Biden creates a new national monument near the Grand Canyon - https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192622716/biden-national-monument-grand-canyon-arizona
The move protects lands that are sacred to indigenous peoples and permanently bans new uranium mining claims in the area. It covers nearly 1 million acres.
—
"It will help protect lands that many tribes referred to as their eternal home, a place of healing and a source of spiritual sustenance," she said. "It will help ensure that indigenous peoples can continue to use these areas for religious ceremonies, hunting and gathering of plants, medicines and other materials, including some found nowhere else on earth. It will protect objects of historic and scientific importance for the benefit of tribes, the public and for future generations."
—
The new national monument will be called Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. According to the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition that drafted a proposal for the monument, "Baaj Nwaavjo" means "where tribes roam" in Havasupai, and "I'tah Kukveni" translates to "our ancestral footprints" in Hopi.
all land is sacred (and should be returned) but this is good news.
Hozier's mention of the word "hushpukena" (a Choctaw word) in the song Butchered Tongue was, of course, not a random decision. In a song about the pain of being disconnected from your ancestral language and culture as a result of colonization and oppression from outside forces- which is something that both Irish and Native American people have experienced to varying degrees. Not only do Irish and Indigenous people have this shared history of colonization at the hands of the British, but Irish and Indigenous communities have a long history of support for one another.
The usage of "hushpukena" is even more specific and important because it calls back to the mutually positive relationship between Irish and Choctaw people specifically. During the Great Hunger in Ireland, the Choctaw Nation donated $170, which is more than $5,000 in today’s money, to aid the Irish. Out of all American aid given to Ireland during the famine, the donation from the Choctaw Nation was the largest donation given.
In 1990, leaders from the Choctaw Nation visited County Mayo in Ireland to participate in the first annual Famine Walk. In 1992, Irish people visited the Choctaw Nation and participated in a trek to commemorate the Trail of Tears. Also in 1992, a plaque commemorating the Choctaw's aid was installed in the house of the mayor of Dublin. In 1995, the Irish President Mary Robinson visited the tribal headquarters of the Choctaw Nation to thank the Choctaw people for their aid. In 2017, a sculpture named "Kindred Spirits" was built in Cork, Ireland to commemorate the Choctaw's aid and to continue friendship between the two communities. In 2018, the Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland visited Choctaw tribal headquarters and stated,"A few years ago, on a visit to Ireland, a representative of the Choctaw Nation called your support for us ‘a sacred memory’. It is that and more. It is a sacred bond, which has joined our peoples together for all time". In 2020, more than $1.8 million was raised by Irish people as aid for Native American people (specifically the Navajo and Hopi) during the pandemic, to help provide food, clean water, and health supplies.
Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument has been fought for for over a decade by the Native American peoples of northern Arizona and southern Utah and it's finally happening!
(ICTNews is Indian Country Today; I don't know why it's not making an auto-link like the other ones.)
In his dedicating remarks, President Biden acknowledged the violent displacement of the Havasupai, which feels massive to me. I don't know off the top of my head that Clinton or Obama or Bush ever acknowledged the painful and brutal history of the colonization of the West when dedicating monuments; I know without checking that Trump certainly never did.
This is a massive victory. I'm so proud and happy for everyone back home right now.
The memory of Indians who lived in Manhattan long ago comes back as 4-year-old Carol Nachie practices her part in a ceremonial dance, while her elders watch in a hotel, February 17, 1955. They all took part in the world premiere at Carnegie Hall of a one-act opera, "Hopitu," based on ancient Hopi Indian chants and dances. Seated on the floor is Kolchaftewa. Standing left to right are: Nachie, Carol's father; Chamema; his wife, Judith Chamema, and Koochnungnurma. The opera was composed by Lois Albright from the old chants and the libretto was by M.W. Billingsley.
Photo: Carl Nesensohn for the AP via the Chattenooga Times Free Press