Navajo Say Scientists Desecrate Sheep Tribal Members Offer Prayers To Symbol Of Sustenance, Considers Resolution To Ban Cloning
A rhythmic incantation rises to the heavens. A Navajo medicine man is singing a prayer for health.
Throughout the song, homage is paid to sheep. Glorious sheep. Sheep made of mixed stones. Sheep made of turquoise.
Sheep have long been a sacred symbol to the Navajo. The elders believe the beloved deity White Bead led sheep to the Navajo to make their lives easier. Instead of hunting for food, Navajos could raise the sheep and use the wool for clothing and shelter.
Now, Navajos say this symbol of sustenance is being desecrated by scientists who have cloned the animal. The modern world again is clashing with Navajo traditions. As news of this genetic engineering feat trickles out to the reservation, Navajos are recoiling.
Some are asking whether the Navajo Tribal Council should pass a resolution on sheep cloning. Others are sending out prayers. Many are asking society to ponder the moral implications. Most say they won’t accept cloned sheep into their flocks.
“Is nothing sacred? This is why harmony in the world is out of balance,” says Avery Denny, a Navajo who teaches holistic healing and Navajo culture at Navajo Community College in Tsaile. “We believe the world still has a natural order. This goes against the natural cosmic order.”
The controversy was sparked earlier this month when Ian Wilmut, a 52-year-old embryologist at Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, created a lamb using the DNA from an adult sheep. The feat stunned researchers around the world, who had said it couldn’t be done. Researchers had assumed that the DNA of adult cells would not act like the DNA formed when a sperm’s genes first mingle with those of an egg.
When news of the genetic tinkering reached a sheepherder named Mary on the Navajo reservation near Leupp, she was appalled.
Sheep have only one life and one soul, says Mary, who declined to give her last name. Why are scientists trying to fool with nature? she asks.
Mary has herded sheep nearly all her life. Her relationship with her flock is symbiotic. She cares for the sheep and the sheep take care of her and her family by providing food and wool.
She wonders whether the Navajo Nation should pass a resolution against the cloning of sheep.
“But what will it matter?” she asks with a sigh. “Science will do whatever they want, anyway.”
Jimmy Tom warns that scientists don’t worry about the adverse effects that could result from altering nature.
“Any time man interferes with nature, there’s some side effect,” says Tom, director of the Navajo Nation Department of Resource Enforcement. “This is against the laws of nature.”
As an example, he cites government attempts to control animal populations on the reservation.
“The natural cycle of nature is interrupted,” Tom says. “There are droughts or heavy rains. A problem always surfaces that can be linked to those attempts.”