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9/11: NNWO Staffer Maxine Hillary Remembers

There are moments that will stay with me for as long as the Creator chooses to give me breath.  The hot Texas afternoon President Kennedy was assassinated.  When we lost Martin Luther King and Senator Bobby Kennedy.  The day we landed on the moon.  My contemporaries would probably mention the same—and those significantly younger than us probably would not.  But the memories of the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 lives in a generation of people who don't know what the world looked like before the Twin Towers crumbled into rubble and the United States engaged in a conflict that continues to this day.  My heart breaks for all of the lives shattered by what has become known as 9/11 in the US, the Middle East, Indian Country, and on the Navajo Nation where Dine people stepped up to defend the United States and Dinetah.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the Navajo Nation Washington Office was a buzz of activity.  Our Executive Director, Michelle Brown and the other legislative staffers were accompanying President Kelsey Begaye, Chief Justice Robert Yazzie, Attorney General Levon Henry, and 30 plus Council Delegates in meetings with the late Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), a champion of indigenous peoples rights and supporter of tribal sovereignty.  Because the meetings did not impact the portfolios I managed, only our Administrative Services Officer, the late Lillie Gatewood from Tsaile, AZ and I were in the office.  I received a call from someone on the Navajo Nation informing me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.  I didn’t know at the time that the Pentagon had been hit and I figured it was a terrible accident.  Lillie and I went into the conference room and flipped on the TV just as another plane careened into the second tower.  “We’re at war,” I uttered as in that moment, our lives changed forever.

As news filtered in, our phones began ringing from family members who were calling us to see if their relatives living in or visiting DC were okay.  The Hill closed as did the Metro, all air traffic, and Federal offices all over town.  Having been in an underground room with the Senator, cell phones hadn’t been able to get a signal, so we had no idea where anyone was.  One by one, our leadership filtered back into the office.  There was little time to strategize—they needed to be housed and fed—and we needed to figure out a way to get them home.  If there was ever an opportunity to sink, swim, or shine, this was it.  Option one was out.  So we rolled up our sleeves and did what we had to in order to serve the Navajo Nation—we put our own concerns and reactions aside.

As restaurants were closing, we found places to order food.  Hotels were adjusting bookings to accommodate stranded guests.  With no flights and Amtrak seats filling up, we rented cars, and our Delegates drove home.  That weekend I went shopping to create emergency kits for each staff member including flashlights that as I mark my one-month return to NNWO, are still there—and some still work!

It was only about two weeks later on a Saturday watching the funeral of a New York firefighter on television that I finally broke down in tears.  Lillie later told me it took her that long to come out of emergency mode and process what had happened too.

9/11 and NNWO’s response to it did not go unnoticed.  President Kelsey Begaye wrote thank you letters to our office and specifically complimented Lillie and I on our quick work at organizing the logistics for staff and leadership. Chief Justice Yazzie expressed his gratitude with the warmest of sentiments, as did the Navajo Nation Council. Perhaps one of the most memorable aspects of this tragedy was Michelle’s recognition that in all of our taking care of the immediate needs of our visitors and subsequent DC activity, we too were traumatized.  She brought in Medicine people to pray with us and provide healing so we could continue to do our work with healthier hearts, minds, and spirits.  We found a blessing in a crisis. 

As the years go by and I find myself once again in the service of the Navajo Nation, as I do every September 11th, I view that day through the lens of NNWO.  I think fondly of how in supporting the Navajo Nation, we embraced each other.  Our dear Lillie has passed on as have another of our colleagues, Keith Bitsui from Inscription House.  Some of us are back in service of the Nation.  Some of us have lost touch.  Several of us still visit and stay in touch via Facebook.  Each year our comments are augmented by the recollections of our friends and family who lived through it with us.  We recall empty streets, an enhanced military presence, television screens filled with anguished faces, and the huge empty holes in grounds that hold the memories of people who will never be found. 

