Tsé Bii': Sustainable Living for Monument Valley

Meet Effie Yazzie and her aunt Helen Salazar, Navajo Elders and residents of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Eleven families have called these lands home for over six generations before the Park's creation. Despite living on homesteads with no running water or electrical infrastructure, they have shown remarkable resilience. Many elders have left their homes due to the daily struggles of coping with the absence of necessities that most of us take for granted. Those remaining continue to face the challenges of living without life's essentials: electricity for lighting and heating, running water for bathing and cooking, inadequate roofing for protection from the elements, refrigeration for food and medicine storage, and indoor toilets.

Photo: Effie (left) and Helen (right) courtesy of Brit West

Effie, Helen and the residents are partnering with Tsé Bii' Within The Valley, a non-profit community-empowered organization that raises funds and installs off-grid sustainable resources in the residential homesteads of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park residents.

Photo: Effie Yazzie's family portrait courtesy of Eric Nixon

Since our initial GoFundMe campaign and dedicated volunteers, we have progressed on Effie and Helen's home. We have redone both roofs, replacing them with durable metal ones to insult the house, added an indoor bathroom and compost toilet, and started laying out plumbing and electrical for inside the primary homes.

Photo: Left is Effie's Potty John hundreds of feet from her home and Right is new compost toilet inside her main homestead building

Photo: Left is Effie's old broken roof where they used tires to secure it. On the right is the new metal roof.

The work is far from done. We are raising funds for all the materials and labor for the other homesteads, such as indoor compost toilets, roofing, water recapture systems, solar-generated lighting, solar systems, a solar-generated refrigerator, wood pellet heating stoves, winterization packages, indoor water packages including a water heater, gray water system, plumbing and water pumps.

Photo: one of there resident volunteers working on Effie's roof

Each donation, no matter the size, makes a significant impact. We cannot thank you, our incredible partners, and our dedicated volunteers enough for pushing forward to ensure the sustainability and housing security of our residents for generations to come.

To learn more, visit our website at www.tsebii.com