Boys conquer Mount Taylor
Scouts test endurance
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
MOUNT TAYLOR — Take 61 young men who have been preparing for
it and put them in the mountains during the dead of winter and it
makes for a brave-heart adventure called the Boy Scouts Klondike Derby.
That's exactly what happened to Boy Scouts in seven troops from Cibola
and McKinley counties over the weekend, celebrating some 15 years
of Klondike Derbies. Named after the rough-and-tumble Alaskan gold
mining town of Klondike, Alaska, this Klondike teaches the scouts
teamwork.
Dan Wayant, 49, principal of Chee Dodge Elementary School
and a Troop 40 scoutmaster, and his scouts ramrodded the affair this
year. Wayant said different troops sponsor the event each year.
The 61 young men came from: Troop 10 in Grants, Troop 244 in Bluewater,
and Troop 40,Troop 246, Troop 250 and Troop 347, all from Gallup.
The principal idea of the Klondike is to prepare the young men from
ages 11 to 17 to survive in winter conditions outdoors, said Gary
Martin, senior district executive for the Zuni Mountain District,
which covers McKinley and Cibola counties.
It goes back to the concept developed when Boy Scouting first got
its start in the United States in 1910. Boy Scouts got its initial
start in England in the same year and Rotarian James E. West, on a
visit to England, met a Boy Scout and brought the concept home to
the United States.
"Boy Scouts literally erupted all over the United States under
the sponsorship of the Rotary Clubs," Martin said. "In 1914
the Boy Scouts of America became chartered."
Martin said Klondikes, a winter survival training for Boy Scouts,
started in the district at least 15 years ago and is enjoyed by scouts
all over the United States by many of the nation's 3,096,195 Boy Scouts.
Cody Council, 11, a sixth grader at Bluewater Elementary School, now
a second class scout and in a family deeply etched in Boy Scouting,
went on his first Klondike Derby this year. It was fun, he said, but
sleeping in the cold and all, well, that was" no big deal,"
he said.
Council has two older brothers in scouting and one of them, Thomas
Council, is well on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout. The boys'
father, Terry, leads a Boy Scout troop in Grants.
Young Council typifies the attitude of the young men who conquered
Mount Taylor over the weekend. "All you have to do is be prepared,"
he said.
As each troop sponsors the event, each year the scouts are expected
to accomplish different winter skills. "It gives the kids a chance
to hone their winter skills," Wayant said.
It was cold all right, with nighttime temperatures dipping to about
30 degrees Friday night and early Saturday. And instead of being at
home sleeping in warm homes, the kids and some 30 enthusiastic adults
were in the wilds sleeping on Mount Taylor and loving the heck out
of it all.
Wayant said he left the Gallup area early Friday to get his troop
camp set up. Boys from the seven troops began to show up in the late
afternoon (after they got out of school) and set up their camps.
Each troop cooked its own dinner. After a brief orientation of what
was expected of them the next morning, the kids and adult leaders
sat by a campfire, sang songs and told a few stories, then hit the
hay (sleeping bags).
Wayant said the sponsoring troop is responsible for initiating the
skills posts that each troop must master.
Ordinarily the Klondike Derby includes a sled race on the snow, but
Mount Taylor and Mother Nature didn't cooperate this year. Last year
the event was held near Continental Divide and there was no snow there
either.
"Some year's we've had two to three feet of snow,
this year, nothing," Wayant said.
Being prepared also means a scout must be able to improvise.
The skills are done on a huge loop ringed by eight stations. Scouts
learn to work as teams at each station while developing hands-on skills.
Stations include: first aid, orienteering, fire building,
lashings, scout poker, wood cutting, fishing and signaling.
After a hearty breakfast the scout troops formed lines, raised the
flags, said the pledge of allegiance, made announcements and then
began the stations. Scouts had 20 minutes to complete each station.
At the end of the day the scouts broke camp and left Mount Taylor,
each of them with a little more respect for the mountain and a lot
more knowledge about how to work as a team and more respect for themselves.
Karl Wayant, 17, a junior at Gallup High School, this year acted as
a junior associate. He's been active with Klondikes for the past four
to five years.
"It's been a real good experience," Karl said.
"It teaches you how to interact with the younger kids."
For the younger Wayant, the best part of the Klondike is it gives
him a chance to fellowship with many scouts from all over the area.
And for young Cody Council, the best part of it all has been the camping,
adding, "I like to go on campouts, and I like to do scouting."
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Tribal EPA gave money back to feds
$250,000 not used in 1997
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — An audit of the Navajo Environmental Protection
Agency has revealed that the tribal program in 1997 returned more
than $250,000 to the federal government because it had not been spent.
The money that was returned totaled $266,186 and made up about 14
percent of the almost $2 million in grants the agency had received
that year for such things as air and water pollution control, hazardous
waste and removal of abandoned fuel storage tanks.
The federal government requires unspent money to be returned.
This and other matters brought up in the audit done
by the tribe's Office of the Auditor General were discussed by members
of the Budget and Finance Committee earlier this month.
At that meeting, committee members learned that efforts
were now under way to make the Navajo Nation the first tribe to be
granted by the federal EPA complete authority over the public water
supply program.
"However, the (Navajo) Nation may not be adequately prepared
to assume this responsibility," the audit stated.
The federal EPA doesn't grant states or tribes authority in many areas
and "retains enforcement responsibility for these programs, but
provides funding to the tribe's EPA to perform critical activities
such as developing procedures and monitoring conditions," auditors
said. The United States keeps final jurisdiction over pesticides,
underground storage tanks, asbestos, lead and radon.
