Home on the rez
Air cadets give shelter to Navajos
By Walter Howerton Jr.
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Seven Navajo families with small but snug houses are
living proof that the U.S. Air Force doesn't always have to be flying
around in the wild blue yonder to get things done. Sometimes it does
some down-to-earth and downright helpful things.
Three families in the Red Rock Chapter received free homes in late
October. Four families in the Rock Springs Chapter received free homes
a year ago.
All seven of the homes were built by cadets at the U.S. Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs and shipped to this area with money provided
by the Southwest Indian Foundation and the chapters themselves. SWIF
and the chapters also provided land, foundations for the houses and,
this year, utility hookups.
Air Force reservists from several bases also participate in the foundation-building
program, mentoring young Navajo workers as they build foundations
and install the houses.
There was a time not all that long ago when no one would have been
living in any of these houses. The cadets would have built them and
then torn them down.
Col. David Swint, who teaches in the engineering program at the U.S.
Air Force Academy, said the houses are built as part of a summer course
for cadets. For a few years, the academy kept the small houses for
its own use. But when they had enough, there was nothing to do but
tear them down again.
"We decided we wanted to give them to Habitat for Humanity,"
Swint said, but church-state issues stopped that idea because of Habitat's
religious affiliation.
Then a new program was authorized by Congress in 1997 under a program
called Innovative Readiness Training. It allowed the Air Force Academy
to use its little houses for both educational and humanitarian purposes.
"If you build something, you would like to see it have a life,"
Swint said.
Working through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a program was established
to bring the houses to various Navajo chapters with the help of SWIF.
Swint said the houses cost about $15,000 to $20,000 to construct.
SWIF pays about $9,000 per house to haul them from Colorado Springs
to the Navajo Nation. SWIF also provides a wood-coal heating and cooking
stove for each dwelling.
SWIF "picks a chapter based on its willingness to cooperate"
with the program and provide land for the houses, according to Bill
McCarthy, the organization's executive director.
He said the chosen chapter also must forego its own internal and family
politics and propose 10 to 12 needy candidate families for the homes.
SWIF then rates candidates on a scoring system and picks the families
to receive the houses.
"We take very seriously the selection of families," McCarthy
said. He said the project "fits with our charter to help people
who are well below the poverty level." He said SWIF does other
things such as provide 200 stoves a year to Indian families.
McCarthy sees the program as something that will grow and anticipates
not only the construction of three houses at the Air Force Academy
next year, but also the construction of up to four houses locally
using Air Force reservist mentoring Navajo workers on the construction
process.
McCarthy who dreams in the way people who do good work always dream
said as many as 12 houses could be built by 2001. He said there is
a possibility of as many as 50 houses a year by 2003. The way McCarthy
sees it, most of those houses would be built on a site near Gallup
and moved to the various chapters.
No matter how many houses a year there are, he said, "we are
going to try to hold to the single-home model. This is more of a single-family
concept."
He said much of the low-cost housing built on the Navajo Nation in
the past few years is "part of a leftover concept" that
crowds houses into clusters. "The clusters are breeding problems,"
McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the program could be adapted to housing problems in
other parts of the country. But for now, the houses are being adapted
to Navajo needs and tastes.
All of the houses built so far use an efficient rectangular shape.
They have two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen combination and
a bathroom.
Beginning next summer, the houses will be built using a hogan-influenced,
eight-sided design developed with the cooperation of academy students.
They aren't castles, but they provide basic shelter for people who
have no other place to go. And they provide the Air Force cadets with
the satisfaction that something they have done their best to design
and build will not end up in the scrap heap.
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Filmmakers look for local actors
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — A casting call for one of two movies in the making
about the Navajo Code Talkers, "Windtalkers," has been issued
for a seven-day run in six communities.
Bluewater Ranch Entertainment's Mindy Marin is looking for two Navajo
men to play the parts of Carl Eaglestaff and Charlie Whitehorse for
the MGM-Red Lions Productions movie about the communications specialty
of 420 Navajos in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during
World War II.
Auditions will be held at:
Wyndham Albuquerque Hotel from 2-8 p.m. Dec. 6.
Durango Doubletree Hotel from 12-3 p.m. and 4-7 p.m. Dec. 7.
Farmington Best Western Inn and Suites from 12-3 p.m. and 4-7 p.m.
Dec. 8.
Navajo Nation Inn from 12-3 p.m. Dec. 9 and 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Dec.
10.
Flagstaff Hilton Garden Inn from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-4 p.m. Dec.
11.
Phoenix Doubletree Guest Suits from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 3-7 p.m. Dec.
12.
