Dear Friends,
It’s been 31 years since my first trip to the Big Mountain region of the Navajo (Dineh) Reservation. For five frigid days in February of 1991, I slept on the dirt floor of John Benally’s tiny, rough-made home and drove Bear’s Toyota pick-up all around the area with John and Coyote, the man who convinced me to come, delivering food, blankets, and other goods through the snow, ice and mud to Grandmothers and families who were facing forced relocation in order to make room for the continued operation and expansion of the coal mines in the area. Meeting the people, seeing the land, getting my first glimpses of life deep in the rez, and the struggle to hold on against the power of corporate greed, backed by the US Government made such an impact on me I wanted to share what was going on with everyone I knew.
From that humble beginning, brother Bear and I were moved to return every year since. Beginning in 1993 and up until the Great COVID Interruption we put together the annual Revive the Beauty Way Tour to support a much-expanded food, firewood, and supply run in solidarity with the mostly elder women who made up the fierce resistance to Peabody Coal and the BIA backed Hopi Rangers. Tribal members of the Dineh Nation, including John Benally and his siblings, would often travel with us to meet people and give first-hand accounts of life under siege. Over the years a family of supporters, activists, and devoted communities came together in grassroots, organic ways to hold the concerts, journey to the Dineh Nation, and make delivery runs in an ever-widening area during November to be part of a Thanks Giving. Travelers from all over the country and around the world have been part of this effort from the beginning. Friendships and tight bonds formed between those who have made this project an ongoing part of their lives, and with the people living on the land, holding on to all that is sacred against the forces that would smash every last bit of it to squeeze the final dollar out of the ground.
There are so many stories to tell from this amazing run. Tales from the road, the concerts, and the communities who show up and show out. The generosity of farmers, blanket dances and corn dances, and loads of goods filling the busses, trucks, and cars for distribution. Epic yarns about driving around the rez, often lost, perhaps in bad weather or running low on fuel, the meals, the gatherings around the fires or woodstoves late at night in a hogan, ceremonies, including the Sundance, the beauty of Coal Mine Canyon, the mystery of ancient petroglyphs, farming in Sand Springs, the laugh of a grandmother trying on a new coat, morning circles, lost sheep (and sheepherders), being chased and pulled over by Rangers and BIA agents, and all the while feeling the love. There are sad stories too – activists who were injured and killed making the journey, stolen ground water going to the mines that left a water table so depleted crops failed and livestock had to be sold off for lack of water, capped off wells, bull-dozed hogans, the destruction of the Sundance grounds, elders forcibly removed from their homes, poverty, substance abuse, and multi-generational trauma in a long war of attrition. The stories tell of so many lives intersected in so many ways in service to this cause.
Much has changed since the first journey. Nearly all of the elders -including John Benally this year- we met in the early years have passed on, taking their unique wisdom with them. The Navajo Generating Plant that once burned coal from the mines has been shut down. There has been a global reduction in demand for coal. This has led to the mines closing, no small victory for those who’ve remained on the land. Climate disruption has changed the weather and way of life even in the most remote parts of the land. Fewer families live in the areas where people were harassed, threatened, coerced, or forcibly removed.
On our side, the pandemic shut down the tour for the past two years. We still made the journey, though much abbreviated by raising funds online. This year, even though COVID restrictions are a thing of the past the energy and support for a tour didn’t materialize. It feels like it may be the end of an era. However, the people who remain continue to have great need for support and the belief the outside world remembers them and the work they are doing for all of us.
This has never been an act of charity or benevolence from the haves to the have-nots. Our connection and desire to serve has always been from a place of understanding that we are in this together. What those who have remained -not just in the Dineh Nation but in all the places where indigenous people are holding ancient wisdom-, have to share is for the benefit of all life on Mother Earth. Even for those who don’t accept it.
With an eye toward the future and care for 7 generations forward, we ask again for your support for the 2022 Beauty Way Food, and Supply Run. This year the journey is dedicated to the memory of John Benally and Michael Gerrel, a long-time companion, supporter, brother-in-arms, and Beauty Way traveler who also made his final journey this year after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. I hope you will consider helping us honor these brothers and all who have gone before or remain on the land by making this year’s run another memorable story.
