Tribal panel: Assign land for burials
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — Navajo Reservation residents have complained for decades
about the problem of finding a burial spot for loved ones.
Some people are upset when they discover a burial plot on what they
call their "customary use area." Others complain because
they can't find a place within their chapter to bury a relative, forcing
them to use an off-reservation cemetery.
To resolve this problem, the tribe's Resources Committee has passed
a resolution recommending that each community on the reservation designate
an area within its boundaries to be used as a cemetery.
"What we want to do is come up with a policy that
deals with this problem in a fair and equitable way," said Arvin
Trujillo, director of the tribe's Division of Natural Resources.
That may be easier said than done. Previous tribal administrations
have tried and failed to come up with a solution to this growing problem
that appeases reservation traditionalists, who have been adamant about
having no cemeteries on or near their land.
Anything to do with death is still one of the biggest
taboos in Navajo traditional society.
In the early 1990s, when the Fort Defiance community
was considering a proposal to create a veterans' cemetery near the
community, a representative of a local family said he and his family
would have to leave the area if the cemetery were built at the proposed
site.
He said he would have to look at the cemetery when he
did his morning prayers, since it would have been located just to
the east of his home. Traditionalists believe any involvement with
death, whether direct or indirect, would make their prayers useless.
The Navajo Veterans Office is now looking at building its cemetery
in Chinle. The same situation exists in most off-reservation areas,
but more so on the Navajo Reservation. People don't mind putting a
cemetery in a community as long as it is nowhere near their home.
The Resource Committee's resolution also pointed out
that the district grazing committees have to deal on a regular basis
with complaints concerning burials.
"There is a prevalence of people burying their deceased loved
ones out on range lands, within farm plots and within or near their
home site leases," the resolution stated. "Land use controversies
arise when other land users find a burial that interferes with their
use of range and farm lands."
District grazing committee members usually find themselves
in the middle of a dispute that has no solution under current tribal
law, Trujillo said.
"What we are trying to do now is to come up with
some procedures and rules that people can use in dealing with this
problem," he said.
Major communities on the reservation have cemeteries.
But many smaller communities have no cemeteries or provisions to deal
with burial rights, said land administration officials. In many of
the cases where the community already has a cemetery, it may have
reached a saturation point where no further burials are possible unless
the cemetery is expanded.
Many families, unable to find a place to bury their dead, opt instead
to take the easy way out buying a burial plot in Gallup or one of
the other border communities.
Others have created what basically has become an illegal family cemetery
on their home-site lease, with as many as 10 burial plots.
Trujillo said the tribe doesn't want to create a policy
that would require any of these family plots to be disturbed and the
graves to be relocated.
One of the options the tribe is looking at is making
these family plots into community cemeteries. If the area is already
being used as a cemetery, it might as well be open to other residents
as well, tribal officials have reasoned.
The Resource Committee's resolution urges chapters to
deal with these problems quickly, by either designating an area where
a cemetery can be created or where a present cemetery can be expanded.
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Navajos seek more U.S. funds for cops
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — A three-man delegation from the Navajo Nation is
scheduled to meet with the top U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement
officer Wednesday in Albuquerque in an attempt to obtain more federal
funds for reservation cops.
Navajo Division of Public Safety Director Herb Clah, Public Safety
Committee member Edison Wauneka and Thomas Ranger, chief of staff
for President Kelsey Begaye, will attend the meeting in which $20
million is at stake. Up to one-third of that amount could be given
to Navajo police.
Clah told the committee that Ted Quasula, chief of the BIA's Office
of Law Enforcement, agreed that under the present formula, which is
not based on membership totals, the Navajo Nation gets shortchanged.
Committee member Freddie Howard said other federal agencies, such
as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, divide their money
among the tribes based on population, the area served and need. If
the BIA allocated its money the same way, Howard estimated an additional
$6 million of the $20 million would be available to the Navajo Nation.
Navajo police officials have been arguing that their
department is badly understaffed, needing at least twice as many as
the current 250 certified officers on patrol.
The Navajo Department of Law Enforcement operates with
a budget of $19.7 million from tribal, federal and state sources.
Of $17 million from BIA contracts, 99.4 percent pays personnel costs.
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Tournament means big bucks for Gallup
High
Alan Arthur
Sports Editor
GALLUP — As the cheers from the crowd filled Gallup High School
gymnasium last weekend, it was easy to tell that the 56th Annual edition
of the Gallup Invitational boys basketball tournament was going to
be very profitable.
Very profitable, indeed.
According to tournament receipts, the invitational brought in a total
of approximately $23,016. That came from approximately a paid total
attendance of 7,316 fans that attended the three-day tournament that
was held from Thursday through Saturday.
According to Activities Director Joe Menini, Gallup High School takes
in one-third of the total paid admission. That would mean that the
school would take in around $7,500.
After that money was subtracted from the total, expenses such as mileage
for the teams, concession stand, basketball officials, etc...was then
paid. The remainder of the money would then be split up among the
rest of the McKinley County teams.
