Navajoland Becomes an Episcopal Missionary Diocese

Over more than 150 years, the Diné have had to overcome extreme suffering and forced assimilation that resulted in decades of generational trauma, grief, and poverty, but on June 26, 2024, the community celebrated a bright moment of future hope and autonomy. At the 81st General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Navajoland—the Area Mission to the Diné of the Episcopal Church—became its own missionary diocese, which gives it the power to establish its own rules and procedures for the calling of a bishop to serve the Diné.

The people Americans call Navajo call themselves “The Diné” – The People. The Navajo Nation is one of the largest Native American Indian tribes in the United States.

Rt. Rev. Steven Tsosie Plummer was the first Diné bishop to serve the mission. He was elected by the House of Bishops and served as Bishop of Navajoland from 1990 until his death in 2005. At the General Convention in Kentucky, Plummer’s daughter, the Rev. Cathlena Plummer, said: “What this resolution means for us as the Diné people is the ability to be seen and heard and share our spirituality. And we long for another Diné indigenous bishop.”

“We’ve been striving … to empower the voices of our community to be able to identify ourselves as Diné Episcopalians,” said the Rev. Leon Sampson at the General Convention. “The Jesus movement that we strive for as Episcopalians has the same theology as [the Diné]: I will walk in beauty. And therefore, not only do we get to be part of you, and we’re asking to learn from you,

but we have something to offer, and you can learn from us.”

Navajoland’s Tragic History and Present-Day Challenges Are Met with Hope and Possibility

Navajoland deputies after the approved resolution elevated Navajoland to a missionary diocese. Image Courtesy of Episcopal Church in Navajoland Facebook. 

Navajoland has been an Area Mission of the Episcopal Church since 1976, but its history stretches much farther back, to “the Long Walk” from 1864-1868. According to the Navajoland’s narrative budget for conference, “the Diné were violently rounded up from their homelands by the U.S. Government Calvary and force-marched to an imprisonment camp at Bosque Redondo, Fort Sumner N.M. The Diné remember this tragic event as ‘The Place of Suffering.’”

There in New Mexico, the Diné were released and ordered by the U.S. Government to assimilate into Christianity and to send their children to residential boarding schools.

The Episcopal Church began its mission to the Diné over 100 years ago through hospital missions in Bluff, Utah; Fort Defiance, Arizona; and Farmington, New Mexico. Today, the missionary diocese of Navajoland is made up of three different regions, each with three churches in San Juan, the Southeast, and Utah. 

The Episcopal Church has long straddled the challenges of serving a community that seeks to regain and retain the Diné traditional way of life while also struggling to adapt to modern culture. As of the 2020 U.S. census, there are 165,158 Navajo living on the reservation, of which only 39% are employed, with a median household income of $33,323. The ministry continues the hard and necessary work of helping a people group celebrate the richness of their culture while meeting the deep needs of their community.

The Ministries in Navajoland

Over the last fifty years, the Episcopal Church in Navajoland has developed a myriad of programs to minister to the particular spiritual, social, and economic needs of the Diné and other Native Peoples.

One such ministry is the Hozho Wellness Center. Formerly the “Old Hospital,” the Hozho Wellness Center aims to serve Navajo women and children. In Navajo culture, “hozho” means balance, harmony, and life, and that is exactly what the Hozho Wellness Center seeks to offer to the Native Peoples in Navajoland through support, counseling, and various classes, from parenting, gardening, and cooking to Navajo storytelling, nutrition, and art. The center hopes to help families return to their roots and reclaim their traditional values of family (or ke’) to heal from generational trauma, drug and alcohol addiction, domestic violence, and diabetes.

At the Good Shepherd Mission in Fort Defiance, AZ, the non-profit Shima of Navajoland produces Navajo-made soaps using locally farmed, grown, harvested and processed ingredients, including natural clays for coloring, all from the Four Corners region, hand-wrapped in cornhusks at the end of production by Navajo elders. Recently, Shima of Navajoland renovated its outdoor prayer and meditation pavilion, adding extensive landscaping and planting herbs and native plants around the prayer pavilion. The soaps are both good for our bodies and good for our planet.

“Bee”sides the Navajo-made soaps, Good Shepherd Mission is also home to a beekeeping initiative that began back in 2016. The project aims to bring “hozho” (harmony) to Navajoland by supporting the vital work of bees when many colonies around the country are collapsing. In addition to their production of honey and wax that can be made into products to support the missions, bees are critical partners in crop pollination.

Both Shima of Navajoland and the beekeeping project underscore the overlap in Native American and Episcopalian spirituality when it comes to our relationship to creation:

“As Navajo, we understand the Earth to be a living being who gave life to us as a people. We are connected intrinsically to her and feel a kinship for every living thing that inhabits this planet with us,” the UTO grant application said regarding the beekeeping project. “As Episcopalians, we believe we must honor God’s creation by stewarding Earth’s precious resources. This project allows us to live fully in both beliefs.”

The Episcopal Church in Navajoland has also developed The Blue Corn Project to preserve and celebrate the sacredness of this essential crop for the Dine culture, ceremonies, and as a staple food item. There is also a significant commitment to recycling, composting, and abolishing the use of Styrofoam.

There is so much we have to learn from each other, especially when it comes to how to care for our common home. The decision to allow Navajoland to become a missionary diocese is one more bright turning point for the Episcopal Church and the Diné. 

“Today, there is a new spirit and new energy in our land!” the Episcopal Church of Navajoland’s website states. “We have reopened some churches and planted new ones. We have ordained four Navajo priests and three deacons. We have reached out to the many Navajo military veterans. We have repaired beautiful but aging buildings for rental income and program use. We are expanding retreat opportunities and building Hogans for educational AND ceremonial purposes. As time passes, the world is looking to indigenous peoples and communities to learn and engage in our history and traditions.”