Editor's note: This story was produced for Our Living Lands, a collaboration of the Mountain West News Bureau, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, and Native Public Media focusing on the impact of climate change on Indigenous communities across the country.
Last week, Our Living Lands highlighted the challenge of living without electricity. Now, hear from Navajo families who are getting power for the first time through a life-changing mutual aid program.
It’s the late morning and already nearing 90 degrees near the small town of Kayenta, Ariz., in the Navajo Nation, where many homes still don’t have electricity.
And that makes life hard. Just ask Persephonie Blackwater, who lives in this windswept desert where towering red mesas outnumber homes.
“We make a lot of grocery trips every day for meat – frozen meat – and it’s really expensive like that,” said Blackwater, standing outside of her home in the white-hot sun.
Like many here on the reservation, Blackwater relies on a generator to power lights at night and charge her cellphone. But she has to spend hundreds of dollars a month on gas to power it – and hundreds more to repair or replace a generator every time one breaks down.
“We probably went through I don't know how many generators,” she shrugged. “Like almost every year, we had to buy a generator.”
But she won’t have to buy another one this year.
That’s because a few hundred yards away, workers are using a crane-like truck with an attachment called an auger. It looks like a giant corkscrew drilling into the earth, spitting up dirt and rocks.
A tall wooden power pole will be planted here to connect Blackwater to the grid. Then she’ll be excited to have a working refrigerator. Not to mention, “just having A/C, especially with this heat,” she said.
Blackwater is getting electricity thanks to Light Up Navajo, a program started five years ago by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and the American Public Power Association, a lobbying group.
But progress has been slow. Development on remote desert land is expensive – and difficult work. That’s why utility companies from across the country send crews here; the work is similar to efforts after communities are hit by hurricanes.
“Those are people that have power – they're just dealing with outage,” said Caleb Duncan, who’s with Alabama-based Dixie Electric Cooperative, which is bringing power to Blackwater’s home. “These people are getting it for the first time.”
Duncan’s crew is one of dozens that helped build miles of power lines across the reservation this past summer.
Over the last five years, the program has powered nearly 850 households, but there’s still more than 13,000 that need power.
“It's pretty tragic when you think about it, this day and age in the United States, there's that many people that have no access to something so simple,” Duncan said.
But the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority hopes to speed that up, said Deenise Becenti, the group’s government and public affairs manager.
“Our goal in the near future is to try to get to at least 1,000 homes per year,” she said.
That won’t be easy. Each home requires an archaeological and environmental assessment as well as getting land rights. This process can take years and is incredibly expensive.
“Each (home) project is estimated to cost at least $40,000,” Becenti said. “At least $17,000 of that is in paperwork alone.”
Pandemic relief aid has helped, but those dollars are drying up. Becenti said the utility is looking for other federal grants, and may go on a nationwide fundraising campaign. The group is also hoping for more volunteer crews.
“Having the assistance from teams throughout America really demonstrates the American spirit,” she said. “People helping people.”
Just down the road on the outskirts of Kayenta, Ryan Begay is starting to feel the benefits of having electricity, especially for his seven kids.
“They were excited even for like having popsicles in a freezer,” said Begay, holding his 2-year-old daughter Ariana, who’s in a diaper and red t-shirt. “They're able to watch TV, they’re able to have the fan on or even just have the light on and just do a little study.”
Begay said going years without electricity made him and his wife think a lot about previous generations.
“How did they do it? And how can we learn from that?” he added.
Helen Nelson is an elder who lived most of her life without electricity. But this summer, Nelson got power. Since she raises livestock, Nelson still spends a lot of her daytime outside, herding sheep near her property.
When she’s home, however, she can now cherish the benefits of having electricity.
Sharing her experience in Diné Bizaad, the Navajo language, Nelson said her life is a lot different now. Her son bought her a refrigerator to store food, and at night she can turn on a light if she has to use the bathroom.
Nelson added that she was also excited to watch TV in her home for the first time. That evening, sitting in the glow of her television set, Nelson stayed up past midnight, laughing and feeling happy.
This story was also supported by the Indigenous Journalists Association and Solutions Journalism Network's 2024-25 Health Equity Initiative
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
