About Us

Mission Statement
Diné CARE, Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, is an all-Navajo environmental organization, based within the Navajo homeland. We strive to educate and advocate for our traditional teachings as we protect and provide a voice for all life in the Four Sacred Mountains. We promote alternative uses of natural resources that are consistent with the Diné philosophy of Beauty Way. Our main goal is to empower local and traditional people to organize, speak out and determine their own destinies.Diné CARE - an indigenous environmental organization to protect and preserver the diné way of life.

We seek to empower, provide a voice for, and protect the interests of community-based and traditional people. We started as a small, community based organization in 1988 to prevent the location of a toxic waste incinerator and dump in the Navajo community of Dilkon, Arizona.  After our successful defense there, we received considerable regional attention, and soon we were called upon by other Navajo groups to assist in similar situations.  We have thus grown into a multi-issue, Reservation-wide organization.

Our growth has permitted us the chance to share among ourselves many experiences and struggles, and to see a distressing pattern in the way that the system of funding and supporting environmental activism fails to work in Native lands. Read more in this essay, Citizens Working Together - Some Barriers to be Overcome, An Essay by the members of Dine Care. pdf.

Brief Organizational History
Diné is word by which the Navajo people refer to themselves. It means, roughly, “the people.” We are a membership organization by and for the Diné, the People. We do not collect dues for run membership drives. Our work is mostly sponsored by foundation grants. Our members are not only those who are leaders in their communities, but all those Diné who strive to maintain a relationship with Mother Earth based on balance and harmony. For us, membership means taking up the cause of honoring our Earth, and honoring the perspective toward Mother Earth that has been handed down to us from our ancestors. We are local, community people working together on issues that affect our communities.

Some of our successes include:
In 1988, we formed to defend our first community of Dilkon, in the Southwestern portion of the Navajo Nation, from the threat of a toxic waste and incinerator and dump. After our Tribal government had already approved the dump and told us we were powerless to stop it, we educated ourselves and our community, organized and put a stop to the toxic waste plans.

In the late 1980s we led a march on the New Mexico state capitol in a successful bid to press for the reform of alcohol sales in reservation border towns. We have been active in substance abuse counseling and reform.

In 1990, we co-founded the Indigenous Environmental Network.

In 1991, we defended the community of Huerfano, NM and our sacred mountain Dzil B Nä oodil Bii from a proposed asbestos dump. The dump was on its way to approval by the New Mexico land use board when we rallied community and Tribal support opposition. Ultimately, the company planning to dump there removed their proposal.

In 1994, after years of struggle, we put a stop to reckless timber cutting in the Navajo Nation forests.

In 1996, we started an innovative forest mapping project with the ultimate goal reforestation in the Chuska Mountains.

In 1998 through the present, we have been involved in bringing relief victims of radiation exposure on the Navajo Nation, and in the fight to prevent future mining. Our biggest victory so far has been the reform of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

The reality is that our people are doing this work because we have no choice anymore. Many of our traditional people are being discriminated against and exploited on their own lands, simply because their ways are not “progressive” or centered around Anglo notions of economic development. As a consequence, they have become more aware of injustices, technologies and ways of thinking that are directly impacting their families, their clans, their communities and the lands upon which they depend. It has become a struggle for the survival of the People as a whole.

As a result of our successes, we have been approached by numerous Native communities, as well as non-Native communities, who faced with devastating environmental impacts. We have developed a culturally appropriate method for educating such groups, providing the opportunity for a truly indigenous method of environmental protection and alternative development strategies. We have been active in many communities, as local people access the knowledge and experience of our long-term members, coupling it with the wisdom and guidance of their elders. Local people involved in protecting their communities become partners in Diné CARE’s mission, by taking the leadership role in defending their land, proposing alternatives to outdated “development” plans, and by showing others throughout the Navajo Nation that our traditional beliefs and practices hold a tremendous amount of relevance for the problems facing today’s world.

Members of the All-Navajo Board of Directors

Adella Begaye, Wheatfields, AZ
President

Earl Tulley, Blue Gap, NM
Vice President

Sylvia Clahchischilli, Teec Nos Pos, AZ
Secretary

Lori Goodman, Durango, CO
Treasurer

Lawendra Atcitty, Bloomfield, NM

Lucille Charley, Dzilth-Naa-O-Dith-Hle, NM

Lucy Hatathli-Nez, Tuba City, AZ

McQueen Suen, Rock Point, AZ

Hazel Merritt, Aneth, UT

Staff
Anna Marie Frazier, Dilkon, AZ
Cell: (928) 308-8718
Email: frazierann1@hotmail.com

Contact Information
Our community-based activists often do not have direct mailing addresses. However, any inquiries, pledges or requests can be sent to the address below. To make a donation, click here.

Dine CARE (main office)
HC 63 Box 263
Winslow, AZ 86047
Telephone: (928) 380-7697
Email: frazierann1@hotmail.com

Dine CARE (secondary office)
10A Town Plaza, Suite 138
Durango, CO 81301

Telephone: (970) 259-0199
Cell: (970) 759-1908, Cell: (928) 380-7697
Fax: (970) 259-2600

Email: kiyaani@frontier.net

 

 

  

 
 

 

Diné CARE Main Office: 63 Box 263, Winslow, AZ 86047. Telephone: (928) 380-7697
Durango Office: 10A Town Plaza, Suite 138, Durango, CO 81301. (970) 259-0199