Gallup railroader is retired, but he's
still chugging along
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — For the past 45 years, Fred Gallegos has
worked for the Santa Fe Railroad. He's 74 and not likely to stop soon.
Gallegos began working when he was 15 and still in school. Using a
pick and shovel, he helped his father, who worked in the coal mines.
It was a time when many young men started working in the coal mines
by learning the job from their fathers. Later, they were hired by
the mining company.
"It was dangerous, hard work," Gallegos said.
However, in 1932, it was the only work in Gallup, where there were
several mines. But he didn't want to do it for the rest of his life,
he said.
He continued to work as a miner until the mines closed
in the late 1930s. Then he worked at Fort Wingate until a railroad
job became available. The Santa Fe Railroad hired him in 1944, and
although it wasn't as dangerous as coal mining, it was still hard
work, he said.
Gallegos unloaded mail bags, baggage and freight from
the trains. Sometimes there were as many as 400 to 500 mail bags on
a train, and during his shift, there would be four to five trains
traveling each way that he had to unload.
It was always busy in the Gallup rail yard, and there
was always a lot of work. Fifty men worked 24 hours a day unloading
the trains. And during World War II, the number of passengers and
the amount of work increased, he said.
Gallegos remembers the wagons the men had to fill with
mail, baggage or freight and then pull themselves.
"It took two or three of us pulling in front and
two or three more pushing from behind," he said.
He preferred working in the railroad's stockyard, located
on north Ninth Street, he said. "I was my own boss. If I needed
help, I called the freight office." he said.
Trucks and trains delivered the livestock to Gallegos,
where the animals were unloaded and fed and watered. Sometimes the
animals had been on the train too long.
Like the load of pigs that was supposed to stop in Milan
so the animals could eat and drink. The train instead brought the
pigs to Gallup, where they were fed and watered, but the animals were
too hungry and too stressed.
During the night, they died. The next morning, the section
gang was called to dig a grave for the 50 to 60 pigs. Somewhere near
the train tracks on Ninth Street is a large communal pig burial site,
Gallegos said, smiling.
Gallegos' reflections about his working life are frequently
punctuated with the phrase, "It was a lot of hard work."
In 1982, the hard work ended when mail was eliminated from the trains.
The Santa Fe Railroad began to lay people off or transfer them to
other stations in other towns. Gallegos was six months shy of retiring,
so he finished those six months and retired. But he didn't stay home.
Instead, he was hired to work at the train station as
a janitor. He cleaned, opened the doors, made sure the lights were
on. He still goes to work twice a day, every day, to open the doors
and the gates that lead to the train.
"Everybody knows me. They call me at home to find out what time
the train is coming in," he said. Even though his number is not
listed, people find him.
Gallegos raised six children while working for the Santa
Fe Railroad. He never suffered any health problems in spite of his
youth spent in the coal mines. He attributes that to chewing tobacco.
When he began working in the mine, a older miner told
him that if he chewed tobacco, it would catch all the dust and it
wouldn't go into his lungs. So he chewed tobacco and spat out the
dust it collected, he said.
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Assaults, weapons keep Navajo police
hopping
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Assaults, weapons cases, a stolen school vehicle
and a fire scare at the Tuba City hospital kept Navajo police busy
during the last days of 1999 and the first days of 2000, especially
New Year's Day.
Fire scare
TUBA CITY — Around 8 a.m. Thursday, a heating unit on the roof
of the emergency room at the Indian Health Service hospital in Tuba
City overheated. When police arrived, they found a number of doctors,
nurses and other hospital staff members with fire extinguishers climbing
off the hospital roof.
Volunteers of the Navajo Nation Fire and Rescue Department checked
and cleared the roof.
Pickup stolen
TUBA CITY — About 9:30 a.m. Saturday, security officers at the
Tuba City Unified School District discovered that thieves had broken
into the bus yard office and stolen a 1990 pickup truck. Tracks in
the snow showed the driver headed south on Main Street. Shortly after
3 p.m., security officers spotted the truck west of the Quality Inn
motel. The front end of the truck had been damaged. The case was turned
over to the Department of Criminal Investigations.
