In honor of veterans

World War II Marine veteran Perry Allen holds the flag he copyrighted and is making available to reservation posts. After each group receives one free, he will sell them to the groups to use as fund-raisers.

Photo by Jim Maniaci

 

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Family struggles after mom's death

Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent

GALLUP — When a man, allegedly driving drunk, plowed his speeding vehicle into the back of a young mother's car last month, the woman died, two of her children were injured and a whole family was left victimized.

Crownpoint resident Sophie Billie-Martin, 28, died Oct. 14, leaving behind a husband and five young children. A memorial bank account has been established to help the family at Gallup's Firstbank, 101 W. Hill.

Manuel Martin talked about the problems he and his family have been facing since his wife's death. First, there is the grief. Billie-Martin's children, her parents and her sisters are "deeply hurt" by her loss, he said.

When a vehicle drives up to the house or the front door opens, Martin said, the children "all look to see who is coming" half believing Billie-Martin will once again walk through the door.

"They think about their mom and start crying," he said. Martin added that he is struggling to be strong for the children by not crying in front of them.

"We miss her," he said simply. "I love her."

And then there are the financial problems. As a newly widowed father of five children, Martin is unsure how he will provide food, winter clothing and toys this Christmas. Added to that is the cost of baby formula and diapers. And the bills. Martin is already struggling to pay monthly household bills particularly the family's utility bills.

Martin works as an educational aide in a kindergarten class at the Crownpoint Community School. His wife had been working on a nursing degree at the University of New Mexico-Gallup.

"She worked real hard at school and being a mother," Martin said. "She was determined to get her RN nursing degree."

Each semester, Martin said, his wife worked hard to get better grades than the previous semester and to raise her grade point
average. Her hard work, he added, put her on the Dean's List. Billie-Martin had also worked as an intern nursing student at the Gallup Indian Medical Center.

The problems with the uncertain status of UNM-G's nursing program caused his wife to worry, he said, and the couple was looking at moving to Albuquerque so Billie-Martin could complete her nursing degree.

Martin said he told his wife if she would earn her nursing degree, he would go back to school also.

The couple created a blended family, Martin said, when they married. Sophie brought her son Ashlee and her daughter Naomi and Manuel brought his son Michael and his daughter Tashina into the marriage. Kaleb Ty Martin was born to the couple last November.

The funeral for his wife was very difficult to get through, Martin said. Many people in the Crownpoint and Gallup communities offered much support during the funeral, he said, and he wanted to express his gratitude to everyone relatives, friends, co-workers and community members who helped with the funeral.

"I wanted to tell them that after the service," he said, "but it was hard for me. Maybe they'll understand."

Three weeks after Billie-Martin's death, her family held a lonely first birthday party for Sophie and Manuel's baby, Kaleb Ty, himself recovering from injuries he sustained in the accident. The Martin and Billie families joined together to try to make it a happy event for the child, Martin said, but it was difficult to do. Martin is not looking forward to December when he and his children will have Christmas without Billie-Martin and he will mark his wedding anniversary alone.

When asked about the young man who crashed into his wife's car, Martin hesitated to comment. Martin doesn't know anything about him, nor has he heard anything about the status of the police investigation or the legal charges against him.

"He deserves to be in jail," he said simply.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque, Calvert Cayatineto was indicted this past week on one count of second-degree murder in Sophie Billie-Martin's death and two counts of substantial bodily injury to a child under 16 years old for the injuries to Kaleb Ty Martin and 11-year-old Tashina Martin. Cayatineto is in federal custody in Albuquerque and is scheduled to appear in Judge Bruce Black's courtroom on Monday to appeal his detention.

Anyone interested in contributing to the memorial fund at Firstbank can mail or deliver checks or money orders made out to the "Sophie Billie-Memorial Fund," c/o Firstbank, 101 W. Hill, Gallup, N.M. 87301; phone (505) 722-4394.

Any other questions about donations of food, children's clothing or toys can be directed to Manuel Martin at the Crownpoint Community School: (505) 786-6160.

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Proud vet
Ex-Marine designs flag for Navajos

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. — Navajo veterans now have their own flag thanks to a former Marine who got into World War II when he was only 15 years old.

