Where are the Navajo? The Pueblo Corporate Council in Native American Nations, Vol. 1, for Shadowrun (1st Edition). Part 1.
Navajo Nation
Before we get more into the PCC in 2050, let’s have another short history lesson, and talk about the closest thing there is today to a real Native American Nation – the Navajo Nation.
Spanning a region in the southwest across three states (Utah, New Mexico, Arizona) in the Four Corners region (Colorado sat this one out), the Navajo Nation is larger in area than 10 other U.S. States. For those familiar with counting, of the 50 states, this land is bigger than 20% of them. Plus, it has a population about that of Guam.
Now, Guam, you say. Many of you may not know that Guam is even part of the United States, but it is, and apparently Kmart is very popular there. We’re getting too far off track already.
I didn’t know they were still around.
The point is: this is an existing, quasi-independent Native community – the largest in the U.S. – and might be expected to be a key part of the hypothesized 2050 Native American Nations of Shadowrun.
Of course, this isn’t the case.
The Ute-Pueblo border splits the current Navajo Nation in twain, and neither of them have any notable Navajo population. Instead, the Sioux Nation – the last in Volume 1, has them as the #3 tribe.
How’d they get from here to there?
A few layers to unwrap here, both in “real” history and in “Shadowrun” history.
Via oral tradition and through linguistic analysis, the Navajo migrated to the Southwest from farther north (Southern Canada & Alaska) around 1400 C.E. The “Pueblo peoples”, for which the PCC is named, had been present for thousands of years before that (the Zuni, for example, have inhabited their region for at least 3000 years – which is one of the reasons why they are a dominant tribe in the PCC). So while the Navajo did occupy the Four Corners region at the time of Spanish exploration, they were still relatively new to the area. Being nomadic hunter/gatherers rather than the stationary, agriculture-based Pueblo peoples, this was their modus operandi anyway.
The Long Walk of the Navajo, for those who forgot their high school history, was, like the Trail of Tears for the Cherokee (and other tribes), the forced relocation of Navajo peoples by the U.S. government in the late 1800s, done to make way for white settlers. This relocation formed the basis for the Navajo Nation as it is today (in reality).
Some Laubenstein to brighten the mood that is about to get even more dour.
Now picking up on the Sixth World parallel universe:
The Resource Rush (2002-2008), while not naming specific areas, certainly would have come for land in both the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation (which was completely enclosed in the N.N.), which have deposits of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) as well as economically important minerals such as uranium. Fusion power plants did not come online until 2027, and so all of these would materials be targets for energy-hungry corporations.
Being a large and organized concentration of Native Americans – none too happy to have their land being taken from them again – would have been the primary victims of the Re-Education and Relocation Act (2010). Other than the Abeline Re-Education Center that Daniel Coleman famously walked out of on December 24th, 2011, the locations of other Centers, and which tribes were their occupants, isn’t listed. However, since Howling Coyote was a Ute sent quite a ways away to Abilene, Texas, it’s consistent if the Navajo were make to take another Long Walk to the north and east, to their present home in the Sioux Nation.
