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Blog: Promoting green jobs on the Navajo Nation
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Filed Under: Environment

"It was a cloudy Friday morning in Window Rock, Arizona, the capital of Navajo Nation. Nearly two hundred individuals came to listen to dozens of organizations presenting on the potential for Navajo Green Jobs. I attended this conference as someone who’d spent weeks handing out “Green Jobs” Power Vote stickers and who was fairly familiar with Van Jones speeches. I realized that day that the idea of Green Jobs has taken flight beyond the theoretical. It is becoming an opportunity for real change, to deliver power to the people of Navajo Nation.

My friend and colleague, Alana Miller, and I were traveling to Navajo Nation as part of our internship for 1Sky New Mexico and New Energy Economy. We spent our first night in Gallup, a bizarre intersection between Navajo tribe-land and American Sprawl. On one side of historic Rt. 66, the town’s main artery, lay the original Old West train tracks and the striking Red Rock mesas. On the opposite side was building after building of standard American franchises: Sonic, WalMart, McDonald’s, Texaco. Beyond the strip malls, we could see neighborhoods of government-built houses. That weekend, we listened to the stories of several members of the Navajo tribe: stories about oppression, hardship, resilience, and courage.

We rode to Window Rock with Anna Rondon and Norman Brown, of 1Sky New Mexico, long-time activists instrumental in banning uranium mining on Navajo Nation. They told us about the pivotal subjugations of their people: in 1862 the prison-camps of Fort Sumner, in the 1934, the massacre of ½ million Navajo livestock, and in the early 1900s, the discovery of coal and uranium on Navajo land. Despite this historic oppression, Anna and Norman believe that today the grassroots influences the government more than ever: especially now, with the prospect of Green Jobs."

Get the Story:
Green Jobs for Navajo Nation (It’s Getting Hot In Here 10/15)

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