http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/05navajo.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

From the New York Times:

Navajo voters have never had much of a say in how their modern government was shaped. But that may soon change, after a tribal judge cleared the way for a special election on a restructuring that could alter the balance of power on the sprawling reservation.

The government structure was forced upon Navajo voters 86 years ago and was reorganized under three branches without their consent.

Maybe Navajos “will have a greater sense of ownership in the government than they now have,” said Dale Mason, who teaches Navajo government at the University of New Mexico, Gallup.

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American Indian PGA golfer will ‘talk to the land’

Notah Begay III, the only American Indian golfer on the PGA tour, is tapping his roots as he builds an $8.5 million course on a reservation in Kansas: He said the tribal land must be asked “what it wants you to do.”

The 18-hole Firekeeper Golf Course – Begay’s first signature course – will cover 240 acres near the Prairie Band Potawatomi Casino and Resort on a reservation near Mayetta. Named for the Prairie Band, known as the “keepers of the sacred fire,” Begay said the course should be ready to open next summer.

Begay, a member of the Navajo Nation, said the needs of the land come first.

“You say a prayer, talk to the land and ask it what it wants you to do,” he said Monday in announcing the project. “We incorporate into it the natural design of the land. We didn’t want to add things that weren’t naturally there or needed.”

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http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/plains/48619062.html

Frybread was born of necessity. Indian tacos were born of something else entirely – a love for chili, beans and lots of cheese.

What started in the late 1800s as sustenance concocted from government rations of lard, flour, salt and baking powder later became a staple in American Indian homes and at pow wows.

Today, an Oklahoma festival, fair or pow wow just wouldn’t be the same without a booth selling frybread topped with layers of chili, beans, lettuce, tomato and cheese.

Some say frybread was invented by the Navajo tribe, but it’s now hard to find a tribe that doesn’t lay claim to frybread or its culinary offshoot, the Indian taco.

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http://www.reznetnews.org/article/third-death-among-navajo-code-talkers-34970

deltafoxtrot:

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — Willie K. Begay, a Navajo Code Talker who was part of the original group recruited to develop what became an unbreakable code that confounded the Japanese during World War II, has died. He was the third Code Talker to die in a little more than three weeks.

Begay, of Pinon, Ariz., died Monday after a battle with cancer, according to one of his daughters, Kristy Kescoli Begay. He was 88.

Code Talker John Brown Jr. died May 20 at his home in Crystal, N.M.

Thomas Claw died May 26 at the veterans hospital in Prescott, Ariz., after a battle with cancer.

The elite group of Navajo Marines transmitted messages in their native language. Begay served with the 3rd Marine Division and was overseas for 11 months.

In 2001, Begay received a Congressional Silver Medal in recognition of his service.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090517/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_navajos;_ylt=AoQFGpQxkQvCxseyiW1eRgys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpNWlwOWM4BHBvcwMyNQRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDbmF2YWpvc2xhcmdl

Talk at the community center in this small Navajo town isn’t as focused on the economy as it is in many places off the reservation.

That’s because the people living on the largest American Indian reservation have been largely unscathed by the recession.

Most Navajos own their own homes, tend not to invest in the stock market and have long had difficulties borrowing money, distinguishing them from millions of other Americans who’ve suffered from rising mortgage payments, sinking 401(k) retirement accounts and stricter terms from lenders.

And with half of the Navajo Nation’s work force unemployed long before this latest recession hit, there’s not much fear the job situation could get much worse on the reservation.

“They’re freaking out out there, but to us, we’ve always had 50 percent unemployment,” said John C. Whiterock, a Navajo youth pastor. “To us, that’s just part of life.”

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http://www.reznetnews.org/article/early-navajo-use-smoke-signals-studied-34000

Archaeologists and volunteers armed with special flares were to fan out over part of the Four Corners region Saturday to study how early Navajos could have used smoke signals to warn against invaders.

There are more than 200 pueblitos — usually high on rock outcroppings overlooking the San Juan Basin — that archaeologists believe were built by Navajos three centuries ago to protect against Spanish explorers and neighboring tribes.

“If you hear an enemy approaching, you climb into these things and pull up the ladder, and you can seal yourself in for a while,” said Ron Maldonado, program manager of the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department.

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When the Rain Sings is a book of poems written by young Native people from several tribal nations: Ojibwe, Lakota, Omaha, Navajo, Cochiti/Kiowa, O’odham, Yaqui, Hopi, and Ute. When the Rain Sings was first published in 1999. The story behind the book is included in this new edition, which is dedicated to Lee Francis, the founding director of Wordcraft Circle. Through the committed work of Lee Francis and others, we’ve got more Native writers than ever before.

via (American Indians in Childrens Literature)

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http://www.radiantmagazine.com/2009/04/connection-reflections-on-a-navajo-sweat-lodge/

I crawled on my hands and knees on the dirty ground through the small entrance. It was dark inside the mound of packed clay, mud and twigs. Sitting cross-legged, fitting as many people as possible into the cramped space, we all felt in the hushed quiet a charge of mingled anticipation and fear. Even for those of us who had been there before, we knew something incredible was about to take place and were just as excited as the first time.

The last person squeezed inside, the leather flap was pulled down and the only patch of light disappeared. Chanting softly, the old woman poured cedar-infused water over the hot rocks in the hollow at the center of the circle, and a rich steam began to steadily fill the enclosed area. The sweat lodge leader, or medicine man, chanted in Navajo, words that had been passed from generation to generation. Heat emanated from the stones in waves as the air became heavy with moisture. As it became more and more humid and sweltering, our voices rose in a synchronized hymn and we sang out as one.

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http://www.daily-times.com/ci_12075828

Two-year-old Ashleigh Yazzie is ready to be a star.

The Shiprock girl — wearing a bright pink hooded sweatshirt, hair pulled back in a ponytail, a smile extended from ear to ear — ran around the auditorium of the Brooks/Isham Performing Arts Center Saturday morning as she and her family waited to audition for Travis Hamilton’s upcoming films.

Ashleigh giggled, clapped her hands and played peek-a-boo behind auditorium seats — trying to get the attention of anyone who would watch her. Her five-year-old sister, Kaitlyn, was more reluctant.

“(Ashleigh) though, is really outgoing,” her mother, April, said. “She wants to make people laugh. She wants to be in the spotlight.”

The Yazzies, including Ashleigh and Kailyn’s father, Andrew, their aunts Alanna and Esther Lewis, and cousins Logan, 4, and Devon, who turns two in July, attended the open casting call for two films Hamilton plans to shoot this summer on the reservation surrounding the Four Corners.

“More than Fry Bread” is a comedy about the 22 American Indian tribes in Arizona competing in a fry bread contest. “Pete and Cleo” is a drama about two brothers who bond while cleaning out the family’s hogan.

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Happily may their roads back home be on the trail of pollen.
Happily may they all get back.
In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
With beauty above me, I walk.
With beauty all around me, I walk.
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty.

‘Sa’ah naaghéi, Bik’eh hózhó

from a Navajo Ceremony (Four Masterworks of American Indian Literature, ed. by John Bierhorst, 1974)

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