Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye (right) poses at The Confluence with an unidentified person on Tuesday, Sept. 13. (Photo courtesy of Mihio Manus, spokesperson for the president’s office.)
Two shepherds spied a shiny, black Tahoe and a white pickup truck crawling on dirt road Tuesday afternoon near a gully that plunges into the Salt Trail Canyon in southern Bodaway.
The vehicles dipped into a wash-full of tumbleweed, climbed up a ridge and into a vast flat area west of Yaanide’nil, where Two Mesas Come Together.
Shepherds Ernest and Marie Peyketewa decided to flag down the moving vehicles because tourists had already begun to flock over their grazing area on the way to To’ahide’dli, Where Two Rivers Meet at Grand Canyon Eastern Rim. The Confluence Partners, LLC propose to develop a tourist center here called the Grand Canyon Escalade that would include a tram that takes visitors down to the floor of the canyon from this area.
Navajo Councilman Ben Bennett filed a bill Aug. 29 asking the Navajo council to approve $65 million to pay for infrastructure, withdraw 420- acres of land and sign a master agreement with them to develop the property.
Shepherds Ernest and Marie Peyketewa, from Bodaway, on the western Navajo Nation.
The Peyketewas, who oppose the Escalade project, gave chase because they wanted to chat with the visitors.
The two vehicles gained speed and buried them in blinding dust.
The couple, familiar with every inch of land, stopped at a cousin’s old sheep camp and watched.
Marie is Navajo and whose family’s roots stretch over nearly five generations in the area. Ernest, of Zuni/Hopi descent, has a lineage as steep as the canyon walls.
The Peyketewas watched the vehicles dart north, stop and turn in a southwest direction. They instantly figured out the pattern. The visitors were destined for To’ahide’dli.
The shepherds gunned their truck west through a patch of sage, past the earthen dam called Be’aki’halgai, or White-colored Earthen Dam, raced up the side of a mesa and parked at a fork in the dirt road, one snaked toward Biidaa, the edge of the canyon rim.
They waited to meet the visitors and guessed who they could be. They might be tourists, members of Confluence Partners or investors ready to put funds behind the Escalade project.
When the vehicles approached them and stopped, Marie jumped out of the passenger side and walked to the black Tahoe.
The window slid down down. She saw a driver suited up in formal clothing with a tie. A familiar face sat behind the wheel.
“Whoa! It’s President Begaye!” she exclaimed.
Russell Begaye
Navajo President Russell Begaye had decided, on the whim, to jaunt through southern Bodaway. Begaye, who is from Shiprock, N.M., told the couple he was on his way to visit the proposed development site.
A spokesman for the president confirmed that he visited the area Tuesday.
After all, the Partners, Bennett, and several Gap/Cedar Ridge Escalade supporters repeatedly and continuously tell the public the area is suitable for development because, “no is one out there.” A memo in the bill goes further and claims no one has grazing permits to the 420 acres.
The Peyketewas hope they changed the narrative this week.
Marie shared her family’s history who survived a four-decade Bennett Freeze, a ban on construction as a result of a dispute between the Navajo and neighboring Hopi tribe. The government lifted the ban in 2007.
Many, including herself and cousins carry grazing permits, continue the family’s legacy of caring for sheep and other livestock on the land, she told the president.
The Peyketewas then guided Begaye past the white livestock corral constructed in 1958. Ranchers upgraded it in 1972 and 1980.
Beyond is Bidaa, The Edge, where the Begaye entourage came to a stop. They stood reverently below shimmering turquoise skies among a field of purple sage and watched the multi-layers of the sheer-walled Grand Canyon.
The conversation continued.
Ernest shared how 20 tribes use the area for their earth-base religious worship. He spoke about the Hopi emergence. He also showed Begaye vegetation, its use in ceremonies and pointed to prayer feathers and sticks, recently desecrated.
At the end of the one-hour visit, the president turned to Ernest and said, “I’m glad you guys stopped us, I’m glad you explained a lot of stuff to me.”
Then, the president told Marie, “It’s a beautiful place. No wonder you’re opposed to development.”
Begaye repeated his stance: He opposes the Escalade and plans to veto the bill, if it reaches his desk.
You must be logged in to post a comment.