Speaker 1: Welcome to woke AF with me Danielle Moody. Last month,
Speaker 1: I enjoyed an insightful conversation with Dunay activists Ali Young,
Speaker 1: founder of Protect the Sacred, a group focused on protecting
Speaker 1: elders within her community. With the recent public health news
Speaker 1: of coronavirus surges and the Delta variant, I wanted to
Speaker 1: bring you our full conversation to give you an idea
Speaker 1: of the issues facing the Navajo Nation that are typically
Speaker 1: ignored in the mainstream media. Of course, so you can
Speaker 1: hear me tackle plenty of issues that don't get airtime
Speaker 1: in the media by supporting me on Patreon at patreon
Speaker 1: dot com slash woke AF. For now, though, I hope
Speaker 1: you receive insight and information from my conversation with Ali Young.
Speaker 1: I want to start off with just can you explain
Speaker 1: to us how Protect the Sacred started and why sure?
Speaker 1: Protect the Sacred started at in March last year, right
Speaker 1: at the beginning of a pandemic late March. Actually, it
Speaker 1: was right around the time that the Navajo Nation was
Speaker 1: being hit very hard and I felt like I needed
Speaker 1: to do something, and I was also being called upon
Speaker 1: by some of my former colleagues at Shiprock, Indian Health
Speaker 1: Service physicians and public health professionals who also knew that
Speaker 1: we needed to be communicating to young people to relay
Speaker 1: this message of staying home and what the CDC was
Speaker 1: coming down with. So I worked with them to really
Speaker 1: develop messaging that would that that was sort of digestible
Speaker 1: because you know, you think about our communities, and especially
Speaker 1: in Navajo Nation, we have a lot of elders who
Speaker 1: don't always understand what's happening on the news because they
Speaker 1: don't speak English fluently. So to be able to communicate
Speaker 1: that important messaging to our youth who could then translate
Speaker 1: it and pass it on to our elders who we
Speaker 1: were trying to protect because of the ancestral knowledge and
Speaker 1: the culture and the language that they that they hold
Speaker 1: and that they're still passing down to many of our
Speaker 1: young people was really at the core of our work.
Speaker 1: You know what struck me when I was watching UM
Speaker 1: I think it was an expose that was being done
Speaker 1: on you and on Protect the Sacred I think it
Speaker 1: was on NBC, And what struck me was this desire
Speaker 1: to protect knowledge right and understanding that the wisdom and
Speaker 1: knowledge that you were working to protect is encapsulated in
Speaker 1: your elders. Which has struck me about the pandemic in general,
Speaker 1: is how disconnected American culture seems from actual community. Like
Speaker 1: this virus right to me in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: was an exercise in how we care and have empathy
Speaker 1: for each other. Right that it isn't the pull yourself
Speaker 1: up from the bootstrap, you know, I'm in it for
Speaker 1: myself type of person. And there was a selfishness that
Speaker 1: was so very apparent and on display. You know, talk
Speaker 1: to me about what it means to not just you know,
Speaker 1: shun or move away from your from your elders, which
Speaker 1: we see a lot in in our society in multiple communities.
Speaker 1: There isn't this care for the elders, right, Like, what
Speaker 1: did we see on the news. It was just the
Speaker 1: initial reports about COVID was who it was hitting, where
Speaker 1: the elderly and young folks are just like, so that's
Speaker 1: not me. I'm going to stay at the bars and
Speaker 1: I'm going to stay at the clubs, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: you know, I'm in it for me. You know what
Speaker 1: came up for you in terms of like kind of
Speaker 1: seeing that very stark dichotomy in how we care for
Speaker 1: one another. Yeah, well, I mean our work protect the
Speaker 1: sacred is also a response to I think right around
Speaker 1: that time in Texas, I was seeing reports about UM,
Speaker 1: even the elders in Texas thing that they wanted to
Speaker 1: sacrifice themselves for for the economy and in this country,
Speaker 1: the sake of this country. And and then I you know,
Speaker 1: to even see young people supporting UM that that notion
Speaker 1: you know, to UM will sacrifice our elders because we
Speaker 1: need to stay open and our businesses need to thrive. UM.
