences Department)
Environmental and conservation efforts to protect certain public lands have been at the forefront of collective efforts in recent year. This movement uses strategies to protect areas using designations such as national monuments, wilderness areas, and national parks. I will focus on how the Antiquities Act of 1906 is the primary lever which allowed this national monument designation that has been used among many Indigenous sacred and important places to be protected. One good example is the Bears Ears National Monument, an Indigenous-led initiative by the five-tribe coalition of the Diné, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe, Hopi, and Zuni. They successfully petitioned the Obama administration to make this National Monument to protect it from extractive industry, privatization, and continued legacy of land, air, and water contamination.
Tó éí iiná: Water is Life, The Dakota Access Pipeline, Navajo National Sovereignty, and McGirt and the Navajo Nation by W. Dale Weeks (Muscogee (Creek)), Texas A&M University Department of History
The recent Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) has caused many within the nation to question the security of tribal landholdings in the United States. Will the United States honor all treaties made with Native Nations, even though many of those treaties undermine state jurisdiction over land within their borders? Was the McGirt ruling simply an affirmation of the infamous Worcester v. Georgia (1832)? What is next for tribal governments across the United States? How does the McGirt ruling effect the treaty-protected land holdings of the Navajo Nation? My presentation will discuss how the Navajo Treaty of 1868 protects tribal land holdings in the wake of McGirt. My book, "Cherokee Civil Warrior: Chief John Ross and the Struggle for Tribal Sovereignty" (University of Oklahoma Press, 2023), follows the construction of U.S. Indian policy and the dismantling of the treaty making process. Now that the United States no longer relies on Senate-ratified treaties with tribal governments, how important are those signed in the nineteenth century?
Pipelines as Kin by Keely Toledo (Diné) Alumni of Princeton University (Class of 2022)
This presentation examines the role of kinship and resistance as a means of interrogating pipeline infrastructure in Native and Indigenous communities. From the fierce protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock in 2016 to the construction of the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project implemented by the Navajo Nation, this presentation grapples with kinship, solidarity, and the wellbeing of both human and other-than-human relations.
Track 2: Literature, Language, and Education
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F133 Chemistry
Roundtable: The Concept of Home in Diné Literature
Moderated by Michael Thompson (Muskoke Creek); Panelists: Lavelda Charley (Navajo) High School Teacher, Red Mesa, Arizona; Shaina Nez (Navajo) Faculty, Diné College; Jake Skeets (Navajo) Faculty, University of Oklahoma; Byron Aspaas (Navajo) Faculty, Colorado College
Diné writers and teachers will discuss the significance of Diné literature and its connection to the Four Sacred Mountains, especially the strategies and practices that explore the bond that so many Diné writers express with their homeland. Included on the panel will be four Diné educators and writers: Byron Aspaas, Lavelda Charley, Jake Skeets, and Shaina Nez. They represent teachers with a great deal of experience in both high school and college classrooms. They can speak thoughtfully about their own ideas for the many useful ways that Diné poetry, essays, blogs, stories, novels, zines, and nonfiction can assist Diné students in understanding the extraordinary significance of place in the Diné worldview.
This panel will be a spirited discussion about their personal perspectives on the theme Diné Bikéyahdi Nihił Haz’ą́ągi Bee Nihidziil , Our place in the Diné homelands is our strength. I am certain that they can offer guidance to other writers and teachers who want to teach Diné literature in a respectful and powerful way.
Track 3: History and Archaeology
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F209 Physics
The extraction of uranium across Diné Bikéyah ranks among the most toxic episodes in Diné history. Indeed, the extraction of uranium for the world's first atomic weapon and the subsequent race to create the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons is perhaps one of the most significant events in modern world history. The 500+ abandoned uranium mines on Diné lands are part of that history. Cultural resource managers believe the material culture and oral histories associated with the mining events are of great importance to local, state, and national histories, and are eligible for preservation under the National Historic Preservation Act. Since 2004, Dinétahdóó Cultural Resource Management has been documenting historic uranium sites and mining camps, and recording ethnographic accounts of the mining events across Diné Bikeyah. This session will feature a panel of Diné professionals, including archaeologists, student archaeologists, biologists, and ethnographers — who will discuss their work with the ongoing USEPA uranium remediation projects, share fascinating stories that highlight the women of uranium mining, and propose areas of future research.
Track 4: Culture, Community, and Change
Room: Hogan
A Hózhóóji (Blessing Way) Ceremonial Song by Homer Hubbell (Diné) and Lorene Legah (Diné)
One song from this ceremony will be presented. There will be a recording of the song, a translation of the song both in Diné and English. This information will be disseminated to participants with the intent to preserve the knowledge of this song for future generations.
Day 1 – 11 a.m. to 12: 15 p.m. - Second Session Day 1
Track 1: Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F126 Biology
Beginning in the winter of 1995, this project collected interviews and photographs of former uranium miners, their wives, widows and children. The work was funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ruth Mott Fund, Education Foundation of America, Ford Foundation and individual donations. The material collected resulted in a self-published book, an exhibit, and a video all under the title, “Memories Come to Us In the Rain and the Wind”. About 5,000 copies of the self-published book were distributed without charge to a majority to Navajo People who lived in the communities affected by uranium mining. The bilingual books were also used in grade school classrooms. Copies of the book were taken to Washington DC and distributed to congress as part of the successful campaign to reform the uranium miner compensation program. The exhibit toured nationally as well as on the Navajo Nation, including a show at the Navajo Nation Museum. Subsequently the work contributed to another book, published by the University of New Mexico, and several academic papers. The UNM volume led to participation in congressional hearings that resulted in some, but not enough, funding for remediation of abandoned mine sites. This session will feature several speakers involved in the original project and their thoughts about its value for Navajo uranium mining communities and the Navajo People more generally. An update on recent efforts to further reform the uranium miner compensation program for post 1971 miners will be presented.