Perry Allen said he will give each tribal veterans' organization one of the flags for free when the post commanders contact him at (520) 729-5625. The flags have a white field bordered in red stars with the tribal seal inside a likeness of a 1980 medallion.

He said the flags are worth about $40 retail; the jackets, about $50; and the patches, about $8. Allen said he wants to recover only his cost for the flag project, about $10,000, and has other non-veteran projects that he will pursue on a for-profit basis.

While the Navajo Code Talkers are famous, Allen said he wanted to do something for all of the thousands of Navajos men and women who have become American military veterans.

"I wanted to help recognize the other veterans, too," he said.

In addition to the copyrighted flag, he has jackets and patches available. Veterans groups can obtain all three at wholesale prices and use them for fund-raisers or awards.

Allen explained that the red stars represent many of the different types of units throughout the U.S. military, naval and aviation services.

Centered on the white field is a red ring with two crossed quivers of four arrows each. The feathers and heads stick out into four of the six points attached to the ring, symbolizing the blood shed by the armed forces through Desert Storm.

The standard Navajo Nation seal has a blue ring containing the 110 arrowheads that represent each chapter. Allen said the blue ring stands for the victorious merits of each individual veteran.

The white field represents the eternity of the flag itself, based on the idea that after war comes peace with everything back in harmony. On the white field above and below the central seals are the words "Navajo Nation Veterans" plus the motto "For Service in Defense of Our Land and People."

Allen said, "I copyrighted the flag to be separate from the tribal government, as a vehicle to show our fighters as individuals."

As a member of the 4th Marine Division, he fought on Iwo Jima, Saipan, Tinian and the Marshall Islands. In the second island invasion he was wounded in the hands, but injury wasn't severe enough to send him home, he said.

Being far too young to get into service, he lied about his age, adding, "I begged my mother to sign the consent to let me go in. Finally she did."

Allen stayed in the Corps four years after joining in 1942 at age 15.

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The veteran's son: Wars and rumors of war

Walter Howerton Jr.
Managing Editor

I am not a veteran, but I am the son of a veteran.

My father was a soldier in World War II. He waded ashore and into the sights of waiting German gunners near Salerno in Italy. Strangely, he remembers wearing a tie when he hit the beach. Later, he survived a booby trap blast that tore through the Naples,
Italy, post office and killed many of the guys who had waded ashore with him only days before. People shot at him; he shot back. He earned his Combat Infantry Badge. He went to war a 19-year-old newlywed and came home a veteran. I was born when he was 21 years old.

Like most boys of my generation, I grew up playing war. We equipped ourselves with helmets, packs, canteens and dummy hand grenades from the Army-Navy Surplus Store, where they sold off the leftovers from the real war at cheap prices children could afford.

I played at war, but I think I decided when I was fairly young that I never would be a veteran myself, that there was something about being a veteran that I wanted no part of. Even as a boy I understood that much.

There always has been something troubling about my father, something that to this day I cannot quite put my finger on, but something that always made him keep a short distance between himself and everyone and everything, including me. I always figured his being a veteran had something to do with that.

After I was grown, my grandmother told me whispering it as if she were afraid he might overhear her even though we were alone that my father was "different" when he came home from the war, but she never explained exactly how. It was not the sort of thing we talked about in my family, least of all with my father, who to this day believes the time he spent in the war was the finest time of his life. Period. End of conversation. He does not think any further explanation is necessary.

The way my father sees it, he didn't have much choice in the matter. The world was in danger and he was in the first group of 19-year-olds drafted. Six weeks after marrying my mother, he was gone. Two years later, before I was born, he was a veteran. More than 50 years have passed and he still is a veteran. And I am still his son, still separated from him by that mysterious little distance that neither of us ever has been able to pick his way across.

When I was a boy, I wanted to learn how to shoot. My father who always wanted to be a good father, though like most fathers he was not always sure exactly how bought me a shotgun, but he never took me out to fire it. He let a neighbor teach me how to shoot, always finding some excuse not to go along. How was a man who was a veteran not want to teach his son to shoot and shoot and shoot? I learned to shoot and did my share of hunting, but I did not grow up to be a soldier. That disappointed my father.

