Stray dog woes grow on Navajo
Docs treat 3,000 for bites in '98
Shelter lost due to budget cuts.
Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — It's the shame of the Navajo Nation: starving dogs
running in packs attacking children and the elderly.
Last year, 3,000 people were treated by Indian Health Service clinics
because they had been bitten by dogs, said Mike Halona, director of
the tribe's animal control division
But there were a total of 7,000 bite cases reported to the tribal
authorities in 1997, said Glenda Davis, program manager of Navajo
Nation Veterinary Program.
"And those are only the reported cases," she said.
Over the years, a number of tragic cases have been reported.
One child, bitten in the face, needed 70 stitches and will need reconstructive
surgery to rebuild her face, Halona said.
A man walking home was taken down by a pack of dogs and nearly disemboweled.
But these days, Halona says his hands are tied. He cannot
respond to the calls his office receives daily because in October
his budget of $650,000 was cut to $150,000 and he lost 11 workers.
If he had $1.5 million, the program would be up to standards, he said.
Halona inherited the tribe's animal control problem when he took the
job as administrative service officer in 1992. At that time, the department
had five untrained employees to service the reservation.
Animal control law
Contrary to what anyone would think driving through the reservation,
the tribe does have a comprehensive animal control law passed by the
Navajo Nation Council in 1984, he said.
Halona's job is to enforce that law, but it has not been easy. He
coordinated efforts with the veterinary program and began educating
his staff and the public about responsible pet ownership.
By 1997, the staff had increased to 15. They were trained, equipped
and nationally certified. The justice department was supporting the
animal control office by requiring a court appearance for citations
and fining pet owners who violated the law.
"We were just beginning to see the impact of enforcing the law
when we lost the money and the officers," Halona said.
"When you drove through the housing communities, dogs were restrained,
behind fences and tied. I was getting complaints about my officers,
so I knew they were doing their jobs," he said.
The budget cut also closed three of the tribe's five shelters. The
Fort Defiance shelter is closed but people still bring animals to
the shelter and leave them tied outside even though days may go by
before anyone checks the shelter.
The old habit of dropping puppies and dogs in communities has returned.
For a few years, all of the animal control officers would gather for
what they called a sweep and remove as many as 300 dogs at a time
from a housing area.
But now, a call about a stray dog may not get much of a response there
is not the time, money or personnel to handle the call.
On Jan. 4, a horse impounded as evidence by the tribe was attacked
by 13 dogs. Six of the dogs were rounded up, but seven remain at large
although they have been spotted circling the horse again. Only one
of the dogs was wearing a tag.
The owner of that dog is responsible for the damage done to the horse.
If the horse dies, the owner is responsible for the cost of the horse.
All of the dogs will have to be euthanized according to tribal law.
Diseases spreading
It is tribal law that all animals be vaccinated, licensed and restrained
but disease and running dogs are again commonplace. Cases of distemper
and parvo are being reported. Dogs die and are eaten by other dogs
and the diseases are spread, Halona said.
Dogs are struck by vehicles and die along the highway; other dogs
come along and eat the carcass. At least one of those dogs will be
struck and killed and then its carcass will attract other dogs and
at least one of them will be struck.
"As many as 11 deaths will stem from that first
one," Halona said.
Prior to the staff cut, officers routinely removed dead
animals from roads or anywhere they were found. Now, unless they are
already in the area, they can't respond to a call about a dead animal.
They are allowed to travel only 3,000 miles a month.
When schools, chapters, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or the Navajo
Housing Authority calls the office for sweeps of their areas because
they have dogs running in packs, they must also provide people to
help and pay mileage.
Calls involving vicious dogs and livestock damage are the top priority
and they are the only calls the office has time for.
Many of the 11 workers who had to leave their jobs have been hired
by other agencies. Some now live out of the area, but stay in touch
with Halona, hoping for a change so they can come back.
