Gallup airport security virtually nonexistent
Army helicopter sits unprotected
Joe Kolb
Special to the Independent
GALLUP — Following the terrorism attacks on Washington, D.C.,
and New York last month, security at airports are on a heightened
level of alert. A recent report by the Federal Aviation Administration
Inspector General found that security continued to be lacking.
If level of attention at major airports continue, the security
of smaller airport — such as in Gallup — can't help
but also be questioned.
Small airport security became a local issue when there was a recent
attempted hijacked of a Demming med-flight last week. The incident
raised the specter of potential use of small airports for terrorist
activities.
An informal observation of the Gallup Municipal Airport last week
revealed no visual security in terms of guards, cameras or metal
detectors. A four-foot high fence next to the terminal is easily
breachable, but with the fence open and unlocked, there is quick
and easy access to the tarmac. The six-foot high fences by the
Federal Express terminal and the two gates on the east side of
the terminal were either opened or unlocked. There was an Army
helicopter, a Federal Express plane, a med-flight plane, two private
planes and a charter jet on the tarmac which, again, had no visible
security and complete access.
"We are not an FAA Regulation 107 airport which requires
security screening devices, law enforcement or a secure area for
aircraft," says Steve Atha, Airport Manager for the Gallup
Municipal Airport. Atha says that a General Aviation airport the
size of Gallup's, where service is already limited to three departing
Mesa Air flights to Albuquerque, a few military layovers, private
flights and med-flights, providing security measures to address
a potential threat is cost prohibitive.
Atha, who has been Airport Manager only a few weeks, says he doesn't
foresee any changes at the airport at this time. He says he is
even leery about some of the Federal security initiatives. "I
haven't seen the Federal government do much better than the private
sector," says Atha. "We will wait to see if the FAA
does set new regulations."
Newly appointed Police Chief Dan Kneale's views don't wave far
from Atha's, citing limited resources to aggressively provide
airport security. "Our personnel are conducting patrols of
the airport and are on an increased level of awareness,"
says Kneale. He says exclusive positioning of police at the airport
is cost prohibitive and would detract from other necessary police
duties in town.
"I don't know the extent of programs for federal aid to smaller
airports, says Senator Jeff Bingaman. He says smaller airports,
such as Gallup, do need to be addressed, though.
"We can't predict what, where and when something will happen,
says Kneale. "I don't know if there is a country in the world
that can protect everything and everyone," he continues.
Kneale says it's impossible to put a police officer on every bus,
train and plane in the country.
In terms of flight security out of Gallup, passengers are confronted
with the usual security signs and prohibition of weapons and hazardous
items. However, there is no way of checking. When a flight connects
at a major airport, passengers must then go through security areas
— metal detectors, etc. prior to boarding a flight.
Kneale cautions that excessive security may actually feed into
the terrorist's plans. "Festering paranoia — terrorists
want us to grind to a halt."
"We have to get back to work," says Atha. "We care
about safety — we (Gallup), the FAA and the Federal Government
do the best we can."
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Only 55 delegates stay for council vote
The rest head to Tuba City fair
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Water rights, redistricting, major expansion of
a key tribal enterprise and enlarging a budget office's powers were
all things that the Navajo Nation Council didn't consider during this
past week's regular session.
Council Speaker Edward T. Begay had to adjourn the fall session in
frustration Friday afternoon when more than one-third of the delegates
departed, many to attend the Western Navajo Fair in Tuba City.
Under its own rules, as the speaker repeatedly reminded council members,
amendments to the Navajo Nation Code's government operations and judicial
sections (Titles 2 and 7) can only be done during a quarterly regular
session and also require a two-thirds yes vote of the full membership
— 59 of the 88 delegates.
In the last vote before adjournment, on a report, only 55 delegates
(including the speaker, who only votes to break a tie), were counted.
Begay had trouble all week keeping at least two-thirds of the delegates
at the red rock hogan Council Chamber for the full day.
The situation has become so common and such a problem that Delegate
Carol Bitsoi (Naschitti Chapter) tried to get a resolution added
to
the agenda Friday morning to order Begay to enforce the council's
rules about attendance and multiple committee memberships. But it
failed by 20 votes
in a 39-23 tally.