Father, son injured
CROWNPOINT — A father and son allegedly cut each other in what
Navajo police officers reported may have been a botched mutual suicide
attempt Friday.
Police found Johnathan Sloan, 35, who lives east of the DNA subdivision,
walking toward the West Mesa housing area about 4 p.m. He was cut
on an arm. An ambulance took Sloan to the Indian Health Service hospital.
Police also found that Nathan Sloan, no age listed, of the same address
also had been cut.
Unlawful firearms
CHINLE — Issac Michele, no age listed, was arrested on charges
of unlawful use of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm
just north of the old Bureau of Indian Affairs subdivision shortly
before 2 a.m. New Year's Day.
His mother, Mildred Michele, 41, called police about her son's threats
to shoot himself with a .22 caliber compact handgun. Then she heard
two shots.
Police found Issac Michele on the ground, not moving. They approached
with weapons drawn, but found the gun on Issac, who had no wounds.
Threats of shooting
KAIBETO — Leslie Curley, 24, who lives about one-quarter of a
mile southeast of the local market, was arrested on charges of disorderly
conduct and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
A woman told Tuba City Police that her brother-in-law was drunk and
threatening to shoot himself. Two police officers got the family out
of the Navajo Housing Authority subdivision home and waited for more
police.
Curley was seen through a window holding the rifle under his chin.
But he opened the door, put the rifle down and raised his hands in
surrender.
Run over by car
KAYENTA — A 25-year-old man told officers on New Year's Day that
another man ran over him somewhere west of the center of town, but
he couldn't remember where or why.
Officers said that Cleovaughn Tsosie, who lives about 1.5 miles north
of the Indian Health Service hospital in Kayenta, was intoxicated
at 7 a.m. when a police officer talked to him at the hospital. All
Tsosie could say then was that an old brown Pontiac with Utah license
plates had run over him, police said.
Officers found a witness, but the report did not list an arrest of
the suspected driver, identified as Teddy Singer, 34, who lives 1.5
miles south of the Holiday Inn motel in Kayenta.
Tsosie suffered a broken pelvis, broken upper left arm
and a broken right ankle, plus cuts on his right leg and hips.
Man beaten
PINON — Daylon Begay, 20, of the Forest Lake Chapter was beaten
with a club or pipe and taken to the Indian Health Service hospital
at Chinle around 9 p.m. Saturday.
A woman reported the attack at the Pinon substation. Begay was first
taken to a school in Pinon, where police officers found him unresponsive
and bleeding from an ear. He named a suspect, but no arrest was made
at the time.
Youths injure woman
FRUITLAND — A Fruitland mother had to be flown to the University
of New Mexico hospital in Albuquerque Sunday after a group of youngsters,
angered that they could not find two of her sons to fight, hit her
in the head with a rock.
The attack gave Bernita Nez, no age listed, a three-inch cut on her
head and a cracked skull from falling after being hit outside her
home. Nez lives about three miles north of Morgan Lake. The five young
men tossed the rocks after she reportedly cussed them out for wanting
to fight her sons.
After the youngsters hit her, they ran off, the report said. The report
listed their leader as Johnathon Joe, 21, of Fruitland, but no arrest
was listed. Police turned the case over to the Department of Criminal
Investigations.
New Year's bootlegging
TACHEE-BLUE GAP — Navajo police have released reports on two
illegal liquor cases that were related to New Year's Eve bootlegging
raids in the Lukachukai Chapter. The release of the reports was postponed
so other bootleggers would not be tipped off, a police spokesman said.
Arrested on three charges of delivery of liquor was Davso Mike, 66,
who lives about one mile northwest of the Tachee-Blue Gap Chapter
House. The arrest was made on Dec. 3. NDLE and DCI officers reported
taking into evidence 20 bottles of 40-oz. Budweiser beer, 17 bottles
of Garden DeLuxe wine and a bottle of whiskey. All were unopened.
On Dec. 2, police also raided the home of Leo Begay, no age listed,
who lives about one mile north of the Smoke Signal Mission, between
Tachee-Blue Gap and Whippoorwill, but didn't find anything.