This September 11, NNWO and the Navajo Nation are challenged with another crisis—one that has stolen even more precious lives.  Covid-19 for many of us is a prolonged trauma that has tested our mettle, our faith, our abilities to sink, swim, or shine.  My experiences at NNWO during 9/11 prepared me in ways I never imagined.  I only hope that one day I can look back with the same gratitude for the way Window Rock supported us, our colleagues embraced each other, and how the Navajo people who knew how NNWO stepped up in a time of crisis to bring order to chaos recognized our efforts. 

On this day, I look back with sadness at lives lost, wistfulness of a time I was able to fly to Window Rock to attend Council sessions and interface with OPVP staff and Division Directors—and meet people all over the Navajo Nation.  Just as I did back then, I hold their lives and those of my new NNWO colleagues in prayer—and know that this too shall pass and leave us stronger and more grateful.  Today I honor Navajo people in service to our nation as a result of 9/11 and send my heartfelt wishes to all of us who lived through it.  As we say about our flags—long may you wave. Ahéhee’.

BIE Absent from House Hearing on BIE School Reopening Plan

On September 10, 2020, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States held a virtual hearing called “Examining the Bureau of Indian Education's School Reopening Guidance During the COVID-19 Pandemic. ” Committee Chairman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) opened the hearing by chastising BIE for refusing to testify. “It is a dereliction of the federal trust responsibility for BIE to refuse to be here to discuss how to protect Native students just because the hearing is not happening in person,” Chairman Gallego said.

BIE serves over 40,000 students in 183 schools on 64 Indian Reservations. BIE operates 55 of its schools . Nearly half of the Navajo Nation’s 65 BIE schools are operated directly by the Bureau.

In July of this year, BIE held 2 tribal consultation sessions about providing primary and secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic, assuring tribal leaders, organizations and school districts that their concerns would inform its reopening plans. On August 6, 2020, the US Dept of Interior Office of Indian Affairs announced it would reopen brick and mortar schools under its jurisdiction “to the maximum extent possible,” requiring students who attend BIE-operated K-12 day-school operations to report back to school on September 16, 2020. 

Tribal witnesses testified yesterday that BIE’s Return to Learn Plan reflects less what tribal leaders, educators and parents expressed that they want than what President Trump has expressed that he wants. The Honorable Joe Garcia, Co-Chair of the Tribal Interior Budget Council, Education Subcommittee National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), testified that, “It was widely believed that the Department of the Interior did this action out of a desire to please the President, if not in response to direct pressure from the White House.”

The Navajo Nation has made clear its desire to keep all students home, distance learning, through this current school semester to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 among students, teachers, and other school employees. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has stated, “The Navajo Nation is exercising our inherent sovereign authority to protect the health and well-being of our children, their families, and our communities.”

Chairman Gallegos asserted at the hearing that BIA’s guidance, “is only binding for BIE operated schools (but) directs any tribally operated school that deviates from the guidance to consult with its legal counsel to insure it does not violate the terms of its grant, a potential threat to tribal sovereignty.”

Ms. Lahoma Sue Parton, President of the Federation of Indian Service Employees (FISE), testified that her tribal educator members do not feel that the BIE Return to Learn Plan provides adequate safety measures.  “It’s safety measures are only recommendations, not directives,” she testified.  She warned, “As we see across the country, premature returns to normal activity without proper precautions (increase) the risk of new infection surges and shut downs.”

Testifying for NCAI, Garcia concluded, “We are now a week away from schools opening and the question before us is whether BIE will respect the local judgement of sovereign tribal nations, and parents about whether school opens in person or virtually. The BIE should be here to answer the question for all of us.”

Navajo Nation Calls for Congressional Inquiry Into Fort Hood Army Base Deaths

On September 8, 2020, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Lizer sent a letter to Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Martha McSally (R-AZ) to call for a formal investigation into the high number of recent deaths involving military men and women at the Fort Hood Army Base in the State of Texas.

Pvt. Carlton L. Chee, a member of the Navajo Nation, collapsed during a training exercise on August 28, 2020 and eventually passed away at Carl R. Darnall Medical Center on September 2, 2020. Spc. Miguel D. Yazzie, also a member of the Navajo Nation, lost his life on July 3, 2020 while stationed at the Fort Hood Army Base. There have already been 28 casualties involving military personnel at Fort Hood this year.

