JOURNEY: SOVEREIGN DINE NATION

Photographs: Demitra Tsioulos, Piano: Lisa Salloux. These are a series of photographs that capture the spirit of the Sovereign Dine Nation residing in Northern Arizona on the Navajo Reservation near Big Mountain. The Dine are an indigenous Navajo People who have a deep relationship to the land. They live in Hogan earth structures facing east. They herd sheep and use the wool to weave elaborate and beautiful rugs that are hand dyed in juniper berry and other natural elements found on the land. The Dine hold ceremony and find strength in the great mother earth. They are humble people that have endured devastating human right violations as they have watched their sacred sites destroyed by Peabody Coal mining company. They continue to cultivate their sacred and cultural practices. I had the honor of being invited to their ancestral lands back in 1996-2000. Nine years later, under a full moon, in the Spring of 2009, I journeyed back into the heart of Black Mesa and captured these moments. My intention was to give support and pay respect to the elders that have passed on and the ones that are still with us holding the torch for an integrated and healing relationship between human, spirit, land, sea, animal and bird.