Navajo Pride

Farmington , New Mexico – In the dead of February, this is a region so stark and empty it’s hard to believe anything much can grow here. The huge tract where four states meet is the home of the Navajo nation, with its own history, culture and language. The Navajo nation extends into the states of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, covering over 27,000 square miles.

Remarkably, it’s also home to a productive 70,000-acre farm.

“While the rest of the agricultural industry is shrinking, we’re expanding," says Tsosie Lewis, who’s CEO of the farm’s operator, Navajo Agricultural Products Industries, or NAPI. “We have the water resource, we have the land base, and we have the infrastructure here.”

Farming is far from new to the Navajo people. For more than five hundred years, they’ve grown corn, squash, and beans: staples of indigenous peoples throughout the southwest.

Today, the staff at NAPI spend their summers raising alfalfa to feed their herds of cattle. Potatoes, popcorn and pinto beans are all sold under the “Navajo Pride” brand, too.

The extreme heat of summer in this land gives way to bitter cold and wind in winter. The harvest is in and the fields sit fallow. But the work actually picks up at this time of year, because the packing sheds run almost around the clock.

The top crop is pinto beans, a favorite for dishes like so-called “Navajo tacos.”

Surprisingly, NAPI’s biggest customer isn’t here at home. Most of the pinto beans will go to Mexico.

Roselyn Yazzie heads up the effort to get them sorted, cleaned, packaged and shipped.

“I live here. I literally live here, says Yazzie. “I do have a life on the outside. I own cattle, horses. I own my own home and so forth, but this is my home. And I guess it’s the Navajo reservation. It’s my home.” The whole, slightly darker beans Yazzie is sorting are top-grade, so they go for top dollar. Lower-grade beans go to other bean processors. Some go to prisons.

Raul Tellez of New Mexico’s Department of Agriculture helps promote NAPI products. He says the quality of the beans makes them attractive to buyers.

“To me, it’s special, because it’s grown at about 5,000 feet above sea level. The beans cook quickly, an hour and a half to an hour and forty-five minutes. There’s a definite different taste. I’ve been buying beans here for the last 15 to 20 years, and you can tell the difference.”

Growing and processing popcorn is the newest venture for NAPI. Each batch is tested for moisture content. Popcorn pops when water inside the kernel is super-heated then “explodes,” turning the kernel inside out. Like the pinto beans, most of the popcorn is exported – to Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

NAPI’s next big venture: to bank on its success with pinto beans and raise black beans for Cuba. Despite the prohibitions on shipping there, there are exceptions when it comes to “staples” like beans and rice. If the deal with Cuba comes through, Roselyn Yazzie will be busier than ever. She says she won’t mind.

“I take a lot of pride when the bags leave here with the name saying ‘Navajo Pride’ and with the saying that it was produced here on the Navajo nation. “That makes me very proud.”