Health, safety, education
Halona, the chief "dog catcher," is also a pet owner and
a parent and he takes animal control seriously.
One part of his job is educating the public to spay and neuter their
animals and to make sure the animals are vaccinated against diseases.
Halona and Davis are very proud of a $500,000 mobile spay, neuter
and animal wellness unit provided to the tribe by the Arizona Humane
Society. The unit will begin to travel to locations on the reservation
in March.
Another aspect of the Halona's job is protecting the
public and other animals from dogs running at large and attacking
people and livestock.
Not all the problems stem from the reservation mutt, the dog most
often seen wandering around. Some of the wandering canine troublemakers
are purebred dogs.
Some people have purchased purebred guard dogs, such
as rotweilers, blue heelers, pit bulls, chows and Dobermans dogs that
are known for their viciousness, Halona said.
"These people know these dogs are vicious enough to protect property,
but they let them run," Halona said.
An elderly woman was attacked and knocked down by two pit bulls that
broke their ropes to attack her as she walked toward a house.
"If someone had not been home, she would have been killed,"
he said. The woman spent a long time in the hospital recovering from
her injuries.
The third part of an animal control officer's job is
combating animal abuse. Halona believes that animal abuse is tied
to both spousal and child abuse.
"If someone is violent to an animal, they are also
violent in their home," he said. "And if someone lets their
dog run, they probably just let their children run."
An embarrassment
All of these abused, starved and running dogs are an embarrassment
to the Navajo Nation, Halona said.
His office receives letters from tourists all over the country and
Europe who have driven through the reservation.
"They remember two things," he said. "They remember
the beauty of the reservation and they remember the dogs. They want
to know, 'Don't you people have shelters, aren't you doing something
about them?'"
"It is traumatizing to animal lovers to come here and see this.
But we (Navajos) don't think anything about it."
He said Navajos criticize his office and say it is not the Navajo
way to restrain dogs or to euthanize the dogs.
"But is it the Navajo culture to let them starve?" he asked.
"I thought the Navajo way was to live in harmony."
"This is a serious problem that is not going to go away,"
he said. "We know that children are being injured and we, as
adults, should take responsibility and not just turn our heads."
| Top |
Jan. 11 is cutoff date to file
City, county seats open
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Candidates for city council, Milan Board of Trustees,
county commission and two county office candidates must file for office
between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Jan. 11.
Candidate filing for Milan is in the village clerk's office.
Filing for Grants is at the city clerk's office and
for the county at the county clerk's office.
The election is March 7.
New this year is early voting which is mandated by state
law. The governing body of a municipality shall provide for early
voting, according to the law, for any regular or special municipal
election at the time of the adoption of the election resolution for
a regular or special municipal election and shall designate the municipal
clerk's office as the early voting precinct.
Early voting can take place starting Feb. 16 and will end March 3,
Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
Grants City Clerk Tara Salasbury said early voting is for persons
who will have a conflict voting on the day of the election. It is
not a replacement for absentee voting. Persons wanting to cast absentee
ballots may do so, but first they must fill out an absentee voting
application. After the application is filled out ballots may be mailed
to the voters no earlier than Feb. 1. Feb. 9 is the first day that
absentee ballots can be mailed and March 2 is the last day ballots
can be mailed.
Regardless of whether the method is absentee voting, voting in person
or early voting, the voters must be registered. Voter registration
can be done at the county clerk's office in the county complex in
Grants.
Several offices are up for election.
In Milan the four-year seats of trustees Tom Ortega and Vivian Brumbelow
are up for election as well as the vacant seat of Trustee Frances
Waldee. The Milan municipal judge's seat, currently held by Mary Lundstrom,
is also up for election.
In Grants the council seats of Ron Ortiz and Kathy Chavez are up for
election.
