Native American Man Gets Deep with Me! (Navajo Mountain, AZ)

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Those are people too, you know, that with Brahman. I don't understand why you want to abolish a group of people.

[00:00:05]They've tried that with us already. All right, sir. What's your name? My name's Gary Dugay.

[00:00:11]And um so you you live here on the Navajo Nation? I live here at Navajo Mountain, yeah. Okay. Uh did you grow up here? Yes, born here and raised here, yes. All right.

[00:00:21]So, what was it like when you were growing up?

[00:00:24]Back in the days when I was growing up, there was quite a different change to me, you know. For one thing, I noticed the changes we had less trees then, you know, for now compared to then and now, we have more trees, you know. Mhm.

[00:00:40]So, and things were further away to get to, you know, like back in the days we had a small clinic and we had a small gas station and the main hospital was further than what it is now, now that we have a highway, you know, so make things a lot easier and faster to get there.

[00:01:01]And back in the days it was dirt road and it took quite a bit of time just to even to get help from the hospital, you know, so or go to the hospital, you know. Where was the hospital back when you were growing up? In Tuba City and Kayenta. And now it's in where? There's a small clinic right there, the prescription house, and we got a clinic back here and behind the mountain. Okay.

[00:01:22]So, we're much in a better shape now than >> Yeah.

[00:01:26]>> before, you know. So, back then it was just one road it was a dirt road. That's all it was? Yes, dirt road all the way in and one way out. Well, actually, the dirt road comes in and it loops around to the east and comes back out in Shonto, if you know the route, you know, so. Who developed the roads? I believe it was the uh BIA, US government.

[00:01:48]>> Okay.

[00:01:48]>> They come in with their graders and So, the US government did it?

[00:01:51]>> Yeah, I think so, yeah, BIA. How did that happen? Do you know? I I know. It was all the road was already in when I I guess when I grew up when I was starting to grow up and I started to notice things the road was there already, so.

[00:02:04]And then besides we we had a lot of connection with the San Juan people, San Juan connection uh they did a lot of our grading for like around the San Juan area. Okay. And then the people that did our grading on our side in Coconino was BIA.

[00:02:25]So and as it is right now I don't think BIA is working on the roads no more. I think it's Navajo Nation and I think we're falling way too far behind. What do you mean by that?

[00:02:37]I mean back in the days when BIA was taking care of the road the road was much better shape. Mhm. You know. Right now very seldom they come out and do the grading, you know, so it's I think Navajo Nation should leave things alone and leave things where it should be instead of trying to take it over, you know, because from my understanding he's trying to do that to the to the house service and if they if they can't maintain the higher the roads, you know, that's what's going to happen with the clinic, you know, the hospitals, you know, so I think that's a bad choice there, you know. So were there more people in another whole mountain when you were growing up?

[00:03:16]I noticed there was a lot of elderly's.

[00:03:18]Yeah.

[00:03:19]>> My grandfather had two ladies, two sisters and to the two I think there's about 27 kids and I had a lot of uncles and aunts.

[00:03:29]And mainly it was mainly my family that was here.

[00:03:33]And So there was a lot of Was there a lot of kids running around back then?

[00:03:38]Uh well, not really.

[00:03:41]You know, my grandfather and his families you know, were the ones that first come in here and I'm pretty sure all of my uncles and aunt they they quite a few kids, you know, and that's how other other other clans end up in here cuz the kids grew up and went out and brought other people in here. So, now we have more people than we back in the days, you know. So, do you have running water in your home? Yes, I have gravity-fed water. You have gravity-fed water?

[00:04:13]>> Yeah. When you grew up, did you have running water? No, we I had to go get our own pail pail water back to the house is how we grew up.

[00:04:20]>> How did that When did that end up changing?

[00:04:23]After they put the high put this road put this line in the water line and brought it down to the base, it made it a little easier, you know, where we had a uh a a horse-drawn wagon Yeah.

[00:04:35]>> where we could uh roll our wagon over and get water, you know. So, that was a lot easier than running back and forth pailing water to the house every time you need water. So, then we end up with barrels so we can store our water which which was a lot easier than trying to get water at the right at the moment when you need it, you know.

[00:04:56]So, how would you describe the Navajo people?

[00:04:59]Um would you say they're Well, how how would you describe them?

[00:05:04]Like, what's what's the culture here like? What are what are the What are Navajo people like? Well, to me Navajo Nation Navajo people the people that I live here with are I mean, they're self-sustaining people.