Bitsoi's resolution, if approved, would allow the speaker to withhold
a delegate's daily stipend if he or she was tardy. While the daily
session is supposed to begin at 10 a.m.,
the council was late an average of an hour a day this week. Since
taking office in January 1999 the
19th Council has not started on time at any regular or special session.
Her measure also would forbid triple- or quadruple-dipping by delegates
drawing stipends and mileage for being a council delegate and a member
of more than one council standing committee (except the Inter Government
Relations Committee that is comprised of the chairs or vice chairs
of the 11 standing oversight panels) and another council board or
commission.
The topic also is expected to be discussed Tuesday morning by the
Government Development Commission when it meets in the Resources Room
of the Peterson Zah-Navajo Nation Museum, Library and Visitors Center
to approve its summary of the five agency hearings held earlier this
year in response to last year's overwhelming margin on the council
size reduction referendum.
Other matters the council didn't reach included:
The Resources Committee report on water rights.
Taking $1 million from the $13.2 million in the Undesignated Reserve
Fund to pay for the upcoming administrative and court battles with
Arizona and New Mexico over redistricting of the state Legislature
districts and U.S. House of Representatives seats.
Adopting a new Plan Of Operation (POO) for the Navajo Tribal Utility
Authority to greatly expand its powers by increasing its bonding limit,
allowing it to enter into telephone service, granting its management
board vastly increased responsibilities, and switching its council
oversight panel from Ervin Keeswood's Government Services Committee
to Lawrence Platero's Economic Development Committee.
Approving enabling legislation for the tribal management-budget office
(including the contracts-grants bureau) and increasing its powers
by adding it to the list of required analysts under the Navajo Nation
Code Title 2 Section 164 signature approval sheet review process.
The NTUA and management-budget ("OMB") proposals involve
Title 2 changes, so they can only be done during one of the quarterly
regular sessions.
NTUA's resolution started through the review process in April; the
OMB resolution in June.
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Yei-be-chei: Dine 'deities' perform
healing ceremony
Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer
TUBA CITY, Ariz. — The incarnation of a Navajo deity called "Fringe
Mouth" entered a hogan late Friday afternoon, delivering medicine
to two female patients, another woman and a baby boy. At the same
time, a medicine man shaking a rattle led a group of Navajo men seated
along the inner-sanctum wall in songs of healing. As afternoon
turned
to early evening, Fringe Mouth — notable for his deer skin mask
and two fox skins wrapped underneath, and a body marked by black
paint
streaked over with white patterns — had tapped into the power
of 20 Diné deities
etched in sand. Fringe Mouth lofted cups of medicine above his
head, letting out a victorious-sounding cry
as each woman and the baby drank it down. He also touched each part
of their body with his white-painted hands, from feet to head,
with
a different batch. The patients splashed this remedy along their
legs and upper bodies. The Yei-be-chei ceremony enters its finale
tonight
at the 33rd annual Western Navajo Fair. The dancers will be performing
their rituals outside, surrounded by a ring of cedar branches.
The
10-day
ceremonial (some last nine days), which began Thursday of last week,
is a combination of day and night events all centered around
healing. To prepare for Friday afternoon's arrival of Fringe Mouth,
who was joined by two other incarnations inside the hogan — Talking
God and a female god — an experienced group of Navajo men
spent hours creating an elaborate sand painting. A combination
of medicine
men and Yei-be-chei dancers, the men are so skilled that they can
trace any geometric shape that collectively form a deity by releasing
well-aimed sprinkles of sand between their thumb and index finger.