Speaker 1: And for me, I was like, absolutely not, That's not
Speaker 1: the way that UM, at least for my community and
Speaker 1: Native American culture. UM that we you know, we revere
Speaker 1: our elders. And because we know that, UM, they hold
Speaker 1: that incredible knowledge that is important to all of our communities,
Speaker 1: not just Native communities, but you know, all of our
Speaker 1: communities have, especially communities of color, have our our elders
Speaker 1: are sacred in that way and UM. And so it
Speaker 1: was heartbreaking to see that. But I knew what I
Speaker 1: needed to do for my community because we were not
Speaker 1: gonna stand by and let our elders pass. And unfortunately UM,
Speaker 1: you know the majority of the I think the death
Speaker 1: toll in Navajo Nation is probably approaching fifteen hundred people
Speaker 1: now UM and over sixty percent of those deaths are
Speaker 1: our elders sixty years and older UM. And there's a
Speaker 1: there's a handful that um are our traditional healers, our
Speaker 1: medicine men UM. And you know, as it is, you
Speaker 1: know that population of our medicine man has been decimated.
Speaker 1: So we talk about the survival of our communities, in
Speaker 1: especially Native communities, it's we credit our traditional ancestral ways
Speaker 1: to why we're still here today. And so that that's
Speaker 1: where it came from for me. And I think, UM,
Speaker 1: when I when I talk to folks about what like
Speaker 1: the success of that we're staying right now, especially in
Speaker 1: Navajo Nation in terms of the vaccination rate, I talk
Speaker 1: about the fact that we accomplished that because we know
Speaker 1: the importance of community and in our connectedness and interdependence.
Speaker 1: Those two words interconnectedness and interdependence. It seems so foreign
Speaker 1: to how we have been operating. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously COVID began under the Trump administration, and we saw
Speaker 1: that there was no interdependence, there was no community, there
Speaker 1: was you know this every everyone is out for themselves,
Speaker 1: or that this is a hoax. You know. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the erasure of Native American culture, experience,
Speaker 1: and even from the historical setting right to the current
Speaker 1: day invisible invisibleness of the traumas and the issues that
Speaker 1: Native American communities are facing. Rick Santorm who recently was
Speaker 1: fired from CNN after excessive public pressure for his comments
Speaker 1: about essentially his ancestors coming over on the Mayflower and
Speaker 1: you know, nothing was here, right, Like there was no community,
Speaker 1: no culture, no people, no economy, no nothing right. That
Speaker 1: is literally what he said was disgusting. And I and I, well,
Speaker 1: the first time that I watched the clip, because sadly
Speaker 1: I watched it a couple of times. The first time
Speaker 1: Ali I watched the clip and I just I mean,
Speaker 1: all I could do was shake my head and I
Speaker 1: just am like, this is where these people think, like
Speaker 1: that they brought everything with them. No one taught them anything,
Speaker 1: No one was like, I don't it wasn't like arriving
Speaker 1: on the moon, right. Well, tell me what came up
Speaker 1: for you when you heard when you heard those those
Speaker 1: comments that it was absolutely false, and you know it's
Speaker 1: I was angry and my community was angry because for
Speaker 1: far too long. We've been invisible in our own homelands
Speaker 1: and our ancestral lands. You know this, UM, we were
Speaker 1: the first people's of this country. And to hear remarks
Speaker 1: that way, it's hurtful and it perpetuates that whitewash narrative
Speaker 1: that is the reason for white supremacy. UM, that that
Speaker 1: is the reason for Native erasure. And I think that UM.
Speaker 1: You know to this day that invisibility hurts even our
Speaker 1: Native youth. It hurts UM. It hurts their mental health
Speaker 1: and their well being. And that is why we fight
Speaker 1: hard against things like Native mascots, UM, and that the
Speaker 1: negative imagery of our people and stereotypes UM that play
Speaker 1: into the way that we're can constantly disregarded and remain invisible.
Speaker 1: And so the reason, I mean, that's why the whole
Speaker 1: campaign was started against Rick Santorum with the hashtag removed Rick,
Speaker 1: and and we just kept pushing and we weren't going
Speaker 1: to give up because you know this, that was our
Speaker 1: our moment to to UM to keep pushing forward and
Speaker 1: to make sure that we we won, and we weren't
Speaker 1: going to stop. And so it took UM. And when
Speaker 1: it comes to Native communities, we're such a small population
Speaker 1: that we know they think we don't matter. We're talking.
