Robert Blackgoat (1918?-2002), letter circa 1986

2006-06-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

in FACT, this letter was circulated during the time Dine were working on a freedom of religion lawsuit, Manybeads vs. United States. It was used as part of that lawsuit and is included in full within the book Rivers in Her Eyes:

"My name is Robert BlackGoat. People used to live as one in holiness with these mountains and all of these spring waters. All of these things have been offered and it seems like whole lands within the four sacred mountains is our altar.

But after 1974 we start having warning letters saying "no improvements" and "stock reduction." In our hearts we really feel weak because they will make our children move away from us. We are still living in our traditional way.

The tradition way is the way we are born in the hogan. We have our sheep which we have been raised on. Our little ones learn to herd sheep and take care of the horses or the cornfield. We shear the sheep in the springtime and then save some wool to do the weaving, carding and spinning. We educate our kids how to do the weaving and to herd sheep and horses. This is more like the education they should learn.

They are taught to say a prayer to learn to carry on for generations. They learn that the land is holding us and whatever grows on her. The land is feeding us and so somebody is taking care of us. When they go to school, they learn to go for money and then they start working someplace else. That is what I call slaving our kids. Like drafting our kids over there and make them slaves.

We are fighting too for the fencing. The fencing is also hurting our Mother Earth. Having pins pushing in her. Like when a little split gets into your finger, the fencing hurts our Mother Earth.

I am a traditional one. I have an altar out at Big Mountain and that is where I belong. We still want to be way out there and herding sheep barefooted.

We have a song called the Home song. It has been sung in here and it is holy. This hogan is holy. What the Relocation is doing today is putting a chain around the hogans and tearing it down, even though there might be something in there--some property or spirit. The Creator told us what kind of homes to have. It is a long story and really hard to explain.

We had a song that starts from the East and then goes to South and goes to West and to North and back to East. And this mountain from the East we start with and is Mountain Blanca. On the south side is Mountain Taylor and on the West side is San Francisco Peaks and on the North side is Mountain Herbst. We still pray to these Four Sacred Mountains.

The song goes from the foot to the head. The head has a feather. Big Mountain has a feather in it and in offering a prayer they took some of those turquoise and abalone and jet and white shells. According to the song these mountains are the posts to the hogan and if we are moved out of this natural hogan it goes against the song. The song does not allow us to have a hogan outside of the Four Sacred Mountains.

This is the main thing. I cannot live without a hogan. According to the song, this is how we should hang on to our hogan and hold it as far as we are still using our own tongue. If we lose our tongue speaking in one word, in English, we have no hope. Our hogan is our altar. The hogan and the language go together.

In the morning before the early dawn, the elders sing a sacred song and the day ends with a song. And these two, the beginning and the very last song is important to the hogan."
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Roberta Blackgoat letter, from RIvers

Robert Blackgoat (1918?-2002), letter circa 1986