The smooth berm of light red sand that forms their pallette is
made
so with flat wooden sticks. The colored sand used for the painting
comes in white, black, bluish gray, gold and dark red. The center
of the creation is a tall stalk of corn. On one side of the stalk,
a painter fashions two nearly identical semblances of Fringe Mouth,
one on top of the other. His colors are black and red. Each vertically
oriented drawing is balanced by one on the other side of the stalk
— a double-stacked version of Fringe Mouth who dwells under
water. There are rotating lines of male and female deities on either
side
of the stalk, about 20 figures
altogether. The elaborate dress of the deities features feathers
and tobacco bags. The outer-most deity
is one known as "Humpback." Friday was the third and last
day of the sand painting part of the Yei-be-chei healing ritual,
with
Fringe Mouth sought on behalf of the patients. "The sand painting
is summoning him to come do his part," said medicine man and
Yei-be-chei leader Max Goldtooth. Visitors entering the hogan are
asked to sprinkle a bit of white sand on the painting. Before the
patients enter the hogan, Fringe Mouth takes a cedar twig, repeatedly
dipping it in water as he touches each deity on the floor, from feet
to head. The early days of the Yei-be-chei ceremonial are spent
preparing
masks and the sacred items used for blessings by the dancers, such
as hoops and rattles. Using a feather to unravel a string is done
to release sickness. Blessings are done in all four directions. A
rectangular hole is dug, 8 feet long, with wood inside and a raised
sand bar as an enclosure. The patient is blessed in the four directions,
then the fire lit. The patient lies down on branches on top of
the
coals. "It brings out the sickness, whatever is inside (the
patients),"
Goldtooth said. As medicine man, Goldtooth's duties are to lead the
Yei-be-cheis inside and outside the hogan, singing as he goes. There
are four principal deities, though dancers typically perform in groups
of six. "I listen to each word they say, so if they miss one,
I remind them," he said. All medicine men and Yei-be-cheis
must be fluent in the Diné language, thus the ritual helps
preserve the language through the teachings of songs and prayers — that
can only be learned through continuous repetition, Goldtooth said.
He became involved as a teen, his maternal great uncle teaching him.
He started out by beating an upside-down basket to the rhythms
of
his elder relative's singing. "The following week, I sang over
him," Goldtooth, 42, said. "It was like an initiation.
"He said,"'With you singing over me, everything I know now
is yours.'" Though Yei-be-chei ceremonials are an ancient practice,
they are a mystery to most of the outside world. No photography or
videotaping is allowed. Rarely are "bilagaanas"(whites)
permitted inside the hogan, where the most intimate functions take
place, such as sand painting.
Goldtooth is seeing a rekindling of Yei-be-chei ceremonials in importance
and popularity in the Western Agency, with many of his friends starting
them who are in their 30s. "Each year, there's more dancing going
on, more Yei-be-cheis," he said.
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Gallup overpowers Rio Rancho
Carrie Loretto
Sports Editor
GALLUP — The Gallup Bengal football team went toe-to-toe against
the Rio Rancho Rams and rammed their way to a 33-16 District 1AAAAA
victory at Public School Stadium Friday night.
The Bengals' ball control offense grounded out 397 yards rushing against
the Rams as Gallup dominated the line of scrimmage.
"We knew they couldn't stop our offense," Gallup coach Gary
Lunsford said.
The Bengals best demonstrated that by converting four-of-five fourth-down
attempts which sustained a pair of scoring drives.
"We expected that," Rio Rancho coach Wilson
Holland said of Gallup's continual assault on the Rams. "Everyone's
been doing that to us all year. We knew they were going to be hard
to stop. They wanted it more than we did."
It was the second district loss for the Rams who drop to 0-2, 2-5
overall. The Bengals improve to 5-2 overall and lead the district
standings after Albuquerque High lost to Cibola last night.
"We thought we were capable of being 2-0," Lunsford said
trying to play down the current standings. "But we've still got
three more district games left."
The Bengals will host Albuquerque High next Friday for homecoming.
The Bengals dominated time of possession, but needed only a minute
and 11 seconds in the fourth quarter to break open a back-and-forth
ballgame.
Rio Rancho had just taken a three-point lead after a Bengal blooper
put the Rams on Gallup's 38-yard line. A backfield player backed into
a Bengal punt attempt setting the Rams up deep in Bengal territory.
Stephen Burdette then connected with Josh Harris for a 36-yard pass
play that put Rio Rancho on Gallup's two. Two plays later, James Montoya
ran it in for a one-yard score and Josh Labbe's kick put the Rams
ahead 16-13 with 11:07 remaining in the game.
Gallup responded with a seven-minute scoring drive, then converted
a pair of turnovers into a 33-16 lead in a span of just over a minute.
The Bengals had a pair of fourth-down conversions to sustain a 14-play,
86-yard scoring drive that consumed most of the fourth quarter.
