Valentina Blackhorse, Navajo Pageant Winner With Dreams, Dies at 28
She nurtured political aspirations while raising her 1-year-old daughter. Then she tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The next day she was dead.
Valentina Blackhorse in an undated photo.Credit...Vanielle Blackhorse
ALBUQUERQUE — Valentina Blackhorse, the winner of one pageant after another in the Navajo Nation, was known for helping others. When the coronavirus began tearing across her reservation, she counseled family members to stay home, wash their hands and wear masks.
Then the virus somehow made its way into her own home in Kayenta, a town in the Navajo Nation near the sandstone buttes of Arizona’s Monument Valley. Her companion, Robby Jones, a detention officer with the Navajo Department of Corrections, caught Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
“She cared for him until she got sick herself,” her sister Vanielle said. “She was always that way, looking after others.”
When Ms. Blackhorse came down with symptoms including shortness of breath and back and knee pain, she went for a test. The results came back on April 22 and showed she was positive. A day later, Ms. Blackhorse died at Kayenta’s health clinic, where Mr. Jones had taken her after she had difficulty breathing, her sister said. She was 28.
Ms. Blackhorse, who worked as an assistant at the Dennehotso Chapter House, an administrative office, was among the Navajo Nation’s youngest and most prominent pandemic victims, and her death stunned many among her people. The reservation was already grappling with one of the deadliest outbreaks in rural America, with 1,977 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 62 deaths from the infection as of Thursday, authorities said.
Ms. Blackhorse was born on Sept. 2, 1991, in Tuba City, Ariz., to Danny and Laverne Blackhorse. Her father was a coal miner, her mother a cook.
A former Miss Western Navajo, she had also previously held the titles Miss Monument Valley High School and Miss Diné College. She won those titles while starting a family and a career as a public servant, even as she grappled with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that might have heightened her risk of dying from Covid-19.
In addition to her parents, Mr. Jones and her sister Vanielle, she is survived by her 1-year-old daughter, Poet Bessie Blackhorse, and another sister, Victoria.
Vanielle Blackhorse said her sister had dreamed of entering politics one day, aspiring to become a delegate to the Navajo Nation Council or even president of the Navajo Nation, one of the largest tribal nations in the United States.
“But she accomplished her big dream by becoming a mother,” said Ms. Blackhorse, whose own daughter is the same age as Poet Bessie. “She loved being a mom to her daughter. It came naturally to her.”
Simon Romero is a national correspondent based in Albuquerque, covering immigration and other issues. He was previously the bureau chief in Brazil and in Caracas, Venezuela, and reported on the global energy industry from Houston. @viaSimonRomero
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Valentina Blackhorse, 28. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Spirit Medicine Healing Song -in Lakota (with Lyrics & translation) 18,437 views Oct 27, 2019 Blue Lunar Night Heart Healing 193 subscribers Please share this beautiful song. Music in this video Learn more Listen ad-free with YouTube Premium Song Peyote Healing Artist Robbie Robertson Album Peyote Healing Licensed to YouTube by UMG (on behalf of EMI); LatinAutor - Warner Chappell, BMI - Broadcast Music Inc., UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, LatinAutor - UMPG, UMPG Publishing, LatinAutorPerf, ASCAP, Warner Chappell, UMPI, Polaris Hub AB, BMG Rights Management (US), LLC, ARESA, and 12 Music Rights Societies
Beyond batteries: How new technologies are fueling energy storage | HPE Exploring what’s next in tech – Insights, information, and ideas for today’s IT leaders SUBSCRIBE All AI Analytics Careers & Culture Cloud & Hybrid IT Data Center DevOps Digital Transformation Edge & IoT Emerging Tech Security Storage Topics & Search September 17, 2020 Beyond batteries: How new technologies are fueling energy storage Batteries lead the way for the rise of energy storage, but other innovations are helping energy storage technologies reach their full potential. Here are three that are creating a promising future. The growing climate crisis has put a spotlight on alternative energy sources: the sun, the wind, the waves, geothermal heat. But the focus is shifting from how to harness these sources for energy generation to how this generated energy can be stored, enabling renewable energy to reach its full potential. ...
Impacts of historical trauma on Native Americans today Impacts of historical trauma on Native Americans today Impacts of historical trauma on Native Americans today Volume 90% By Alexus Davila | Posted: Wed 5:36 PM, Feb 26, 2020 | Updated: Wed 11:44 PM, Feb 26, 2020 RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA TV) - Imagine being told suddenly to pack a few of your belongings and leave everything you know. It's this type of forceful removal back in the 1830's that still affect Native Americans to this day. A workshop at the School of Mines and Technology Monday night aims to talk about the modern effects historical moments like these have on the Native American community. "For anybody that's a descendant of any type of indigenous or Native lineage, we are all direct products of historical trauma. It's affecting our lives here and n...
Comments
Post a Comment