The report also stressed that the tribal agency which currently receives
about 75 percent of its $4.5 million budget from federal grants has
had problems with the way the money flows from Washington to the tribe.
Derrith Watchmore-Moore, who has been director for the program for
the past several months, said many of the problems outlined in the
audit have now been cleared up. She added she is addressing some of
the others.
She has addressed concerns expressed in the audit about a lack of
communication between various departments within the Navajo agency
and the fact that may department directors don't have the financial
information needed to run their programs.
Watchman-Moore said she has improved the communication by meeting
with department managers every week and putting out a monthly financial
report.
"Since the report does not indicate the turmoil and crisis within
Navajo EPA at the time of the audit, the report reflects a temporary
state of program dysfunction and frustration," she wrote in her
reply to the audit.
"It is my intent and commitment to make the necessary short-term
improvements and to establish permanent mechanisms that support better
fiscal and program management," she replied. She objected to
the auditors reviewing only two of the departments completely and
to comparing the tribal agency to similar state agencies.
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Welfare office to take on a Navajo flavor
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
ST. MICHAELS — Navajo tribal officials are promising a unique
approach to handling the reservation's welfare problem when they take
over the $34 million Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program
in July.
"It will be one-stop shopping," said Alex Yazza, director
of the TANF program. To accomplish this, the tribe plans to put TANF
offices and the tribe's work force development and welfare-to-work
program in one location. They will also be administered by Navajos
for Navajos.
"The services will be culturally appropriate," Yazza said.
The Welfare Reform Act of 1996, or the Personal Responsibility Act,
includes a section that allows Indian tribes to administer their welfare
program.
The tribe is negotiating with Utah, New Mexico and Arizona for matching
funds to develop the 14 offices required to serve the Navajo population.
The tribal TANF plan will resemble the current state plan in that
it will require recipients to sign a personal responsibility plan
before they can receive benefits, but the tribe will go a few steps
further in its welfare administration.
Yazza said the tribe has been planning and developing the program
since January 1997.
But finding employment for the 9,088 Navajos who are currently receiving
TANF benefits may prove to be a bigger challenge. The unemployment
rate on the reservation is 58.4 percent.
"Everything is hinging on job creation and economic
development," Yazza said.
?TANF recipients have a lifetime benefit limit but the Navajo Nation
was exempted from that limit due to its high unemployment rate.
Many people believe that when the time limit of five years has passed,
the federal government will extend the time limit for another five
years.
But there are no guarantees of that, Yazza said.
"With dwindling state, federal and tribal reserves, it's time
to think of our future," Yazza said. "In 10 to 20 years
we could have a despair economy."
It is a wake-up call, he said. It's time that leaders changed some
polices and laws that make economic development difficult on the reservation,
he added.
One example he mentioned was streamlining the steps for business-site
leases. It takes one day to get a business license in Gallup and other
communities, a process that can take from five to 10 years on the
reservation, he said.
It is also time the tribe looked at land reform and the way it uses
grazing permits so that land can be available for business and industry,
he said.
He does not think that would be a problem once people understand the
tribe can no longer look to the state and federal government for support.
In 1996, when the Personal Responsibility Act was passed, there were
several public hearings on the issue.
The elders who attended the hearings repeated a Navajo phrase that
means: "It's up to you to live a good life."
"It's time to look at ourselves," Yazza said.
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Western chapters get new programs
Diné Bureau
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Coconino County Board of Supervisors has
approved $26,150 for six community initiatives involving the Navajo
Reservation. The initiatives range from a sobriety conference to meals
for the elderly.
District IV Supervisor Tom Chabin requested $7,150 to have an intern
from Northern Arizona University work in his district for the spring
and summer.
Chabin also requested $4,000 each for the Tonalea Senior
Citizens Center to buy furniture and an entertainment center and to
pay for social activities and for the fourth annual "Families
in Sobriety" conference at Leupp Schools Inc...
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Poster entries sought
Staff Report
GALLUP — The Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Association
is requesting art for the Ceremonial's 2001 poster contest.
The Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial has chosen a painting every year
since 1983 for publicity. The image is developed into a poster that
is available to the public and used to advertise Ceremonial.
The winner will receive a $500 prize, recognition as the ceremonial
poster artist, 20 percent of the printed posters, recognition in advertising
campaigns where reproductions are used, complimentary copies of all
other uses of the image, complimentary tickets to the annual Ceremonial
banquet in April and hotel accommodations...
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Analysis
Johnson's 'State of State' sets record for length
Walter Howerton Jr.
Santa Fe Bureau
SANTA FE — You can say this for Gov. Gary Johnson's "State
of the State" speech: It was long, but it was boring.
Johnson spoke for about 45 minutes, a longer "State of the State"
speech than anyone ever remembers hearing. He was interrupted by mercifully
brief applause about 20 times.
The boyish governor with the adolescently loopy signature read the
speech in a near monotone, his eyes rarely straying from the printed
text. Standing there in the crowded chamber of the state House of
Representatives, he seemed for all the world like that guy we all
went to school with...
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Long road beckons for trucking school
students
Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff Writer
GALLUP — About three years ago, Tracy Raven thought her life
was all laid out. She had a great career at Sunwest Bank as a commercial
loan officer and a house in Whispering Cedars. She was also a prospering
single mother.
Then life handed her a bunch of lemons.
She made lemonade.
NationsBank bought Sunwest Bank in 1997, and all of a sudden, Raven
was out of a job. "I thought I would retire with Sunwest Bank,"
Raven said...
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