Facing fourth-and-4, on the Rams' 30-yard line, Bengal tailback Adam
Becenti ran for five yards. A quarterback keeper by Jared Montano
for one yard converted a second fourth-down four plays later. Montano
capped the drive with a one-yard keeper and Abe Azua's extra-point
regained a 20-16
advantage for Gallup with 3:56 left in the game.
The Bengals had been called for clipping, nullifying a 27-yard return
by Saucedo that had put them deep in their own territory to start
the drive. On the second play from scrimmage, Azua broke open for
a 44-yard run that moved the Bengals into Rams' territory. Azua
also
added a 10-yard
run, bullying his way through the line to move the Bengals down
to the Rams' 2.
"I'm real happy with the way we came back," said Lunsford.
Needing a touchdown to take the lead and with time running out, Rio
Rancho was forced to go the air, the situation Lunsford felt would
play into the hands of the Bengals. As it turned out, he was right.
Ben Garcia picked off Burdette and returned the interception to the
Bengal 41-yard line. On the very next play, Glen Charley bounced to
the outside and broke away for a 59-yard touchdown run to put Gallup
up 26-16 with 3:28 left.
"We knew they would have to rely on their passing game and we
were able to stop that," Lunsford said.
The Bengals, who gave up 168 yards passing to Burdette, did also come
up with three interceptions. Jason Fierro and Jonas Herrera also had
picks for the Bengals. The defense also recovered a fumble for a touchdown.
Rio Rancho was pinned deep in its own territory following a clipping
penalty. Then on third-and-30, a high snap by the Rams center bounded
into the end zone and K.B. Chicharello dove in from the right side
for the fumble recovery and touchdown with 2:45 still left in the
game.
The Bengals other fourth-down conversion that kept a drive alive came
in the second quarter.
On fourth-and-2 from their own 32-yard line, Montano kept the ball
and went up the middle for a four-yard gain to pick up the first down.
Four plays later, the Bengals faced third-and-11 and pulled off an
incredible pass play for a touchdown.
Montano appeared to have overthrown an intended receiver when Saucedo
came back to the ball, took it in amidst a trio of defenders and outran
defensive back Anthony Mele for a 65-yard touchdown.
The Bengals came out strong sparked by a 38-yard kickoff return by
Glen Charley. Charley's return set Gallup up on their own 48-yard
line and the Bengals methodically marched it into the endzone in nine
plays capped by a 12-yard by Azua. Adam Becenti converted a third-and-6
situation with a ten-yard run through a hole in the right side to
sustain the drive.
Azua led the Bengals with 93 yards on nine carries. Glen Charley rushed
five times for 68 yards and Montano added 66 yards on 23 carries.
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City optimism about federal grant dims
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Gallup city officials are afraid that America's war
on terrorism may have an effect on the city's chances of getting a
$750,000 federal grant to help pay for the renovation of the city's
wastewater treatment plant.
At the time of the Sept. 11 terrorism attack on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon, city officials were fairly optimistic of the chances
of getting the grant, especially since it made it through the Senate
with little problem.
But since the attack, the city's grant application has stalled in
the U.S. House of Representatives.
City Manager David Ruiz said he hasn't received word giving the city
any idea what the chances are of it still getting through Congress,
especially with the lawmakers spending more than $70 billion in the
last month on paying for the war on terrorism and bailing out the
airlines...
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Summary of Navajo council actions
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Here is a summary of the Navajo Nation Council's
actions Thursday, the fourth day of the five-day regular quarterly
session:
* By a 46-11-2 vote, established a 3 percent retail sales tax to begin
April 1, 2002, with corresponding amendments to the business activities
tax and including credits for other Navajo taxes.
* By a 44-15 vote, adopted the Bond Financing Act so that revenue
or obligation bonds can be issued for capital improvements for a maximum
of 8 percent of the general fund.
* By a 57-6 vote failed to add to the agenda for lack of 59 votes,
the $58.2 million capital improvement plan...
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Ethics? Not us!
Vote tabled until April
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation Council on Friday put off for
six months requiring all other tribal elected officials to honor
a code of conduct.
