Meet Sunny Dooley, Diné Storyteller

 by Deon Ben, Native America Manager

Diné (Navajo) storyteller Sunny Dooley, of Chi Chil Tah, New Mexico, is a founding member of the Colorado Plateau Intertribal Conversations Group, which rebuilds the working relationships between tribal nations that, for centuries—through trade, travel, ceremonies, and stories—ensured their livelihoods and enriched their thinking. The group, which has been meeting since 2009, sent a small delegation, including Dooley, to the National Bioneers Conference, an annual summit that attracts environmental activists from around the globe. That experience helped inspire the first-ever Indigenous Peoples' Gathering for Healthy Communities, Culture, and Climate , a Bioneers-like summit by Native people, for Native people, held in the Pueblo of Pojoaque this November. We caught up to her there to hear her ideas on why it’s important for tribes to get together, escaping the “non-profit industrial complex,” and caring for bloated goats.

Why do you think it’s important for Native people to come together?

Historical documents have shown, time and time again, conquering by dividing. At this point in history, we have to undo that. It’s not just indigenous nations that can solve this, it’s all of us. We have to claim for ourselves the right to breathe the air, to drink the water, to live in this universe.

How did Bioneers inspire you?

Bioneers. The word was intriguing to me. When I typed it in the first time to a Word document it came out underlined in red as a nonexistent word. But it’s just like pioneers, only this is about everybody taking a role in protecting the biodiversity of this world. When I got there, I considered myself a closet environmentalist, because just that word, “environmentalist,” conjures up so many stereotypes. But then I realized, these are just regular people like me and holy cow, there are hordes of them! And it was so affirming to see that. You come back dripping with information. But what do I, as one person from Chi Chil Tah, do with all this information? And then you start looking around and you realize there are so many people working to protect air, water, land. You know, I kind of see it from the outside. All these grassroots organizations are fighting for the same pot of money. I heard someone call it “the non-profit industrial complex.” Once again let’s separate them, let’s divide them, let’s build walls around them and let’s conquer them. Now, I know better, we all know better, and this time we all know we need to unite our efforts, our energies and to engage our homes, villages, and communities to do better!"

Why did you want to see the same type of gathering happen in Indian Country?

The thought for me was let’s invite everybody that we know as members of our [intertribal conversations] group who has inspired us, who has motivated us, who has taught us a new word, who has given us a new way of looking at something. Let’s see if we can bring them together, just like what Bioneers is doing, let’s do something like that, with the Native American world. And just as Bioneers is a worldwide effort, why can’t we do this with the indigenous populations around the world? Native people coming into the arena of a really broad perspective like Bioneers, it’s a little intimidating. But we have our sense of hospitality, our own way of being. The best way to describe it is, if you ever go to a conference, you know, it’s not the breakout sessions that are revolutionary, it’s the points in between, it’s those little breaks. I see that person, I need to talk to that person…the gathering is those conversations, those wonderful connections.

What’s it like?

It’s wonderful. It’s ke’e, the Navajo word is ke’e. We’re making relationships, real relationships, not like “oh I have their business card so now I’m going to be able to blah blah blah,” it’s not like that. These are people who are creating change. They’ve made a path and I’m so blessed to walk a few steps of that path. I’m affirmed in what I’m doing. That’s how everybody feels here. This kind of work can be really defeating,  there are huge obstacles that stand in your way. Here it’s kind of like “oh look, here are all of my relatives” and you can let your guard down, and you realize I’m not all by myself here. And instead of being territorial and isolationist and diving just for that one pot of money, we realize we have to work together in order to survive. You know the popular saying “no man is an island.” We’re here, we’re doing the work, and we’re affirmed by that, we’re affirmed that what we’re doing is not nonsense. It’s not a fad, it’s not a passing fancy. You know, Earth, Mother is crying, “I am at the point of no return here, ladies and gentleman, what are you going to do now?”

What should we do now?

How long has the earth been in existence, four and a half billion years? And we have seven billion people and within the last what 500 years we have completely undone it. We’re really undisciplined five-fingered earth people. We have to turn around and we’ve got to change our ways. Being a part of this group I’ve changed the way I eat, changed the way I live. I’m a storyteller, I travel a lot. I always ask hotels if they have recycle bins, if they don’t, I literally bring it home. I’m living my talk, and this has revolutionized my life, this process, I’ve healed myself with food. Food is my medicine. 

I want to aspire to live like my great-grandmother who died at 104 years old. She did not have prescription drugs. All she had in her little medicine suitcase, it was a tiny little black suitcase really, really tiny, and in there—at that time Alka-Seltzer came in glass tubes—she had a tube of Alka-Seltzer, a jar of Bayer aspirin, and a bottle of Vicks. And that’s all I feel like I should have when I’m 100 years old. The only time I ever saw her use that Alka-Seltzer was when the goats got into a corn and beans mixture and they got bloated and my grandmother gave them some Alka-Seltzer.  Not too long ago, the same thing happened to one of my goats, it overate, so I gave it some Alka-Seltzer and it got well, it healed, so, you know, this is a way of saying everything that was relevant with our elders is still relevant today.

What will you take home from this gathering?

One of the things I want to encourage people of the world [to do], is find out where you come from, who are your ancestors. And  even if your ancestors weren’t the best people on earth ,  it’s nice to know where you come from because that way you don’t repeat the same mistakes. We have to evolve and we’re not evolving, we’re destroying. We need to have a better concept of what it’s going to take to make this earth thrive, especially if you’ve replicated yourself and have children, how are your grandchildren going to live in this world? That’s really the bottom line. My great-grandmother saw in me what she wanted to live, and so she taught me stories: that’s how our great-grandchildren should live. This gathering encourages us to learn and evolve.

Learn more about the Intertribal Gathering work supported by the Grand Canyon Trust ›