By the time my generation's war came around, things were not as clear as they had been for my father. Ho Chi Minh wasn't much of a Hitler, the way we saw it. And, for many of us, the stakes just didn't seem high enough. Besides, my friends and I had grown up with fathers and uncles who had been to war. We could not help but wonder how our own lives might have been different or better if they had not waded ashore at Salerno or been nearly blown to pieces in Naples, if they had not seen the things they saw or done the things they did. These veterans were not always easy men to love and, no matter how much they
told us, we had the sense that they never quite told us the whole truth.

Being a veteran's son is not an easy thing. Some of us went to war, some didn't.

In the early 1970s, I was excluded from the draft. Safe from the war, I found myself camped in a pecan grove south of Atlanta.
My hair was long, my jeans embroidered with flowers to the knees, my t-shirt tie-dyed. For those in Vietnam there were uniforms, for those not in Vietnam there were uniforms, because the young love their uniforms. And we all were as young as my father and his friends had been when they went to war.

Me, a few of my friends and several thousand other people had come to this spot south of Atlanta for what was perhaps the last of the great rock and roll festivals. Woodstock already was a movie, but Jimi Hendrix still was alive and so was Duane Allman. They were there. So was B.B. King. So was Procol Harum. So were lots of others. There would be days and nights of music in the early July heat.

The first night, a huge summer thunderstorm broke over the festival site as the Allman Brothers played one of those long jams on stage. Lightning was so close the air smelled of ozone, but the Allmans didn't care. They simply covered themselves with sheets of clear plastic and kept on playing while the rest of us cavorted in the mud. Lightning? As they said at Woodstock, "Stay away from those towers!" We were young. We were bulletproof. You've seen "Woodstock." By the early 1970s we all knew how to act.

Some memories of the next few days are clearer than others, but there is one memory that will not go away.

Jimi Hendrix played late on July 4, a tiny man with big hair and a very loud guitar. He was far from where we were, almost lost on the huge stage. There were none of those big-screen stadium-sized televisions in those days. But as long as we could hear him, we didn't need to see him (there was no MTV in those days either). Years later, Prince fans had "Purple Rain," but we were more than happy with our "Purple Haze." Laying back in the warm Georgia night, we listened to Jimi and kissed the sky.
I was hanging out with my best friend's girlfriend (a habit it took me years to break). A guy we didn't know was stretched out next to us, somehow snoring through Jimi's soaring set. We smiled tolerantly because we were nothing if not tolerant in those days and went back to kissing the sky.

Then, at midnight, Hendrix (a veteran himself) launched into "The Star Spangled Banner" and the fireworks started. There were bright flashes and loud booms. There was Jimi playing. It was a real hippie sort of Fourth of July.

"Far out," we said.

Suddenly, the sleeping guy next to us woke up screaming. He stood up, but almost as quickly as he stood, he threw himself to the ground again. "Incoming!" he screamed. "Incoming!" The flash of the fireworks threw shadows on the ground and he flung himself at them, screaming, crying, beating himself bloody against the dirt.

At first, we tried to stop him. "Bad trip," we said to each other. He was one of us. At least, he was dressed like us. But then, as he screamed and began to bleed, we realized he was not one of us, not really. He was already a veteran, a young man home from the war, searching the shadows for a hole deep enough to save him.

I am not a veteran, but I am not unpatriotic or ungrateful. I have stood in front of The Wall at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., and seen my own face reflected among the names of the dead. I have lived with World War II my whole life. I know what they have done for me.

But when Veterans Day comes and I go to those parades and look into those aging faces and wonder what horrors they might be hiding, I cannot help but think about my father, and I cannot help but think about that boy I saw beating himself against the hard Georgia ground while Jimi Hendrix played our song. I cannot help but think that now he is someone's father, too.

I know veterans are the way the lingering horrors of war come home to visit us all.

I am a veteran's son.

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Shiprock heads into playoffs on winning note

Michael Peretti
Staff Sports Writer

CROWNPOINT — The state bound Shiprock Chieftains traveled to Crownpoint to close out their regular season, and were put to the test by a young Eagle team.

The Chieftains, (5-5, 4-0 district) won 44-14, but for the first half and the beginning of the second half Crownpoint, (2-8, 1-3) stayed in the game.

