Changing History From Home
Rural low income communities around the world teach us a lot about human life. No matter that our own communities might be wealthy or low income, we share a lot. We might live in North America or Africa or Asia or wherever, but we see ourselves in several very clear human patterns.
One of the most definite characteristics of humanity that shows up in low income communities, and one of the easiest struggles to alleviate, is the distaste for powerlessness. On the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, near Dilcon, I had a conversation with an elderly lady who wanted a new home.
Everything was in order. The financing was available. The work crew was ready. The trench for the foundation had been dug, and was ready for the concrete. It would be a traditional hogan. She could be happy and proud in it.
She was a very traditional lady, proud and strong. She understood English fairly well, be really preferred to communicate in Navajo.
But something was going wrong with the project, and it was my job to get it sorted out. When I began asking questions it did not take long to get the answers. I was disappointed with what I learned, but not surprised.
The lady was living in a very modest gathering of shacks with a beautiful view of the valley and the hills beyond. No one else lived within a half mile of her little home. She was adamant in her wish. She wanted her new home to be located just about fifty feet from her current run down home. In her traditional way, she knew she had peace living at that spot.
But her nephew had prepared her new home site about two hundred yards away. This frustrated the lady deeply. She told me she refused to live in her new home, even if it was built for her. If it was not built in the spot her heart had pointed out to her, she did not want to live there. She would rather live in her old run down shacks for her remaining days than move to the other spot.
I asked the nephew why he had prepared a home site for her on the distant spot. "Simple. She does not have tribal permission to have a home where she wants it. That land is trusted to someone else. She is still living in the old days when there were no property lines or fences. She things that living there for eighty five years entitles her to build a home there. She is frustrated, and the only power she has is to refuse to move."
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