So many words, yes? Yes. Two of note: rights and marriage. These two words have been politicized to all get out, especially in this here settler-colonial nation. And in Native nations this debate was played out on a political platform nineteen years ago. In the end the Navajo Nation Council voted in support of a discriminatory law: the only legal marriages recognized within the bounds of the Diné Nation are between one man, one woman.
In this post I’m revisiting the Diné Marriage Act of 2005, with some added wisdom from Diné baddie Jennifer Nez Denetdale. Their two articles “Securing Navajo National Boundaries: War, Patriotism, Tradition, and the Diné Marriage Act of 2005” (2009) and “Return to “The Uprising at Beautiful Moutain in 1913” Marriage and Sexuality in the Making of the Modern Navajo Nation” (2017) are important spaces where Denetdale begins to work out how Native nations perceive and define themselves as they go about the business of practicing their sovereignty. Both articles analyze nation in a Diné context, nation-building, and how we as Diné police gender within our national borders, homes, and schools. These works also outline how Diné community thoughts and attitudes around 2SLGSTQIA+ issues. And they are fire, please read them!
To be sure the Diné Marriage Act of 2005 is a declaration that the Navajo Nation council will conform to settler-colonial ideals and understandings of gender. The act was repealed in 2022 (Eugene Tso was the bill sponsor), and again in 2023 (Seth Damon was the sponsor), still reads to me as making a distinction between what kind of marriage is blessed by the Holy People (heterosexual) and which unions are not (same-sex), I kid you not, both resolutions for repealing the Navajo Nation’s ban on same-sex marriage include the following language:
“Although this legislation repeals the prohibition against same-sex marriage at 9 N.N.C.
§ 2(C), the method for a traditional Navajo wedding ceremony outlined at 9 N.N.C §
4(D) involving a man and a woman shall remain unchanged. Traditional Navajo society
places a great importance upon the institution of marriage and believes that the elaborate
ritual of marrying using the traditional method is believed to be blessed by the “Holy
People.” This blessing ensures that the marriage will be stable, in harmony, and
perpetual. Navajo Nation v. Murphy, 6 Nav. R. 10, 13 (1988); See also Begay v. Chief,
No. SC-CV-08-3, 8 Nav. R. 654 (2005) which provides that common law-marriage under
Navajo Nation Code is different than one arising out of traditional wedding ceremony.
Keeping the traditional Navajo wedding the same will not prohibit nor deny same-sex
marriage because there are other methods for marrying under 9 N.N.C § 4.”
I have to admit, while I’m glad the repeals are in the record (this is resistance at work in your government!), however, why do we still have to split hairs on what is “traditional”, if you are going to protect marriage for everyone then make it for everyone in any instance. And I just want to point out, then Navajo Nation president Joe Shirley, Jr. vetoed this legislation on the grounds that it just didn’t matter all that darn much to be making it a thing in the first darn place. Sigh…
Currently the repeal is in a waiting pattern, as far as I can tell from wondering around the Navajo Nation Council’s website, the two repeals have been tabled in favor of more pressing issues that stem from decades of neglect and mismanagement. I’m afraid this declaration will be difficult to overturn, it’s got nearly twenty years behind it and Council does not seem to feel too pressured at this point to address.
Denetdale’s helpful analysis helps us understand how Diné political leadership internalized heteronormative notions of “nation” when creating and enacting law, and that in times of conflict normalizes and upholds hetero-patriarchy in Dinétah (the audacity). Denetdale goes on to illustrate where discussions of “traditional” Diné leadership conveniently fail to remember and honor our matriarchal/matrilineal not-too-distant past.
It boggles the mind that this ban is in place to begin with, and I more than cringe to think it’s the Diné Nation that took such a strong stance in favor of discrimination. Over marriage.
We have a long way to go. But! We’ll figure it out, I believe in us (you better, too!).
I better I do always. They’re all human and braves.
Indeed!