Diné Customary Land Management
Overview
The fundamental concept is simple. Diné land governance is based on k’é, relationships. Land is related to as a living being, sustained and nurtured through collective human stewards on a matriarchal basis of group order.
However, how Diné land governance is practiced is elusive. The actual complete practice exists largely in stories, and has not been completely and freely implemented since captivity of the Diné people at Fort Sumner, NM, during hwéeldi in the 1860s.
What is written in these sections on custom is what is generally accepted and known, with some specific details shared by elders only since the 2020 pandemic, which brought losses among our elders and the realization that our fragile culture has also been greatly lost, and may be lost forever.
Matrilineal Basis of Self-Order
The matrilineal group is the basis of order led by a matriarch taking on the traditional role. The Diné word for this group is t’ááłá’ k’ǫ‘diltłi’dóó biyaadahoo’á’ígíí, which means “reared around one Fire,” or sometimes translated as “immediate family,” which has no correlation to the same phrase in English. This group has interests, bídadéét’i’ígíí, in the management or governance of the group and land as a whole, or in specific items, which may be described as traditional interests or Diné interests. Diné interests does not mean ownership interests, and there is no English correlation. Even the Diné group has no English correlation.
The group may be many dwellings. Living in them may be the matriarch’s male and female unmarried children, and her married daughters with their husbands and children, as well as any others the matriarch decides are part of the group. Matrilineal women relate and call each other mother, daughter, and sister and focus on passing down knowledge.
Matriarchal Authority
The matriarch is the final decision-maker in the matrilineal basis of order. With the input of the family, the matriarch decides what is built, how best to nurture, work roles, even the hierarchy of interests, bídadéét’i’ígíí. In-laws may build a dwelling under the authority of a matriarch, but the interest in that dwelling would belong to the matrilineal group, including minor children. There are multiple dwellings in such a matrilineal group with clear lines of authority. In this way, there is clarity of final authority, group governance, and interests.
This matriarch-driven daily decision-making is separate from the Naachid, which temporarily forms to make decisions in common, at times of pressing need, celebration, or danger. The matriarch is the caregiver and final authority for all beings encompassed by the group. Even today, Diné elder women with the matriarchal impulse continue sharing knowledge, holding the matrilineal line close together, acknowledging the medicine man of the group, making sure as best they can that land is beneficially sustained, and doing the best they can to practice the way of life. They do so underground and against systemic headwinds that provide no support to matriarchs. Fundamentally, matriarchal authority is the foundation of Diné governance, including land management.
From establishment of the reservation onward, the matriarchal system was never understood by the federal government. Such a system, in which management and authority rests in the matriarch in governing social order, was beyond Anglo understanding and acceptance, where women have been diminished even in their own culture until present times. Only in recent decades have the federal system allowed women to own property or even to vote. The federally-created chapters and the present 3-branch form of tribal government impose federal governmental methods of governing that are missing essential and core Diné social order components.
In today’s Navajo Nation, matriarchal authority has become limited and even eroded by laws that treat land as property, that separate land into small individually-named parcels, that diminish matrilineal knowledge and power, and that have generationally silenced matriarchal authority.
Naachid
As early as the 1600s, Diné convened councils when protection of land by common action needed to be done. This may include convening for the planning of war, or for common actions e.g. supplies or food between households, or for common celebrations. Normally done between the Fall and Spring, these convenings were the Naachid, at which temporary leaders would be chosen at the convening itself. “Naachid” means the pointer.
At the Naachid, there would be twelve leaders for war actions, and twelve also for peace actions. They would make decisions at the convening of the Naachid, and then they would disperse. New leaders would be chosen for each Naachid convened. War and peace Naachids would convene at different times. Diné do not have hereditary chiefs, nor would the war and peace leaders chosen at each Naachid persist in their roles beyond that gathering. Some anthropologists have mistaken what the Naachid is, confusing it as a governing body. This is not so.
The Naachid was not a governing body. It was both the temporary decision-making body that came into being at the convening and the convening itself, dispersing upon a plan of action. According to traditional knowledge keepers, Naachid met every two to four years and consisted of both men and women. The temporariness of a Naachid emphasized the local foundation of self-governance.
The Naachid is a supplemental part of Diné traditional knowledge (TEK or ITEK) encompassing nature, culture, and social order, a knowledge base that knowledge keepers have been unwilling to share with government officials since captivity at Fort Sumner in the 1860s, hwéeldi. At that time, connections with land were cut and matriarchal governing order among the people broke down. For the 1868 Treaty and establishment of the reservation, male tribal leaders were chosen by the U.S. Cavalry to sign documents, who gathered as if on a war footing, including Manuelito who was known for being at the forefront of war raids prior to captivity. Upon signing the Treaty, Manuelito pointed in the direction of the reservation, and said that is where the people are going, and we must learn their (U.S. Cavalry) language and their way of life. This is a story retold to our children.