Speaker 1: We're not going to hurt business, We're not going to
Speaker 1: hurt their numbers. UM, and so that's when we call
Speaker 1: on our allies. And that's that's what we had to do.
Speaker 1: We had to call on our allies and say stand
Speaker 1: with us, especially allies who have UM big platforms and
Speaker 1: that are highly influential, like our friend Mark Ruffalo and
Speaker 1: Ed Helms and and the folks who've come to stand
Speaker 1: with us in solidarity over and over again and UM
Speaker 1: and I think we were able to. We UM created
Speaker 1: an open letter to CNN and then had folks like
Speaker 1: them sign on, and I think once Joaquin Phoenix also
Speaker 1: signed on. And so once the media picked that up
Speaker 1: and realized how how we were all coming together, I
Speaker 1: think it definitely pushed the pressure on CNN. There is
Speaker 1: a conversation with regard to our public education system and
Speaker 1: how and I talk about this on Woke of all
Speaker 1: the time, about I'm a former educator, and about how
Speaker 1: our public education system perpetuates white supremacy through the erasure
Speaker 1: of the impacts that multitudes of people, specifically for me,
Speaker 1: black Americans, have had on this country, and without which
Speaker 1: we would not have one. Uh in terms of the
Speaker 1: economic structure of America that was built off of slavery. Um,
Speaker 1: how do you feel for you is missing? Because there
Speaker 1: is so much I know that is missing in the
Speaker 1: narrative right now about Native American culture that we should
Speaker 1: also be elevating. As we're talking about things like the
Speaker 1: sixteen nineteen project that we're seeing an extraordinary pushback against
Speaker 1: in Republican legislatures around the country. What do you think
Speaker 1: is missing in terms of an additive to the narrative
Speaker 1: of the formation of America. I think the resiliency of
Speaker 1: Native people's and I think that's something especially when we
Speaker 1: talk about the pandemic and how tribal communities have been
Speaker 1: hit hard and impacted. You know, it was great to
Speaker 1: see the media covering what we were experiencing through the
Speaker 1: pandemic and um, what the pandemic has unveiled to the
Speaker 1: rest of the country, like the broken infrastructure within our
Speaker 1: tribal communities. That's important, But at the same time, mainstream
Speaker 1: media tends to lean into poverty porn, especially when it
Speaker 1: comes to Native communities, and so the thing for me
Speaker 1: that is missing is also highlighting our resilience, how we've
Speaker 1: been able to overcome being the hardest hit and now
Speaker 1: at Navajo Nation, we're basically at heart immunity with the
Speaker 1: vaccination rate and and just the success of our communities
Speaker 1: being being able to take those resources UM, you know,
Speaker 1: from the federal government, the vaccines and implementing UM just
Speaker 1: a strategy within our own community, and how we've come
Speaker 1: together to set up vaccination events and to volunteer. It
Speaker 1: has come down to community. And I think that has
Speaker 1: always been the reason that we've survived as Native peoples,
Speaker 1: is that we rely on each other because the federal
Speaker 1: government has never been there for Native communities. We have
Speaker 1: treaties that have just been broken over and over, so
Speaker 1: we've always had to rely on our on ourselves. And
Speaker 1: I think that kind of resiliency needs to be talked
Speaker 1: about more, especially when we talk about the pandemic, and
Speaker 1: then when we're talking about the foundation of this country,
Speaker 1: the fact that the Native peoples have contributed so much,
Speaker 1: going back to those two words in our connectedness, in
Speaker 1: our dependence, we've that that is who we are as
Speaker 1: Native people, and we know the power in that, and
Speaker 1: we even tried to have that sort of relationship with
Speaker 1: the European invaders, settlers who came over, and we tried
Speaker 1: to have that relationship with them, but you know, they
Speaker 1: didn't understand that concept. They didn't understand, you know, our
Speaker 1: way of life, and so it resulted in us being decimated.
