Diabetes drama debuts at fest
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — A Shiprock health worker will premiere his narrative
drama about diabetes at the Sundance Film Festival Sunday.
Norman Patrick Brown said he and several people involved in the filming
of "Horse Song" are scheduled to be at the premiere, which
will be shown at the retreat of Sundance founder Robert Redford.
"Once we get back from there, we plan to premiere
the film in several reservation communities like Shiprock, Tuba City
and Chinle," Brown said.
Funded at a cost of about $16,000 by a diabetes education program
connected with the Northern Navajo Medical Center, it's meant to entertain
as well as educate.
Officials of the Four Directions Health Communications
Department agreed last summer to provide the money for the film after
Brown was hired by the program to develop videos to educate Navajos
about the growing problem of diabetes.
Brown chose to do a movie about a Navajo family that
was coming to terms with a family member who had diabetes and how
it mixed traditional healing ceremonies and Western medicine to deal
with the problem.
Ninety percent of the movie is in Navajo with English subtitles.
"It's a very powerful movie," Brown said.
It was filmed over a seven-day period during the second week in October
in the Red Rock-Cove area of the reservation. A number of tribal programs,
such as the Peacemaker Courts, the Foster Grandparent Program and
the Department of Youth Services, helped in the making of the film.
Brown wrote, produced and directed the movie. He was also responsible
for finding the actors who would portray the family members and the
diabetes health worker.
"It was hard finding Navajos who could act and also speak fluent
Navajo," Brown said.
What makes the movie even more powerful, he said, is that each of
the actors has someone in his or her family who has diabetes and is
therefore able to relate to the material in the story.
Brown hopes people who view the movie will get so wrapped up in the
plot that they will want to learn more about the disease that has
become the fifth leading cause of death among Navajos in recent years.
Brown wants the film to get wide distribution on the reservation,
and there are plans to have it broadcast over the tribal television
channel.
Brown's program has a number of other video projects in the works
for the next several months, focusing on various aspects of diabetes.
There's a 20-minute video now in production called "Born
for Couch Potato," which will be in English and will deal with
how a young Navajo copes with the disease.
Another project, which is called Kei-Bii-Dziil ('Strong Community
Relations") is a 30-minute television program that will focus
on the various people who have to deal with those who work in the
diabetes field.
"We're planning on filming 18 segments and show these in all
of the hospitals," Brown said.
Each segment will have 13 minutes of information and interviews, three
minutes of Navajo singers, another 13 minutes of interviews and information,
and the final minute will deal with the kind of health resources that
are available on the Navajo Nation.
The fourth project is called "Diné Bii Diabetes"
or "People with Diabetes."
These will be vignettes of about six minutes each that will focus
on specific people on the reservation who have diabetes and show how
they handle the disease.
Brown said he wants to show Navajos in various walks of life a Christian,
a traditionalist, someone in the powwow world or the rodeo world and
show how they deal on a day-to-day basis with diabetes.
"We want to show how they exercise, how they prepare their food,
things like that," he said.
| Top |
FBI: Beating of 'witch' is murder
Staff Report
WINDOW ROCK — Two Lukachukai men have been charged
with first-degree murder in the beating death of another man in December.
Michael Nakai, 19, and Lewis Yazzie, 21, are charged
in connection with the death of Frank Brady. The two men were arrested
by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and members of the Navajo
Department of Law Enforcement Criminal Investigations.
Police said that on or about Dec. 8, 1999, Yazzie and
Nakai lured Brady to the top of a hill in Lukachukai and beat him
to death. The body was moved and buried the next day.
On Dec. 14, police recovered a body in Tsaile, about one-fourth mile
north of the solar housing at Diné College. The body was taken
to the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque for autopsy
and identification. The body was identified as Brady, no age or hometown
listed.
The cause of death was blunt force trauma and the manner is homicide,
police said in a press release. The two were arrested on Jan. 6.
Nakai's bother, Lewis Yazzie, told Nakai that Brady was "witching"
Nakai and it was Nakai's belief that Brady was a witch and caused
his medical problems. Yazzie believed Brady to be a witch who cursed
his brother and that is the reason they killed Brady, according to
a press release from the FBI.