"We started off a little slow," said Shiprock coach Monty Maxwell. "Crownpoint came out and wanted to play. In the second half we came out and finally started to play up to our potential."

Shiprock came out shooting, throwing on their first six plays of the game, scoring a touchdown on a 40-yard touchdown catch and then, scored on their first rushing play, a 9-yard run by Marcus Benally. The Chieftains missed both PATs but led 12-0.
The Eagles could not get their passing game going in the first quarter, attempting three passes, one falling incomplete and the other two being picked off.

The Chieftains attempted a 30-yard field goal at the beginning of the second quarter but capitalized on another Eagle miscue. The Eagles lined up for a punt on their first possession of the second quarter and Fabian Talley broke through to block the kick.
Talley fell on the ball at the 4-yard line and one play later Benally was in the endzone for another Chieftain touchdown.

The Eagles stopped another Shiprock PAT, and down 18-0, began to climb back into the game. Crownpoint wasted no time, scoring on their next play from scrimmage, a 73-yard pass from Chambliss Lantana to Colin Henio. The Eagles were unable to make the two-point conversion.

The Chieftains could not move the ball on their following possession, and again the Eagles scored on a long play, this time Henio was the passer, completing a pass 30-yards to Elton Becenti for a touchdown. Tyrone Tsosie completed a pass to Galvin Willie for the two-point conversion.

Shiprock drove the ball down to the 1-yard line but could not get in on fourth-and-goal and Crownpoint took over and ran the clock out to go into the half down 18-14.

Shiprock's passing game ran into a wall after the fast start. After starting the game 7-of-7 for 89 yards and a touchdown in seven plays from scrimmage, the Chieftains went 5-for-15 for 34 yards in 53 plays from scrimmage the rest of the game.

Marcus Benally scored on the Chieftains' first series in the second half, taking the ball 27-yards on his first carry of the second half and then 25-yards on the next play for a touchdown. Again, the Chieftains were unable to make the two-point attempt.
Late in the third quarter, Shiprock started a drive that ended the period with the ball on the 1-yard line. On the first play in the fourth quarter Dewayne Dale took the ball in on a quarterback keeper to give the Chieftains a 32-14 lead.

Crownpoint looked as if they were going to start another rally, Lantana passing the ball to Henio for a 45-yard gain, but on the next play Lantana had to fall on the ball when it was snapped over his head and he lost 24-yards chasing it down. Lantana caught a 30-yard pass but the Eagles could not pick up a first down.

The Chieftains took the ball over and drove it down the field, Ambrose Lee capping the drive with a 2-yard run. On the Chieftains' next possession Dale would take the ball to the 1-yard line on a 41-yard run and then take it in on a quarterback keeper for a 44-14 lead. The Eagles would recover an onsides kick by the Chieftains and run two plays to end the game.

Crownpoint Head Coach Bill Johnson, who is resigning at the end of the school year said he thought his team did a good job.

"The kids played hard, real hard," he said. "We are going up against a school with 400 plus kids and they are in the same district as our small school, it's not fair."

Johnson said that his team did well considering their experience. Most of the teams' players only being sophomores. "Grades killed us, a lot of players were ineligible," he added.

The Eagles had five different players attempt passes in the game, Chamblis Lantana going 1-for-6 with a 73 yard touchdown and two interceptions. Tyrone Tsosie went 4-for-13 for 27 yards.

Dewayne Dale went 12-for-22 for 142 yards and one touchdown.

Colin Henio led the Eagles with 2 receptions for 81 yards. Brandon Bull led the Chieftains with five catches for 44 yards and Benson Billy with four catches for 54 yards.

Leading rusher for the Eagles was Ronald John with 15 carries for 42 yards. Leading the way for Shiprock was Marcus Benally carrying the ball 25 times for 280 yards and three touchdowns. Dewayne Dale carried the ball three times for 43 yards and two touchdowns.

Shiprock plays against Portales next Saturday in Shiprock.

Tohatchi shocks Thoreau

Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

THOREAU — Decided underdog Tohatchi shocked Thoreau with a 13-0 first half lead before holding on for a stunning 27-21 district win on a freezing, snowy Friday night.

With the win, Tohatchi, 3-7 overall but more importantly 2-2 in district, sneaks into next week's state playoffs in place of Thoreau, 6-4 overall and also 2-2 in district. The Cougars get the No. 2 spot by virtue of beating the Hawks head-to-head.

