NHA agrees to house cops
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Department of Law Enforcement and the
Navajo Housing Authority have worked out a deal to house cops in selected
NHA subdivisions.
Because there aren't enough officers to put in every NHA subdivision,
the uniformed men and women will be placed only in concentrated housing
areas where they are needed most and want to live, said Navajo Division
of Public Safety Director Herb Clah Jr.
There is more visibility and community policing with uniformed officers,
Clah said, but detectives could be included later.
By having officers live and work in government housing the Navajo
Nation is ahead of national trends. This helps prevent crime, which
is better than responding after it happens, he said.
Officers and NHA staff members will set their sights on wiping out
bootlegging, domestic violence, drug dealing, drug abuse and gang
activities.
NHA and the Navajo police negotiated for more than a year to work
out problems, such as how much time an officer will spend actually
working in the subdivision where he or she lives. The agreement calls
for four hours a week, and the department will pay the housing authority
$1 a year per unit.
"The police officers shall be involved and participate
inNHA crime prevention programs, such as, but not limited to, community
policing, implementation of Neighborhood Watch programs, and provide
training-information and awareness of the Navajo Nation curfew laws
and gang issues," the agreement says.
The agreement also calls for the police department to
speak on community relations and interpersonal communication skills
to subdivision residents four hours a month.
NHA Director Chester Carl, speaking recently to members of the tribe's
Public Safety Committee, said pilot programs in March 1996 were successful
in Ojo Amarillo and Toadlena-Two Grey Hills.
These programs also worked against the sellers of illegal liquor in
Chinle. Carl said one bootlegger in a Chinle NHA subdivision became
so nervous about an officer living virtually next door that the bootlegger
moved out.
Carl said Ojo Amarillo was selected because it had the
worst crime situation of any NHA subdivision. No one has said how
many housing clusters NHA operates, but the new contract estimates
NHA has 7,004 housing units.
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Counties get help with new projects
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Coconino, Apache and Navajo counties in Arizona
are starting the new year with a number of changes that will affect
Navajo and Hopi communities.
Coconino County has approved an extension that will keep the idea
of a library in Tuba City alive.
County supervisors granted an extension to Oct. 31 for
the use of a $115,000 Community Development Block Grant. The community
has already received commitments for almost $223,000 in other funds.
The project has been delayed because the county went out for bids
twice and founds the bids too high.
In recent months, Supervisor Louise Yellowman of Tuba City and Tom
Chabin of Flagstaff, whose districts include parts of the Navajo Reservation,
have made the following allocations for special projects from their
community initiative accounts:
$8,500 to help the Tuba City Senior Citizens Center buy furniture
and equipment.
$2,325 toward $5,000 to help buy toys for the Marine Corps Toys for
Tots.
$1,000 for the Western Junior Rodeo Association's year-end banquet.
In St. Johns, Tom White Jr. of Ganado is the Apache County Board of
Supervisors chairman for 2000, with David A. Brown of St. Johns the
vice chairman.
Normally, members rotate the chairmanship, but the resignation of
long-time member Art Lee of St. Johns in September resulted in faster
advancement.
In Navajo County, Percy Deal, who represents the northern
fifth of the county, has been chosen by the other four supervisors
to be the Board of Supervisors vice chairman for 2000, with Larry
Vicario of Pinetop-Lakeside as the chairman. With Deal's selection,
he is in line to be chairman next year.
The board also has approved the appointment of two Democratic
Party precinct committee members in Pinon Louis Jumper and Joan Duran.
District II Supervisor Jesse Thompson, whose district includes the
Hopi Reservation as well as adjacent Navajo communities, obtained
board approval to use $5,000 of his special projects accounts to assist
the Hotevilla-Bacavi Community School with its sewer system problems.
Thompson also obtained the support of the board to use more than $5,000
of his special road projects account to help the Yu-Weh-Loo-Pah-Ki
Community Utility Association work on 9.2 miles of roads in the Hopi
Spider Mountain community.
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Betty Cousins continues trader-family
tradition
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Indian trading is like farming. You are either born
into it or marry into it.
Betty Cousins married into it when she met a trader,
Bob Cousins, and 63 years later she's still trading. Betty is the
last survivor of the four Cousins brothers' generation.
