THE WOMEN OF BEARS EARS GATHER

As Women of Bears Ears we came together during the Spring Celebrations of the Bear Dance at Towaoc, the tribal land of the Ute Mountain Ute people on the ancestral lands of Nuchu. There was an air of excitement among us. It was a good day to be Indigenous women. The matriarchal energy stirred within us. We traveled with our families anticipating our time together for love of the land and reconnecting with each other. It was also a time for deep reflection, sharing from the depths of our hearts and our beings. Intergenerational transmission of our unique and combined knowledge became a priceless gift arising from coming together for all the things on this earth that are important and sacred to us. Some of our elders spoke wisdom in their native tongue, we honored the beauty of what they shared.  We approached our work together in a respectful way, honoring our differences, recognizing our similarities. Each of us share our traditional knowledge and honor the land, our Mother Earth & our ancestors in this same way. 

Rematriation and What We Value

The Women of Bears Ears are committed to the rematriation of Mother Earth. Indigenous liberation requires rematriation; a return to the original instructions which places Mother Earth, matriarchs and women as natural leaders and caretakers. It is what we must return to in a world that has been desecrated by white supremacy, colonialism, violent imperialism and toxic patriarchy. Rematriation is a step toward reclaiming ancestral spaces to continue intergenerational knowledge and practices on the landscape. As a collective, Women of Bears Ears are committed to reclaiming ancestral knowledge by using present voices in leadership roles, providing education, cultural practices, community building and language revitalization. The work of rematriation is embodied in healing, protection, beauty, and balance for continuous learning amongst each other, our youth and future generations. We speak our voices so the ancestors can hear us. We speak with the next generation to come.

The beauty way of living means good prayers, thoughts honoring our Mother Earth with respect. Within traditional practices our values are held. They include protection of our families, heritage, culture, transparency, traditional knowledge, learning, growth, education, spirituality, honoring and respecting nature, plants and animals. We also value ourselves as women, our creativity, our integrity and the power of our voices and our stories. We support one another’s mental wellness and multi-generational care. We practice discipline, mentoring others, observation and diligence.  We value Indigenous foods and farming practices with immense respect and sensitivity. We favor our senses - to see, to smell, to touch, to taste and to listen to the world around us. We practice intergenerational healing, it is hard but enduring work and we derive our inspiration and support from our ancestors. 

What are the qualities of a good matriarch? A matriarch has more time to spend on her personal interests and contribute to her community, while still playing a valued role in her family. She is a woman who has earned influence with the people in her sphere from her strengths, commitment, and ability to love with wisdom and without condition. As matriarchs it is our responsibility to protect Mother Earth for generations to come. Bears Ears is unique and should be protected. Bears Ears is a provider. We don’t just take, we also give back in the name of reciprocity. It's something that's been instilled in us from time immemorial. It's not just protection for ourselves, but it is for protection of our future, but it's also protection for our communities and for our neighbors. 

Extraction

Extraction is a physical representation of capitalism at play. We currently have so many corporations, companies, and visitors coming on to our ancestral homelands, not to mention the archeologists and federal employees. Extractive industries such as oil & gas, fracking, hydrogen to name a few end up contaminating the land, water, air, people, plants & animals that depend on a healthy environment to live. The earth we live on has a perfect balance and it is our responsibility to help maintain it. In order for our planet and our people and non-human relatives to survive large issues such as colonization & climate change, matriarchs continue to sustain cultural lifeways, and speak up for our planet and support ways to coexist with nature and each other. 

Our elders remember a time when our water and land were not contaminated by mining for coal, uranium and drilling for oil alongside fracking for natural gas. Our elders voice concern over the continued extraction of fossil fuels and its role in climate collapse. They have seen so many changes. The elders tell us as women we should have a voice in how land should be managed. We need to come forward and be heard. We know that extraction is a hard fight. Our bodies and the body of the land are one. We have seen extraction ravage the body, and the land and all that lives on it. There's still the high level of radon where we live. The yellow cake was right there, it was milled just 15 miles from where many of us live. It affected most of the people surrounding Mexican Hat. Most of them had cancer. They still are getting cancer. Just as some of us are still living within 15 miles of a uranium mill that continues to spit fire and fumes on us every waking minute from the White Mesa Uranium Mill. So we don’t feel good about mining or drilling, it worries us a lot. 

Just as the land has been contaminated, so have our bodies - we have lost many people to cancer and respiratory diseases. A lot of people say “Hey we need the revenue”,  and even the tribes say “We need the royalty funds from the oil.”. We women can see a lot of things, we have shed tears witnessing the suffering and losses within our families. We have seen people in their wheelchairs, coughing, on oxygen machines, pleading to get compensation for the illnesses that they suffered from the extraction industries. It is terrible what they do to the land and the families. When you take from the land, you might provide revenue temporarily, but it’s a short fix. Women are not having our voices heard when extraction is concerned. When our voices are not heard, the impacts are felt deeply and the outcome is alienation.

As Women of Bears Ears we come from Diné, Nuchu, Pueblo, Hopi and all allied Native Nations.  We are restoring sacred relationships between Indigenous women and our ancestral land, and honoring our societies and the work we do. We are concerned about the extraction industry creating disharmony for the land and our people.  We are concerned about it creating inter-tribal conflicts and conflicts between our women and men. We are mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers; we are daughters, sisters, wives and professionals in fields as varied as nurses, social workers, academics, students, researchers, scientists, cooks, farmers, weavers, writers, artists, activists and policy makers. By committing to rematriation of Mother Earth, we are calling for respect, restraint, responsibility and restoration of the “natural resources” on our sacred lands for sustaining our communities and future generations. 

We Hear the Voices of Our Children

Our family members are sacred. At this gathering we heard the voices of our children as they reflected on their own values. They called for protection of Mother Earth, the trees and animals, the comfort and security of their lives, and keeping themselves and their families safe. The power of the beauty way is knowing who you are, where you come from and why you do what you do by living as an earth surface being. When we come together, we rematriate the lands that we gather upon. As Women of Bears Ears we want to protect the land because for us that is the place we go to get all that we really need. We oppose extraction on our sacred lands. 

The Women of Bears Ears gratefully acknowledges this gathering was funded by a grant from First Nations Development Institute.