Today the Navajo Nation Council voted in favor of enacting the Navajo Green Economy Commission, bringing members of the Navajo Green Economy Coalition to tears after working for months to pass this historic piece of legislation. Today’s victory will lay the groundwork to the creation of plenty of good jobs aimed at increasing access to clean energy within Navajo lands and previously impoverished communities.

As you can see in the picture, young people were front and center in pressuring Navajo leaders to support this legislation. Multi-generational supporters wearing green t-shirts with clean energy messages marched a quarter of a mile to the Navajo Nation Council Chambers where  they encouraged and ensured that their community representatives would vote in favor of a clean energy future. Chelsea Chee, the Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator at Black Mesa Water Coalition had this to say:

“Youth played a tremendous role in the enactment of this legislation from it’s beginning to this victory. We helped to create the language for the legislation, helped to get community support resolutions, helped to build awareness on and off the reservation via new communication methods (texting, Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook), and were present at the actual voting of the legislation.  More importantly, the youth exercised their voices throughout the entire process.”

After years of campaigning against strip mining, coal power plant development and other destructive practices on and around their lands, Navajo citizens concerned with the impact of dirty forms of energy have finally been able to celebrate a victory that lays out a different, healthier path.

This green jobs victory will create long-lasting local jobs, set up the infrastructure needed to take advantage of federal stimulus funds, and bring in much needed wealth to the community without destroying their precious wilderness, air, and water.

“This is the just the beginning for Indian Country. We hope our efforts pave the way for other tribal nations to bring local sustainable green jobs to their communities,” said Wahleah Johns, Co-Director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition.

We hope so too. Indigenous groups from throughout the nation have been mobilizing to make sure that their nations become leaders in the clean energy revolution. Up in the plains, local indigenous groups are organizing solar panel installations  to demonstrate to local youth that there are alternatives to the fossil fuel industries that litter native lands. In the pacific northwest tribes are mobilizing to re-claim their cultural heritage and heal the deep wounds between them and non-indigenous communities. At Campus Progress we celebrate these inspiring success stories and look forward to working with indigenous communities nation-wide as they flex their power and achieve environmental, political, and cultural victories.