She has spent the last 63 years working at the trading post located
in Vanderwagen south of Gallup raising a family, tending to her Indian
friends, hunting, fishing, gardening and exploring.
There was no electricity when she moved in with her in-laws at the
trading post. And the house was so cold in the winter, she said, the
bread froze in the bread box. But her attitude about the years without
running water and electricity is nonchalant.
"We pioneered, that's all," she said.
She said she spotted her husband when she was a girl living in McGaffey,
where her parents were teachers. Bob Cousins, the son of a trader,
was working for the railroad at the time.
"I told my friend, 'I'm going to marry that man
in 10 years,'" she said.
Trading posts
After Bob Cousins' father, Charlie Cousins, was mustered
out of the Army at Fort Wingate in 1890, he opened a trading post
on the Navajo Reservation. Over the next 15 years, he owned and operated
trading posts in Chinle, Fort Defiance and McGaffey.
But when Anglos started moving in, they pushed the Indians
back. He left the area because he wanted to trade with the Indians.
He opened a trading post in Nutria, where he served the Zunis who
farmed the area in the summer. Later, he purchased an abandoned ranger
station between Gallup and Zuni and opened a trading post. He moved
to the Vanderwagen location in 1925. In 1930, Betty's parents purchased
land in the same area and taught the local ranchers' children in a
one-room schoolhouse. They bought their groceries at the Cousins Trading
Post.
Betty attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque for two
years and also worked for 25 cents an hour as a secretary to the head
of the state history department. He was rewriting New Mexico history
textbooks for use in the public schools.
"I loved that job. I learned so much," she said.
But Betty already knew a great deal about the area. Her parents had
traveled throughout the Southwest teaching school at places where
they could be near Indian tribes.
"They wanted to see every Indian dance and every
Indian thing there was to see," she said.
Betty Cousins lived near and learned about the Paiutes,
Yuma, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Zuni and Navajo.
When she was a child, she witnessed a Yuma creation
ceremony she still remembers as a little frightening. But the majority
of her life has been spent among the Navajos.
Settling down
In 1936, Betty and Bob Cousins were married, and she moved to Cousins
Trading Post. There were four Cousins brothers:
Bill, Bob, Tom and Malen.
According to her nephew Edward Cousins, Betty Cousins ran the trading
post. "It was her job," he said, "and she spent hours
and hours in that store."
She also became involved with the Navajos who traded with her. She
has served six generations of Navajos and they have dealt with five
generations of Cousins.
The original red rock and stucco building is still standing
but there have been a few additions. The land was purchased from the
Navajos when a road was planned that would have destroyed some large
oak trees.
To protect the trees, Charlie Cousins bought the land and built around
them. The oak trees are still standing. The road runs past the trading
post.
The additional rooms are office and warehouse space.
To keep up with the times, the trading post now offers Western Union
services, state lottery tickets, a fax machine and a photocopier.
But the good neighbor part of being trader is still the way of life
at Cousins. If someone needs a ride to the doctor, to use the phone
or to have a call made, it is done.
The trading post still gets mail from the Gallup Post Office for 90
families in the area. But it is no longer a 100-mile trip to town
on bad roads. If the store is closed and someone wants something,
he comes to "Aunt Betty's" house to get it.
When someone who was hungry and had no money came to Betty Cousins
a few days ago, asking for a sandwich, she offered him bread and cheese
so he could make his own. She also gave him fruit and her local brew
cowboy coffee which she still makes today.
Providing basic needs
Years ago, the Indian Health Service provided the trading posts with
a large bottle of aspirin, a large bottle of castor oil, cascara,
a few Band-Aids and maybe something to tie off an umbilical chord,
she said. But a good trader did more than dispense the supplies; he
provided the medical service that went with the supplies.
Betty Cousins still attends Navajos in need. "They feel they
have to look out for me," she said.
She smiles as she remembers being taught Navajo. Growing up so near
the Navajo people, she picked up a few words but when she came to
the trading post she began to learn the language more seriously. "They
would laugh at me," she said.
But they taught her Navajo, and now, many years later, she said, "Indians
are all I know. I'm very close to the Navajos."