Track 2: Literature, Language, and Education
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F133 Chemistry
Roundtable Panel: A Celebration of Diné Literature
Panelists: Esther G. Belin, Diné, poet; Tina Deschenie, Diné, writer/poet; Blackhorse Mitchell, Diné, writer/poet; Luci Tapahonso, Diné, writer/poet; Jeff Berglund, non-Indigenous, Professor of English, Northern Arizona University; Connie A. Jacobs, non-Indigenous, Emerita Professor of English, San Juan College; Anthony K. Webster, non-Indigenous, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas
This panel, featuring four Diné authors and four editors, celebrates The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature (U of AZ P, 2021), the first of its kinds to draw together a rich historical and contemporary range of Diné authors. The main focus of the roundtable will feature readings and a discussion by Esther Belin, Tina Deschenie, Blackhorse Mitchell, and Luci Tapahonso. After brief readings from published or new work, the book’s editors will facilitate a discussion that focuses on the still emerging and diverse literary tradition of Diné writing. Our discussion will foreground how putting Diné writers next to Diné writer can influence the ways that literature—a social production influenced by a network of forces—is interpreted. In brief introductions and during the Q & A, the editors will discuss the process of creating this book, issues related to the making of a tribal literary canon, one influenced and shaped by deep and long-running creative and expressive traditions.
Track 3: History and Archaeology
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F209 Physics
Roundtable Panel: Diné dóó Hane’: Voices and Stories of School, Land, and Home in Diné Bikéyah
Farina King (Diné), University of Oklahoma; Shaina A. Nez (Diné), Diné College; Wendy S. Greyeyes (Diné), University of New Mexico; Davina Two Bears (Diné), Swarthmore College; Michelle L. Hale (Laguna, Chippewa, Odawa, and a citizen of Navajo Nation), Arizona State University
This panel features the connections of Diné women scholars’ work with Diné stories, oral histories, and memories of places and landscapes in Diné Bikéyah. Farina King, Davina Two Bears, and Wendy Greyeyes highlight their respective works with Diné school oral histories and memories. Greyeyes is part of a major initiative with her alma mater, the Navajo Preparatory School, while Two Bears traces the origins and significance of the Little Singer School of her home community of Birdsprings. King refocuses oral history practice on Diné bahane’ and Diné approaches to talk about traumatic memories such as boarding schools and life experiences at the Tuba City Boarding School. Shaina Nez discusses Indigenous Ecopoetry about Diné Bikéyah, and Michelle Hale addresses how storytelling shapes the visioning process when Diné communities come together to do planning work for community development. This panel considers how Diné generations reflect, remember and share stories, memories, sorrow, and humor as they envision the future of their posterity and homelands.
Track 4: Culture, Community, and Change
Room: Hogan
Ashii'- Ashiinii-Salt: Haaji? What do we know about Traditional Salt Teachings by Richard M. Begay
Ashii' is a sacred resource that is found at multiple places throughout the southwest. Old teachings tell you where to get, how to collect, and how to use it. Most people rely on commercial markets for salt now and give little thought about how our people once collected salt. Additionally, how did the Salt People, Ashiinii, come about? This presentation will review the traditions of salt gathering and will invite the audience to participate by sharing their stories. Information from the archaeological and sacred places database at Navajo Nation's Heritage and Historic Preservation Department will supplement my discussion.
Day 1 - 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. - LUNCH KEYNOTE
Introduction of Keynote by Adrian Lerma, President, DSCI
Location: Outside Tent next to Hogan
Lunch Boxes by Waterbird Catering
Nia Francisco is Tł’ááshchí’í born for ‘Áshįįhí; her maternal grandparents are the Kinyaa’áanii and her paternal grandparents are the Ta’neeszahnii. She has published two books of poetry: Blue Horses for Navajo Women (1988) and Carried Away by the Black River (1994). She has also co-edited with Anna Lee Walters “Navajo Traditional Knowledge” in The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life (1977). Francisco has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as recognition from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. She has taught at the Navajo Community College in Shiprock, New Mexico, served as an educator around the Navajo Nation, and worked in Tribal Family Services, Division of Social Services, for about twelve years.
Day 1 - 1:45 p.m. to 3 p.m. - Session 3 Day 1
Track 1: Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F126 Biology
Navajo Natural Heritage Program Panelists: Leanna Begay, Navajo, Program Director; Jesse Mike, Navajo, Forester; Janelle Josea, Navajo, Cultural Plants Coordinator; Nora Ventrella, Botanist; Brent Powers, Zoologist; Riley Etcitty, Navajo, Biologist; Dondi Begay, Navajo, Field Technician
The Navajo Natural Heritage Program’s (NNHP) mission is to collect, manage and disseminate biological and ecological information for land-use planning to promote the conservation of biological diversity of the Navajo Nation. Established in 1984 under the Navajo Department of Fish and Wildlife, NNHP remains devoted to safeguarding biological resources in the Navajo Nation through the annual monitoring and management of threatened species and sensitive habitats. In 2018, the Diné Native Plants Program (DNPP) was founded as the restoration branch of NNHP to revitalize riparian and rangeland ecosystems in the Navajo Nation. DNPP collects native plant seeds from across the Navajo Nation and grows native plants for seed increase and restoration purposes. DNPP activities overlap with NNHP activities through the active conservation of wildlife habitat, and by preserving traditional knowledge shared through public outreach and workshops. The panel will conclude with an interactive activity and a Q&A session for the audience.
Track 2: Literature, Language, and Education
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F133 Chemistry
Panelists: Jeff Burgland, Professor, Department of English, Northern Arizona University; Esther Belin, Diné, Lecturer, Native American & Indigenous Studies, Fort Lewis College; Jerome Clark, Diné, Assistant Professor, The School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, Arizona State University; Cj Jackson (they/them), Diné, PhD candidate, Department of English, University of California, Riverside
This panel brings together four scholars who work on Diné literature in the context of English Studies and Indigenous Studies. Focusing on a diverse range of literature—early writing by children at boarding schools in Tohatchi, to poetry by Jake Skeets and Esther Belin, to Ramona Emerson’s award-winning novel, Shutter—each panelist contributes to a deeper understanding of the ways that Diné writers use language and literary forms to represent complex relationships with place and culture, including an understanding of the self in relationship to this inheritance.
Track 3: History and Archaeology
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F209 Physics
Navajo History and Land–Archives on the Land and in the Library
Diné Resistance in the Livestock Reduction Era: The Solon Kimball Papers by Dr. Jennifer Denetdale (Diné), University of New Mexico
The livestock reductions of the 1930s and 40s in Diné history is often considered as catastrophic as the Long Walk of the mid-nineteenth century. For the Diné, the catastrophe of US Indian Commissioner John Coller’s draconian policy to reduce livestock by fifty percent led to transformations across multiple layers of society, including the establishment of a democratic style government, the introduction of wage economy and intensified migration off Navajoland in search of sustainable life. Collier based his policies upon decades of Indian agent reports that warned of severe environmental conditions and depleted land, which was blamed on livestock. Collier immediately met resistance from Diné who saw reduction as a threat to their way of life. My preliminary of livestock era documents indicate that Collier’s livestock reduction policies were American progressive reforms intended to remake Diné into modern citizens of their own nation and of the American nation. This presentation will explore Sociologist Solon Toothraker Kimball’s papers as the basis for what we might learn about Diné traditions of resistance, rather than focusing on scholars who characterized this era as change and transition. Kimball was employed by the Navajo Service to report to federal officials Navajo responses to livestock reduction. What might Kimball’s papers tell us about Diné resistance to livestock reduction?
