Drought Imperils Traditional Navajo Herding

PHOENIX — Every day, Marilyn Watchman leads her family’s sheep herd through a canyon on the remote Navajo reservation in northeastern Arizona, just as generations before her did.

It’s a tradition she fears another summer of drought could steal from her family. “I might have to sell them all,” Watchman said of her flock. “But then there wouldn’t be anything to live for.”

Tribal officials worry the summer may bring a return to harsh conditions to the already unforgiving land. In 1996, when the 17 million-acre reservation saw only an inch of rain, crops dried up in summertime and sick, skinny cows died on the desert floor. This winter was even drier, and mountain snowpacks are at record lows.

Many who live here are ranchers like Watchman, making their living selling the sheep and cattle they tend. Others hold jobs in the reservation’s small towns but maintain smaller “hobby herds” at their rural homes, providing a connection to Navajo traditions.

Fearing a disastrous summer, the Navajo government is urging that older cattle be sold and hobby herds be removed. Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begay plans to use radio addresses to ask tribal members to take voluntary safeguards to prevent overgrazing.

But choosing between the land and tradition won’t be easy, said Harry Walters, a professor of Navajo culture at Dine College in Tsaile, Ariz.

Maintaining a hobby herd is “not a hobby,” Walters said. “It’s a way of life. [Animals] don’t really belong to us; they belong to the holy people.” Herds of any size provide Navajos with a vital relationship with the land that could vanish along with the animals, he said.

It’s a connection Watchman feels deeply.

“When I ride along with my cattle, I just feel in harmony with the world,” said Watchman, whose herd already has dwindled to 45 cattle and sheep, roughly one-third of its former size.

More worrisome, Watchman said, are thoughts of what her family will do if the animals disappear. “Some of us didn’t go after a good education because we were planning on taking care of our livestock,” she said.