Moroni Benally

MORONI BENALLY {[email protected]} is completing his PhD at the University of Washington. Moroni earned his undergraduate degree in International Relations with an emphasis in Comparative International Political Economy from Stanford University and his Master of Public Policy with an emphasis in Social and Economic Policy from Brigham Young University. He is currently the co-founder of the Utah League of Native American Voters in Salt Lake City.

Decolonizing the Blossoming: Indigenous People’s Faith in a Colonizing Church

Articles/Essays – Volume 50, No. 4

My grandfather was a medicine man, a practitioner of a ceremony called the Blessingway—Hozhoojii. The Blessingway is described as the foundation of Navajo spirituality, the “scriptures” if you will. This ceremony informs and organizes the spiritual life and community of the Navajo people. Singers, or medicine men, perform this ceremony in times of both joy and sadness. It re-affirms one’s status as a child of “eternal goodness and beauty” and the capacity for one to become “eternal goodness and beauty” themselves. It is the organizing force of Navajo.