La Sierra’s 2012 Spring Break service trip with Project Pueblo and La Vida Mission :)
Thanks Giovanni/PUC for Featuring Project Pueblo!
PUC Students Return to Navajo Nation
Giovanni Hashimoto, April 9, 2012
For many students, spring break means sunny beaches, fun with friends, quality time with family, or maybe just a quiet week of relaxation. For about 19 Pacific Union College students, however, it meant a week of hard work on a service trip to the former Bennet Freeze in the Navajo Nation, near Flagstaff, Arizona.
The trip, which took place from March 23-31, was planned by the Pacific Union College chapter of Project Pueblo, a student-run organization founded at the University of California at Berkeley in 2009. The organization aims to help alleviate the effects of the Bennet Freeze and improve living conditions in the Navajo Nation. This is the second PUC Project Pueblo trip; the first took place over winter break.
“The trip helped people restore their homes after the lifting of the Freeze in 2009,” explained Lorie Johns, PUC’s nursing student success advisor, who accompanied students on the trip. “It’s about supporting people as they are working to rebuild and better their living situation.”
The Bennet Freeze was a federal policy enacted in 1966 prohibiting any building—even basic repairs—on a 1.5 million-acres portion of Navajo territory.The Freeze resulted in decades of crumbling infrastructure in the affected areas and was finally lifted, after over 40 years, by President Barack Obama in 2009. Despite the end of the Freeze, the Navajo people continue to struggle with problems resulting from abandoned uranium mines and coal mining on their territory.
The PUC group split into teams to complete basic construction projects on the homes of three local families. Beneficiaries were chosen by Forgotten People—a community-based organization working on improving living conditions on the reservations—which also partners with Project Pueblo.
Participants came away from the trip having learned as much as they helped. “This trip was definitely very eye opening,” explains Darlene Teddy, a junior environmental studies student. “It allowed me to see the way that the Navajo people still live while we live in an environment where we have running water and electricity—and it let me see the source of our electricity comes from them.”
“A lot of their coal mining, the energy that they make, goes to the larger cities and neighboring states,” she adds. “It makes you kind of realize that we may flip a switch here but the source is over there. The people that are affected over there—we may not think about it but we really should think about how their lives are getting affected.”
Johns agrees. “This trip was an opportunity for us coming from our privileged college background,” she noted. “We come there from different places but going to interact with people of a different culture—living in very difficult circumstances right here in our own country—it was definitely an opportunity for learning and exchange in both directions. It was very valuable in that respect and just as a wakeup call for us to be more aware and more caring about issues that exist right here in the United States.”
Spring Break 12 Reflection, by Robyn Comfort
Cameron, Arizona, is where I spent the last week of March. Thankfully, we were far enough from the mine sites so that the contamination did not threaten us during our stay, but other Navajo living their aren’t so fortunate. Larry Gordy is a Navajo man who I have met in the context of hopefully assisting him in completing a new home for his family. When I met him, I was quick to realize that this man is a two name kind of rancher; “Larry” just doesn’t seem to do him justice. Humor, height, and his tendency to hand you the dirt truth told me that Larry Gordy was a man I’d want to keep around my good side.
Larry Gordy seemed to enjoy joining a group of us on a trek to the Grand Canyon. He readily answered our prying questions about his life as a Navajo rancher on reservation lands, nonchalantly shared his family stories, and proudly told of his daughter’s speed on the track, and their family’s road stand endeavors to sell Fry Bread in support of their kids’ budding athleticism, and the associated travel expenses. While at the Grand canyon, upon hearing of my sister’s stomach ache he immediately offered to stop on the way home to collect an herb he knew of which would help sooth her. Later, we found ourselves pulling over on a dark side road, stopped in front of a field of grasses, and waited while he found the wild herb which would aid her ailment. A looming, burly cowboy, Larry Gordy was an unexpectedly upbeat and light-hearted person to be around. Not to mention his family’s delectable capacity to make some of the most scrumptious, melt-your-mouth, remind-me-why-everything-isn’t-drenched-in-honey-and-powdered-sugar Navajo fry bread I’ve ever tasted. Needless to say, I am looking forward to working with and learning from him again very soon.
On Friday March 30, I had the pleasure of interviewing Larry Gordy’s son, Tray, who shared so much with us about his family, his life in high school on the reservation, and his commitment to the land to which his family and his ancestors have been so deeply connected and dependent on. Back in January, I also had the pleasure of meeting Ronald Tohannie: a soft-spoken man who helps care for his mother, both living miles away from any stores or main roads. Ronald was wonderful enough to give our group a ride to where we were staying, one hour on bumpy dirt roads, and another burning gas on the highway. I’ve met people throughout the reservation who are kind at the drop of a dime, and eager to share their stories and their experiences as Navajo people on reservation land in the USA. Their stories embody, emanate and illuminate the consequences and reality that are tied to that tangibly political association.
http://www.razoo.com/story/Projectpueblowater
Check this out! A great opportunity to understand what issues Navajo people have been facing today. Project Pueblo is going to improve their water systems this spring!
Make a difference! Go to : http://www.razoo.com/story/Projectpueblowater
