Police corral gangs

By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

CHINLE, Ariz. — Navajo police arrested 36 people Saturday and Sunday nights in Chinle and Pinon in an attempt to curtail gang violence that erupted Halloween weekend.
Chief of Police Leonard Butler imported a seven-member Tactical Operations Team from the Tuba City Police District to move against the gangs, according to Officer Matt Duran, Butler's press officer. The chief accompanied the raiders the second night.
Saturday night, the Navajo Department of Law Enforcement special weapons and tactics unit concentrated on Navajo Housing Authority subdivisions in the Chinle Chapter.
On Sunday night and Monday morning, the same team swept through the Pinon Chapter, the scene of gang-related homicides and battles the previous weekend.
Duran said police wanted to combat the recent eruption of gang violence in the area. Two gangs have been trying to expand within the chapter.
Chinle Police District officers were on call to back up the TOT unit, operating as a special project out of police headquarters in Window Rock. The gangs put up little resistance, Duran said.
Those arrested were transferred from Chinle to the main Navajo Department of Corrections jail in Window Rock, Duran said.
The NDOC listed 33 males, both adults and juveniles, and three females, both adults and juveniles, as arrested. Three charges were filed against the females and 49 against the males. Because of the large number of prisoners, no names were listed in the post-raid announcement.
One female was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, one with endangering the welfare of a minor and the other with public intoxication.
Twelve males were arrested on charges of public intoxication, six on charges of possession of liquor, five on charges of DUI, four on bench warrants from judges, four on charges of battery, four on charges of disorderly conduct, three on charges of obstructing an officer in the performance of duty or resisting arrest, two on charges of possession of marijuana and two for not having a driver's license in their possession.
Single charges included being an accomplice to a crime, shoplifting, delivery of liquor, endangering the welfare of a minor, unlawful flight from a law enforcement officer, reckless driving and refusal to submit to a chemical test.

Domestic dispute ends with murder

By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

SHIPROCK — A 46-year-old woman who had been stabbed died Monday after she fled to a neighbor's house following a family fight.
Verma Charley was bleeding after allegedly being stabbed by her husband, Jim Peters.
The neighbor, Farrell Benally, said he saw the 38-year-old Peters allegedly stabbing Charley, who was partially clad after having fled her Northeast Heights home, about 10 p.m.
Emergency medical technicians attempted to get the wounded woman to the Indian Health Service hospital in Shiprock but she died on the way.
Officers said the couple's 17-year-old son told them his parents were fighting, she ran out of the house, and her husband chased her. No arrest was listed in the initial report.
The case was turned over to the Criminal Investigations Department.

Hostage held

CEDAR RIDGE A 20-year-old Las Vegas, Nev., man was arrested Oct. 30 after he held his 19-year-old sister hostage at gunpoint and barricaded himself in the family home in this small community on U.S. 89 between Tuba City and Page.
When a special team of officers from the Tuba City Police District got inside the house, Eddison Tsosie surrendered without a fight, leaving a .22 caliber rifle untouched. His 17-year-old brother, who had remained inside the house after their sister, Bernadell, escaped, was charged with being an accomplice.
Navajo police charged the elder Tsosie sibling with aggravated assault, unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon, threatening, unlawful imprisonment, disorderly conduct, criminal damage, endangering the welfare of a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Officers reported that Eddison Tsosie had come home drunk about 3:30 a.m., pointed a rifle at Bernadell Tsosie's chest and told her he was going to kill her. While his attention was diverted, she managed to flee just before the Tactical Operations Team arrived. No injuries were reported.

Vets' Day fest gets 'great response'

