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Speaker 1: Welcome to woke AF with me Danielle Moody. Last month, I enjoyed an insightful conversation with Dunay activists Ali Young, founder of Protect the Sacred, a group focused on protecting elders within her community. With the recent public health news of coronavirus surges and the Delta variant, I wanted to bring you our full conversation to give you an idea of the issues facing the Navajo Nation that are typically ignored in the mainstream media. Of course, so you can hear me tackle plenty of issues that don't get airtime in the media by supporting me on Patreon at patreon dot com slash woke AF. For now, though, I hope you receive insight and information from my conversation with Ali Young. I want to start off with just can you explain to us how Protect the Sacred started and why sure? Protect the Sacred started at in March last year, right at the beginning of a pandemic late March. Actually, it was right around the time that the Navajo Nation was being hit very hard and I felt like I needed to do something, and I was also being called upon by some of my former colleagues at Shiprock, Indian Health Service physicians and public health professionals who also knew that we needed to be communicating to young people to relay this message of staying home and what the CDC was coming down with. So I worked with them to really develop messaging that would that that was sort of digestible because you know, you think about our communities, and especially in Navajo Nation, we have a lot of elders who don't always understand what's happening on the news because they don't speak English fluently. So to be able to communicate that important messaging to our youth who could then translate it and pass it on to our elders who we were trying to protect because of the ancestral knowledge and the culture and the language that they that they hold and that they're still passing down to many of our young people was really at the core of our work. You know what struck me when I was watching UM I think it was an expose that was being done on you and on Protect the Sacred I think it was on NBC, And what struck me was this desire to protect knowledge right and understanding that the wisdom and knowledge that you were working to protect is encapsulated in your elders. Which has struck me about the pandemic in general, is how disconnected American culture seems from actual community. Like this virus right to me in a lot of ways, was an exercise in how we care and have empathy for each other. Right that it isn't the pull yourself up from the bootstrap, you know, I'm in it for myself type of person. And there was a selfishness that was so very apparent and on display. You know, talk to me about what it means to not just you know, shun or move away from your from your elders, which we see a lot in in our society in multiple communities. There isn't this care for the elders, right, Like, what did we see on the news. It was just the initial reports about COVID was who it was hitting, where the elderly and young folks are just like, so that's not me. I'm going to stay at the bars and I'm going to stay at the clubs, and I'm gonna you know, I'm in it for me. You know what came up for you in terms of like kind of seeing that very stark dichotomy in how we care for one another. Yeah, well, I mean our work protect the sacred is also a response to I think right around that time in Texas, I was seeing reports about UM, even the elders in Texas thing that they wanted to sacrifice themselves for for the economy and in this country, the sake of this country. And and then I you know, to even see young people supporting UM that that notion you know, to UM will sacrifice our elders because we need to stay open and our businesses need to thrive. UM. And for me, I was like, absolutely not, That's not the way that UM, at least for my community and Native American culture. UM that we you know, we revere our elders. And because we know that, UM, they hold that incredible knowledge that is important to all of our communities, not just Native communities, but you know, all of our communities have, especially communities of color, have our our elders are sacred in that way and UM. And so it was heartbreaking to see that. But I knew what I needed to do for my community because we were not gonna stand by and let our elders pass. And unfortunately UM, you know the majority of the I think the death toll in Navajo Nation is probably approaching fifteen hundred people now UM and over sixty percent of those deaths are our elders sixty years and older UM. And there's a there's a handful that um are our traditional healers, our medicine men UM. And you know, as it is, you know that population of our medicine man has been decimated. So we talk about the survival of our communities, in especially Native communities, it's we credit our traditional ancestral ways to why we're still here today. And so that that's where it came from for me. And I think, UM, when I when I talk to folks about what like the success of that we're staying right now, especially in Navajo Nation in terms of the vaccination rate, I talk about the fact that we accomplished that because we know the importance of community and in our connectedness and interdependence. Those two words interconnectedness and interdependence. It seems so foreign to how we have been operating. I mean, you know, obviously COVID began under the Trump administration, and we saw that there was no interdependence, there was no community, there was you know this every everyone is out for themselves, or that this is a hoax. You know. I want to talk about the erasure of Native American culture, experience, and even from the historical setting right to the current day invisible invisibleness of the traumas and the issues that Native American communities are facing. Rick Santorm who recently was fired from CNN after excessive public pressure for his comments about essentially his ancestors coming