[00:05:15]We We didn't I don't think we Navajos needed the government. If we could Well, right now we're governing ourselves, you know, but back before that happened people took care of themselves. We didn't need no government to come back us up to feed us. We grew what we ate, you know. Yeah.

[00:05:33]>> So, I think that was a better living than what was handing out to us now like far as commodity and stuff like that. If we could get off of that and go back to our original stuff, you know, then I'm I'm sure we'd have a better life, you know.

[00:05:50]Do you Have you traveled off the res a lot?

[00:05:53]I don't travel too much. I worked around the around the area, you know. I did a lot of building houses, you know. So >> Off the res? Yeah, off the res, yeah. Do you feel like the reservation um has things more figured out than people off the res? Like it's obviously a very small >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I think so because we didn't have electricity. We didn't have running water, but we sustained life, you know. Yeah. So, I think you know, most of the people that that actually did the hard living is the one that were uneducated, but then again, it doesn't matter if you have an educated be if you're smart or not, you know. It's just everyday living. It's just right in front of you, you know. It's just you know, it's not hard to figure that out. And I always think well, if the good spirit wanted us to look behind us, you know, then we would have a head behind us, too, but we don't. We only have one direction, and that's the way we're supposed to be heading is the one direction, you know.

[00:06:52]It's the way I look at it, so I think Navajo nation are well as pretty smart people, even though they didn't have no education or not, you know. Just mainly passing uh I just traditional you know, and oral tradition, you know, passing on to each other and Yeah.

[00:07:11]living it by the laws of that, you know.

[00:07:14]Are Navajo people relatively accepting and and relatively accepting of like white people, for example, people off the reservation?

[00:07:22]Well, right now, I have a half son-in-law, half white half white son-in-law, and his people goes to I guess Finland, somewhere in that area. Yeah. So, with the DNA they do testing now, so I'm in I had a brother that had Mexican family.

[00:07:42]I'm in I have family that have black families.

[00:07:45]I'm in They're just human. There's no There's no difference, you know? Well, is that Do you feel like that's the sentiment across the nation? You do? Yeah, I think that's that's the way it should be, you know? Yeah.

[00:07:56]I mean, why why why we look down on each other, you know? That's not right, you know?

[00:08:01]As far as what my dad used to say, "You know, you think you're going to go to the ends of the earth, you'll find family there." He says, "Regardless if he's black, white, somebody's going to be your relatives."

[00:08:14]You know, that's what my dad used to put it that way. So, and I believe so, you know.

[00:08:19]So, last question, sir, and I really appreciate your time. For anyone that hasn't been on the reservation, what do you want them to know about the Navajo people?

[00:08:27]Well, I guess what I would love to know that for the rest of the people to know is that we're just as human as they are, and we're just love to get respect as they do, you know? We don't We don't We don't bad mouth nobody. Just as far as what Trump is doing to us, you know, not just Native Native American Navajos, but people across America, you know?

[00:08:51]We don't act like him. We don't act that way, you know? We're We're like the most of the movies I've seen, they portray Native Natives as uh What do they call it? Uh renegades. And I Well, in a way, I still feel like I'm a renegade. My family never went to Fort Sumner, so I feel like I feel I have a right to feel like I'm a renegade because I never signed treaty with the the white the Washington D.C. or whoever they signed treaty with, you know?

[00:09:23]So, I think the change would be we should all respect each other and hope for the best. And maybe this stuff that's going down in the East people Those are people, too, you know? That with Brahman. Well, well, we're not the ones I'm not the actual guy who's pushing the button. It's the guy in the office that's doing this, so they're just human, too, I mean.

[00:09:48]I don't I don't understand why you want to abolish a group of people, you know?

[00:09:53]They've tried that with us already, I mean. You're talking over in Iran? Yeah, Iran, yes. So, I mean, that's not cool, I think. I mean, everybody should just respect each other and enjoy life, you know? That's the way it should have been.

[00:10:06]So, you know, that's all I can think of, you know? Yeah. But, to me, I'm in a good state of mind and a good place I'm living. I'm not I'm not I'm I feel sad and frightened for the people that live in the city if something should get out of hand, you know? Me, I live out here and away from everything and I think I'll be all right, I got canyons to break down the wind and stuff like that, you know?

[00:10:33]Thank you, sir. So, okay, thank you.

[00:10:35]Yep.