I am a 1987 Page, Ariz., High School graduate, and I have family ties to Page.
As a Navajo person, it pains me to observe our Navajo people on the streets; publicly intoxicated and begging for money. It is depressing and it dampens my day when I return my hometown of Page for visits with my parents and siblings. What helps me to cope with my innate feelings of sadness for the Navajo people who are “on the streets,” is I pray for each of them. This may sound overly simple, but this is what our intoxicated, lost Navajo people need.
I gained this insight from my family’s own journey with innate spiritual healing because both of my parents are “Boarding School Indians,” and each have grieved their individual losses. A close family member recommended a book titled, The Grieving Indian by a St. Croix Ojibwe “Art H.,” and George McPeek, Indian Life Ministries Books. From this book, “Art H.,” is a “separated child, a World War II bombardier, a preacher and an alcoholic.The Grieving Indian tells Art H.’s story and the painful lessons he learns as he tries to rebuild his life.”
What Art. H. discovers as an alcoholic in recovery who counsels other Native American alcoholics is each person was grieving. Each person’s unique life path was shaped by grief and the grieving process.
- Either as a “separated child,” which is taken away from one’s parents and family at a young and sent to boarding school.
- Unresolved grief at the loss of parents/family members.
- Unresolved grief at the loss of culture and language.
- Unresolved grief at the loss of one’s dignity.
We, contemporary Native American from all tribes, have experienced profound generational loss and grieving. Some of us are still stuck in our own individual grief, and haven’t gone through a grieving process.
We, as a society, need to recognize that and rather than pointing fingers at one another, pray for those who need that profound innate spiritual healing. When we pray for another person to overcome their fundamental darkness, we overcome our own fundamental darkness, according to one of my spiritual teacher, Daisaku Ikeda.