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over on the Mayflower and you know, nothing was here, right, Like there was no community, no culture, no people, no economy, no nothing right. That is literally what he said was disgusting. And I and I, well, the first time that I watched the clip, because sadly I watched it a couple of times. The first time Ali I watched the clip and I just I mean, all I could do was shake my head and I just am like, this is where these people think, like that they brought everything with them. No one taught them anything, No one was like, I don't it wasn't like arriving on the moon, right. Well, tell me what came up for you when you heard when you heard those those comments that it was absolutely false, and you know it's I was angry and my community was angry because for far too long. We've been invisible in our own homelands and our ancestral lands. You know this, UM, we were the first people's of this country. And to hear remarks that way, it's hurtful and it perpetuates that whitewash narrative that is the reason for white supremacy. UM, that that is the reason for Native erasure. And I think that UM. You know to this day that invisibility hurts even our Native youth. It hurts UM. It hurts their mental health and their well being. And that is why we fight hard against things like Native mascots, UM, and that the negative imagery of our people and stereotypes UM that play into the way that we're can constantly disregarded and remain invisible. And so the reason, I mean, that's why the whole campaign was started against Rick Santorum with the hashtag removed Rick, and and we just kept pushing and we weren't going to give up because you know this, that was our our moment to to UM to keep pushing forward and to make sure that we we won, and we weren't going to stop. And so it took UM. And when it comes to Native communities, we're such a small population that we know they think we don't matter. We're talking. We're not going to hurt business, We're not going to hurt their numbers. UM, and so that's when we call on our allies. And that's that's what we had to do. We had to call on our allies and say stand with us, especially allies who have UM big platforms and that are highly influential, like our friend Mark Ruffalo and Ed Helms and and the folks who've come to stand with us in solidarity over and over again and UM and I think we were able to. We UM created an open letter to CNN and then had folks like them sign on, and I think once Joaquin Phoenix also signed on. And so once the media picked that up and realized how how we were all coming together, I think it definitely pushed the pressure on CNN. There is a conversation with regard to our public education system and how and I talk about this on Woke of all the time, about I'm a former educator, and about how our public education system perpetuates white supremacy through the erasure of the impacts that multitudes of people, specifically for me, black Americans, have had on this country, and without which we would not have one. Uh in terms of the economic structure of America that was built off of slavery. Um, how do you feel for you is missing? Because there is so much I know that is missing in the narrative right now about Native American culture that we should also be elevating. As we're talking about things like the sixteen nineteen project that we're seeing an extraordinary pushback against in Republican legislatures around the country. What do you think is missing in terms of an additive to the narrative of the formation of America. I think the resiliency of Native people's and I think that's something especially when we talk about the pandemic and how tribal communities have been hit hard and impacted. You know, it was great to see the media covering what we were experiencing through the pandemic and um, what the pandemic has unveiled to the rest of the country, like the broken infrastructure within our tribal communities. That's important, But at the same time, mainstream media tends to lean into poverty porn, especially when it comes to Native communities, and so the thing for me that is missing is also highlighting our resilience, how we've been able to overcome being the hardest hit and now at Navajo Nation, we're basically at heart immunity with the vaccination rate and and just the success of our communities being being able to take those resources UM, you know, from the federal government, the vaccines and implementing UM just a strategy within our own community, and how we've come together to set up vaccination events and to volunteer. It has come down to community. And I think that has always been the reason that we've survived as Native peoples, is that we rely on each other because the federal government has never been there for Native communities. We have treaties that have just been broken over and over, so we've always had to rely on our on ourselves. And I think that kind of resiliency needs to be talked about more, especially when we talk about the pandemic, and then when we're talking about the foundation of this country, the fact that the Native peoples have contributed so much, going back to those two words in our connectedness, in our dependence, we've that that is who we are as Native people, and we know the power in that, and we even tried to have that sort of relationship with the European invaders, settlers who came over, and we tried to have that relationship with them, but you know, they didn't understand that concept. They didn't understand, you know, our way of life, and so it resulted in us being decimated. But you know, because we we held onto those values that are rooted in our in our connectedness, we've been able to survive. You know. One of the stories that I think, UM that did not receive the type of attention that it should have in the twenty twenty election was how Native communities came together in mass in places like Arizona, right to help turn that state blue for the very first time. Why do you think
