Shirley makes Diné plight global (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Shirley makes Diné plight global
President seeks international aid to help preserve Navajo culture

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/june/062305culture.html

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation's president made a slam-dunk Wednesday
all the way from Paris, France, where he met in private with a UNESCO
official to ask help in saving Diné culture.

The president was accompanied on his trip by First Lady Vickki Shirley,
who will share her concerns today with French officials in Grenoble on
DUI awareness and treatment.

In addition to seeking protection for the Sacred Peaks, President Joe
Shirley Jr. sought support from the highest level non-governmental
organization in the world the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for recognition of Navajos'
sovereign right to pass laws within its boundaries.

Shirley and Assistant Director-General Ahmed Sayyad, External Relations
and Cooperation for UNESCO, met in an hour-long session at the
organization's headquarters in Paris where the president asked the
United Nations to stand with the Navajo Nation and its people in their
right to protect themselves against the harmful effects of radiation
exposure due to uranium mining.

"The lives of thousands of our hard-working, dedicated and patriotic
miners who answered our country's call have been destroyed and their
hearts have been repeatedly broken," the president said.

"Among them we have lost many medicinemen, the holders of our most
ancient songs, prayers and ceremonies that make us who we are as a
people. This is the undisputed legacy that uranium has left in the land
of the Diné."

Shirley told Sayyad about the Nation's recent passage of the Diné
Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 which prohibits further mining
and processing of uranium within Navajoland.

"Uranium has not sustained the Navajo people. It has brought only death,
illness, degraded lands and polluted water supplies," the president
said, telling Sayyad it is believed that the companies which mined
uranium within Navajo boundaries knew of the health risks associated
with exposure yet still allowed Navajo men and their families to be
exposed to the dangerous ore, dust and water.

"As president, never again do I want to subject my people to exposure,
to uranium and the cancers that it causes," he said. "The Diné Natural
Resources Protection Act reinforces our sovereignty.

"It protects our land and our water from being contaminated as it was in
the past. However, there are those who would still like to weaken our
sovereignty and gain access to the uranium under our land," President
Shirley said. "For this reason, I appeal to UNESCO."

Save language
On yet another front, the Navajo Nation president appealed to Sayyad for
support from the 2005 UNESCO General Conference in helping protect and
preserve the Diné language.

In 2000, Arizona voters passed Proposition 203 which required that only
the English language be taught in the state's public school. The way
the law was structured, it could not be waived, modified or set aside
by any elected or appointed official or administrator without first
amending the state Constitution.

For thousands of Navajo children attending public schools on the Navajo
Nation, this meant that educational instruction in their native
language was outlawed and could no longer be taught in school. At the
same time, Navajo research indicated that students were benefiting from
Navajo language immersion programs available only through the public
schools.

"Like so many other indigenous languages of the world, the Navajo
language of the Diné is threatened with extinction if not used,
encouraged and supported, not only by our people but also by our
educational institutions," President Shirley said.

"For one to be truly and fully Diné, one must speak the language of the
Diné. Only in this way will one understand the songs, prayers and
ceremonies that have been passed down orally through countless
generations of our people.

"Our language is and remains an important and crucial part of our
cultural identity and way of life. For those who do not know us or our
culture to mandate that our langage not be taught in public schools
within the Navajo Nation is to choose to vote us out of existence
slowly over time," Shirley said. "This demonstrates a complete lack of
understanding of Arizona cultures that were here before the American
mainstream dominated, and their value."

The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that Proposition 203 is
unconstitutional and Gov. Janet Napolitano considered the mother and
sister of the Navajo people, according to Shirley on June 18 presented
a plan calling for $185 million annually through 2009 be spent on
Arizona's growing number of non-English-speaking students.

"The loss of language equates to an irrecoverable loss of cultural,
historical and ecological knowledge," President Shirley said. "To the
Diné, language defines and gives expression to the world Diné people
know. Our language is a gift to us from the Navajo deities known as the
Holy People. It is in this language that we identify ourselves to them
and through which they know us."

In October 2001, the UNESCO General Conference unanimously adopted a
universal declaration on cultural diversity, which also addresses
language and biodiversity. The Navajo Nation endorses the principles of
the declaration, said Shirley. "And I seek the support of the 2005
UNESCO General Conference to help protect and preserve the Diné
language of the Navajo Nation so future generations of my people can
continue our rich and distinct cultural identity as Diné people," he
said.

Final peak
Shirley added that if UNESCO were to declare Dook'o'o'sliid, the San
Francisco Peaks, a World Heritage Site, the cultural biological and
historical diversity would be protected.

"The Diné as a whole strongly object to the outrageous and profane
violation of the sanctity of this holy place through artificial
snowmaking using reclaimed wastewater," according to the president.

"The Diné are a prayerful people, a resilient and strong people. But we
know we can't do everything alone. We need help, and we must reach
out," Shirley said. "I appear before this body to seek that help."

The Navajo Nation has vowed to "challenge the desecration of this holy
sanctuary with all means possible."