The moon holds an especially sacred place in Navajo cosmology and issues related to death are treated with utmost respect.
Traditions of the Diné include prohibitions regarding death and human remains, including not discussing death, avoiding burial sites and not handling materials belonging to a deceased person. To those who revere the moon, a lunar lander with cremated human remains onboard is a desecration of this celestial body.
The moon as a “resting place for human remains is deeply disturbing and unacceptable to our people and many other tribal nations,” said Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren from Window Rock, Arizona.
No matter how you feel personally, whether human remains blasted to the moon for about $13,000 per ride is a meaningful, respectful endeavor to honor a loved one, Nygren is correct about one thing. The launch of private company Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One on Monday that included cremated remains for a memorial spaceflight “disregards past agreements and promises of respect and consultation between NASA and the Navajo.”
One more broken promise between the federal government and Indigenous people. Memorandums of understanding and agreements don’t have much legal muscle, but they united on one point – consult with the tribe beforehand. With this recent launch, trust was lost.
Nygren had urged NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation to delay blastoff and address the tribe’s concerns. Astrobotic’s space flight was commercial, not governmental. But the USDOT licenses space flights. For engineering and safety reasons, NASA weighs in on cargo. The process also includes a Federal Aviation Administration review to ensure a launch would not jeopardize national security, foreign policy interests or international obligations.
Different agencies have roles but there’s not yet an overarching, defined regulatory framework in place for these public-private partnerships.
In this fast-evolving, new frontier space marketplace, now’s the time to consider how cultural values influence choices and decisions. How cremated remains scattered over the moon’s surface affect Indigenous people, which make up more than 5% of Arizona’s population with 22 federally recognized tribes.
“Past agreements and promises” that Nygren referenced followed the Lunar Prospector mission in 1998, which carried the remains of (former astronaut) Eugene Shoemaker to the moon. At the time, Navajo Nation President Albert Hale voiced serious objections. In response, NASA formally apologized and promised consultation with tribes before authorizing any further missions carrying human remains to the moon.
Recently, the Biden Administration had also promised to consult on matters that impact tribes, in accordance with the Jan. 26, 2021, Memorandum on Tribal Consultation and Strengthening Nation-to-Nation Relationships.
In a statement, Nygren said, “The Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Interagency Coordination and Collaboration for the Protection of Indigenous Sacred Sites further underscores the requirement for such consultation.”
He said the memorandum explicitly recognizes that sacred sites can consist of “places that afford views of important areas of land, water, or of the sky and celestial bodies.”
Skipping that consultation doesn’t help Native people’s trust in U.S. government at this time when election organizers are working to eliminate barriers. These include home address issues on rural reservation land, problems recognizing tribal identification cards and language barriers. In Arizona, organizers hand out and plaster stickers that say “Every native vote counts.”
For those who can afford it, human ashes in the cosmos is surpassing popular earthly places, including some national parks that allow the spreading of ashes with permits, Rocky Mountain being one of them. Permission from Bureau of Land Management lands vary by field office. The U.S. Forest Service doesn’t authorize it for mortuaries, but has no regulations for private citizens. However, some states regulate or prohibit it.
More and more, people look up toward starry skies to celebrate a life. It gives contemporary credence to the phrase “love you to the moon and back.”
As U.S. leaders figure out space regulations, the world’s leaders vie for space dominance, while the clutter of space junk zooming around makes flights even more dangerous. Meanwhile, the Peregrin lunar lander, crippled by a propellant leak, may run out of fuel and not make it to the moon after all.
But the Navajo Nation reminds us, it’s not a question of whether one can send human remains to the moon. But whether one should.