1974 Diné Relocation by Dr. Aresta Tsosie-Paddock (Navajo), University of Arizona, Department of American Indian Studies and Linguistics
The Navajo Hopi Resettlement Act of 1974 (Act of 1974) has marginalized a population base that continues to experience landlessness despite available lands designed to offset the loss of relocatee’s customary lands. The Act has created a complex maze of intergenerational displacement from lands within the four sacred mountains through the “scorch the earth” method of removal and relocation. Removal continues to divest the transmission of varied traditional knowledge and practices including language as well as displacement of familial roles based on K’é and K’éí through the fracturing of families and relatives. One distinct population base are the children of relocation born before the passage of the 1974 law and were minor dependents who relocated along with their parent(s) to urban areas or to Navajo Nation communities serving as host communities. The children of relocation lacked any voice in being relocated and, today, experience a lack of substantive legal recourse. The Land-Centered Connectivity Paradigm provides a framework that lands within the four sacred mountains is central to Diné personhood thus creating place and spaces to engage in language, family, and community sacred history, participate or practice various ceremonial cycles such as planting thus creating a livelihood. Force relocation produced through the Act of 1974 created not only systemic displacement from lands but has created internal and external cultural and land inequality.
Track 4: Culture, Community, and Change
Room: Hogan
Panelists: Michelle L. Hale, Diné , Laguna, Chippewa, Odawa, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University, American Indian Studies; Jose-Benito Rosales Chavez, Arizona State University, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning; Jonathan Davis, Arizona State University, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
This panel offers a “show and tell” of how GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and other spatial analysis tools can be tailored for use in community planning and economic development work across the Navajo Nation. Jonathan Davis will demonstrate how GeoDesign was used to facilitate brainstorming and consensus-building at Dilkon and LeChee chapters as community members worked to consider new infrastructure projects and to find ways to strategically plan for future growth and development. Jose-Benito Rosales Chavez will talk about his Mexico City work that documents the impact of street food stands. Rosales Chavez shows how spatial analyses can assess the density and distribution of the food stands and how interviews document motivations and experiences of everyone. Rosales Chavez and Hale were awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to modify the methods used in the Mexico City work for the purpose of studying Navajo food stands at reservation flea markets and fairs in Shiprock, NM and Window Rock and Tuba City, AZ in 2024. The goals are to document food stand density and distribution and to interview Diné vendors and customers to understand the economic and cultural impact of what is bought, sold and experienced at reservation informal markets.
Day 1 - 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. - Session 4
Track 1: Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F126 Biology
Panelists: Teresa Montoya (Diné), University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology; Andrew Curley (Diné), University of Arizona, School of Geography, Development & Environment; Dana Powell, Appalachian State University, Department of Anthropology
Following the completion of a series of online workshops organized around core themes of “Environmental Toxicity and Energy Transition” on the Navajo Nation, this panel discussion will share our preliminary findings on this timely topic. This project is the result of a multi-year collaboration between three scholars, Andrew Curley (Diné, University of Arizona), Teresa Montoya (Diné, University of Chicago), and Dana Powell (Appalachian State University) who are currently working on synthesizing the stories and knowledge shared by Diné participants for appropriate distribution back to the Navajo Nation. Topics of particular importance raised by workshop participants—ranging from Diné grassroots organizers, political officials, legal practitioners, and local scholars—includes the roles of local governance and tribal sovereignty in energy transition, challenges of addressing water security and public health disparity, environmental remediation and land stewardship, and the potential for local, regenerative economies in our communities. Central to these overlapping and urgent concerns is the prioritization of Diné knowledge and relationship to homelands. In this forum, we will offer a summary of the key concerns and questions that emerged from the four-part workshop dialogues and invite conference attendees at Diné Studies to respond and offer feedback on what homeland-centered research might mean for communities defining energy transition and environmental justice in the Navajo Nation moving forward.
Track 2: Literature, Language, and Education
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F133 Chemistry
Mapping Land through Diné Poetry by Jake Skeets (Diné), University of Oklahoma
This paper considers Diné Bikéyah conceptually through two matrix points: form and memory. Form is realized here as a kind of scaffolding that orients design and compositional processes. Memory, through the scope of this essay, is positioned in relation to space and time. The essay examines approaches to land as form and land as memory within Diné poetry; exploring the critical interventions made by Diné poets that shine light on our relationship with land itself. In providing a path toward a critical Diné poetics, we can look to poets who make these critical interventions possible as the poem itself becomes a site for the interrogation of language and it is through language that we build and code our realities. This essay surveys Diné poetries and the way it has intervened in our relationship with land in the hopes that it will trigger further interventions into the way land is mapped within a variety of disciplines and professions. After all, land exists everywhere, and it has an innate capacity to inform the various processes of Diné and non-Diné communities globally. This is a push to redefine land as a matter of the domestic and not part of the "frontier" as it exists in the American Dream, which views the frontier, the savage "out there," as a site for extraction and destruction.
From Darkness to Light: Poetry and Short Stories by Aretha Matt (Diné), University of New Mexico-Gallup, English Department
The poems are about my upbringing and about my homeland. The themes in my poetry and short stories include living on the reservation, farming, family gatherings, pinon picking, living away from the Navajo reservation and missing the homeland, border towns, and being and feeling at home. Some of the poems are published in Red Mesa Review and one micro essay is published in an anthology, Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World. I am currently working on a book of poetry and short stories, with the working title, From Darkness to Light, which I hope to publish through Sun Tracks, UA Press by the end of the year. I will read some of the poems and short stories that I am currently preparing for the book.