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — A total of 35 groups has so far agreed to be a part of Gallup's first Veterans' Day Parade Thursday.
"This has been a great response," said Robert Padilla, head of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Bataan Memorial Post 818. "We were expecting only five or six."
He said that a few other groups have said they may also participate in the parade as well.
Veterans' Day activities will kick off with a special commemorative service at Hillcrest Cemetery at 8 a.m. The parade is scheduled to begin about 10 a.m. at Washington School on the north side and proceed to the Super Wal-Mart where speeches and various events are scheduled to take place until about 2 p.m.
Besides speeches, the activities at the Wal-Mart parking lot will include local high school bands and dancers from the Zuni Pueblo. There will also be games, such as a jumping balloon, for the kids.
"We're also expecting a flyover by a F-16 during the ceremonies," Padilla said.
The parade will honor survivors of the Bataan Death March. Seven local survivors, including one from Zuni and Tohatchi, have already agreed to participate in the parade.
"I don't think a lot of people in this area know much about the Bataan Death March," Padilla said, adding that he hoped Robert Miller, one of the survivors from Gallup, will explain to those who attend the speeches what happened and just what the survivors went through to stay alive.
The members of the local veteran's post, which was started here last May, decided to name their post in honor of the Bataan survivors, he said, "out of respect for what they went through."
Bataan survivors
Local historian Martin Link said that there were a good number of survivors of the Death March who lived in this area, primarily because 1,900 New Mexicans from five national guard units were among the 37,000 soldiers who started out on the 60-mile march on April 2, 1942.
"Sixty miles isn't very much it's about the distance from Gallup to Grants but you have to remember that these troops had survived three months of bombardment from the Japanese," Link said. "They were horribly undernourished and many had yellow fever."
Marching conditions were inhumane with the Japanese refusing to stop for anything, Link said.
"They also did not provide the prisoners any food or water and as the prisoners collapsed alongside the road, the Japanese would use their bayonets or decapitate with their swords they didn't want to waste any bullets," Link said.
A total of about 10,000 died during the march or about one out of every four. New Mexicans took a harder hit with 800 of the 1,900 dying during the march.
"One thing that Robert Miller talks about is what happened after the march was over. The survivors were put in Japanese troop ships to take them back to Japan where they would become slave labor in the steel mills or whatever," Link said.
"But on the way over there, American submarines sank two of the ships. There was nothing indicating they were carrying prisoners of war and thousands more Americans died that way," he said.
Auditorium dedication
Also scheduled to take place Veterans' Day is the dedication of the new high school auditorium and the presentation of "Tribute to a Century," a professional show that includes more than 40 dancers and singers, including the Russian State Chorus, that will focus on everything from memorable war songs of the century to Broadway hits.
The dedication is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., followed by the show at 7:30 p.m.
The auditorium has the largest seating capacity in western New Mexico and incorporates state-of-the-art theater and stage production technology. This dedication also will include assigning a formal name to the facility the Kenneth B. Holloway Performing Arts Auditorium, honoring the long-time local music educator who now serves on the board of education.
Link, one of the coordinators of the musical event, said that while there is no charge for admission, only those who hold one of the 1,100 tickets that have been distributed will be able to get in.
Response to the show, he said, has been overwhelming, he said. "The good thing is that tickets were given out in such a way that a good cross-section of Gallup was given the opportunity to get them."
"We were worried at first that the auditorium would only be half full but that's not the problem," he said.
The problem has been to meet the demand for tickets.
"There are no more available," he said, adding that people in this area are fortunate that the auditorium was ready. Otherwise, the event would have been held in the 600-seat auditorium at Red Rock State Park.

By Sekai Mutunhu
Staff Writer

GALLUP — A man brandishing a gun held up a woman near Joe's Auto Sales, stealing $350 in cash before trying to make his getaway. He was captured shortly afterward on Interstate-40 by Gallup City Police officers early Tuesday afternoon.
Gallup resident Sandra Chaidez, 35, said she had just made a deposit at NationsBank when she left and headed to Joe's Auto Sales on Seventh Street to talk to her brother-in-law. Chaidez was in her car with her young son asleep in the front seat, and began to place two $100 bills and a $50 bill in her purse when a man approached her through the open driver's side window...

Fed money serves 417 homes

ByJim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — More than $7 million in federal funds will be used to bring electricity and water to 417 Diné homes, according to Ben Jones, director of the Navajo Nation's Division of Community Development.
A $5 million community development block grant will be supplemented by $2.6 million from the Indian Health Service for the work in 10 chapters...

Census reps seek tribal trust

By Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — Officials for the U.S. Census Bureau realize they have a problem on the Navajo Reservation, and it all boils down to one word: trust.
Every 10 years, when census takers go to homes in remote parts of the reservation, hundreds possibly, thousands of elderly, traditional Navajos refuse to cooperate because they're afraid the information is part of some government plot to do something bad to them, such as reduce their livestock...

Navajoland census was 'botched' in '90

By Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — Officials for the U.S. Census Bureau and Navajo tribal officials agreed on one thing Tuesday the federal government botched the census count on the Navajo Reservation in 1990.
Sylvia Laughter, an Arizona state representative from the Navajo Reservation, called the undercount of Navajos "severe," adding that it probably cost the tribal government $30 million or more over the decade in federal funding...

Cibola wants bills to be paid on time

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — A glitch in the Cibola County payment system will be changed. County officials no longer will have to say, "The check is in the mail."
The county payment system required signatures of two commissioners, which sometimes threw the time frame off for vendors to get dollars in hand...

City Council says no to bargaining

By S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Gallup City Council repealed collective bargaining for municipal employees Tuesday in a 3-2 vote.
Former Mayor George Galanis addressed the council before the vote, asking councilors to cite reasons for their decision and to address the employees. Galanis was hired by United Mine Workers the union representing the city workers as an advocate to promote collective bargaining.

City may sue over street repairs

By S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Area residents may not be the only ones frustrated by the lack of repairs to Gallup's two streets that cross the railroad tracks downtown. The city of Gallup is also upset.
"Effective today, our communications (with the Santa Fe Railroad) haven't been addressed," City Manager David Ruiz said Tuesday. "We've turned our complaint over to the city attorney for formal action..."

Housing project worries woman

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — A rural Ramah woman told Cibola County commissioners recently that she has several concerns about the proposed Elk Haven Preserve, a subdivision planned for the Ramah area.
The subdivision is being proposed by James McLendon, 1345 Red Colt Court, Astor, Fla. It is a 628.5-acre subdivision containing 79 lots varying in size from 5 acres to 94.3 acres. The price range is from $15,900 to $200,000...

Semi mishap ties up traffic

By Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Traffic was held up for four hours Tuesday afternoon when a semi-truck overturned, spilling several hundred gallons of diesel fuel before bursting into flames on Interstate 40.
Police and firefirefighters rushed to the 22-mile marker near the Miyamura exit around 2 p.m. where the semi-truck was flipped over on its side. An estimated 340 gallons of diesel fuel were spilled after the truck's tanks ruptured...