The news is out: [Native Americans are losing their elders to Covid-19. As death tolls continue to climb, tribes are struggling to protect some of their last remaining knowledge and language keepers.
“Every time one of those elders leaves this world, it’s like a whole library, a whole beautiful chapter of our history, of our ceremonies — all that knowledge, gone,” Clayson Benally, a member of Navajo Nation, said. “It’s not written, it’s not dictated, you’re not going to find it on the internet.”
Self-isolating in their Flagstaff, Arizona, homes, Clayson and his sister Jeneda Benally have been working to pass on the knowledge of their elder father, Jones Benally, during the pandemic.
“I take it as the greatest responsibility I’ve ever had in my life to make sure that our knowledge keepers, to make sure that my parents, come out on the other side of this pandemic,” Jeneda said.]
Fighting terrorism since 1492 and ignorance since 1804.