Diné Bizaad: Our Environment Shapes Our Language by Melvatha R. Chee (Diné), University of New Mexico, Department of Linguistics
The Diné framework of Ałch’į’ Silá is a representation of how the Diné mind organizes its world which is reflected in the formation of the Navajo verb. Therefore, it can be proposed that the organization of the Diné world shapes Diné Bizaad. From this perspective, we can see and understand how language and culture are tightly intertwined. By extension, we see that land and language are connected. The Diné verb complex can be explained by applying the concept of Ałch’į’ Silá. The Ałch’į’ Silá framework is present in Diné prayers and songs, and now in the verb word. This work allows us to better process and understand foreign concepts that otherwise appear complex (e.g., linguistics). Functional and cognitive approaches to linguistics highlight the importance of sociocultural influences on language use and structure. The application of the Diné way of knowing enhances linguistic work with culturally informed connections that is valuable because it empowers the community. A concept like Ałch’į’ Silá allows the Diné community to relate to, connect with, and understand linguistic work because it is expressed through shared cultural knowledge.
The Navajo verb construction expresses actions capturing in a single word, an entire event. As a result, the Diné verb is often described as complex. By applying a Diné framework to the formation of the verb construction, a culturally relevant and a unique understanding emerges. Once this is established the Diné verb constructions will then be deconstructed and constructed and explained using natural entities for the participant to understand the structure. This work may have positive implications for classrooms, Diné child language studies, second language learning, and to ultimately revitalize language within ourselves. Most importantly, culturally informed work is crucial when giving back to the community.
Track 3: History and Archaeology
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F209 Physics
Roundtable Panel: Local Land Use Planning: Challenges of Balancing Community Interests
Panelists: Faith Roessel (Navajo), Secretary, Round Rock Chapter Community Land Use Planning Committee and local committee members
Navajo Law under the Local Governance Act authorizes every chapter to establish a community land use planning committee (CLUPC) which is responsible for producing community land use plans that are updated every five years. These plans detail a communities' needs, wants and collective vision for its residents. They can include the development of natural resources and alternative forms of energy, convenience stores, laundromats, recreation areas, bike trails, playgrounds, educational needs, law enforcement, the preservation of historic sites and cultural resources, and even the identity of the community itself. How to balance these many diverging, competing, and intersecting visions is the challenge CLUPCs face across the Navajo Nation. This panel will share the experiences and progress of one such chapter, Round Rock, and its CLUPC and include other partners and stakeholders. This panel will share their views of on the ground functioning of Navajo tribal government at the most local level, describe challenges in those structures, and share the relative solutions Round Rock leaders, community members, and partners are developing to articulate their community's future.
Track 4: Culture, Community, and Change
Room: Hogan
Navajo weaving, history, and creative sovereignty
Global Integration and Subsistence Insecurity: Tracing the Links Between Navajo Impoverishment and Settler Colonialism Abetted by Government Policies by Kathy M’closkey, Department of Sociology and Criminology
During the 2018 Conference, my paper emphasized how free trade in carpet wool triggered the transformation of the wearing blanket into a rug when all classes of imported wool from thirty countries flooded the US during Democrat Grover Cleveland’s presidency. In 1897, a Republican administration imposed a split tariff, resulting in protection for fine clothing wools, Classes I and II, but leaving carpet wools, Class III, on the duty-free list. The push was on for government technocrats to breed-up Navajo “scrub” stock to national market standards. By 1916, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells celebrated the progress made by growers. He proclaimed that Diné were “the greatest pastoral people of the aboriginal Americans… and… “the Indian will…become a great factor in the world’s wool market” (RCIA 1916:30). Within two decades, Diné subsistence was shattered when technocrats swarmed the reservation, destroyed herds, and targeting churros. Today’s presentation documents a portion of the history of colonial impacts absent from the published record.
We Are Alive: Restoring Meaning and Life to Navajo Weavings by Larissa Nez (Diné), UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies, PhD Student
The history of Indigenous people includes their creation stories from which they gain the strength and wisdom necessary to face the obstacles and challenges of capitalism and colonialism enabled through imperial white supremacy. These creation stories also provide vital knowledge for sustaining our life ways and advancing them forward into the future. This analytical close reading will explore Navajo weaving as an artistic practice that is connected to Navajo cosmology as told through Navajo creation stories. Specifically, how has scholarly engagement with Navajo weavings, as art and as a practice, disregarded the history of Navajo weaving practices, especially its connection to our creation stories? Specifically, I will focus on weavings in the connection at Museum of Indian Art and Culture in Santa Fe, NM, the Navajo Nation Museum, and the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, NJ. I am interested in showing how these weavings illuminate the ways early twentieth century capitalist economies in the Southwest violently erased and exploited Navajo weaver, disfigures creative and cultural meanings associated with weavings, and how this history impacts present day understandings of weavings.
Sonic Sovereignties: : Strengthening Diné Identity Through Song and Sound by Renata Yazzie (Diné)
Native Nations in the United States operate as, “sovereign nations within a sovereign nation”.While this definition is ambiguous, it grants each federally-recognized tribal community the ability to act as a sovereign nation—but with exceptions. Modes of sovereignty in Indigenous communities have come to extend sovereignty to not only human beings but also include an array of non-human entities. This paper situates Diné songs and sounds, specifically, as sovereign entities with ties of kinship to land, people and beyond. Rather than articulating what makes Diné songs and sounds Diné, through a lens of Western music theory and analysis, this approach draws from Lloyd L. Lee’s (2020) proposed six identity markers, essential to understanding the past, present and future elements of Diné life. Using these markers as a guide, I establish Diné songs and sounds as Diné through essential historical, philosophical, and linguistic contexts that emphasize listening and participation in song and sound, as acts of kinship. As Diné people, our identity is rooted in k’é and respecting the protocols asked of us by means of k’é. Ultimately, as we engage through k’é with the sonic worlds around us, we are constantly creating spaces of listening or “sound territories” where Diné identities are formed, strengthened and preserved. Thus, Dinétah can prescribe an aural space where Diné identities are exercised and where Diné people can go to retrospectively and prospectively engage with relatives from the past, present and future.
Day 1 - 4:30 p.m.
