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

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

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."