Klee Benally 'Carry On'
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 9, 2024
Klee, discussing resource extraction, and how the Navajo Tribal Council was created to sign oil and gas leases, quotes our friend, the gentle, soft-spoken farmer from Shiprock, who received his doctorate degree before passing, Larry Emerson.
"There is no point in trying to decolonize the Navajo government -- it was not right for us from the start. Its structure and process is a replica of the American system, and the American system appears to be edging toward the possibility of failure like the great Roman Empire."
Writing on these monsters, oil and gas extraction, and coal mining, Klee quotes Louise Benally of Big Mountain, his aunt, whose family spent their lives resisting coal mining, forced relocation, and the machinery of the tribal government.
Louise said, "The natural laws and the Indigenous Peoples were already here in a good relationship before the coming of the colonial society who draws laws and boundaries. However, we Indigenous Peoples will always have ties with these lands, we will continue to live that way with nature and we will carry on."
Klee shares the words of his grandmother, Roberta Blackgoat, who never gave up the fight. "The Coal they strip mine is the Earth's liver."
Although many have passed, and too many have died from broken hearts, there are those who live on, carry on.
Klee writes, "The remaining resisters to forced relocation have outlived the monster that was consuming our lands, stealing our water, and polluting our lungs."
Before passing, Klee described the monsters, the rage against the machine, and the ways of restoring balance and harmony.
Klee Benally's book, "No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in the Defense of the Sacred," can be ordered at:
https://detritusbooks.com/products/no-spiritual-surrender-indigenous-anarchy-in-defense-of-the-sacred
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