The case was handled as a Safe Trails Task Force, comprised of Navajo
criminal investigators assigned to the Window Rock and Chinle Police
Districts and FBI special agents assigned to the Gallup agency.
Guadalupe Gonzalez, special agent in charge of the Phoenix Divison
of the FBI, said in the press release that federal complaints charging
first-degree murder and aiding and abetting were filed against the
two men. A complaint is simply the method by which a person is charged
with criminal activity and an individual's guilt is established only
upon conviction.
| Top |
Fire levels NFPI complex
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
NAVAJO, N.M. — A spectacular blaze, easily seen for 10 miles,
lit up the reservation sky Thursday night as several buildings at
the former Navajo Forest Products Industry complex caught fire.
Virtually every fire truck in the region as far as 35 miles away -
came to the scene, but a lack of water hampered efforts to put out
the fire. At the height of the blaze, only one hose crew was able
to aim its stream of water into the main pile of rubble.
Gentle breezes aided firefighters by turning the flames to the east
instead of west, thus sparing the valuable particle board section
of the once active tribal industry.
The direction of the wind also saved a Navajo Tribal
Utility Authority substation next to the highway and a bridge in the
northwest corner of the property.
A security guard discovered the fire in the women's
lunchroom on the north side of the complex about 5:40 p.m. and turned
in the alarm, drawing the local and surrounding fire departments.
The fire burned to the south, taking out the milling section.
Two hours after the fire was discovered, it was still burning.
Navajo police blocked off the area, forcing fans and
school buses going to basketball games at the high school south of
the old factory to take detours.
The plant was shut down several years ago and the tribe last year
sold off most of the equipment in the main logging units that were
hit by the fire.
Attempts were under way to get a tenant to take over a portion of
the plant. It's uncertain how the fire will affect those negotiations.
| Top |
Acoma runner competes with world's elite
class
Christian Oberholser
Special to the Independent
ACOMA — The field of runners was superb. Of the top 10 individuals,
seven have qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials.
Phillip Castillo, from the Pueblo of Acoma, was one of those runners
competing for first place as well as competing against the humidity
and heat of the Gulf Coast. Castillo placed eighth overall in the
Brazo Sport Run for the Arts 10K in Houston, Texas, recently.
"The first two places belonged to two African runners,"
Castillo said. "One is the 24 Kilometer World Record holder.
It's always a treat to run with world class runners."
Two workouts a day and competing in nationally recognized marathons
is keeping Castillo, a graduate of Grants High School, on course for
the Olympic Trials in May of this year...
| Top |
Navajo man promotes movies, TV
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — In the fall of 1998, rumors began circulating in Navajo
country of a new movie that was coming in December.
The movie was "The Thin Red Line," and the rumor said that
one of the characters in the movie was a Navajo who was playing a
Navajo code talker. But when the movie came out, there was no Navajo
or code talker in sight.
But that wasn't the way it was planned when the movie was in preproduction,
said Norman Patrick Brown. Brown, a Navajo filmmaker who works for
a diabetes education program in Shiprock, was hired by the director
of "The Thin Red Line" to play what was essentially a code
talker...
| Top |
Ceremonial art to be auctioned
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Art that won prizes in past Inter-Tribal
Indian Ceremonials will be auctioned Saturday to raise money for the
annual August celebration.
Other donations for the auction include a beaded infant carrier, pottery,
inlay work, silver work and baskets. Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado,
Ariz., and Burnham's Trading Post in Sanders, Ariz., are also collecting
art for the auction.
Bruce Burnham, auctioneer and owner of Burnham's Trading Post, said
more than 100 rugs have been donated to the auction...
| Top |
The public humiliation of DWI
Duane A. Beyal
Staff Writer
Navajos, the adaptable ones, are expert at learning
then owning traits of other cultures.
Like driving while intoxicated.
The names of famous DWI arrests, like Notah Begay III, or infamous
arrests, like Gordon House, or just plain dumb arrests, like Duane
Beyal, pepper the pages of newspapers over the years...
| Top |
Tragedy doesn't stop 'Bible man'
Clothes, food to be shared on reservation
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Tom Gantt was scheduled to arrive in the Gallup area
sometime this afternoon with a truckload of Bibles, clothes, food
and toys he plans to distribute in the next week to families in the
central portion of the Navajo Reservation.
