Diné Perspectives: Revitalizing and Reclaiming Navajo Thought

Narrating Ordinary Power: Hózhóójí, Violence, and Critical Diné Studies

83 Narrating Ordinary Power Hózhó ˛ó ˛jí, Violence, and Critical Diné Studies Melanie K. Yazzie Ordinary Power in Diné Life A couple of weekends ago, my sister drove down from Boulder, Colorado, to come with me to a Kinaaldá to which one of my Diné mentors had invited me. It was a difficult time; my semester at the University of New Mexico was coming to a rapid and stressful end. Student papers, research, and emails cluttered my mind, and the seams of my small apartment in Albuquerque ’s North Valley were constricting under the intellectual freight of a graduate student’s life in the fast lane. Despite these constraints on my energy and time—or perhaps more so because of them—I carved out the space that weekend to attend the Kinaaldá. As often happens when I am overworked and spiritually undernourished , I find myself drawn to the calmness and strength of Diné teachings. It is a characteristic irony of being a modern Diné scholar that the very research I conduct on the legacies of colonial violence and historical trauma that continue to affect fellow Diné peoples also drains and threatens to dislodge me from the sacred anchors of hózhó ˛ó ˛jí that compel such work in the first place. Although entangled in these anxieties, I am thankful that I was sensible enough to submit to the call of Sa’a ˛h Naagháí Bik’eh Hózhó ˛ó ˛n, set my work aside, and hit the road west with my sister to get what Diné poet Luci Tapahonso has wittily called a “hózhóójí tune-up.”1 84 • Analyses of Methodologies As this chapter’s readers may know, the Kinaaldá is one of the most important ceremonies for Diné peoples, and the Blessing Way songs shared during it are some of the most sacred. Although I certainly do not speak or understand Diné well enough to grasp their full impact, I know their blessings to be enduring and influential in often startling ways. More than this, I know their effect to be as real as any other form or measure of influence in my life. Indeed, the hózhó ˛ó ˛jí tune-up received from the Kinaaldá has been absolutely instrumental in my ability to push through the final demanding moments of this semester, write this chapter, and feel good about what I might have accomplished during this time. It has locked me back into what feels like the right path. I tell this story to reflect on another insight that Tapahonso relates in her important collection of poems and stories, A Radiant Curve, regarding the power of blessings and their continued relevance to our everyday lives as Diné peoples: We Must remember the worlds Our ancestors Traveled. Always wear the songs they gave us. Remember we are made of prayers. Now we leave wrapped in old blankets of love and wisdom.2 What is especially potent about Tapahanso’s work—and this poem in particular —is its simplicity. She narrates the Diné everyday with the kind of poetic attentiveness that I have come to identify with commentary that many of my own family members and friends make regarding ordinary life. Blessings by way of hózhó ˛ó ˛jí, although special, are rendered by these Diné peoples as ordinary effects that shape Diné lives and histories in the present . In another poem from the same collection, Tapahanso describes the speeches that occur during the family meal that follows funeral services, events in Diné Bikéyah that often draw k’é from wide and far, much in the same way that a Kinaaldá does. In the poem, Tapahonso similarly relates how the “spontaneity” and “natural tendency for poetic cadence and flawless repetition” in such speeches provide an “assurance that simple words can be beauty flowing from the mouths of ordinary people” in ordinary situations.3 The notion of beauty flowing from the mouths of ordinary people resonates with me, for it describes a kind of power that is said to “work on you,” Narrating Ordinary Power • 85 a phrase that I have heard many times from my dad, my uncle, and others to describe the way that blessings become a part of us and how we are supposed to take daily responsibility for their presence. Indeed, it is the ordinariness of this power—its everyday effect in our lives—that is particularly compelling when we consider scholarly discussions on any matter related...