Seeing the four sacred mountains: Mapping, landscape and Navajo sovereignty

In 1968, photographer Laura Gilpin published The Enduring Navaho, which intentionally juxtaposes colonialist cartography with an immersive understanding of landscape. This article situates Gilpin’s project within the broader historical trajectory of traditional Navajo spatial imaginaries, including the work of contemporary Navajo artist Will Wilson. Euramerican settler-colonist maps of the Navajo Nation at mid-century were tools for Native displacement, revealing the transnational dilemma of the Navajo people. Their twentieth-century history was one of continual negotiation; on a pragmatic level, it often entailed the cultivation and education of Euramerican allies such as Gilpin. For her, landscape photography offered an alternative indexical authority to colonial maps, and thus had the potential to redefine Navajo space in the Euramerican imagination ‐ in terms that were closely aligned with Navajo ideology. Without escaping the contradictions inherent in her postcolonial situation, Gilpin sought a political space for Navajo epistemology, and thus for Navajo sovereignty.

Traditional Sheep Consumption by Navajo People in Cameron, Arizona

Over 500 abandoned uranium mines are located on the Navajo Reservation. Different pathways of environmental uranium exposure have been studied with respect to the Navajo people including water, soil, and plants; however, uranium exposure from traditional Navajo food, specifically mutton (sheep), has not been reported. This study focuses on mutton consumption in the small community of Cameron, Arizona, located in the southwestern region of the Navajo Nation and initiated after community members expressed concern with the uranium exposure of their sheep. Preliminary investigation into the presence of uranium in sheep raised near Cameron showed elevated uranium levels in the kidneys the sheep tested. The goal of this study is to investigate mutton consumption among the Navajo living in Cameron. Mutton is a traditional food of the Navajo, but consumption practices are not well documented. An important aspect of determining the extent of exposure through food consumption is to assess the frequency of consumption. The results of this study indicate the Cameron participants consume mutton most commonly at family gatherings or celebrations. The survey suggests that less mutton is consumed now compared to the past, and there is concern that contaminated mutton may change traditional ceremonies.

How Age-Old Cultural Tenets Complicate the Care of Premature or Sick Navajo Newborns

Each of the hundreds of indigenous groups in Native North America has its own beliefs about the body, personhood, health, and illness, which directly influence care and treatment of premature and sick newborns. This chapter is limited to how members of the Diné Nation (more commonly known as the Navajo) think about these issues. Differences of opinion invariably exist between biomedical practitioners’ and Navajo family members’ understandings of the causes, treatments, and appropriate care for the child. Several factors will be at play: among them are differences acknowledged between Navajo and non-Navajo people; notions of contamination; and medical and religious pluralism. Also relevant are numerous age-old Navajo tenets on the body and personhood, including relational notions of personhood; beliefs about how detached body parts retain lifelong influence; assumptions regarding the malleability of a newborn’s body; prohibitions against cardiopulmonary resuscitation and blood transfusions; and convictions about the power of language.

The Navajo Local Governance Act (LGA): A Help or Hindrance to Grassroots Self-Government?

The 1998 Navajo Local Governance Act (LGA) expands local control over local matters for the 110 community-governed chapters across the Navajo Nation. The expectation is that decentralized decision-making, planning, program implementation, and funds management may improve effectiveness and efficiency across all levels of Navajo government. This paper examines the viability of this approach to locally governed communities, describes obstacles experienced by aspirant LGA communities that struggle to meet Navajo Nation-established standards in financial management and administration, and argues for continued education and training to help realize local empowerment for the Navajo people.