Dinner on your own
Day 2 - Saturday, June 24, 2023, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Day 2 - 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Introduction and Moderator, Dr. Wendy S. Greyeyes
Plenary Panel on Land “The Future of Navajo Economy and our Navajo Lands”
Location: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Library
Continental Breakfast by Waterbird Catering
Day 2 - 9:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. - fifth Session
Track 1: Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F126 Biology
Climate Change and Restoring Relations
Helium Extraction Vetoed, Now Hydrogen Proposed by Eleanor Smith (Navajo), To' Nizhoni Ani' and Christina Morris, Navajo, T'iis Nazbas Collaborative Coalition
An interactive discussion of environmental justice issues of our T'iis Nazbas community experience. The presentation will include articles published in The Navajo Times, specifically, “Navajo Nation Backs Enterprise’s Pursuit of Economic Development Amid Public Concern: Proposed Helium Extraction Disrupts T’iis Názbąs Community”. "For almost a century the Navajo Nation has capitalized on revenue generated by fossil fuel companies that have funded the Nation’s government. With the closure of the Navajo Generating Station back in 2019, the largest coal fired power plant in the Southwest, followed by the closure of the San Juan Generating Station and now the imminent closure of the Four Corners Power Plant, our Nation is witnessing the end of an economic pillar of our Tribe. Thus far, our Navajo leadership has been unsuccessful in creating a just and equitable transition to a more sustainable, clean energy initiative, including diversifying into other economic development sectors, that would address our struggling economy.
Coping with the Climate Crisis on our lands, homes, and in our minds by Mary Hasbah Roessel (Diné), MD, Board Certified in Psychiatry, Groundswell Climate Collective and Joe Neidhardt, MD, Board Certified in Psychiatry; Groundswell Climate Collective
Climate disruption is upon us. We will provide a dialogue centered from a Diné strength-based focus, including both western science and Diné culture. The two presenters have provided courses and lectures discussing ways Indigenous knowledges can lead the way forward through the climate disruption. We offer our expertise in this area from the perspectives of two psychiatric medical doctors to focus on a multifaceted approach in addressing this impact on the Diné homelands. We will briefly review the climate disruption impacts on the Diné Nation and around the world. We will discuss ways of mitigating and adapting to this crisis. We will explore ways in doing this from the perspective of the Diné sacred homelands, local communities, families and within your personal life. Our presentation will include the significance of our connection to our sacred mountains that is the foundation in implementing reciprocity, and K’é or kinship relationships between the natural world and the cosmos. We will introduce how restoring traditional agricultural methods can manage the increasing levels of CO2.
Restoring Tsé Bitʼaʼí, Honoring Hózhǫ́ by Renae Watchman (Diné & Tsalagi), McMaster University, Indigenous Studies
In my long-term work, I analyze Tsé Bitʼaʼí (Shiprock Peak) as a literal site, a metaphor, and a theoretical construct. My maternal grandmother shared the stories of Tsé Bitʼaʼí, which explained the beauty of the sentinel and highlighted her historical and cultural knowledge of our homelands. In 2011, I met citizens from the Tsuut’ina First Nation, a Dene community near Calgary, Alberta in Treaty 7. They shared origin stories of Tsé Bitʼaʼí that have been preserved in their oral histories. Because of Tsé Bitʼaʼí’s grandeur and beauty, Tsé Bitʼaʼí also appears on the big screen, and many of the visual stories told are from non-Diné perspectives, amounting to erasure, dislocation, and recolonization. I propose to offer a reading from my long-term project about centering the Diné philosophy of hózhǫ́, while also advocating the restoration of Tsé Bit’a’í by way of legislation.
Track 2: Literature, Language, and Education
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F133 Chemistry
Navajo Education – Teaching the Land and the Language
Indigenous STEAM and SEL Programs: Land-Based Education in Elementary Schools by Dr. Oliver Tapaha (Diné/Navajo), Red Mesa Unified School District; Ms. Lynholly Bartolabac, Filipino, Red Mesa Unified School District; Ms. Shirley Herder, Dine'/Navajo, Red Mesa Unified School District
At the elementary school level, the principal and teaching staff collaborated to design and implement Indigenous land-based education programs during Friday Academies. This workshop will introduce participants to the planning techniques of implementing a culture-centered land-based education program. During the 2021-22 school year, the two elementary schools in the district provided Friday Indigenous STEAM Academies through hands-on and culturally responsive STEAM projects utilizing ideas from the I-STEAM program https://indigenoussteam.org/. STEAM-based project topics included, “Perspectives on Place and Land,” “Our Relationship with Water,” and “Native Plant Life.” The purpose of this program was to engage students in land-based learning by identifying and finding innovation solutions to address environmental issues in the Dine community and teaching students to be good steward of the land.
Looking at the Skies: Angling with the STARR by Jessica Benally (Navajo Nation), University of California, Berkeley, Science and Mathematics Education, Ph.D. Student
Being of the land and for the land, Indigenous mathematics is grounded in embodied epistemology, which could hold keys for all U.S. students’ mathematics education. And yet colonization, through the systematic imposition of State-mandated mathematics curriculum, elides the Indigenous perspective. In an effort to revitalize land-based ethnomathematical practices, this design-based research, framed around Diné cosmology, brings a novel astronomical experience for students to be immersed in angle creation and measurement. Student pairs will navigate in a simulated planetarium that occasions communications about angles, as they traverse along a constellation. Using ethnographic analysis, the study investigates the discursive co-construction of situated mathematics.
Diné Language Mentor-Apprentice Experiment by Louise Benally (Diné) and Mary Whitehair-Frazier (Diné), President, Diné Language Teachers Association
DLTA will present results of our experiment in the use of the MAP for learning Diné Language, the pros- and cons-. With a small grant received from the WKK Foundation in July of 2020, DLTA embarked on a Diné language revitalization pilot project, using the Mentor-Apprentice Program (MAP) approach for adult and young adult Diné people. The project utilized a natural but structured approach to learning or increasing fluency in the heritage language in the home and community through one-on-one, in-person and distance sessions. We will introduce MAP using a PowerPoint presentation sharing our adventures and pitfalls during two pilot stages and recommendations for expansion.
Track 3: History and Archaeology
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F209 Physics
Historic Preservation and Federal lands
The Navajo Presence at the Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument by Richard M. Begay (Diné) and Erik Stanfield, Anthropologist, Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation Department
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) was created in 1996, yet very few Navajo people aware of it, and many are less aware of the Navajo presence in this general area. We will discuss the creation of the monument and its current activities and projects. We will focus our presentation on the Navajo presence using archaeological and ethnographic information. In addition we hope to engage with the audience to identify additional information such as place names, family/community stories of living or traveling up to this area as a way for NNHHPD to advocate for consultation with Bureau of Land Management to protect and manage archaeological and natural resources.