In next week's playoffs, Tohatchi will travel down to Lovington while district champ Shiprock will host Portales in a pair of opening round games Saturday afternoon.

"The players wanted it (the win)," first-year Tohatchi coach Chuck Buccigrossi said of the district upset. "It was a great win. They didn't quit."

Thoreau coach Dick Heward said the district loss in the season's final game was disappointing.

"Tohatchi played well," Heward said. "We didn't come out to play. The first half was all Tohatchi except for four minutes. We didn't show up. You have to play the whole game. They deserved to win. They came to play and they took us on the ground. Maybe it was a combination of us taking them too lightly and Tohatchi playing better than we did. It's disappointing to lose. But
if you don't play you don't deserve to win."

Tohatchi, which was able to convert a pair of Hawk turnovers for touchdowns, was able to score on the game's opening play when Thoreau's Michael Lambson mishandled the opening kickoff and fumbled the ball over to the Cougars deep in its territory on the 26.

The Cougars were quick to capitalize on the crucial turnover, getting on the scoreboard with three quick running plays.

Cougar running back Roland Noble broke through for an 11-yard gain and Cody Bitsie followed for five yards to 10. An off-sides penalty against the Hawks moved the ball to the 5 where running back Harlyn Bitsoi, who proved to be a workhorse with 35 carries for 147 yards and one touchdown, found the end zone on a five-yard run. David Yazzie booted the PAT giving the Cougars a surprising 7-0 lead.

Tohatchi had a chance to add more points on its second possession of the game. With a consistent running game, the Cougars moved the ball from the 17 down to Thoreau's four-yard line where the drive stalled. A 21-yard fake field goal try failed when the pass was overthrown into the end zone.

However the Cougars added their second score of the first half, again grinding out the yardage all on the ground.

Bitsoi took the handoff on three straight running plays for three pickups of four yards each. Three plays later, Lionel Miller punched it into the end zone on a 32-yard scoring jaunt for a 13-0 Cougar lead after the two-point run failed.

The Hawks, who appeared to be a big favorites to claim the No. 2 spot for next week's state playoffs behind district champion Shiprock, finally got untracked in the final five minutes of the first half.

After the Cougars were forced to punt out of their own end zone, the Hawks found themselves in excellent field position on the 33.

Lambson, one of the state's top running backs, showed his speed as he bolted loose for a 33-yard score. Chris Green booted the PAT.

With light snow showers falling and a stiff 15-20 mph wind blowing, Thoreau battled back to tie the game for the first time on its next possession.

Senior fullback Adam Pina got the call on three straight plays, getting 19 and 12 yards on second efforts before sprinting 17 yards for the tying score after Green's PAT with 2:03 left in the first half.

The Cougars were able to convert on a second Hawk turnover when Lambson fumbled the ball and Miller recovered for Tohatchi.

Bitsoi took the pitch and rambled for 15 yards and a first down and Miller spun around for nine yards. On the next play, Cougar quarterback Jeff Manuelito kept the ball on the option and cut back inward to the middle of the field and scored from the 11-yard line for the go-ahead score. A bad snap left the score, 19-13, in favor of the Cougars.

Thoreau responded with the go-ahead score for its first lead of the game.

Lambson carried the ball on the first two plays for 12 and 11 yards. Hawk quarterback Jeremy Mazon found Philip Elkins wide open for a 21-yard completion to the 11. Two plays later, senior fullback Adam Pina scored on a six-yard run. Pina ran over the two-point conversion that pushed the Hawks into the lead, 21-19, with 2:49 remaining in the third period.

After running the ball on six of seven plays, Tohatchi fooled Thoreau when quarterback Manuelito dropped back and lofted a 30-yard scoring toss to Yazzie. Bitsoi ran over the two-point PAT giving the Cougars a 27-21 lead with just over 11 minutes left in the game.

With the snow starting to falling more noticeably, Thoreau had the chance to tie the game.

Hawk quarterback Mazon completed a 35-yard pass to Lambson who broke about half a dozen tackles on a stunning run.
However the drive stalled on the nine-yard line when Mazon fumbled the snap on a key fourth down play.