After becoming entangled in a procedural and bureaucratic jungle,
delegates voted 46-19 to table until the spring session in April
a proposed alteration of the Ethics in Government Law.
It would require the president, vice president, tribal school board
members, chapter officers, farm and land board members, and grazing
officials to observe the Standards of Conduct now required of the
88 delegates — and only the 88 delegates.
George Tolth's Ethics-Rules Committee adopted its resolution March
2, and it entered the review system in July...
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Route 264 from Window Rock to Ganado to be widened
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Arizona Transportation Board awarded a contract
Friday for the next stretch of improvements to Route 264 between
Window Rock and Ganado.
Meeting in Mesa, Ariz., the board awarded the $13.1 million contract
to LaFarge Corp. of Albuquerque to widen 6.2 miles between the western
edge of St. Michaels and the Sawmill-Pine Springs Road near The
Summit into a divided four-lane highway.
Work will begin in about six weeks and take until the spring of
2003. It will connect to the current $6.8 million's worth of work
being done from the western edge of St. Michaels eastward to the
New Mexico border at Tse Bonito.
Work on the Window Rock section is about one-fourth completed, according
to the Arizona Transportation Department...
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Zuni Heritage Fair at Red Rock State
Park
Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Learn about Zuni culture and way of life at the first
annual Zuni Heritage Fair, to be held at Red Rock State Park Oct.
26, 27 and 28.
The Park will become the host to Indian culture, with food, dance
and song as the unique heritage of the Zuni people will be celebrated
during the three-day event.
"The Zuni Heritage Fair Committee wants to showcase Zuni and
bring it into Gallup's backyard," said event organizer Albert
Peywa. "There will be entertainment, Zuni traditional and social
dances — two groups each day, the Zuni Olla Maidens and flutist
Fernando Cellicion."
Peywa expects more than 20 booths
with more than 28 individuals selling Zuni arts and crafts, including
needlepoint, Zuni inlay
and sandcast jewelry, artists Edmond Kasakall, and Eileen Yatsayte
and weaver Eric Chopito...
Drinking can affect next day activities
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — You could be going to work drunk if you partied last
night, says a Gallup police officer.
Gallup Police Cpl. Thomas Mumford is trying all sorts of methods
to stop residents from drinking and driving. Some people have been
caught driving drunk while heading to work.
Mumford said if a person goes to bed at 2 a.m. with a blood alcohol
concentration of .25 percent, they still will be legally intoxicated
at noon the next morning. Alcohol leaves the body at the rate of
.015 percent per hour, and New Mexico's legal indicator of intoxication
is .08 percent.
To get to a .25, someone who weighs 160 pounds would have about
11 drinks. Someone who weighs 100 pounds would only have to have
six or seven drinks to get to that level...
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Deaths
Leon Yellowhair
BESH BITO, Ariz. — Graveside services for Leon Yellowhair, 85,
will be held at 10 a.m.,
Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the Veterans Cemetery, Fort Defiance, Ariz.
Yellowhair died Oct. 16 in Payson, Ariz. He was born Nov. 25, 1915
in Steamboat, Besh Bito into the Red Streak Running into the Water
People Clan for the Honey Combed People Clan.
Yellowhair attended Keams Canyon Boarding School. He was employed
with the Navajo Ordinance Army Depot in Belmont, Ariz., Navajo Tribe
O.N.E.O. as a community development worker, carpenter in Steamboat
and for the railroad with Union Pacific and Santa Fe. He served in
the U.S. Marines as a Code Talker.
Survivor include his sons, Roy Yellowhair of Steamboat, Ariz. and
Larry Yellowhair of Page, Ariz.; daughters, Lutricia Yellowhair and
Anita Hildreth both of Steamboat; brother, Bahe Yellowhair of Steamboat;
sisters, Mary Dempsey, Juanita Begay, Irene Archie all of Beshbito/Steamboat;
eight grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and 17 great-great-grandchildren.
Yellowhair was preceded in death by his sons, Harry Yellowhair, Thomas
J. Yellowhair and Leonard Yellowhair; parents, Peter Yellowhair and
Mae Begay and brother, Zuni Yellowhair.
Pallbearers will be family members.
The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services
at Lutricia Yellowhair, 15 miles north of Steamboat Chapter.
Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
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