Colorado Plateau Advocate magazine, Spring 2015
BY ROGER CLARK
The sun rises slowly over a landscape of black brush and snow-crusted buttes, laughter filling the car as Save the Confluence family members take yet another bone-jarring trip out to the confluence and reflect upon one more spin of the seasons.
So it’s fitting that we meet a NBC News film crew on Groundhog Day, at a jewelry stand along Highway 89. We drive across twenty-five miles of rough terrain to the Grand Canyon’s east rim—to a holy place overlooking where two rivers meet. We pass a few cattle belonging to Earlene Reid, one of the project’s staunchest opponents. She and dozens of relatives and community members are at the heart of Save the Confluence’s fight against Escalade.
Five days later, NBC Nightly News broadcasts its two-minute story: “The Great Divide.” Outgoing Navajo President Ben Shelly says he supports the project. However, NBC fails to mention that Shelly, seventh-runner-up in last year’s primary election, has no authority to “give the developers the ‘OK’” to build Grand Canyon Escalade.
Legislation has yet to be introduced. The Navajo Nation Council must authorize an agreement that Shelly’s staff secretly negotiated with outside developers more than a year ago. Only recently have Navajo citizens had a chance to review its terms. Many don’t like what they see.
Although Shelly proclaims to be his people’s “guardian,” his support of Escalade is a throwback to past practices—like when distant decision-makers imposed uranium projects on Navajo communities more than a half century ago. This time, Renae Yellowhorse and many other citizens are demanding a say in their community’s future.
"Just not here at this place…. It is my church, it is where I say my prayers. It is where I give my offerings. It's where I commune with the holy ones, the gods that walk along the canyon."
Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma, Director of the Hopi Tribe's Cultural Preservation Office, joined Yellowhorse at the confluence for the NBC interview: "These landscapes and the canyon and the confluence today are still very, very important to the Hopi people and we'll never let that go," said Kuwanwisiwma. "We're not going to give up on being good stewards of these lands. Never."
Shelly will soon leave office and, due to growing opposition, his successor is unlikely to support Escalade. Nor have developers secured sufficient votes for approval by the newly inaugurated Navajo Nation Council.
The Save the Confluence coalition continues to work effectively to defeat Escalade. Grand Canyon Trust stands united with Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and many other stakeholders to stop this most recent raid on sacred land.
"Shelly, seventh-runner-up in last year’s primary election, has no authority to “give the developers the ‘OK’” to build Grand Canyon Escalade."