Speaker 1: But you know, because we we held onto those values
Speaker 1: that are rooted in our in our connectedness, we've been
Speaker 1: able to survive. You know. One of the stories that
Speaker 1: I think, UM that did not receive the type of
Speaker 1: attention that it should have in the twenty twenty election
Speaker 1: was how Native communities came together in mass in places
Speaker 1: like Arizona, right to help turn that state blue for
Speaker 1: the very first time. Why do you think that it?
Speaker 1: What was it about this moment? I mean, I know
Speaker 1: for me, it's Trump right like and and it was
Speaker 1: just like he is an authoritarian fascist and needs to
Speaker 1: be stopped right like um, and and that is what
Speaker 1: drove my narrative, drove my work. What was it about
Speaker 1: this particular election that you think UM brought out historic
Speaker 1: numbers in your community? Yeah, similarly has to do with
Speaker 1: Trump's UM leadership. I say in quotes, because um, you know,
Speaker 1: in the in the year, the four years that he
Speaker 1: was in office. You think about UM, what happened in
Speaker 1: our communities, UM because of his administration, the Dakota Access
Speaker 1: Pipeline saw major setbacks UM that that we had won
Speaker 1: during you know, at the end of the Obama administration. UM.
Speaker 1: Everything that has to do with the destruction of Mother Earth,
Speaker 1: especially in and around Native communities that UM that harm
Speaker 1: us and UM in our health. And I think also UM,
Speaker 1: I know that during the Trump administration even the mash
Speaker 1: b Wampanoag tribe lost their reservation. So that was some
Speaker 1: that was a huge red flag for Native communities UM
Speaker 1: to say, if this can happen to them, this can
Speaker 1: happen to any of our tribes or reservations. So we
Speaker 1: need to UM. We can't. We can't let UM someone
Speaker 1: like him who has no respect for Native people or
Speaker 1: Native communities. You know, he's publicly UM filed lawsuits against
Speaker 1: UM some of the tribes up in Connecticut and New
Speaker 1: York because of UM, because of the casinos that he
Speaker 1: was trying to establish, UM and call and saying that
Speaker 1: you know, those those people didn't look Indian, so then
Speaker 1: they shouldn't get the tax breaks that they were receiving.
Speaker 1: Because and we received those because of our the land
Speaker 1: that was stolen from us through through our treaties. So
Speaker 1: when you don't understand that kind of that that true
Speaker 1: basic history of the relationship that Native people have to
Speaker 1: the federal government, then you should not be um the
Speaker 1: president of the United States. And so for us, that
Speaker 1: was really what it was about, and we came out
Speaker 1: in record numbers to make sure to ensure that we
Speaker 1: were electing officials that would sincerely bring us to the
Speaker 1: table and bring us into conversations that impacted policies or
Speaker 1: that that created policies that impacted our communities. As a
Speaker 1: black woman, I am always applauding black women, black people
Speaker 1: who are credited with first right, whether that be President Obama,
Speaker 1: whether it be our Vice president Kamala Harris. For the
Speaker 1: first time ever, we have a Secretary of the Interior
Speaker 1: that is actually Native and at go go figure right,
Speaker 1: it only took what hundreds of years for us to
Speaker 1: get to this place. And while I celebrate these moments,
Speaker 1: it also makes me enraged that we are at a
Speaker 1: place where we're still getting to these first What is it?
Speaker 1: What did it mean to you and how do you
Speaker 1: feel about that appointment? And recognition is it Is it
Speaker 1: a both and where it's just like yeay, let's celebrate
Speaker 1: and also really, you know, like we're just getting here. Yes,
Speaker 1: both and absolutely proud of Secretary Holland, and in Indian
Speaker 1: Country has been behind her since her first political moves
Speaker 1: in New Mexico, and as an Indigenous woman who is
Speaker 1: from New Mexico as well, I am beyond excited to
Speaker 1: see someone who looks like me in one of the
Speaker 1: highest political offices in the country. And and it's also
Speaker 1: infuriating because people don't know really what the Department of
Speaker 1: the Interior is yet. It's managing our public lands and
Speaker 1: national parks, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau
Speaker 1: of Indian Education also fall under the Department of the Interior.