Gantt, who makes three or four trips a year to the reservation
with donated items, said he heard there was some concern on the reservation
that he may cancel some of his trips to the Navajo area because of
the tragedy that occurred while he was on a missionary trip to Mexico
last November.
During that trip, his home in Cassville, Mo., burned to the ground,
destroying not only most of his family's personal possessions but
also a ton or more of items he was planning to bring to the Navajos
on this trip...
| Top |
Bengals look to stay on track
Alan Arthur
Sports Editor
GALLUP — The Gallup Bengal girls have not lost a district game
in a long while. It hopefully will stay that way after tonight.
The Bengals travel to Albuquerque tonight to take on the Manzano Monarchs
in their second district game of the season.
Game time is 7 p.m.
Gallup is looking good after a 78-15 rout of the Albuquerque High
Bulldogs last week, in which Bengal Dani Aretino scored 20 points.
The Bengals are currently hosting a 13-1 overall record and are now
1-0 in District 1AAAA...
| Top |
Johnson pays for legal drug issue
Veto overrides rarely succeed
Walter Howerton Jr.
Santa Fe Bureau
SANTA FE — Gov. Gary Johnson is paying a price for his much-publicized
desire to see drugs including marijuana and heroin legalized.
His stand has not played well with his fellow Republicans
in the New Mexico Legislature. Some of his formerly staunch allies
have found ways to show their displeasure and distance themselves
from his unpopular drug legalization stance in a year when they all
run for re-election.
Johnson's case wasn't helped by the ragtag group of pro-marijuana
protesters, many sporting dreadlocks, who showed up outside the capitol
Monday. They were not exactly the picture of responsible at-home drug
users the governor has painted in his arguments for legalization...
| Top |
Head Start at Red Rock is boycotted
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
RED ROCK — Parents of students at Red Rock Head Start have begun
a boycott to protest the suspension of a teacher.
Close to 50 parents attended a three-hour meeting Thursday night at
the chapter house where program officials listened to problems and
frustrations, including a troublesome grease trap and a favorite teacher
who was put on administrative leave, apparently blaming the grease
trap on her cooking for her class.
When the federal Office of Environmental Health did its periodic inspections,
the school was cited with violations resulting from the grease trap.
Repeated violations can mean fines or school closure...
| Top |
City may get water grant, but not loan
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — When it comes to borrowing power, the city is broke.
At least that's how the New Mexico Finance Authority is looking at
it, and that's why the authority is considering the city for a grant
instead of a loan for new water towers and water transmission lines.
What's more, if Grants approaches the authority for a loan, the only
way the city could get one is by raising water rates. And that's something
city officials already are talking about. It is also something the
authority's executive director, Tom Pollard, suggested in a telephone
interview Thursday.
According to the authority's preliminary summary of the $400,000 grant
the city is seeking to help pay for the towers and transmission lines,
"The City of Grants has applied for a 20-year loan. However,
a preliminary analysis by the NMFA indicated that the City has no
capacity for any additional debt..."
| Top |
Shiprock beats surging Wingate
SHIPROCK — The Chieftains were able to hold off a late-game run
by the Wingate Bears and won the game 71-59.
After the Bears opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run, the Chieftains'
Owen Wero came up with a pair of steals to stop the run.
Despite the win, Chieftains coach Kevin Holman said his team is not
playing the way defending district champions should be...
| Top |
Zuni T-birds outrun Rehoboth's late rally
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
ZUNI - Zuni outran and outgunned Rehoboth 78-70 Thursday night in
area boys basketball action.
"We're in good shape," Zuni boys coach Bob Kercher said.
"We're like a bunch of wild horses that you need to pull back
on the reins once in a while. Sometimes we get out-of-control. We
had 27 turnovers and half of them were out-of-control turnovers. Anybody
that wants to run, they can come on in. There's not too many teams
who will be in better shape than we are..."
All contents property of the
Gallup Independent.
Any duplication or republication requires consent of the
Gallup
Independent.
Feel free to send any questions or comments to
gallpind@cia-g.com
E-mail the webmaster at
martyr_dom@hotmail.com