With less than eight minutes left, Tohatchi took over and ran the clock down with 16 straight running plays and a pair of first downs that preserved the surprising district upset.

Cougar running back Harlyn Bitsoi led the Tohatchi ground attack as he carried the ball 35 times for 147 yards rushing and one touchdown. Lionel Miller rushed three times for 46 yards and one touchdown and quarterback Jeff Manuelito had 10 carries for 31 yards and one touchdown. Roland Noble had 10 rushes for 31 yards.

Thoreau senior tailback Michael Lambson, who had 1,159 yards rushing coming into the game, finished with 14 carries for 102 yards and one touchdown. Senior fullback Adam Pina rushed for 73 yards on eight carries and a pair of touchdowns for the Hawks.

Both quarterbacks were about even in stats.

Cougar quarterback Jeff Manuelito completed 4-of-5 passes for 59 yards and one touchdown while Hawk senior quarterback Jeremy Mazon hit on 3-of-5 passes for 60 yards.

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Happy Birthday, Route 66

Staff Report

GALLUP — Show us your Route 66 stuff!

The Independent will publish a special section honoring the 75th anniversary of Route 66 and we are looking for anything related to the historic old road and our area's link to it Gallup, Grants, Winslow, Holbrook, Acoma, Laguna and all points up and down the road and in-between.

We are looking for photographs, postcards, souvenirs, memorabilia, posters, sheet music, family snapshots, plates, cups, spoons, pots, whatnots and bric-a-brac, anything to do with 75 years of life on and around the nation's most famous highway.

And we are looking for people to share their memories of the way the road affected life around here...

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City might rent to youth club

Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Gallup City Council members are considering a proposal to rent the lower floor of the hospitality room at Red Rock State Park to the Boys and Girls Club.

If the city approves a rental agreement with the Boys and Girls Club, Joe Athens, interim manager of Red Rock State Park, said it would be a year-long contract and enable the organization to be housed in a larger facility. He recommended the city rent the park space for $2,000 a month.

Athens said he is proposing to rent that particular area of the building because the city is not obtaining any real revenue from the hospitality room, having only rented it once in the last six months and only twice in the last two years.

In response to how organizers plan to get the children out to the park, Karl Lohmann, the director of the National Indian Youth Leadership Project/Boys and Girls Club's after school program, said he hopes they will come out on their own...

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Deaths

Wallace Long

TWIN LAKES — Services for Wallace Long, 89, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 13, at the Little Sisters of the Poor-
Villa Guadalupe Chapel. Father Alfred Tachias will officiate. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Cemetery.

Long died Nov. 8 in Gallup. He was born July 22, 1911, in Rock Springs into the One Who Walks Around for the Meadow People Clan.

Long was a roadman of the Native American Church. He worked for the railroad, for an archaeologist, the El Paso Power Plant, and the Fort Wingate Army Depot. He also was a rancher.

Survivor include his daughters, Elsie Bitsoi and Helen Long, both of Twin Lakes, Mary Ann Clark of Gamerco and Louise Jim of Tohatchi; sons, Sammy Long, Wallace Chee Long Jr. and Woodrow Long Sr., all of Twin Lakes; brother, Leo Long of Rock Springs, 34 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

Long was preceded in death by wife, Annie Long; parents, Joe and A':Kinji bah Long; son, Stewart Long; sisters, Marie Howe, Alice Robinson and Mary Ross; brothers, Ben Chee Long Sr., Junior Long, and Robert Long Sr.

Pallbearers will be Carlos Long, Ernest Long, Lyle Long, Victor Long, Woodrow Long Jr. and Richard Sandoval.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Dennis Benally

CHURCH ROCK — Services for Dennis Benally, 43, will be held at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 13, at Cope Memorial Chapel. Father Ulric Pax will officiate. Burial will follow at the City Cemetery.

Benally died Nov. 8 in Albuquerque. He was born April 18, 1957, in Rehoboth into the Bitter Water Clan for the Folded Arms Clan.

Benally was a life resident of Church Rock. He attended Church Rock Elementary, John F. Kennedy Jr. Middle School and graduated from Gallup High School. He worked at various jobs, including United Nuclear Mine until it closed. His hobbies included wrestling and being a rodeo fan.