Speaker 1: And so for me, I'm like it, how did it
Speaker 1: not make sense for a Native person to run the
Speaker 1: Department of the Interior considering the respect and relationship that
Speaker 1: we have for Mother Earth. And so when we're when
Speaker 1: we're thinking about our natural resources, our waters, and our lands,
Speaker 1: of course we're going to do all we can to
Speaker 1: protect Mother Earth. And so a Native person who knows
Speaker 1: that deep relationship and has that deep relationship should be
Speaker 1: overseeing that. And then when it comes to tribal communities,
Speaker 1: why isn't a native person overseeing again those policies that
Speaker 1: directly impact us as directly impact our communities. But I'm
Speaker 1: I'm beyond excited. I can't say what I'm writing. I
Speaker 1: can say that I'm writing something about dev Holland right now,
Speaker 1: I can't say what I've been spending the past several
Speaker 1: days writing about her. So you know, all I'll say
Speaker 1: is I say this in the piece, but she is.
Speaker 1: She's shattered the colonizer's glass ceiling, and for me, that's
Speaker 1: another level. Um. You know, we talk about so many
Speaker 1: women shattering glass ceilings, um, but to shatter the colonizer's
Speaker 1: glass ceiling is you know, takes her badassory to another level.
Speaker 1: Because she comes from a community that is not even
Speaker 1: supposed to be here today. That's extraordinary. Um. Ali, I
Speaker 1: just thank you so much for the work that you
Speaker 1: do for the community, the interconnectedness that you are building,
Speaker 1: and the attention and spotlight that you are bringing um
Speaker 1: to your community, because I do you know, as as
Speaker 1: part of a community that is villainized, the Black community
Speaker 1: that is villainized and criminalized, and over surveiled. It's like
Speaker 1: we have too much negative attention, whereas you have no
Speaker 1: attention at all, um and and you know, and it's
Speaker 1: and it's like, what does it mean to be seen? Right?
Speaker 1: What is it? What does it mean to show up
Speaker 1: in a way that you are forcing people to look
Speaker 1: at you and come back to the narratives and the
Speaker 1: stereotypes that they've created. What's next for protecting the sacred? Well,
Speaker 1: we just went through a whole strategic planning process and
Speaker 1: kind of narrowing in our focus on Native youth. So
Speaker 1: we will be we're having a Native Youth summit that's
Speaker 1: coming up the summer, and then later this year we're
Speaker 1: planning a BIPOC Youth summit that's focused on Indigenous issues.
Speaker 1: So we want to get the conversation started around allyship
Speaker 1: and the importance of collaboration amongst our cross collaboration amongst
Speaker 1: all of our communities of color, because you know, as
Speaker 1: adults were still figuring out what that means. And so
Speaker 1: it's it's, um, we should be teaching our children, our
Speaker 1: children that that way of leader ship, and so that's
Speaker 1: what we're really focusing on, is empowering Native youth and
Speaker 1: also just continuing to amplify Indigenous voices and storytelling and
Speaker 1: hoping that you know, sometime in the near future we
Speaker 1: are normalized in mainstream media. Well, Ali, I hope that
Speaker 1: you come back and you join us on woke to
Speaker 1: share more of the work that you're doing and just
Speaker 1: you know, help to open our eyes and kind of
Speaker 1: break the gas light that has been happening through you know,
Speaker 1: out centuries here so that we can all have a
Speaker 1: better understanding and build better community together. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciated talking
Speaker 1: with Ali about the interconnectedness and interdependence that are required
Speaker 1: from a community in which people are expected to take
Speaker 1: care of each other. I think that there is much
Speaker 1: for those of us outside of Navajo Nation to take
Speaker 1: away from those two words. As COVID rates continue to
Speaker 1: surge and we experience another summer dealing with the devastating
Speaker 1: effects of climate change. I always tell you how important
Speaker 1: it is to take care of yourself, but it is
Speaker 1: just as important that we take care of one another.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today on woke. Af to
Speaker 1: hear more from me, please do head over to Patreon
Speaker 1: and consider supporting me at Patreon dot com slash woke
Speaker 1: AF to support independent media boosting diverse voices and perspectives.
Speaker 1: Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: Get woke and stay woke as fuck.