On the county level, commission seats currently held by Bill Dawson,
Clara B. Chicharello and Steve Barela are up for election. Also, offices
of County Clerk Patricia Aragon and County Treasurer Alberta Gallegos
are up for election.
| Top |
Hopis link bomb scare to dispute
Staff Report
KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. — Hopi tribal headquarters were
evacuated Wednesday when someone called in a bomb threat. The call
was received at 8 a.m. and the building was evacuated until noon,
when an all-clear was given by the bomb squad and law enforcement.
For many Hopis, the threat has been associated with
the Feb. 1 deadline when the resisting Navajos who did not relocate
or accept an accommodation agreement will become trespassers on Hopi
land, according to a press release from the chairman's office.
There is reason to think that the threat came from the
resisting Navajos or their outside friends, Chairman Wayne Taylor
said, because the group has vowed to use violence to stay on Hopi
lands illegally in their public campaign as well as through Internet
communication. The tribe also has received phone calls on behalf of
the resisting Navajos that caused the tribe to move to a high state
of security alert.
"I am hoping that this incident is not related in any way to
the Navajo-Hopi land issue," Cedric Kuwaninvaya, chairman of
the Hopi Tribe's Land Team, said in the news release. "It would
be a tragedy for both tribes if the resisting Navajo and their activist
friends chose to use violence in addressing their situation on the
Hopi Partitioned Lands.
"The Hopi Tribe intends to honor the peaceful resolution of the
Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act enacted by Congress in 1996. Non-Hopi outsiders
who are planning to occupy Hopi lands in connection with the resisting
Navajo will be doing so without the consent of the Hopi Tribe. They
only add fuel to the high tensions resulting from the bomb threat."
Taylor said, "The Hopi people have always relied on the goodness
of people to work through the most difficult and challenging situations
in a non-violent manner. Terrorism is criminal, plain and simple."
Taylor added that the tribe is taking the bomb threat
as a serious matter and that the safety of the Hopi people is primary.
"We are taking measures to protect the Hopi people against any
future injuries, loss of life and property damage," Taylor said.
"The Hopi Tribe will not condone any acts of violence or aggression
against the Hopi people or within the Hopi reservation."
On Wednesday, Taylor and other leaders including Navajo President
Kelsey Begaye and Christopher Bavasi of the Office of Navajo and Hopi
Indian Relocation issued a statement saying, "We will continue
to work cooperatively to peacefully resolve the issue" and that
there would be no forced evictions on Feb. 1, the deadline for Navajos
who have refused to sign lease agreements for the Hopi land on which
they live.
The date is the legal eviction date for an estimated
two dozen Navajo families who have refused to sign an "accommodation
agreement."
The deadline is the culmination of a land dispute that
has simmered for more than a century between the two tribes, both
of which consider the land to be sacred.
| Top |
Tribe requests court order for Aneth
records
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The prosecutor's office is seeking a court order
to force Tina Lansing to turn over financial documents of the Aneth
Chapter in an investigation of possible fraud or embezzlement by the
recently ousted secretary-treasurer.
"The case should not be put aside simply because the Ethics and
Rules Committee has issued a default judgment. We are still going
forward with our investigation," Chief Prosecutor Donovan Brown
told the Independent Thursday. He added he did not know how long the
investigation would take.
Brown said, "We have expanded our work from a request for assistance
from the Office of the Auditor General to a full investigation."
The chief prosecutor added that his office most likely will ask the
attorney general for assistance...
| Top |
Chinle center's focus may change
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Central Navajo Youth Corrections Center may
not become a long-term facility, shocked proponents of a multi-million
dollar pilot project learned Thursday.
Board members and staff were prepared Thursday to present information
about their program at a workshop with the Public Safety Committee
of the Navajo Nation Council. Construction of the building is about
95 percent complete.
But they learned that federal and tribal officials may reimpose the
center's initial short-term juvenile hall application against community
wishes...
| Top |
Shelter lost by budget cuts
Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Not only did the Navajo Nation lose
11 animal control officers when the budget was cut severely this past
year, it also lost a chance for a $1.5 million model shelter.
