“I Can’t Wait To Go Back”

St. Christopher’s Mission in Bluff, Utah welcomed its second group of “pilgrimissioners” from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in New London, NH in late April. Nine parishioners and the Rector came to work with local Diné on replacing windows in the church and preparing the property for the Area Mission’s 47th Convocation. One of these parishioners is Mandy Johnson who came because she wanted to “experience, first-hand, how another culture lives.” What she hoped for was “learn first-hand what the Navajo experience had been as an oppressed minority.”

Although she had read several books about the Diné experience and culture, Mandy was struck by its depth: the cultural and societal differences; the importance of connections, lineages, and long-reaching interconnections within and among families and clans; the honor given and respect shown to elders; the traditions dating back hundreds of years. She was “astonished and saddened to see trucks arriving at the water filling station at the Mission with plastic containers in the back to be filled with water, because there was none at home. This is 2023 and there is no running water in many native homes!”

While working alongside Diane Benn, as the two together helped craft signage for the Convocation, Mandy learned from her about the some of the complexities of Navajo culture. This understanding was deepened by conversations with others at St. Christopher’s Mission,
including Walter Shorty whose talented flute-playing 16-year-old daughter came to play for the visitors, and others who shared their stories. Walter spoke of the time when his mother handed him a bag of clothing and, without warning, he was whisked away to boarding school. He didn’t return home for two years. Another person spoke of being sent off to boarding school where she was stripped of her language and her culture. Now, years later, she is re-learning her native tongue.

Mandy wants to return – both to learn more and to do what the Diné want to have done at the Mission. She believes that the presence of another person on site, in addition to the priest, could help create more consistency and access to people like her. This kind of continuity could encourage more visitors and ensure that truth and reconciliation occurs on a one-to-one basis.