Navajo Nation President Joseph Shirley Jr., Valisa Nez and Timothy Kennedy (L-R)

Native American Committee members Timothy Kennedy, who is part Choctaw and part Cherokee, and Valisa Nez, a Navajo, welcomed attendees with their own remarks before LTC Mark Blackburn, deputy District engineer, introduced Shirley.

Also present were recently retired Glynn Alsup, the highly influential tribal liaison for the District, and his successor, Kathy Anderson.  American Indian crafts, including Kaw, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Choctaw and Apache artifacts, were exhibited, along with tribal newspapers and other publications.

LTC Mark Blackburn presented President Shirley with a District plaque commemorating his visit

Shirley, who was reelected early in November as president of his nation—the first time in 28 years a president has been reelected—expressed his appreciation to Col. Alex Dornstauder and Blackburn for the invitation.  He also acknowledged the contribution of Alsup, “a friend,” and praised Nez as a clan relative in the complex Navajo family relationship structure.

Part of his appreciation for the Corps’ invitation to District headquarters, he said, stemmed from his feeling that “you are giving us respect for what Native Americans have done for this country.  Native Americans have been standing with the armed forces of the United States even before we were allowed to vote.  We were defending our land, defending our way of life, our freedom.”  He said seven Navajo troops have been killed so far in Iraq.

His theme, he declared, was “defining our destiny,” and he focused on the Navajo Nation’s and his own efforts “to try to get back our independence, to get back on our own two feet.”

Team members attending the first-ever American Indian Alaskan Native Heritage Month ceremony

Shirley, who hold’s an associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, was awarded an honorary doctorate last year by Northern Arizona University.  “Education is the ladder,” he said.  “Give us a few months or years and we’ll get back to our independence.  You (19th century white Americans) promised us a lot, haven’t really delivered.  We’re entitled to it, it’s in the treaties.  I hope it happens in my lifetime.”

He estimated 300,000 Navajo—the largest group of American Indians--live in the Northern Hemisphere, 200,000 or so on “the motherland,” 14,000 in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, 24,000 in Phoenix, 17,000 in Albuquerque.

Behind his reelection, Shirley cited his initiative in helping to unfreeze 300,000 acres of land disputed for 40 years between the Navajo and Hopi; getting a larger share of water from the San Juan River; negotiating the power for the nation to do its own site leases without federal supervision; more than doubling the size of the tribal police force to 400 officers; and introducing six casinos onto the Navajo reservation, which he said could generate $100 million into the nation’s coffers.”

An exhibition of Kaw, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Choctaw and Apache artifacts

The real culprits, he added, “the real monsters are the famine, the thirst, the greed, the poverty, the ignorance, the disease.

“I have my hopes.  That’s why you see a smile on my face.”

Blackburn then presented Shirley with a District plaque commemorating his visit and honoring his contributions to the Navajo Nation.