What relationship did my ancestors have to Land & Body before contact.

This is a very curious question to ask. What relationship did my great great grandmother have with the land? Her body? I say my great great great grandmother because I was taught by my great grandmother and grandmother and what Diné philosophy/ knowledge I carry I was taught by them. My clan comes from these matriarchs. 

I was privileged to learn and live with them for a big part of my adolescence. I can speak and think Diné because it is all they knew. As their tail, I went to ceremony with them or I went into non Diné spaces and translated for them. 

They have all gone on into the spirit world and I find myself on the lands they left us, wondering what was their relationship to their body and to the land? The trauma was so heavy that the connection was disconnected. My great great great matriarchs survived the trauma of the long walk. Now I sit with an anti colonial mind set and ask myself, “Before that traumatic time, how did my matriarchs live off of the land? What was their relationship with their body and the land before colonization?”

As I am working through my own healing I can’t help but wonder and ask for guidance from my ancestors. How I am approaching my healing is by cleaning up the toxic trash dumps in my “back yard”. A back yard that is full of canyons, washes, trees, plants & animal Relatives that are affected by these toxic trash dumps. 

For the next month I will detox with the land. A detox of what I am consuming and a detoxification or the land. 

My “exercise” will consist of me on the land, cleaning the dumps, then planting sunflowers & mushrooms (they detoxify the soil ) and building ancestral structures such as sweat lodge and a bread oven, then a male hogan. 

I plan to do a weekly report back of my process and detox here. It will be hard work but I look forward to reestablishing the relationship with the land and my body that my matriarchs had. 

Somebody please pray for me! ;)