The shelter would have received money from the Pegasus Foundation
and International Fund for Animal Welfare, funneled through the Arizona
Humane Society, said Mike Halona, director of the tribe's animal control
program.
"We lost it when they learned the tribe cut the animal control
budget and we lost the 11 officers. It showed them that the tribe
does not support animal welfare," he said...
| Top |
Bengals down Scouts, Bears beat Pirates
Alan Arthur
Sports Editor
GALLUP — Zach McBride wasn't around to watch his Gallup Bengals
play the Window Rock Scouts on Thursday night.
He would have enjoyed it.
The Bengals put on an inspired performance as they captured
a 77-65 victory over the Scouts in the first round of the 56th Annual
Gallup Invitational boys basketball tournament at Gallup High School.
In other first round games, the Wingate Bears beat the Grants Pirates
53-37, the Deming Wildcats defeated the Los Lunas Tigers 89-63 and
the Moriarty Pintos were 62-58 winners over the Belen Eagles...
| Top |
First Mesa tips hat to Alex Ami
Stan Bindell
Special to the Independent
POLACCA, Ariz. — More than 150 Polacca residents packed into
the First Mesa Consolidated Villages' lunchroom to honor a man who
wasn't there.
Alexander Ami was being honored for a lifetime of commitment
to his village and to his people, but Ami is ailing with lung cancer
and was at the doctor's at the time of the luncheon. His family videotaped
the event so that the 72-year-old could see the many testimonials.
Hopi Vice Chairman Phillip Quochytewa Sr. recounted
how he had served with Ami on the Hopi Tribal Council and how Ami
had later served on the Hopi Health Care Steering Committee that lobbied
for the new center, which is slated to open in May...
| Top |
Spilled fuel closes road
Police blame drunken driver
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
BLACK MESA — An alleged drunken driver knocked
over a propane tanker truck Tuesday night and Navajo Route 41 was
closed for an hour so that the spilled heating fuel could be burned
off, Navajo police said Thursday.
Both drivers were taken to the Indian Health Service hospital in Kayenta
after officers captured the driver of a pickup truck which they said
was both speeding and in the wrong lane when it hit the tanker.
Police identified the alleged drunken driver as Harrison Benally,
32, who lives about one-half mile south of Mile Post 2 on NR 41. The
collision occurred at Mile Post 1 on NR 41. Police identified the
driver of the Chief Propane tanker truck as Ronald Shurlock, no age
or hometown listed...
| Top |
Tuba City's fresh look brings rare win
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
TUBA CITY, Ariz. - Sporting new game jerseys, the Tuba City Warriors
came away with a rare home victory over Monument Valley with a convincing
90-74 conference-opening win Thursday night before a standing room
only crowd at the Tuba City Community Center.
In the girls game, Tuba City escaped with a controversial 42-41 win
over defending state champion Monument Valley on a last-second shot
after the Lady Mustangs were denied a second free throw after a key
miss.
Tuba City travels to Ganado Saturday for a key conference showdown.
Monument Valley will be looking to regroup against conference foe
Winslow Saturday at home. Tuba City will have a new 4500-seat gym
ready this March or April. Tuba City will host next year's regionals
in its new gym...
| Top |
McKenzie asks grassroots help with RECA
effort
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation Vice President Dr. Taylor McKenzie
is asking bickering factions of grassroot supporters of the Radiation
Exposure Compensation Act to unite toward a common cause.
McKenzie called a Thursday meeting of RECA lobbyists and concerned
citizens to bring an end to controversy involving the use of contract
lobbyists. McKenzie asked for the help of the numerous grassroot groups
from the reservation.
"What were the lobbyists doing? Congress tells us, we'd rather
see grassroots than the same lobbyists saying the same thing,"
Alexander Thorne, Western Navajo Recovery Group spokesman, said...
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