More knowledge on the Naachid in combination with the matriarchal governing order is urgently needed from traditional knowledge keepers in order to fully comprehend what the Holy People intend for our Navajo Nation government.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is a term used by scientists and anthropologists for a body of indigenous knowledge passed down from generation to generation, primarily regarding nature and the environment. However, for Diné knowledge keepers, TEK is “traditional knowledge,” encompassing nature, culture, and social order, a knowledge base that knowledge keepers have been unwilling to share with government officials since captivity at Fort Sumner in the 1860s, hwéeldi. At that time, connections with land were cut and peacetime matriarchal order among the people broke down. For the Treaty and establishment of the reservation, male tribal leaders were chosen by the U.S. Cavalry to sign documents. Ordinarily when on a war footing, male warriors would form a naachid or war council. Since hwéeldi, it feels as if peacetime has never returned. If that is what it feels like, it’s wrong, as the proper feeling is hozhó, harmony, and that’s what we need to return to. See Principles of Diné Land Use.
TEK is far more than ecology. Enfolded within it is traditional knowledge applied across biological, physical, cultural and spiritual systems, practiced for millenia, and passed from generation to generation. This was so noted in the Presidential Memorandum (Nov 15, 2021) that recognized indigenous traditional ecological knowledge as “one of the many important bodies of knowledge that contributes to the scientific, technical, social and economic advancements of the United States, and to our collective understanding of the natural world.” The Federal Government is now developing a guidance for the BIA on how to partner with Tribal Nations and Native organizations regarding the application of TEK.
The Navajo Nation has tried to include traditional knowledge in its laws, even though knowledge keepers have resisted having verbal treasures reduced to writing and other recordings. In 2002, the Diné Fundamental Law (Diné bi beenahaz’áanii) was enacted by the Navajo Nation Council, written in the declarative language of Diné culture in the hope of providing sanctuary for community vision, government, stewardship of land and nature, relationships, responsibilities, rights and freedoms. The bitsé silei in Diné bi beenahaz’áanii is intended as the foundation for all Navajo Nation laws.
Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation Courts have long struggled to insert customary principles of Diné land use into court decisions concerning the federal land use system of leases and permits. This lease and permit system has been imposed on all Indian reservations since the early 1900s. Despite the efforts of tribal judges, Anglo law concepts ultimately push aside TEK because leases, permits, and Anglo concepts of ownership, are contrary to, and conflicting with, the Navajo value system. The systems are so different that people now believe that attempts to resolve the systems have made things worse. The intrusion of foreign Anglo concepts of land use was forcibly imposed, and we couldn’t really say or do anything beyond attempting forms of hybridization that, in our present systems, overwhelm TEK.
Since the federal government gave the Navajo Nation discretion to manage its leases and permits in 2000, tribal governance has veered towards full embrace of federal-style regulation and away from TEK. The exercise of this discretion is unfunded, and has come at great community cultural cost.
The Holistic Journey
There are four directions, four seasons, the first four clans and four colors that are associated with the four sacred mountains, four portions of days and life itself. Songs, ceremonies, stewardship, rituals and even dispute resolutions are always observed in their proper times for social order and the order of all beings to be readily sustained without undue conflict and complication.
The Holy People taught the Diné how to live the right way and to conduct their many acts of everyday life. They were taught to live in harmony with Mother Earth, Father Sky and the many other elements such as man, animals, plants, and insects. The Holy People put four sacred mountains in four different directions, designating Dinétah. The four directions are represented by four colors: White Shell represents the east, Turquoise the south, Yellow Abalone the west, and Jet Black the north. Life has infancy, childhood, adulthood and old age. A day has white dawn, blue twilight, yellow dusk, and nighttime darkness. Nighttime is our grandma, who embraces us in all directions with her shadow.
K’é
Diné believe we get spiritual power from the land, we also communicate with the land, the land communicates with us, the Four Sacred Mountains that surround the reservation they communicate with us and we communicate with them. We use the phrase bil al k’ineegish, nihi k’ineegish, to signify the communication that we have–we are inextricably intertwined, you cannot separate us, the human from Mother Earth. We are related to the land, the Earth is our mother, the sky is our father, the sun is also our father the moon is our mother, we are related. Five-Fingered Beings are related to all creation that includes animals, the birds, flora, the cosmos. Groups are related, livestock and humans are related. This relationship is k’é. The concept of being related to all beings in the living world is reflected in how we greet each other, Shi ałtah áásįįłgó, which means those who are with me, surrounding me, all of you who are related to me. Within this relation, there is orderliness.
