By Rev. Katie Sexton-Wood, Arizona Faith Network
Opinion: The heart of our Grand Canyon state is dying and this Valentine’s Day we are called to protect it.
Valentine’s Day is a day about the heart. In what has moved from a religious holiday to a cultural and commercial phenomenon, February 14 has become a day drenched in love, candy hearts, and celebrations of love. Here in the Grand Canyon State, we have another reason to celebrate February 14: it is our statehood day. It is a day where we celebrate all of the lands, people and cultures that call Arizona home. This year, as we come together to celebrate, we do so with the heart of our state threatened.
Vernon Masayesva, the Executive Director of Black Mesa Trust and former Chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council, says he is concerned about the land sacred to the heart of his people, the Grand Canyon. “The Grand Canyon is a sacred place to Hopis. We came from the Grand Canyon, it is our heart, the heart of our Mother Earth, and right now our heart is dying.”
Over the last year, uranium mining companies have successfully lobbied Congress, without input from tribes, for funding to start a “strategic uranium reserve.” While this sounds like an important label, in reality it is simply a mechanism to use tax dollars to pay uranium companies to mine in the U.S. at a time when the world does not need more uranium. On the previous occasion when such legislation was enacted by the U.S. government, Indigenous tribes and Native American nations - including the Hopi - were the ones who paid the price with uranium contamination affecting their communities and resulting health problems including higher incidence of cancer still prevalent throughout tribal lands in the southwest.
Our lives have drastically changed since last year. As Arizonans, we have stood together to fight the global pandemic of COVID-19 that has threatened our communities and taken too many lives. Our hearts have broken at the loss of lives and livelihoods around our state. We have faced unprecedented challenges and with those challenges came lessons that taught us what is truly important, truly sacred to us. The Grand Canyon is one of those places.
“All religions have places that we hold sacred. Places that help to shape our narratives of creation to help us understand how we or our God came into being. These are all places that people of faith and governments work hard to protect and preserve,” says Rev. Katie-Sexton Wood. “For the Hopi, one of their sacred places is the Grand Canyon, and our communities and government should work just as hard to protect that land as sacred as we do for others. We wouldn’t mine for uranium on sites sacred to other faiths, sites we hold dear to our hearts, why would we allow mining on the site sacred to our Native brothers and sisters?”
The Grand Canyon is not only central to the heart and identity of the Hopi people but also to Arizona. Arizona has long been known as the Grand Canyon State. Postcards display its unmatched beauty of vistas and desert colors. Arizonans take pride in this world wonder that drives both millions of visits and hundreds of thousands of dollars to our state annually.
Currently, the Biden Administration has set a goal to protect 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters in an effort it has termed: “30x30.” Protecting more than 1 million acres of the Grand Canyon rimlands from uranium mining would help meet the President’s goal and protect the pride of Arizona.
In 2021, with a new president and the strong support of Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, Arizonans have a chance to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining forever with legislation that will permanently end the ability to stake new mining claims in the region.
What we love, we hold sacred and must fight to protect. This February 14th we invite you to help protect the Grand Canyon, the heart of Arizona.