Fighting for the True Country

Diné activist and educator Cheyenne Antonio has been fighting for her people and homelands for years. The oil and gas industry pose a constant threat to the environment as well as the health and well-being of her community in greater Chaco Canyon area in New Mexico. Most of Chaco has already been inundated with excessive fracking and drilling. The sacred land that is shared by many tribes is rapidly becoming a waste dump for the industry, leaving many tribal members with cancer and other health problems.

Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected Native populations, over-extending their medical capabilities.The Navajo Nation experienced one of the highest mortality rates in the country. “Out here we don’t know if we’re going to pass on from cancer or if Covid will get us first,” says Antonio.

Antonio has been committed to mutual-aid work and dedicated to her family and community. She seeks to inform the world of the transgressions by the state and the oil and gas industry against her community and to raise awareness of the growing crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. She sees these issues as a continuation of the colonial genocide native people have faced for hundreds of years.

“It can get really hopeless out here sometimes,” she says, “and that’s how it’s always going to continue unless we all come together and stand in solidarity and figure out how we are going to protect our lands.”

Antonio hopes to inspire the next generation of Diné activists. Here is a look at her Chaco Canyon.