When TEK or ITEK is discussed by scientists and educators, their focus is often on k’é as ritual, ceremony and spirituality in approaching the natural world. Yet, k’é is the orderliness of the holistic system that applies to beings in each of our sacred spaces, including how humans order ourselves. This is sometimes termed management, other times governance. Simply, it is what we know to be true.
One Being
Defining our Diné relation to land is not easy. We are one being with the earth, the sun, the stars and the sky, symbolized by moccasins on our feet. We are stewards. At the same time, we know what we’ve been given, cared for generation upon generation, and lost. We are aware of profound disorder due to improper relations with land and, therefore, with all beings. We are aware of the profound blessings when caring for the land and land cares for us. Our original homelands between the sacred mountains, Dinétah, Mother Earth and all her entities, were blessed to us, they are a blessing intended for us, yet are neither held in common nor individually, nor are they owned, as land doesn’t belong to humans. The Holy People brought up soil from the core of the earth. When we are born, our navel is buried into our Mother Earth, and that is how she provides for everything we need on earth. The seasons and the entities are provided to us and are what we are thankful for. Land did not belong to humans in the beginning, and we always acknowledge that. The homelands are blessings for us, yet we do not own them.
Unlike how non-Indigenous people approach land, land is not property, nor are the resources within land to be commodified. Land is the giver. If we take care of it, the land gives us back everything.
Livestock
In traditional Diné land governance, livestock were given even to children. Ownership of livestock by children is a foundational aspect of traditional social order, controlled by the matriarch. Livestock given to children reflected the needs of the group and the matrilineal line in which adult males or even the children’s parents may not be present. Child-owned livestock is the source of group responsibility and prosperity, allowing for the group to grow very large with the ability to grow even larger, while maintaining individual responsibilities. In this way, the matriarch provides for all members with individual responsibility for animals and others instilled from infancy. Individual ownership of those animals within a herd is marked by different earmarks of ownership. As the child grows up, the animal may be used for ceremonies, or sold to buy what the child needs.
Each child would be given a sheep or a lamb, and ear marks would identify them so that each child would be responsible for them, when they are hungry or missing, and know the character of those animals. The adult caretaker of the animals may have a blessing for the animals and designate a ram as the leader of the herd and be blessed with corn pollen. It is more than an animal that grazes on the land. Children are taught to treat the animals as a blessing, and through their responsibility, they learn the basis of the four directions, collecting all the herbs around the tree/shrub area from the four directions, and ensuring their own learning of traditional knowledge.
Non-Ownership and Non-Descent of Land
The role of the matriarch being to ensure cohesion of the group and proper nurturing of the land, when a matriarch passes, it is her role that is replaced, not any land ownership interest. In an unimpeded Diné land use system, land does not figure in distributions upon death. Permits, leases, the notion of individuals having ownership of land, none of these existed. Upon the passing of the matriarch, the continued beneficial use of land is ensured by the new matriarch, who is responsible for the continuation of the life and provision of sustenance and work for all. Land remains unchanging. The land is the giver. If we take care of it, it gives us back everything.
The Next Matriarch
The matriarch’s successor is according to her preference, normally the oldest capable daughter. If her preference is not known or disputed, it will be resolved by those with traditional interest, according to what is known to be true (the Diné way).
“Traditional Interest”
Those with interest in items have their say in resolving their distribution. In the traditional way, respect is given to wishes of a decedent not in their status as a deceased person, but as a preference for those living. Decisionmakers in attendance would be those with traditional interest, meaning those who have had a role in their use. These include the minor children.
Distribution of Items
Distributions of items follow yee ádeehadoodzííh, which means what is known to be true and also meaning “it was resolved in the Diné way,” referring to the family meeting that takes place upon the fourth day of burial, yóó’é’él’įįh dóó dįį yiłkáahgo biyéél naalchid. At this meeting, clothing, linens and other belongings may be burned and some items may be distributed. Yóó’é’él’įįh dóó dįį yiłkáahgo biyéél naalchid, bi’éé dóó bibee’inchǫ‘í daadidlid. After the new moon, dah hiitá, sacred or valuable belongings are discussed, dah hiitádo éí baadahastxi’ígíí dóó biyéél da’ílįįnii baayáti’.
Contributors to these sections on custom:
- Retired Chief Justice Herb Yazzie, Black Mesa
- Roman Bitsuie, Hard Rock
- Chili Yazzie, Shiprock
- Gloria Dennison, Naschiiti
- Donna House, Oak Springs
- Raymond Deal, Toadlena
- David Tsosie, Sanders
- Esther Yazzie-Lewis, Albuquerque
- David Begay, Ganado
- Many traditional knowledge keepers who wish to remain unnamed