by Maceo Carrillo Martinet
Daily Lobo columnist
Thanksgiving should be a celebration we have every day, not just a one-day acknowledgment of our blessings and privileges.
This past weekend, hundreds of people marched to pay their homage to Petroglyph National Monument west of Albuquerque. The sites that make up this monument are decorated with ancient basaltic rocks, many of which are carved by American-Indian ancestors. It is through these rocks that the city will carve a path for a major roadway to be built.
As I walked up to the petroglyphs, it made me wonder: Where is this day of Thanksgiving we talk about? Needless to say, I was not feeling society's spirit of giving thanks while walking in homage to the petroglyphs. To sacrifice a site that has had religious and cultural significance for thousands of years so that we can get from work to our house 20 minutes faster makes no sense to me.
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So my hope for this year's giving of thanks is that, while we get together for some food this week, we all think about what it means to destroy a sacred space. Winona LaDuke, an activist for the rights of native peoples, asked during the march how we can accept the loss of something sacred in the name of profit and convenience. Losing the petroglyphs to road construction is another amazing - but not surprising - example of 21st century environmental and cultural disrespect.
This disrespect has roots in this land, as those who have lived here the longest will be the first in line to testify. Take for example the Glen Canyon Dam, which caused the inundation of many sacred areas of the Navajo people near what is known as the Navajo Rainbow Bridge. Or how about the carving of the faces of four United States presidents on the Black Hill Mountains which are holy to the Lakota people.
During the march, one man spoke about how this state prides itself on how diverse and multicultural we are, but the destruction of Petroglyph National Monument doesn't speak well to our respect for the different cultures of New Mexico. To many people, the destruction of sacred spaces is just another example of a culture hateful toward people and the land - a culture incapable of respecting another people's sacred spaces, let alone respecting the integrity of ecosystems.
Many of us have a hard enough time explaining what a sacred space even is - for those who are foreign to this concept, sacred spaces are often confused for golf courses. But the petroglyphs are not a golf course, nor are they just a tourist attraction. They might not produce significant monetary payoff, but they are testimony to the human identity and experience of this region. I think we can all agree that human identity and experience are not things that are expendable.
So this Thanksgiving, I am eating and giving thanks in homage to the sacred spaces throughout humanity that have been lost to roads, dams, deforestation and man-made floods. And I will give thanks to the people who speak up to save these spaces. I will give thanks to the space where your family and mine fills ourselves with good food, laughing, napping and some more good food.
If only for one day, I hope somewhere in the middle of the laughter and good eating we have or don't have this week, we are all thankful to what is sacred to us.
There might be a road through this place, or it may be buried under the land or water. The land might be scarred as many of us are scarred, emotionally and otherwise. Many of us are still searching for the mythical city of gold and a life that is full of fortune and convenience, at the expense of the Earth and its people.
So I hope we all have the strength to keep walking down a path that keeps us strong and we remember to give thanks along the way.