Shiprock DUIs
SHIPROCK CHAPTER — The following people were arrested on charges
of driving while under the influence of liquor in the Shiprock Police
District through Monday:
Margaret A. Chase, 35, of Shiprock Chapter; Ray Roy Joe, 28, of Hogback
Chapter; Yvonne Yazzie, 40, of Fruitland; Leonard Phillips, 44, of
Shiprock Chapter; Duncan Nakai, 26, of Shiprock Chapter; Erick L.
Cambridge, 20, of Shiprock Chapter; Billy J. Damon, 23, of Shiprock
Chapter; Lenora Plummer Tahy, 44, of Tohatchi Chapter and Bernita
Curtis, 26, of Sheep Springs Chapter.
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Horse race led to massacre near Red Rock
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — Navajos once knew horse racing and gambling could be
a deadly combination.
In fact, the present site of Red Rock State Park is only a few miles
from where a massacre of Navajos occurred, all due to gambling and
horse racing.
A group of Gallup residents is now seeking permission from the Gallup
City Council to use the state park as a site for a horse race track
and a casino.
"I'm not sure that very many Navajos or even non-Navajos know
the story," said Martin Link, a local historian and former director
of the Navajo Tribal Museum.
Government records say that between 12 and 15 Navajos,
mostly women and children, died on Sept. 13, 1861, because of a dispute
over a horse race. The dispute led to a fierce battle between Navajos,
who felt they were gypped, and soldiers at Fort Fauntleroy (which
was later called Fort Wingate), who organized the race.
"I was surprised when opponents to Navajo gambling didn't bring
up this incident during the two referendums that were held on the
reservation a few years ago," Link said.
"But to do so, opponents to gambling would have to admit that
Navajos at that time as they are now are obsessed with gambling,"
he said.
During the Navajo debates in 1994 and 1997, opponents
to gaming used the argument that gambling was not a part of Navajo
culture.
In the early 1860s, however, it would probably have
been hard to get Navajos to say that gambling wasn't important. In
fact, gambling was a major part of the lives of many Navajos, especially
those who lived just east of Gallup.
Once a month, hundreds of Navajos would travel to Fort
Fauntleroy to pick up their ration of meat and flour. And when they
did, it would be a time for horse racing and gambling.
Capt. Nicholas Hodt, who was at the fort the day of
the massacre, was asked some four years later by his superiors to
explain what caused the ruckus that led to the killing.
Hodt explained that horse racing had become popular
among both the Navajos and the soldiers. In fact, it was so popular
that soldiers would bet the horses that were raced, even though the
horses belonged to the federal government.
On Sept. 13, soldiers set up a race that drew bets from
both sides because the horse the soldiers bet was not familiar to
the Navajos.
"The Indians flocked in by the hundreds, women and children,
some of them mounted on fine ponys, richly dressed, and all appeared
to be there to see the race and not with any hostile intentions,"
Hodt later wrote.
Hodt said that shortly after the race began, the Navajo horse ran
off the track, apparently when its bridle broke.
Navajos, who stood to lose their bets, claimed the bridle had been
cut by one of the soldiers and said the race was unfair. They wanted
it run again.
The soldiers refused. But when they went to collect their winnings,
Hodt said, a shot was fired near the post, and every soldier armed
himself. Hodt said later he was told that a drunken Navajo was trying
to get into the fort and he was shot by a sentry.
Once the soldiers were armed, the massacre began.
"The Navajo squaws and children ran in all directions and were
shot and bayoneted," Hodt said. He headed toward the east side
of the fort, where, he said, he "saw a soldier murdering two
little children and a woman."
He said he ordered the soldier to stop. "I ran
up as quickly as I could, but could not get there soon enough to prevent
him from killing the two innocent children and wounding severely the
squaw."
The Navajos ran away.
"After the massacre, there were no more Indians to be seen about
the post with the exception of a few squaws, (who were) favorites
of the officers," Hodt said.