The tournament was broke into six different sessions, with an afternoon
and evening session each day.
The top session was the championship round on Saturday night, when
the Deming Wildcats won their second straight tournament championship
with a 75-63 victory over the Bengals and the third place game in
which the Moriarty Pintos defeated an area favorite, the Wingate Bears,
77-66. An approximate total of 2, 136 fans took in that evening session,
bringing in $7,476.
It also appears the strategy of pitting area teams against
each other in the first round also paid off. In Thursday's opening
round, the Wingate Bears and the Grants Pirates played each other
at 2:30 p.m., following the Deming vs. Los Lunas matchup. That afternoon
session was the best one of the tournament, taking in approximately
$1,800 with about 600 fans in attendance.
In that day's evening session, which was highlighted by the Gallup
Bengal-Window Rock Scout matchup, there were approximately 1,900 fans
in attendance for a total of $5,700.
On Friday, the statistics for approximate fans and money made was
234 fans and $702 for the afternoon and 2,220 fans and $6,660 for
the evening session which featured the top area matchup of the Gallup
Bengals vs. the Wingate Bears. In Saturday's afternoon session, there
were around 226 fans for $678.
Once again, area teams were the big draw for the tournament. While
the Bengals drew their hometown crowd of supporters, the Wingate Bears
were a fan favorite in the final two evening sessions and the Window
Rock Scouts had strong support on opening night.
Menini said the totals were comparable to last year when the Wildcats
won the tournament in the championship game over the Window Rock Scouts.
The Bengals, assured of playing in the evening session throughout
the tournament, played in the third place contest last year where
they lost.
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Gallup man killed in rollover
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
COPPER MINE — A 45-year-old Gallup man was killed Sunday afternoon
when he and a passenger were ejected from their station wagon on a
rural Navajo Reservation road south of Page.
The accident scattered liquor bottles at a location
where pavement ends between Page and The Gap.
Officers of the Tuba City Police District received the call from the
Page City Police Department about 4:30 p.m. The driver, Mike D. Angeles,
of 2383 E. Wilson, Gallup, died at the scene...
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School board sets fees for use of center
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Gallup-McKinley County School Board on Monday night
narrowly approved a fee schedule for use of the new Gallup High School
Kenneth Holloway Performing Arts Center.
The fee schedule establishes which groups get first choice in reserving
the auditorium, which was recently completed. Gallup High School is
first, followed by all other Gallup-McKinley County schools. Afterward,
priority goes to educational groups, nonprofit groups and finally
for-profit groups.
School board member Anne Descheny recommended the fee schedule be
revised to name all Gallup-McKinley County schools as first priority,
erasing any distinction between them and Gallup High School...
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City cops arrest man with knife
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — An unemployed Yah-Ta-Hey man, who was accused by another
man of pulling a knife on him when confronted about a hit-and-run
accident, was arrested by Gallup police shortly after midnight Monday.
Brian Jay Plummer, 24, was pulled over by police after his car was
spotted swerving out of a traffic lane on Historic 66, according to
a police report. After failing several field sobriety tests, he was
charged with driving under the influence and taken to the county jail.
About four hours earlier, Eric Hosteen and his girlfriend, Jennifer
Hood, told McKinley County police that Plummer had fled a parking-lot
car accident with their vehicle at the Mustang service station on
State Road 566...
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Ceremonial to auction items to raise
money
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Association
will hold, for the first time in its history, an auction to raise
money on Jan. 22.
For most of its history, the ceremonial depended on state money. That
money was stopped several years ago, and ceremonial officials are
now looking at a number of other options to raise needed revenue.
Auction Director Ed Chamberlin said he expects more than 300 items,
including Navajo rugs, paintings, pueblo-carved kachina dolls, pottery
and baskets to be available for the fund-raiser...
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Navajo police briefs 2 children drown
at Toyei pond
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Two children drowned Saturday afternoon when they
fell through the ice of a sewage treatment pond at the Navajo Law
Enforcement Training Academy at Toyei, Navajo police said Monday.
Tse Bonito Mortuary, which is in charge of arrangements, identified
the children as Gary and LaVerne Williams.
Under the policy of Chief Leonard Butler, press officer Matthew Duran
would not identify the children or say whether the 9-year-old boy
and 8-year-old girl were related. Duran did say the two were Toyei
residents, which meant they lived in the adjacent Bureau of Indian
Affairs compound...
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N.M. growth fell in '98
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — New Mexico lost nearly 6,000 manufacturing
and mining jobs from the end of 1997 to the beginning of 1999, a new
report shows.
However, the report by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research
at the University of New Mexico predicts a slow but accelerating expansion
in 2000 and 2001.
The bureau, using information not previously available,
found employment growth in the state fell below 1 percent in the second
half of 1998...
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Correction
GALLUP — The telephone number for Battered Family Services in
Gallup is 722-7483. The number was incorrect in a column on the editorial
page Monday. The Gallup organization offers services to people experiencing
domestic violence.
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