Roberta Blackgoat (Navajo/Dine’ from the Todich’iinii/Bitterwater and Ashiini/Salt clan) spent her entire life around Big Mountain, Arizona; specifically near Thin Rock Mesa. She never had running water or electricity believing such conveniences caused one to be a slave to power companies and utility bills which create stress and illness.
Roberta was raised in a very traditional Dine’ lifestyle. Family, animals, ceremonies, the Creator and Mother Earth were core tenets of her way of life. She herded sheep, carded the wool, dyed it with plant dyes and wove rugs of her own design. The rugs were sold to provide funds for a few basic essentials of life.
The Navajo reservation, established by the Treaty of 1868, expanded its size several times and by 1900 surrounded the Hopi Reservation. The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation encompassing some nineteen million acres in three states.
Long ago the Hopi people, descendants of the ancient Puebloans, migrated to what is today northern Arizona and settled on a complex of high mesas. These rocky mesas have been inhabited by the Hopi for over a thousand years. In 1882 President Chester Arthur created the “official” Hopi reservation which is a fraction in size compared to the Navajo reservation. The population is around six thousand while the Navajo register three hundred thousand. There were early confrontations between the two cultures over territorial imperative but Robert told me “the Navajo did a lot of trading and hunting rabbits with the Hopi. We would bring them mutton and they gave us peaches and corn.”
With the discovery of coal and uranium the conflict over land ownership began in earnest. Estimates of twenty billion tons of low Sulfur coal are under the juniper and sage covered mesas near Big Mountain, which is situated on the mega-sized land-form known as Black Mesa.
For over a century, the Federal Government (with the prodding of foreign energy companies) threatened the Navajo with forced relocation (fourteen thousand were moved) in order to expand Peabody Coal mine. Several hundred Hopi were relocated also. Many Navajo including Roberta refused to move from their homeland even after President Gerald Ford signed an executive order to relocate the Navajo off Hopi land. Barry Goldwater, John McCain and Morris Udall also did their best to force the Navajo off their homeland. It didn’t work. The politicians did not figure in the ‘Grandma factor’.
Roberta believed the coal was Mother Earth’s liver and if you dug it up, you kill your mother. She also believed it was an unconscionable act to pump millions of gallons of sacred water to slurry coal for distant power plants to feed the burgeoning Sun Belt cities with electricity. Eventually the Big Mountain area was designated as ‘Joint Use Area’ ( Navajo/Hopi Partitioned Land). The decree gave the Navajo seventy five years to move off the Hopi portioned land. Roberta and the Big Mountain people refused to sign a worthless piece of paper that severed ties with Mother Earth and the homeland of their ancestors. A long and fatiguing political battle ensued. By the mid nineties over three hundred million dollars was spent on relocation legal fees.
From 1968 until her passing in 2002 Roberta carried the torch for Mother Earth. She did numerous speaking engagements around the country and in Europe. She had no fear of politicians or energy czars. “The Creator is the only one who will relocate me” became her mantra. And she meant it. On her door was a handwritten sign that said:
Entering sovereign Dine’ Nation, Thin Rock Mesa
All People who respect the land, life and the laws of the Dine’ are welcome
Warning: All Federal, State and Tribal personnel: Your authority does not apply here: All your actions will be counter-acted.
Grandma walked her talk.
Roberta won numerous awards including the Indigenous Woman of the Year, the Martin Luther King Humanitarian award and founded the Weaving for Freedom organization. She fought for human rights and respect for all living things.
I was introduced to Roberta when I lived in Chinle, Arizona about fifty miles as the crow flies from Thin Rock Mesa but a four hour drive over rough terrain. I made many visitations with Roberta and indeed I was most fortunate to do so. I brought food, gas, hay, clothing, cash …whatever she requested. She asked for little but was always happy to see that Chevy Blazer arrive at her compound.
In 1998 I invited Roberta and Teddy Draper Sr. ( Navajo Codetalker in WWII) to speak at my gallery in Bluff (Cloud Watcher Gallery). Among those in attendance was the heiress of Texaco (at the time living in Aspen, Colorado). The heiress was deeply moved by Roberta’s passionate speech about protecting Mother Earth and later asked Roberta what she needed. I envisioned a blank check to be made out in any amount Roberta desired. But Grandma’s response was simply, “I only want to be left alone on the land.” A true daughter of Mother Earth sitting next to an oil baroness.
Roberta was forced to take the warriors mantle for many decades and stood her ground until her last breath. A passionate speaker and keeper of wisdom, her belief in the Creator and compassion for all living things never wavered.
I have met a lot of strong people in my life, but none had the courage and the unwavering belief in protecting Mother Earth and all sacred life upon it like Roberta. I know she is with her ancestors, standing on a hill with her scarf and sunglasses on, gazing upon a wide vista of her homeland with a herd of fat sheep and goats munching on rice grass. Roberta Blackgoat was an extra special human being, and a gift to humanity.
(See the films ‘Broken Rainbow’ and ‘Trouble on Big Mountain’ for more information)