She recalls frustrating some of the salesmen who came to the trading
post because she wanted better merchandise for her customers. "Navajos
want the very best for their children," she said.
She is also the local historian. Navajos come to ask about their grandparents.
Occasionally, she is even able to show them photographs.
The store was sold to her nephew, and she retired when she was 62,
but after a few years, she said, she had made all the quilts and baked
all the bread and pies she wanted to. She was bored. So she went back
to work part time, and at 84, she works 40 hours a week.
She's an avid UNM Lobos fan, listens to all the games and attends
them when she is in Albuquerque, where her daughter Dorothy has a
bookstore. She also runs the bookstore if Dorothy needs help.
The Navajos in the area continue to shop at Cousins because, "they
know we're going to be here. We were there for their grandparents,
and we will be here for their grandchildren," she said.
Bob Cousins died in 1991. His widow attributes her longevity to "meanness."
But it is clear that's not true.
All of her family members spoke about Betty Cousins' depth of character,
her heart, her intelligence and her hospitality.
"She was always community minded," said Andy Greene, her
grandson. "She is always willing to share whatever she has. There's
not a selfish bone in her body.
"She worked hard, was generous, she helped people, and she's
been rewarded with a good life," he said.
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Sports commission suggests new league
Alan Arthur
Staff Sports Writer
GALLUP — The commission reported at their regular meeting on
Monday that they had presented the City Council with their recommendations
for forming a summer league in town, called the Gallup Youth Baseball
League.
"This is what we are presenting to the council," member
Joe DeLao said and added, "It's not that we want to run anybody
out of baseball."
Commission President Joe Zecca said that they were hoping that the
recommendations would be done before the season begins...
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Ex-coworkers vie for DA's post
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Two women who once shared an office will run against
each other in the June Democratic primaries for McKinley County district
attorney.
District Attorney Mary Helen Baber is petitioning to have her name
on the Democratic ticket, as is former Assistant District Attorney
Marcella King-Ben.
On Jan. 10, Baber fired King-Ben, who had served as assistant district
attorney for six months...
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Choctaw comedian finds humor among the
native plants
Stan Bindell
Special to the Independent
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — David Morris is a standup comic, but his
stage is not a nightclub. His stage is the saguaro desert ecosystem
at McDowell Mountain Ranch in Scottsdale.
Morris, a Choctaw Indian from Oklahoma, leads 90-minute and three-hour
nature walks at McDowell Mountain Ranch. He stops along the way to
explain the plants and how the area tribes have used them for medicinal
and other purposes.
"I'm your fearful leader and we only lose about 5 percent of
the people on these walks," he joked as the group set out on
the Muledeer Trail...
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Santa Fe starts tricky session
Walter Howerton Jr.
Santa Fe Bureau
SANTA FE — The 30-day session of the New Mexico Legislature that
opened today at the Roundhouse will be about money with a few other
things thrown in by Gov. Gary Johnson.
The sessions held on even-numbered years are supposed
to deal primarily with the budget and other money matters, though
the governor can add other issues at his pleasure.
Down South they talk about people showing up "with a hand full
of gimme and a mouth full of much obliged." The 2000 Legislature
faces lots of "gimme," but 30 days from now people aren't
likely to hear many saying "much obliged..."
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New Safeway promises variety, space,
security
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A larger variety of merchandise, expanded shopping space
and increased security are amenities customers will find when the
new Safeway store opens at 7 a.m. Wednesday.
To deter crime, the store will no longer be open 24 hours a day. New
hours will be from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., enabling the store to serve those
who work late shifts, said Steve Lewis, store manager.
Also, the company was unable to get a liquor license approved in time
for the store opening, so no beer, wine or liquor will be sold in
the new location until at least Feb. 9. But alcohol will be sold from
the old store from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. until the license is transferred,
Lewis said...
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Scouts host multi-dual meet
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. - No. 5 ranked Window Rock will be hosting the
3A Enchantment Conference Multi-Dual Meet Friday afternoon at the
Window Rock High School Fieldhouse.
The meet will get underway at 2 p.m. with three mats being used. Each
wrestler will wrestle five times.
Window Rock wrestling head coach Lester Kinsel feels that Winslow,
ranked third in the state, will be the team to beat...
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