that it? What was it about this moment? I mean, I know for me, it's Trump right like and and it was just like he is an authoritarian fascist and needs to be stopped right like um, and and that is what drove my narrative, drove my work. What was it about this particular election that you think UM brought out historic numbers in your community? Yeah, similarly has to do with Trump's UM leadership. I say in quotes, because um, you know, in the in the year, the four years that he was in office. You think about UM, what happened in our communities, UM because of his administration, the Dakota Access Pipeline saw major setbacks UM that that we had won during you know, at the end of the Obama administration. UM. Everything that has to do with the destruction of Mother Earth, especially in and around Native communities that UM that harm us and UM in our health. And I think also UM, I know that during the Trump administration even the mash b Wampanoag tribe lost their reservation. So that was some that was a huge red flag for Native communities UM to say, if this can happen to them, this can happen to any of our tribes or reservations. So we need to UM. We can't. We can't let UM someone like him who has no respect for Native people or Native communities. You know, he's publicly UM filed lawsuits against UM some of the tribes up in Connecticut and New York because of UM, because of the casinos that he was trying to establish, UM and call and saying that you know, those those people didn't look Indian, so then they shouldn't get the tax breaks that they were receiving. Because and we received those because of our the land that was stolen from us through through our treaties. So when you don't understand that kind of that that true basic history of the relationship that Native people have to the federal government, then you should not be um the president of the United States. And so for us, that was really what it was about, and we came out in record numbers to make sure to ensure that we were electing officials that would sincerely bring us to the table and bring us into conversations that impacted policies or that that created policies that impacted our communities. As a black woman, I am always applauding black women, black people who are credited with first right, whether that be President Obama, whether it be our Vice president Kamala Harris. For the first time ever, we have a Secretary of the Interior that is actually Native and at go go figure right, it only took what hundreds of years for us to get to this place. And while I celebrate these moments, it also makes me enraged that we are at a place where we're still getting to these first What is it? What did it mean to you and how do you feel about that appointment? And recognition is it Is it a both and where it's just like yeay, let's celebrate and also really, you know, like we're just getting here. Yes, both and absolutely proud of Secretary Holland, and in Indian Country has been behind her since
her first political moves in New Mexico, and as an Indigenous woman who is from New Mexico as well, I am beyond excited to see someone who looks like me in one of the highest political offices in the country. And and it's also infuriating because people don't know really what the Department of the Interior is yet. It's managing our public lands and national parks, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education also fall under the Department of the Interior. And so for me, I'm like it, how did it not make sense for a Native person to run the Department of the Interior considering the respect and relationship that we have for Mother Earth. And so when we're when we're thinking about our natural resources, our waters, and our lands, of course we're going to do all we can to protect Mother Earth. And so a Native person who knows that deep relationship and has that deep relationship should be overseeing that. And then when it comes to tribal communities, why isn't a native person overseeing again those policies that directly impact us as directly impact our communities. But I'm I'm beyond excited. I can't say what I'm writing. I can say that I'm writing something about dev Holland right now, I can't say what I've been spending the past several days writing about her. So you know, all I'll say is I say this in the piece, but she is. She's shattered the colonizer's glass ceiling, and for me, that's another level. Um. You know, we talk about so many women shattering glass ceilings, um, but to shatter the colonizer's glass ceiling is you know, takes her badassory to another level. Because she comes from a community that is not even supposed to be here today. That's extraordinary. Um. Ali, I just thank you so much for the work that you do for the community, the interconnectedness that you are building, and the attention and spotlight that you are bringing um to your community, because I do you know, as as part of a community that is villainized, the Black community that is villainized and criminalized, and over surveiled. It's like we have too much negative attention, whereas you have no attention at all, um and and you know, and it's and it's like, what does it mean to be seen? Right? What is it? What does it mean to show up in a way that you are forcing people to look at you and come back to the narratives and the stereotypes that they've created. What's next for protecting the sacred? Well, we just went through a whole strategic planning process and kind of narrowing in our focus on Native youth. So we will be we're having a Native Youth summit that's coming up the summer, and then later this year we're planning a BIPOC Youth summit that's focused on Indigenous issues. So we want to get the conversation started around allyship and the importance of collaboration amongst our cross collaboration amongst all of our communities of color, because you know, as adults were still figuring out what that means. And so it's it's, um, we should be teaching our children, our children that that way of leader ship, and so that's what we're really focusing on, is empowering Native youth and also just continuing to amplify Indigenous voices and storytelling and hoping that you know, sometime in the near future we are normalized in mainstream media. Well, Ali, I hope that you come back and you join us on woke to share more of the work that you're doing and just you know, help to open our eyes and kind of break the gas light that has been happening through you know, out centuries here so that we can all have a better understanding and build better community together. I appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciated talking with Ali about the interconnectedness and interdependence that are required from a community in which people are expected to take care of each other. I think that there is much for those of us outside of Navajo Nation to take away from those two words. As COVID rates continue to surge and we experience another summer dealing with the devastating effects of climate change. I always tell you how important it is to take care of yourself, but it is just as important that we take care of one another. That is it for me today on woke. Af to hear more from me, please do head over to Patreon and consider supporting me at Patreon dot com slash woke AF to support independent media boosting diverse voices and perspectives. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.