What's Going on at Shaash Jaa (Bears Ears) by Richard M. Begay (Diné) and Olsen John (Navajo), Archaeologist, NNHHPD
The Bears Ears National Monument was created in 2016 and the Navajo Nation has been involved with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition (BEITC) and the Bears Ears Commission (BEC) from the beginning. We will discuss the history of the Navajo Nation's overall involvement with the Bears Ears Monument including current projects as a way to engage the Navajo public on the culturally important landscape.
Resource Monitoring in Glen and Grand Canyons: Creating Balance in the Science of Land Management by Erik Stanfield, Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation; Jojo Matson; Tim Begay; Richard Begay
The Navajo Nation is collaborating with the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP) to create a resource monitoring program based on traditional cultural values and knowledge to direct management decisions of Glen Canyon Dam operations. The Tribe has participated in the management and protection of the Grand Canyon since the early 1990’s through the GCDAMP, largely with an archeological focus. The Canyon regions contain vast resources which the Navajo people depend on for sustaining life and cultural continuity, so access to and education on culturally significant resources within the Canyons is vital to strengthening and reviving traditional practices and knowledge. In 2023, the Navajo people continue to be concerned with the health of the Colorado River ecosystem and after years of challenges related to invasive species, hydro-power generation constraints, and climate change, it is important as ever to carefully consider participation in the program.
Track 4: Culture, Community, and Change
Room: Hogan
Kinship, identity, leadership, and the Land
Land Relationship by Chili Yazzie (Diné)
Relationship to Land - There are two concepts of relationship to land, one is the belief that one can own the land, by whatever rationale, with a piece of paper to ‘prove’ land ownership. Land deeds, permits and leases are based on American law. The roots of Navajo government and the laws that talk about land relationship stem to 1923 when the federal government imposed a foreign way of governance on us with strange ideas of land ownership. The new government was formed, so a lease could be given to an oilman to develop oil in the Shiprock area. We did not consent to be governed by this foreign system; it was imposed. The venerated Treaty of 1868 was “X-ed”,signed by an X, by our Tribal headmen so the people could come home. There will always be the question of whether our Chiefs knew and understood the language and intent of the Treaty. Nonetheless the Treaty was signed, with it came the imposition of foreign concepts of land relationship. Our ancestors were perplexed wondering how one could own land with land boundaries. The reality of, we belonging to our Earth Mother and our Earth Mother belonging to us is not altered by Navajo or American law. It is not possible. This is our understanding, our belief. The person or government that thinks otherwise and intrudes on this relationship and takes action to harm our Earth Mother is wrong. We, the Water Protectors and Earth Defenders are not wrong in defending our Earth Mother. Our position is absolute.
Servant Leadership & Advocacy: The Need for a Shifted Conceptualization of Ownership by Michelle Rose Whitstone (Diné), University of Saskatchewan, Educational Administration PhD program
Ownership is a foreign concept when it comes to land, water, air, and sunlight. Yet Indigenous, First Nations, and Aboriginal communities worldwide continue to grapple with intergenerational trauma while having to tolerate ongoing instances of neocolonial sites of struggle without so much as a consideration for Indigenous ways of being which existed pre-Contact; in times immemorial. The land is our language and our mother. When we, as Indigenous First Peoples speak, we prefer to speak our Mother Tongue, which is our connection to land/environment as the self. With these essential connections we can sustain our existence; with respect to our environment. There is a need for the co-creation of alternative conceptualizations of advocacy that can heal the land, as it connected to everything and everyone; as seen through Indigenous, First Nations, Metis and Aboriginal views. This process can only commence through a shifted lens, through TribalCrit (Brayboy, 2005) for instance, which claims a pervasive-invasive colonialist infrastructure upon which Indigenous people are asked to decolonize or Indigenize curricula to advocate on behalf of their next seven generations. How this is equitable, remains to be seen as any considerations for alternative paradigms, seems impossible if those in leadership continue to tread the gutters, only to reaffirm neocolonial frameworks. It is high time we find ways to frame cultural performativity (Smith, 2021) through community-level, kaupapa research (Smith, 2021).
Nihikéyah and the People by Lloyd L. Lee (Diné), University of New Mexico, Native American Studies Department
Nihikéyah is the foundation of Diné people, their identities, and way of life. The Navajo homeland protects, guides, and grounds us to this world. The people's identity is interwoven with the homeland. This interlaced way of life demonstrates what is means to be Diné and a citizen of Navajo Nation. Nihikéyah represents a distinct way of life and history. This understanding embodies the meaning, love, and concerns for the homeland and the future of the people. This paper will discuss the history, meaning, and future implications of nihikéyah and the people.
Day 2 - 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. - Sixth Session
Track 1: Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F126 Biology
Navajo Farming and Water Futures
Program planning and evaluation planning for the Nurturing Plants Program: Using Innovative Hydroponics Technology to Connect Rural Navajo Families to Contemporary Food Systems by Breanna Lameman (Diné), Navajo Ethno-Agriculture
As climate change and other environmental stressors are amplifying in the Navajo Nation and impacting the land and water, the production of food is becoming more critical. The Diné People have vital connections to the land, water, and foodways that are being threatened by climate change and colonization that has led to the Navajo Nation’s high food insecurity rate. To address these issues, a partnership was created with Navajo-Ethno Agriculture and Diné Introspective, Inc, aimed to create a program plan and evaluation plan that is culturally rooted that upholds and values Navajo culture and practices to revitalize and reclaim traditional foods and leafy greens hydroponically while being environmental conscious and acknowledging and addressing climate change. This report allowed for program improvement and designing a hydroponic program to increase revitalization of Diné food systems and Diné knowledge.
Navajo Nation Farming Suitability Analysis using GIS and Raster Data by Elijah Allan (Diné), Self-employed
GIS data and analyses are being used by many government entities to help them plan best for future developments. Benefits of using GIS data and analysis for development projects include advising organizations, reducing costs, and maximizing the services they deliver. A Navajo Nation-wide farming suitability map will be valuable for any government organization or non-government organization of the Navajo Nation looking to expand farming on the Navajo Nation, which is another component of economic development. It will also help organizations looking to develop a better Navajo Nation wide food system. The Navajo Nation food system is currently does not have adequate information to support itself as an absolute sovereign nation according to the The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic in partnership with Community Outreach & Patient Empowerment and the Navajo Nation. The people and political leaders have expressed a desire to enhance a system to support ourselves.. The Navajo Nation land department does not provide any public GIS data detailing how best to assist current farmers or help expand/develop more Navajo citizen owned and operated farms.
