For those of us who’re old enough to be grandparents, the world has changed significantly in our lifetimes. I’m old enough to be a great-grandparent, so my first ice cream man drove a horse and wagon. I barely remember the ice house that was declining due to increasing sales of home refrigerators, and the family car had room for all the cousins on the big floorboard of the back seat. But these memories of America 70+ years ago would be luxuries today on much of the Navajo (Dineh) Reservation, which encompasses much of Arizona and New Mexico, a swath of Utah, and is bordering Colorado, the conjunction of those four states being called the Four Corners.
Too many reservation families are living as most Americans did 150 years ago, for they have no electricity or running water, and outhouses are no fun on cold days and nights. Many homes still have dirt floors, wood stoves or fireplaces, useful except in hot weather, when the outside horno is used, the traditional rounded adobe oven for baking bread. School bus routes are long and often hazardous, but at least the children aren’t being sent away to special schools like they were in past years, another nightmare of the American dream.
There’s little hope for the future “on the rez” unless one joins the police or local government, or travels long distances to work, and some of the men still herd sheep or goats. But some take advantage of their right to a free college education, and although most send money home, they rarely return to live in such squalor. Just because Native Americans have free healthcare doesn’t mean there are enough facilities available for them. Injustice is rampant, scarred by nepotism, Federal red tape, and lack of coordination between agencies. Many federal agents don’t want to be there, and too many have been condescending and non-compassionate.
It’s happening all over America, but on the Navajo Reservation an excessive number of people are missing without a trace, and the murder rate grows every year, yet one woman, Martine Maryboy, whose sister and some other relatives are mysteriously missing, is calling attention to that fact. She’s a grandmother who wants only to make the future better for her descendants, so she’s taken on the mission of conducting Prayer Walks over Navajo land. She’s had speaking engagements in Albuquerque, Window Rock, and Gallup to bring awareness to their plight and the movement for answers through prayer.
Maryboy is one of the founders of MMIP, Missing or Murdered Indigenous People, with sideline groups MMIW for women and MMIR for relatives. Her Prayer Walks have opened the eyes of other Navajo people to join her, one of those being Seraphine Warren, who walked to the Navajo Nation’s capital in Window Rock after the disappearance of her 62 year old aunt, Ella May Begay, who’s been missing from her home in Sweetwater, Red Mesa, Arizona since June of 2021. Ms. Warren, who has children, plans to bring her Prayer Walk to Washington, DC, so be prepared, Uncle Joe, and set the table, Deborah Haaland (first Native American Secretary of the Interior).
It’s my personal prayer that people from all over America will join them, not just indigenous people, but from all walks of life and ancestry. We of European descent must shake off our apathy and bring with us shame for the sins of our ancestors who taught their children to hate and fear indigenous people, shame even for some Presidents who ordered the torture and slaughter of ones they called Indians. The Anglo colonists who settled the East Coast first called them Naturals, which is a more appropriate term, for they’re connected to the land and its resources in ways that prove valuable, but we weren’t paying attention to their ways or learning anything from them, trying instead to convert them.
In today’s world, Native Americans are Christians, and most Navajos are the Roman Catholic type of Christians, but those who now live in cities and larger towns are usually converted by one of the various Protestant sects. Yet Navajos are tied to the land of their ancestors, and what would bring them greater power than to walk the desolate plains and hills calling out to G-D, our Mother-Creator of Life/Father Spirit of LIFE Everlasting, to bring back to us our missing ones, to bless the Souls of those who lie beneath clay, sand and rock, and to provide justice for any murder that’s been committed.
Martine Maryboy has tentatively scheduled her next Prayer Walk from somewhere in Four Corners area, sometime in February of 2023. Her Native American Spirit brings both female and community energy into her prayers, which should be part of our everyday lives, staying in constant communication with the Almighty ONE. As we join her, physically or spiritually, we take with us the Souls of all those in America who were murdered or are missing, and as we pray, we should say, “Come, let’s gather together our loved ones and your loved ones, and in unity we’ll call down the Wrath of G-D upon all who harm others.” In demanding Justice, which is found in Courts of Law, it’s not as important for us to condemn the ungodly as to stand up godly, confidently, with no deceit, to serve others as to our Gifts and abilities, to provide comfort for pain, and to pray for Healing of Hearts.
Keep your eyes open and you will see how the wicked are punished. Psalm 91:8