Survivors include his sons, Deane J. Benally of Window Rock and Derek D. Benally of Camp Pendleton, Calif., daughters, Jordan Benally of Window Rock and Jamie Lee of Mesa, Ariz.; mother, Alice Benally of Hard Ground; brothers, Willis Benally of Hard Ground and Paul Benally Sr. of Blue Gap, Ariz.; and sister, Ena Benally of Rehoboth.

Benally was preceded in death by grandfather, Tom Hood, and brother, Davis Benally.

Pallbearers will be family members.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Violet E. Lelekas

GALLUP — Services for Violet E. Lelekas, 79, will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, at Rollie Mortuary-Palm Chapel. Father Phil West will officiate. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Cemetery.

Lelekas died Nov. 8 in Gallup. She was born July3, 1921, in Mentmore.

Lelekas retired from the City of Gallup Utility Department.

Survivors include her daughter, Christine Bryant of Bosque Farms; brother, Ray Kilpatrick of Corrales; and three grandchildren.

Lelekas was preceded in death by husband, Pete Leledas; parents, William Kilpatrick and Elsie Robelo; brother, Nick Kilpatrick; and grandson, Stoney Albertson.

Pallbearers will be Joe Bertelli, David Bryant, Nathan Bryant, Buster Kilpatrick, Frank Montoya and Ronnie Smith.
The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Knights of Columbus Hall.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Nathaniel Willie

PHOENIX — Services for Nathaniel Willie, 33, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 13, at the Sheep Springs Pentecostal Church. Burial will follow in Sheep Springs Cemetery.

Willie died Nov. 4 in Phoenix. He was born Aug. 1, 1967, in Shiprock into the Folded Arms People Clan for the Red Running into the Water People Clan.

Survivors include his mother, Tina Willie of Phoenix; daughter, Christine Etsitty of Phoenix; and son, Christopher Etsitty of Phoenix.

Willie was preceded in death by father, Thomas Willie.

Pallbearers will be Deraldson Dez, Chester John, Emerson Watchman, Iverson Watchman, Lorenzo Willie and Woodrow Willie.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.<cm+bd>Ellen Ben<cm-bd>SANDERS, Ariz. Services for Ellen Ben, 50, were held at 10 a.m. today, Nov. 11. Pastor Elmer Jimmy officiated. Burial was held at the community cemetery in Jeddito, Ariz.

Ben died Nov. 5 in Showlow, Ariz. She was born July 25, 1950, in Low Mountain, Ariz., into the Towering House Clan for the Red Running Into Water Clan.

Ben was a resident of Keams Canyon before moving to Sanders. She was a rug weaver and liked to sew.

Survivors include her mother, Ruth Ben of Sanders; brothers Kee Ben of Sanders, Larry Shonnie Ben Sr. of Leupp, Ariz., Wilfred Ben of Smoke Signal and Michael Scott Ben of Pinon, Ariz.; sisters, Bah Yazzie Ben, Neve Ben, Eva Ben, all of Sanders, and Anita Ben and Selena Ben, both of Phoenix.

Ben was preceded in death by her father, John Ben, and sister, Yvonne Ben.

Pallbearers will be Wilfred Ben, Michael Ben, Leanderson Lewis, Maynard Ben, Raphael Charley and Ruben Jim.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Ben James Pete

SANDERS, Ariz. — Graveside services for Ben James Pete, 59, will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, at the community cemetery in New Lands, Ariz. Pastor Elmer Jimmie will officiate.

Pete died Nov. 7 in Sanders. He was born Sept. 2, 1941, in Keams Canyon, Ariz., into the Red Running into the Water People Clan for the Bitter Water People Clan.

Pete attended Keams Canyon School. He was a carpenter and worked for the railroad. His hobbies included weaving comb.

Survivors include his wife, Rena Pete of Keams Canyon; brothers, Marry Pete of Sanders, Charley Pete of Fort Defiance, Ariz., and Peterson Pete of Keams Canyon; sisters, Roselyn John of Fort Defiance, Ariz., and Rita Showtie of Keams Canyon.
Pete was preceded in death by parents, Margaret and John Pete, and brother, Clarence Pete.

Pallbearers will be relatives and friends.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Middle Wells, House #18, Sanders.

Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.