The overall goal of this project was to do a raster reclass and overlay analysis of the following data: Land Cover, Precipitation, Elevation, Slope, and Soil – Available Water Storage 0-50cm (AWS0-50cm), to show a spatial projection of farming suitability on the Navajo Nation. This project aimed to continue and refine on Emily Piltch’s farming suitability work by expanding it to all of the Navajo Nation, including the satellite trust lands and by adding Soil Available Water Storage data to the overlay analysis.
Enriching Tribal Communities to Grow in Sustainability and Beauty by Melinda S. O’Daniel (Apache/Navajo), Seeds of Harmony, Inc. and Wayne O'Daniel, (Navajo/Apache/Cherokee), Seeds of Harmony, Inc.
The presentation will give an overview of the organization, Seeds of Harmony, Inc. which was incorporated in 2021, with a mission is to care for the Earth, care for the people and share the bounty. We will achieve this by empowering our tribal communities to practice and maintain a sustainable and healthy way of life while learning from and teaching about our local ecosystems as well as fostering respect and care for our watersheds. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that found a place to be a tool for rural tribal communities to learn and advocate for strategies that may help mitigate the threats of our changing planet. A main goal is water and food security. One strategy is honoring our water by initiating a community-based watershed plan for the Lukachukai Creek watershed which will promote ownership of our watersheds and allow for translational opportunities for watershed management along with pursuing the designation under the Navajo Nation Clean Water Act as a "Unique Water of the Navajo Nation". A part of the plan is to implement water harvesting strategies that will increase water infiltration to the land and capturing runoff to be used beneficially. Further, another major component is to build a farm that will teach and demonstrate regenerative and holistic methods of building the soil.
Track 2: Literature, Language, and Education
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F133 Chemistry
Native American identity is fluid, complex, and like all identities, socially constructed. Today, social conceptions of Indigeneity are increasingly playing out in genomics discourses. Genomics does not adequately define Native American identity for many reasons, so genomics discourse around this identity is troubling. As Native identity is increasingly defined by widely accessible genomic technologies, Native Americans continue to have alternatively distinct ways of identifying and belonging. This project discusses with a sample of Native American young people their perspectives on genomics and Native American identity. Sharing Circles, an Indigenous centered approach to understand the stories of Native Americans, were conducted with 18 self-identified Native American students and staff at the University of Oklahoma. Sharing Circles as an alternative to focus groups works to decolonize methodological spaces by being both culturally sensitive and relevant. The perspectives of these young people should also work to decolonize popular understandings of what Native American identity is and is not. The Sharing Circles events resulted in rich discussions that convey a sense of identity that is grounded in ties to tribal communities and land, relationships with other tribal students, and specific conceptions of traditional and modern tribal identities. Participants expressly challenge genomics as a defining discourse about Indigeneity. This research was supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute and the Center for the Ethics of Indigenous Genomics Research (RM1HG009042).
Track 3: History and Archaeology
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F209 Physics
Navajo Archaeology–Making our Mark, Developments in Diné Archaeology
Groves of stories: Dendrochronology of culturally-modified trees on the Navajo Nation by Chris Guiterman, CIRES (University of Colorado-Boulder) and NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information and Wade Campbell (Navajo) Boston University
Some trees in Navajo pine forests display an enigmatic oval-shaped wound on their trunks that represents a window into a rich history of land use, ingenuity, perseverance, and traditional knowledge. The wounds were created when a person removed a section of bark and cambium, a rich sugary tissue that produces both the tree’s wood and bark. Indigenous communities throughout the Northern Hemisphere engaged in bark peeling of pine trees because there are a myriad uses for this resource. Such culturally-modified trees (CMTs) are relatively common in Navajo forests, especially in certain areas, though many questions remain regarding their history. The stories these trees might tell of Navajo connections to the landscape are rapidly disappearing, because the old-growth trees are dying from drought, fire, and insect attacks. In collaboration with the Navajo Heritage and Historic Preservation Department, we have been engaged in locating, recording, and sampling the trees for their tree rings so that we may determine the exact dates for peeling. We will report on our current collections – made since 2017 – and our intentions for further sampling over the next year.
Hooghan and Hogan: Archaeological categories and non-Dine' misunderstandings of of place by Kerry F. Thompson (Diné), Northern Arizona University, Anthropology
Archaeological categories enable the organization of knowledge about the past in Western-derived frameworks and chronologies. In the field of Navajo archaeology, the word hooghan was anglicized to “hogan” and attached to a specific type of structure. Although now used colloquially by Diné and non-Diné alike, the word “hogan” as an archaeological category has placed limitations on what Western scholars view as legitimate Diné history and confined their understandings of Diné identity to a finite set of specific types of material culture in specific time periods. The lack of scholarship that corrects the link of Diné with landscape-level understandings of hooghan, continues to compartmentalize Diné into static and historic categories that do not extend past the sixteenth century or link holistically to Diné understandings of Diné bikeyah.
Reconsidering the “Pueblito Phenomenon:” An Archaeological Discussion of the Spread of Diné Strongholds Across Diné Bikéyah from AD 1700 to the Present by Wade Campbell (Diné), Boston University, Anthropology
From Dinétah in the east to Black Mesa in the west, nearly two hundred stone fortresses are known to be spread across the landscape of Diné Bikéyah. These buildings are not Ánaasází in origin, but were instead built over the past three centuries by previous generations of Diné people in order to protect their communities from Utes, Spanish, Americans, and other enemies. Commonly known as “pueblitos,” these strongholds represent important points of intervention for better understanding pre-reservation Diné history, a history that has long been constructed without input from Diné people themselves. This presentation will review the history and extent of previous pueblito-related research in combination with new data from other defensive sites located on the reservation proper. Together, this information will demonstrate why these unique voices of Diné strength and resilience in the Southwest must be better documented and protected going forward.
Track 4: Culture, Community, and Change
Room: Hogan
Panelists: Jennifer Denetdale (Diné), University of New Mexico; Andrew Curley (Diné), University of Arizona; Melanie K. Yazzie (Diné), University of Minnesota; Christine Ami (Diné), Diné College-Tsaile
This panel will discuss Andrew Curley’s recently published monograph, Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation. Curley argues that the Navajo Nation’s claims to sovereignty have depended heavily on resources extraction/exploitation as the means to ensure the survival of the Nation. Curley documents the consequences for Diné bekeyah, the Navajo Nation, and our communities by examining the intersections of nation-building and capitalism as an arm of colonialism and the imperative to address climate change, especially as Indigenous people are called upon to lead just transitions toward sustainable life. As the coal industry dies, the Navajo Nation must seek other sources for revenue to sustain itself. This panel of Diné scholars will dialogue with Curley and discuss the relevance of his study to Critical Diné Studies, the interventions it makes in interdisciplinary study, and how his arguments offer directions for necessary transitions for the Navajo Nation and its communities.
