My ideas about liberation came from my father and my relatives, and are informed by my observations and experiences with my family, Diné community and my readings in feminisms, Native Studies and decolonization. I came to see that Native women experience stark oppression and violence, not just in settler nations like the United States and Canada, but within the borders of our tribal nations.

Thinking about the status of Navajo women in our nation, I went home with all my newfound knowledge and talked to my father, who holds a great deal of traditional knowledge. Sitting next to him, I shared my questions about the epidemic of violence against Navajo women and the question about the lack of women’s leadership in our government. After listening to me closely, with the both of us going back and forth in our language, Diné bizaad, my dad thought about the loss of respect for Navajo women and its reflection in the everyday violence of our lives. Then he said very simply, “The reason why we have lost respect for our women is because we have forgotten the name of Asdzáá Náádlehe (Changing Woman) our first mother.” I was struck by the simplicity of my father’s statement.

The violence against Navajo women has become pervasive, yet normalized. When Al Jeezra correspondent Massoud Hayoud came to cover the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission’s public hearings on gender violence, he reported witnessing a Diné man assaulting a woman outside a Window Rock, Ariz. restaurant. He tried to find an emergency number to call, looked around for assistance from others nearby, and attempted to respond to the woman’s need for help; the police did not show up by the time he left.