Roberta Blackgoat: Matriarch of Big Mountain and the struggle against relocation

By Marley Shebala
The Navajo Times
4.25.02
WINDOW ROCK, Az. – Big Mountain has become an international name even though it’s a very remote area on the vast Navajo reservation.

Roberta Blackgoat, an elder who has lived all her life on Big Mountain and more specifically in an area on Big Mountain called Thin Rock mesa, where the roads are dirt and impassable when it rains or snows, helped put Big Mountain on the map by traveling around the world. Read more

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IN LOVING MEMORY OF ROBERTA BLACKGOAT

Roberta’s passing has been deeply felt by us all. For some of us Roberta reminds us of how we were first drawn to volunteer with Black Mesa support work. She reminds us of our deep inspiration to live in a way that sustains and supports us all, and all of Mother Earth. Roberta reminded us that the water is the blood of the Earth, and the coal Her lungs. She had the ability to help people to see the Earth as a living and breathing being, and to feel themselves as part of Mother Earth, to realize that the damage that we do to the Earth we do to ourselves. Read more

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