The Navajos, still upset, attacked an expressman, or mailman, about
10 miles from the fort, took his horse and mail and wounded him in
the arm.
The commander of the fort, not wanting the incident to lead to a full-scale
war, sent some of the Navajo women still at the fort to talk to the
chiefs of the tribe. But the chiefs were so angry over the killing
of the Navajo women and children that they flogged the emissaries
sent by the fort.
Hodt said he wasn't sure how many were killed or wounded since some
of the dead and wounded were carried away by the Navajos.
Link said the government version indicated there was no trickery;
the breaking of the bridle was happenstance.
"But even if you believe the government's version, it was still
a classic tragedy of the type that Shakespeare would use to create
one of his plays," Link said.
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Man 'serious' after beating in old motel
Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Two men were arrested Monday night and
charged with aggravated battery after they allegedly beat a Church
Rock man and left him with two skull fractures, multiple brain bleeds
and a collapsed lung.
Stoney C. Tony, 23, and Aaron Shirley, 19, are accused
of beating and robbing 46-year-old Willis Kee at an abandoned hotel.
Kee was flown to University Hospital in Albuquerque where he was listed
in serious condition this morning.
If Kee dies from his injuries, Gallup Police Lt. Robert Silva said
charges will be upgraded to murder...
| Top |
Gallup railroader is retired, but he's
still chugging along
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — For the past 45 years, Fred Gallegos has worked for
the Santa Fe Railroad. He's 74 and not likely to stop soon.
Gallegos began working when he was 15 and still in school. Using a
pick and shovel, he helped his father, who worked in the coal mines.
It was a time when many young men started working in the coal mines
by learning the job from their fathers. Later, they were hired by
the mining company.
"It was dangerous, hard work," Gallegos said...
| Top |
Dinosaurs cost locals $2-3 month
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Local resident Dan Stock asked the city council here
Monday whether Dinamation, a not-for-profit agency displaying dinosaur
replicas, had paid any rent to occupy its city-owned $1.3 million
building.
The answer to his question was "no."
At the same time, Assistant City Manager Bob Horacek told Stock that
a committee is negotiating the price of the rent with Dinamation,
a Fruita, Colo., agency that has been occupying the building since
last June...
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2 seats up for election
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Any resident 18 years or older of Grants District 1
or District 3 can run for election in March, but he or she must first
submit a candidate packet.
Submission deadline for the completed packets is 4:30 p.m. Jan. 11.
Packets need to be returned to the city clerk's office in City Hall.
District 1 was the district of former Councilor Sybel Cometti; newly
appointed Councilor Kathy Chavez was named to fill Cometti's unexpired
term...
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Kayenta Township seats up for grabs
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — Navajo residents of Kayenta who want to
run for the township board can get nominating petitions from the Navajo
Nation's Election Office.
The township board decided on Dec. 19 that two of its five board positions
would be up for election this year. These are the seats now held by
Richard P. Mike and Jimmie Austin Jr.
Township Manager Pete Deswood said both Mike and Austin,
who were elected in 1997 along with the other three board members,
volunteered to let their terms expire this year so board members would
have staggered terms...
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Ethics panel kicks out 2 from Aneth
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation's Ethics and Rules Committee
kicked two of three elected officers of the Aneth Chapter out of office
Monday for gross violations involving almost $41,000 in unauthorized
checks.
The third Aneth Chapter officer, Vice President Nelson
Rockwell, who allegedly co-signed some of the unauthorized checks,
is scheduled to have his hearing today.
Aneth Chapter President Leonard Lee, who attended the hearing Monday,
was also alleged to have co-signed some of the unauthorized checks...
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Teen's goal: Skate park
Stan Bindell
Special to the Independent
TUBA CITY, Ariz. — Robert Franklin seems like a typical 18-year-old
except for his mission: trying to get a skateboard park in Tuba City
so teens will have something else to do.
Franklin said it's illegal to skateboard on school grounds and on
the few sidewalks that exist in the community. He said it's unsafe
to skate on city streets.
Franklin, who has been rollerblading for four years, said skating
keeps youth in shape and offers alternatives for youth who are not
involved in sports....
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