Day 2 - 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. - LUNCH KEYNOTE
Lunch Day 2 - 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
Introduction by Isabella Robbins, Treasurer, DSCI
Keynote Speaker Dr. Lloyd L. Lee, Professor/Diné Author “Nihikéyah: An Eternal Navajo Homeland”
Location: Tent next to Hogan
Lunch Boxes by Waterbird Catering
Dr. Lloyd L. Leeis an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation. He is Kinyaa’áanii (Towering House), born for Tł‘ááshchí’í (Red Cheeks). His maternal grandfather’s clan is ‘Áshįįhi (Salt) and his paternal grandfather’s clan is Tábąąhá (Water’s Edge). He is Professor and Faculty Graduate Director in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico (UNM), Director of the Center for Regional Studies (CRS) at UNM, and editor of the Wicazo Sa Review journal. He is the co-editor along with Dr. Wendy S. Greyeyes of the Studies in Indigenous Community Building Book series with the University of New Mexico Press. He currently sits on the Council for the American Indian Studies Association (AISA). He earned the Presidential Teaching Fellow Award 2017-2019 at the University of New Mexico and the Navajo Sovereignty: Understandings and Visions of the Diné People (2017) earned the Border Regional Library Association Southwest Book Award in 2017. He is the author of Diné Identity in a 21st Century World (2020), Diné Masculinities: Conceptualizations and Reflections (2013), co-author of Native Americans and the University of New Mexico (2017), and edited Navajo Sovereignty: Understandings and Visions of the Diné People (2017) and Diné Perspectives: Reclaiming and Revitalizing Navajo Thought (2014). His research focuses on Native American/American Indian identity, masculinities, leadership, philosophies, and Native Nation building.
Day 2 - 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. - Seventh Session
Track 1: Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment
Room: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Classroom F126 Biology
Roundtable Panel: Enhancing Cultural Importance for Community Needs
Panelists: Kayla Jackson, MFA, (Diné), University of New Mexico, Indigenous Design and Planning Institute; Michaela Shirley, MCRP, Navajo; Chelsey Begay, BAEPD, Navajo; Dr. Theodore Jojola, PhD, Isleta Pueblo; Anthony Fettes, MLA; Francisco Uvina, MArch; Karla M. Cavarra Britton, PhD
The University of New Mexico Indigenous Design and Planning Institute (iD+Pi) partnered with Diné College’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Program (DCBFA) at the School of Arts, Humanities and English to address a creative placemaking project in Round Rock, Arizona. Together, with the support and assistance of Navajo Nation Council Delegate Carl R. Slater, the Round Rock Chapter (RRC) selected the historic, and now abandoned, Round Rock Trading Post (RRTP), an identified brownfield. The revitalization of the RRTP is an opportunity to re-center this place of the community, rejuvenate connections and culture, and practice Hózhó. The project is to repurpose this historic building by engaging the local community and artists to help the Round Rock Chapter diversify its economic opportunities. Panelists will show how the community engagement process and collaborative efforts can be replicated in communities around the Navajo Nation. By involving Diné students in critical efforts within their communities, the Navajo Nation can evolve their community economy and land-use practices. Creative placemaking is about leveraging cultural assets to inform economic development strategies. But it’s also important to utilize a concept called PlaceKnowing—places have identities. RRTP project exemplifies that Navajo artists are vital at nurturing Diné culture, language, and identity. The arts are crucial to the restoration and preservation of Navajo culture on many levels. It is in this spirit that we support local artists who are pursuing self-sustaining business practices and leadership roles in the management of Navajo arts.
Day 2 - 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Business Meeting, Location: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Library
Election Statements by DSCI Board Members Candidates
Resolutions
Announce New DSCI Candidates
Election of New Officers
Day 2 - 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Awards Banquet
Mistress of Ceremony Nonabah Sam, Board of Director, DSCI
Prayer by Homer Hubbell
Introduction of Keynote by Nonabah Sam
Keynote by Senator Theresa Hatathlie, Arizona State Legislature
Introduction of Entertainer by Aaron Woods
Entertainment by Bryon Ramone
Announce Silent Auction by Isabella Robbins and Adrian Lerma
Community Awardees
Board Recognition
Introduction of New Board Members
Location: Betty Ojaye Student Center (BOSC) Library
Banquet Dinner by Waterbird Catering
Senator Theresa Hatathlie is Bįįh Bitoodnii clan (Deer Springs), Áshįįhí (Salt) is her father’s clan, Tábąąhí (Edgewater) her maternal grandfather’s clan and Tsé Deeshgizhnii (Rock Gap) is her paternal grandfather’s clan. She is from Tsékǫ’ Hasání (Coalmine Mesa, Arizona). She was born to Jack and Bessie Hatathlie amongst 10 siblings, raised with no running water or electricity with their closest neighbors being three miles away. Her parents instilled the beauty, calm and holistic path of life, prioritizing the Diné language. So, she is skilled and knowledgeable in the wealth of cultural teachings. Her parents taught that one should never believe one is without a job that provides compensation, so she industriously created opportunities as a cultural consultant, weaving Navajo textile rugs, beading beautiful handmade jewelry, and sewing fashionable creations while targeting a market that provided more than a livable wage for her family. Theresa earned a degree from Northern Arizona University in Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a Certificate in Human Resources. She developed a vast understanding of government and leadership, starting from home to community, tribal, state and federal levels. It allows her to tailor her communication to any audience and listen to understand, which is foundational in making a difference and are traits few attain. The teachings of her parents, the integration of culture and education have prepared her well to be an ardent advocate for Legislative District 6.
Entertainer: Bryon Ramone is Navajo, originally from Heartbutte, NM and currently residing in Shiprock, NM. Been in the music scene for 28 years, former Fenders II for 25 years and now I have my own band, the Bryon Ramone Band. I am Mountain Cove clan, born for the Tangle People Clan. Sleeping Rock People are my cheii’s, and Zuni People Clan are my nali’s clan. I love to sing and entertain.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at dine.studies@gmail.com