What has the pandemic meant for the Begay family of Kayenta, Ariz.? Job loss, curfews, a break-in and dreams deferred. Acadianna Begay, 19, lives with her extended family in the Navajo Nation. She delayed plans to start a family of her own and has been caring for her nephew, Antwuan, 11, and nieces Anaya, 8, and Yukiah, 7, who are grappling with the adjustment to distance learning. Her father Ray, 58, a carpenter and tour guide in Monument Valley, saw his work dry up completely. He now cares for his parents, Dan, 88, and Rose, 80, who herd sheep in the shadow of sandstone buttes.
ACADIANNA My boyfriend and I were looking earlier this year at moving to Phoenix. I had heard that Amazon was hiring for packaging jobs there paying $18 an hour. Personally, I never lived off the reservation, so this was kind of a dream. My boyfriend applied first at Amazon and already had a job lined up. The whole plan was for him to go there, get the apartment, get everything settled, then maybe we start a family. Then the coronavirus hit. Why move to a city with tens of thousands of cases? Now that whole idea has been shot down.
These past few months I’ve been spending more time helping out at home. I’m the baby of the family, and when I was younger, I learned how to herd sheep for my grandparents. My dad was a carpenter and mom was a secretary. They were busy, so growing up I was raised by my sisters and a few of my yázhí — it’s what a girl calls our mom’s brothers. Also, yázhí means sons, or little ones. The children of your sisters are your first sons. They joke, since we were stuck raising you, you’re going to be raising our kids. When they’re born, you have to learn how to cook, how to clean, care for them. Basically, they’re similar to starter children. So, these past few months, I’ve been doing a lot of that. It’s been going well. I’ve been taking care of them ever since they were born.
Life just seems upside down now. My boyfriend is 26 and served in the Marines. He had a casino job in Farmington that let him go, so he was on unemployment. Now he’s just jumping around, dealing with the Navajo Nation curfew against the coronavirus. When the pandemic hit, he would visit me every now and then. Unfortunately, he ended up being caught after leaving one night, and they locked him up in jail until 10 a.m. the next day. Now he jokes around, “If we ever have kids, I’m going to tell them I snuck out and broke curfew just to see you.”
We’ve been lucky so far. The coronavirus hasn’t killed anyone in our immediate family. One of my dad’s aunts got the virus but fortunately she was able to overcome it. Like her, we’re just trying to stay alive.
RAY In a normal year, I’d be guiding all around Monument Valley from dawn to late at night. After my work disappeared, I’ve been focusing on the basics. Working on cornfields, hauling water every day. Keeping the jackrabbits away from the corn. When the ears come out, then the ravens come around, so I’ve got to keep them away. I’ve been tending the sheep at my mom’s, so I head out there every day. My parents need all the help I can provide. When they both went to the grocery store in town, someone broke into their place. They stole baskets from them. That’s how crazy this time is, people stealing from other people who hardly have anything.
Now I’m worried about someone stealing their sheep. A single sheep can go for $250 and last a family for a month. We use everything from the sheep — the liver, the heart, the intestines, the eyes, the toes, the brains. No matter how bad it gets, as long as we can butcher a sheep, we know we can survive.
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November 03, 2020 at 05:00PM
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