{"id":16190,"date":"2017-03-09T21:49:31","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T21:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16190"},"modified":"2023-09-14T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T22:55:09","slug":"everyones-a-leader-when-it-comes-to-protecting-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2017\/03\/09\/everyones-a-leader-when-it-comes-to-protecting-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone\u2019s a leader when it comes to protecting water"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE<\/strong><\/p>\n

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES<\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE<\/strong> \u2014 Where does your water come from?<\/p>\n

How much ground water is left after energy companies have come and gone?<\/p>\n

What can you do to protect and sustain the water your community needs to survive?<\/p>\n

Those are some of the questions Din\u00e9 environmental activist Nicole Horseherder asked hundreds of attendees at the 2017 Navajo Nation Governance Conference held last week at the Sheraton Airport Hotel here.<\/p>\n

The importance of water amidst building evidence of climate change topped off the 4-day gathering at the last gen- eral assembly on March 2.<\/p>\n

The theme of the conference: Developing and Ensuring the Integrity of Navajo Gover- nance, in partnership with Ethics & Rules, Elections and Government Development Ad- ministrations.<\/p>\n

As part of the last afternoon session, \u201cBefore the Flood,\u201d a documentary produced and hosted by award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, was shown.<\/p>\n

DiCaprio visits places around the world impacted by dramatic weather changes.<\/p>\n

In Alaska, he finds that unsea- sonable conditions are devastat- ing indigenous communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, many of the vil- lages in Alaska are forcefully being moved out because of cli- mate change,\u201d states a scientist featured in the documentary released last September.<\/p>\n

According to the film, the globe is warming due to hu- man-caused climate change, most notably fossil fuel burning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the name of short-term fossil fuel profits, we\u2019re leaving behind a polluted planet,\u201d con- cludes DiCaprio.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, a first study of its kind, published Feb. 17 by Water Resources Research expresses concern that ongoing drought conditions have endangered the Colorado River, a major water source for many tribal and non-tribal South- western communities.<\/p>\n

DiCaprio\u2019s worldwide travel researching global weather changes is aimed at reversing the path the planet is on.<\/p>\n

Horseherder called out to the audience to join in on the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause our climate is changing, we have to do some- thing if we want to hang on to it. We need to figure out a way to keep it clean. We need to figure out a way to capture it, hold and use it for what we need,\u201d stressed Horseherder during her presentation.<\/p>\n

She emphasized that a nation- wide water assessment needs to be conducted, because old studies are out of date.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery community region needs to know where their water is; and how they can continue to sustain it for the future,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

She suggested building and maintaining earthen structures, dams, storages, and diversions while harvesting water.<\/p>\n

Horseherder added that community members can help by encouraging Din\u00e9 youth to pursue engineering and hydrology degrees.<\/p>\n

Because they know their communities, \u201cThey can say, \u2018This is a good place for storage. This would be a good place for irrigation,\u2019 so that development happens in sustainable ways,\u201d she advised.<\/p>\n

A member of Chinle Chapter, one of several attendees who spoke out, recommended that salt cedar and Russian olive trees be taken out because they drain water tables.<\/p>\n

Johnny Henry Jr., long-time Church Rock Chapter president, who has governed during different U.S. presidential eras, said that there\u2019s an urgent need to support federal environmental programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lots of environmental issues. We have to make sure there\u2019s not too much cutting down for us Natives. We depend on federal funds especially for environmental programs,\u201d said Henry.<\/p>\n

Among his first actions as President, Donald Trump, who reportedly doesn\u2019t believe in global warming, has indicated that he plans to slash funding for environmental protection programs, and signed executive orders paving the way for the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines, despite international protests.<\/p>\n

The governance conference also looked at mainstream and traditional philosophies on governance.<\/p>\n

Attendees learned about tools for audits, investigations, and planning, along with information about collective bargaining, business ethics, hearings and appeals, legislative process, keeping track of the census and how to improve voter registration outcomes.<\/p>\n

A session on traditional governance presented by Ty Edsitty almost entirely in the Din\u00e9 language was very well received.<\/p>\n

Translating Edsitty\u2019s key messages, Jasper Long, from the Office of Navajo Government Development, the agency that hosted the conference, said that Edsitty likened human behavior to the animal world.<\/p>\n

Giving an example, Long said, \u201cHe talked about raccoon. Raccoon likes to move around a lot and not take care of stuff; just go wherever he wants to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Edsitty instructed that a leader can\u2019t be like that. He or she has to be patient and sit down and listen.<\/p>\n

Like Horseherder, Edsitty said everyone has leadership responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe part of the community to resolve issues,\u201d he counseled.<\/p>\n

Information: Visit www.ongd. navajo-nsn.gov. Horseherder is the co-founder of To\u2019 Nizhoni Ani, she is on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES | COLLEEN KEANE<\/p>\n

Nicole Horseherder (left), on a panel about protecting local water resources with Leiloni Begay (middle), and Tara Benally (right), answer questions about sustainability during the 2017 Navajo Governance Conference.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE SPECIAL TO THE TIMES ALBUQUERQUE \u2014 Where does your water come from? How much ground water is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16190"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16201,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16190\/revisions\/16201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}