<\/p>\n
Navajo artist Venaya Yazzie wrote the Din\u00e9 expression \u2013 T\u00f3 \u00e9\u00ed \u00ed\u00edn\u00e1 \u2013 beside a photograph of a friend sullenly looking out on the tainted San Juan River in the days after the Gold King Mine spill.<\/p>\n
It means \u201cWater is Life,\u201d and for the indigenous tribes affected by the mine blowout in August, the words sum up months of confusion, fear and sadness surrounding the health of critical southwest waterways.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 5, the Environmental Protection Agency breached the portal of the mine north of Silverton, sending an estimated three million gallons of orange mine wastewater down the Animas and San Juan rivers, and through 215 miles of the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe river, for desert people, is everything \u2013 it\u2019s gold,\u201d Yazzie said. \u201cMentally. Spiritually. Physically. It covers the whole human spirit of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident elicited strong feelings from those living on tribal land, from farmers who depend on its waters for crops to residents with a spiritual attachment to the river.<\/p>\n
In March, Navajo President Russell Begaye claimed Navajo suicides spiked just three weeks after the spill, alleging 15 Navajos had taken their own lives in the eight-month time span.<\/p>\n
Yazzie said the suffering has yet to subside and likely won\u2019t anytime soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt plays into a legacy of trauma for the Navajo people,\u201d Yazzie said.<\/p>\n
Fearing her fellow tribal members are spiritually broken, Yazzie called on artists throughout the Navajo Nation to take their experience with the Gold King spill and put it on canvas.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, backdropped by a surging, discolored Animas River, Navajo artists gathered under the pavilion at Rotary Park in Durango to showcase eight works as part of the exhibition, \u201cOn Behalf of Water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruthie Edd, a Fort Lewis College student, said the challenge of drawing such a complicated issue was a cathartic experience. Her image of a woman submerged in a tainted river expresses her sadness better than words, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be rigid or defined because it is an emotional response,\u201d Edd said. \u201cThe water is a living being and needs to be respected. We\u2019re not above the environment. It needs as much maintenance as much as any person.<\/p>\n
Her sister, Chamis Edd, painted the trail of an orange plume beside the screen of an iPhone, also with the words T\u00f3 \u00e9\u00ed \u00ed\u00edn\u00e1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really sad, having grown up in Durango and using the river for swimming,\u201d she said. \u201cIt really hurt because I felt like something was being taken away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The artists acknowledged a vague awareness of the 100-year-old problem of mine discharges, as well as the natural metal loading into the waterway \u2013 yet admitted the striking visual of an orange river put the issue into the spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really out of sight, out of mind,\u201d Yazzie said. \u201cBut now, everyone\u2019s a little more educated, and now we have a voice. The younger generation wants to hold people accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Begaye has vowed to sue the EPA for damages incurred from the spill. To date, the federal agency has reimbursed the Navajo Nation $158,000.<\/p>\n
Just last week, the EPA found itself in further controversy with the tribe when the agency declined to send a representative to a field hearing on the EPA\u2019s treatment on Navajo Nation residents in the wake of the spill.<\/p>\n
The cold shoulder prompted Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain to call for a subpoena on EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to attend another field hearing on April 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EPA\u2019s response is unacceptable,\u201d McCain said. \u201cIt is a violation of our obligation to protect the interests of Native Americans and their tribes, and EPA must be present at this hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Begaye lauded McCain\u2019s threat of a subpoena, according to Good4Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EPA continues to add insult to injury by refusing to send even a single representative to the upcoming field hearing on the spill,\u201d Begaye said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gold King Mine spill culturally and economically devastated Navajo communities along the San Juan River. \u2026 The Navajo people have suffered due to the reckless actions of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other responsible parties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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