Here at Rising Native Youth gathering which started with food – lots of food and it was yummy! There were two types of fried but mostly steamed potatoes: with spam and with bacon. Hot warm tortilla were available to make your own breakfast burrito with you choice of cooked potatoes. There was red chili to smother your burrito. And if you had any room left in your tummy, there was cinnamon rolls and one rolls was HUGE! Of course there was hot steaming coffee. There were also slices of banana nut bread. And then everyone was asked to go into a back room. There was a lot of room but now it’s getting pretty crowded, which is GREAT! I see Navajo Council Delegate Russell Begaye and Becenti Chapter Vice President Jonathan Perry. Film producer/grassroots activist Norman Brown, Caretaker of the Land/Farmer/activist Kris Barney, Film maker/Indigenous Rapper/activist Kooper Indigenize Curley. Navajo educator Lydia Fasthorse.
DISCUSSOIN BY IDLE NO MORE
Action that can evoke change and not just for pple in Canada. There was an Idle No More here at Shiprock.
TRISTIN MOORE: The similarities between Idle No More up north and here is exploitation of natural resources. To speak effectively, go back to Navajo concept of speaking. Look at hands, four fingers and thumb: thumb represents yourself. Fingers represent Four Directions, Four Sacred Mountains. There is also planning and reflecting. And now we are reflecting = how can we youth make changes.
YOUNG NAVAJO WOMAN: Idle No More also is about violence against women, especially Mother Earth.
LOGAN SANDOVAL: politics is not tangible cuz I’m a very hands on person. It’s too far away for me. Idle No More made sense to me, doing something for change. National news didn’t cover Idle No More. As native person, as native woman, as college student, I feel very marginalized. Native pple have to see immediately in their community what they need to do. But in New York, when run into natives, I’d ask if they had problems and then how become doer. The important thing is doing something, self critique also.
KOOPER: why are we protesting? We generalize too much especially when protesting. Don’t agree with saying it’s Canadian. When participated in Idle No More, I was asked, why are you involved cuz Canadian thing and it’s about Canadian problems. We have our own problems. But Idle No More brought more questions and deeper questions of where have We gone and it created a whole new growth and understanding about how we are connected to our land here. Round Dances, flash mobs – old tactics and updated to continue to be in solidarity. A word not used until it was reborn. We need a movement down here in Dinetah. That is what I got from Idle No More. Do we want to do wat Canadians doing? But we are a huge pawn because of our energy resources. Our voices can be heard. This is how we come together and this how we always come together.
KRIS BARNEY; I saw Idle No More from TV. Organizers said to use Idle No More to protect land. Up here there is emergency place where we came from. There use to be area where rivers met but now it’s under water. So here is very sacred site, Shiprock, up to Corrizos, Blanding Mts, all these canyons. These places are where historical events occurred. And Five Fingered people is one name but we have others, such as Holy Earth Surface People. We came from underworld and we exist here. To identify ourselves we do it with clan. I’m a farmer and my association is with farming and there is clanship and relationship there. What I see form Idle No More is what can we take and fashion for ourselves cuz I’ve been involved in protecting Dookoosliid/Abalone Shell Mt. for past 12 years. We had organization, Youth of Peaks. Some of these original youth took direct action and some arrested. I encourage you to talk to your elders and not just from books. Ask who I am as Dine’.
LOGAN SANDOVAL: information of Indigenous people to deal with pregnancy, alcoholism does come from elders and so we should organize and bring in our elders.
