Nihikeya is a Diné grassroots organization who emerged in 2020 to organize community around Climate Justice, for a Just Transition & a Restorative Economy that began with the Black Mesa Water Coalition.
Nihikeya means “Our Home/Our Foot Print" and its mission is to restore regenerative Diné ecological, cultural, social, and economic systems and lifeways, guided by Diné traditional knowledge, teachings and practices.
Nihikeya partners with local and national organizations to advance our mission to organize our communities around Food Sovereignty, Climate Justice, Just Transition, and Ecological Justice.
We organize with local through community engagements to restore our watershed’s life functions and resilience by healing erosion, harvesting rainwater, spreading runoff, restoring plants and wildlife habitats, and managing community farms with traditional and innovative regenerative methods: Dine Agro-ecology.
“Resilience is following the instructions of the Holy People.””
Dzil Yijiin (Black Mesa) is a region endowed with fossil fuels such as coal, methane gas, uranium, possible helium, and pristine water.
Our land continues to be targeted by corporations to exploit these resources for profit while our communities are left with ecological/ health degradation and poverty.
However in 2019 and after nearly 50 years of operation, the coal-fired power plant known as the Navajo Generating Station finally shut down! This was a huge win for the communities impacted by the many years of coal extraction and for grassroots organizers who worked tirelessly for a Just Transition.
Building Resilient Community
Nihikeya works with Dine communities to create regenerative ecological footprints that restores the health of our ecology and communities. The Diné Agroecology Project will help rebuild resilient local food systems synchronized with local ecological processes that will ensure permanent food and water security in the face of climate change.
Creating Regenerative Economies
Nihikeya empowers Diné families and clans to create and increase regenerative ecological footprints that retain water, restore human, soil, plant, and animal health, while leveraging permanent food and water security in the face of desertification.
Hozhógo Na'a'da
Nihikeya is guided by our Diné philosophy of Hozhógo Na'a'da, traditional knowledge, teachings and practices to work together to restore and renew our regenerative Diné ecological, cultural, social, and economic systems.