“Our concern is not only for these two members of the Navajo Nation, but for the many Navajo men and women who are serving in every branch of the military around the world.” President Nez and Vice President said in their letter to Congress.  “The Navajo people have a long and proud history of serving in the Armed Forces at a higher per capita rate than any other demographic in the United States. This is not only a call for a Congressional inquiry, but it is a call for accountability and answers for the families that are grieving for their loved ones.”

Senator McSally Fighting for Tribes to Get CRF Deadline Extension

On September 10, 2020, Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) voted in favor of a GOP COVID relief package that critics called “skinny,” but provided an extension to the December 31, 2020 deadline to spend Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) for Tribes, states and municipalities. Senator McSally has been a staunch and vocal champion in the Senate for an extension of the CRF deadline, spending countless hours advocating and educating her colleagues in the Senate, White House, and the Administration about the unique challenges faced by tribes in combatting the Coronavirus and specifically the challenges with spending the CRF funds under the current deadline and use restrictions. The CRF extension and aid package failed by a vote of 52 to 47.

EPA Announces New Western Office Dedicated to Hard Rock Mining Cleanup MH

On September 2, 2020, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the creation of the Office of Mountains, Deserts, and Plains located in EPA’s office in Lakewood, Colorado to focus expertise and resources where they are needed most to cleanup land, air, and water contaminated by hard rock mines that produced gold, silver, copper, and uranium. EPA estimates that 40% of the watersheds in the western United States are contaminated by pollution from hard rock mining.

“This has been a decades-long problem that has led to increased cancer diagnoses among Navajo families, contaminated water, and damage of sacred tribal lands,” Congressman Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ) said. “Though the EPA is not establishing their new location on the Navajo Nation as I had previously requested, the agency is taking a step in the right direction by opening an office dedicated to addressing this pressing issue.”

From 1944 to 1986, federal contractors extracted nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore from the Navajo Nation, leaving behind over 500 abandoned uranium sites. In 1979, when a uranium mill tailings disposal pond near Church Rock breached, more than 1,000 tons of solid radioactive waste and 93 million gallons of acidic liquid contaminated the Rio Puerco.  More recently, in August of 2015, the abandoned Gold King Mine in Southwest Colorado spilled a large plume of toxic waste into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. 

“The Navajo people have suffered, and continue to suffer, enormous adverse impacts to their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health as a result of the federal government’s past investment in uranium extraction from the Navajo Nation,” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, “as well as catastrophic environmental impacts from un-remediated soil contamination and surface water and ground water contamination. Consequently, we support and applaud USEPA’s establishment of a new office within the Office of Land and Emergency Management whose primary focus will be to expediate the clean-up of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation,” he added.

Interior Announces New Bureau of Trust Administration MH

On September 1, 2020 U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt signed Secretary’s Order 3384 establishing the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration (BTFA), which will report to the Assistant Secretary  of Indian Affairs and assume responsibility for financial operations functions currently performed by the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) effective October 1, 2020.

The law that created OST, the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994, envisioned that OST would be terminated after trust reforms had been completed. As the Indian trust management system was gradually reformed, however, it became apparent to Interior that going back to the old way of doing business was unacceptable. In its statement announcing the BFTA, the Department said, “Issuance of this Order is a critical step that will institutionalize and make permanent OST’s best practices, improve communication and coordination and enhance Interior’s ability to deliver services to Indian Country.“

The Order is consistent with the Department’s FY 2021 Budget proposal to ensure a smooth transition of important Trust "financial operations and other functions which have accrued to OST over time, along with related functions performed by the Land Buy-Back Program for tribal nations and the Office of Historical Trust Accounting, to the BTFA. No additional changes are proposed, and no employee relocations or loss in positions would occur with this realignment.

NNWO Corrects Lezmond Mitchell Story

In the August 21, 2020 edition of this newsletter, based upon all available information at the time, we reported that the family of Lezmond Mitchell’s victims opposed the death penalty. Subsequent stories in the press revealed that the family was not in total agreement. We sincerely apologize for having mistakenly misrepresented the issue.