Terence Chang will produce the movie which will be directed by John
Woo. They were challenged by the Navajo Code Talkers Association to
have the association approve the script for accuracy of what the troops
endured. The association also objected to using a non-Navajo, Nicholas
Cage, as the lead.
In a letter to Cage, Association President Sam Billison, wrote, "Again,
it seems that our story is being taken from us. Even more disturbing
is the fact that it appears that his movie is going to tell our story
with a white actor as the star."
The casting director explained in a statement from Los Angeles: "We
are looking for authentic Navajo men who would be interested in acting
for two leading roles in the film playing Navajo Code Talkers. We
have scheduled a casting trip out to Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado
the week of Dec. 6th."
Marin added, "Although we will be reading the scenes for Eaglestaff,
we will be considering actors for both roles."
Eaglestaff is in his mid to late 20s, intelligent, optimistic, outgoing,
athletic and agile, good-humored, innately philosophical and kind.
"This Navajo, a loving family man with aspirations of becoming
a professor of American history, leaves his Arizona reservation to
serve in World War II as a Code Talker," Marin said.
Whitehorse is in his mid-30s, is a sheepherder of few words and the
son of a medicine man. He is Eaglestaff's longtime loyal friend, a
more cautious man who does not share his friend's naive approach to
serving in the Marines, she said.
Copying a technique used in World War I, the Marines' Signal Corps
developed a code using the Navajo language that the Imperial Japanese
Army and Navy never did decipher. Since it was a code within the Athabascan-based
tongue, even Navajos who did not know the code could not have revealed
it to the American enemy's armed forces.
The code is credited with allowing the U.S. forces to conquer Iwo
Jima in March 1945. American forces landed on the eight square-mile
island on Feb. 19, 1945. It was one of the last Japanese island bastions,
and one of the six home islands. The bloody battle became memorialized
by a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the raising of the Stars
and Stripes on top of island's Mount Suribachi.
The work of the Diné Leathernecks was so sensitive, the U.S.
government kept it classified "top secret" until 23 years
after the end of the war. A recent pair of documentaries, endorsed
by the Navajo Code Talkers Association, inspired two films-in-the-making.
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NTUA manager taking steps to fix problems
By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Admitting the four main findings of the Office
of the Auditor General, the general manager of the Navajo Tribal Utility
Authority said the Navajo Nation enterprise "has already taken
great strides" to correct the deficiencies.
The Budget and Finance Committee of the Navajo Nation Council accepted
the performance audit and Randall Medicine Bear's replies on Nov.
16, but directed NTUA to return in the spring with a progress report
on correcting the weaknesses.
Medicine Bear replied, "The report itself contains no surprises
to NTUA ... NTUA has several initiatives in progress that are aimed
at resolving the issues."
A team of four auditors found:
Developing standards for loads of work by crews and district staffs
could save 25 to 39 positions. A total of 543 positions are authorized.
"NTUA should use its ongoing strategic planning and benchmarking
processes to determine the full extent of the potential savings,"
the auditors said. Benchmarking compares NTUA to similar utilities.
Electric and other services should stop subsidizing the growing losses
from the water department, the auditors said.
Water department costs exceeded revenue from 1966 through 1990. Income
exceeded costs from 1991 through 1997, but the costs continued to
rise during the seven profitable years. This led to a deficit of more
than $51,000 in 1998 and $300,000 of red ink from January to May 1999.
(With this average of $60,000 a month more spending than revenue,
the water department would lose $720,000 by Dec. 31, 1999.)
"Moreover, NTUA's costing system does not identify factors that
increase water operation costs," the auditors found. Medicine
Bear said the accounting system is being revised to supply that information.
Medicine Bear said that water rates would have be increased by 25
percent if the subsidy ends.
Another big problem, he said, is that water systems built by the Indian
Health Service and turned over to NTUA to operate "do not allow
for capital recovery through depreciation. Thus NTUA continues to
seek federal or state funding, for example, through grants, to replace
its aging facilities."
The 70 days, on the average, that it takes to complete a work order
can be cut by reviewing the numerous reviews needed. This would improve
customer service, the auditors concluded. Medicine Bear said that
15 steps have already been reduced to eight.
"NTUA will not be able to rely on its past experience to ensure
future success," the auditors predicted.
They added, "NTUA has been successful in using income from industrial
electric customers to support low cost residential electric rates,
cover operating losses in its water utility and still show net income
overall. Uncertainty over the future of the industrial customers and
deregulation may change NTUA's economic environment. Although NTUA
has initiated efforts to address these issues, it needs to formalize
plans."
Medicine Bear agreed that the loss of five major industrial customers
would have a big impact on the increased rates residential customers
would have to pay.
The tribal utility netted $2.6 million from revenue of $61.2 million
for fiscal year 1998, serving about 42,000 electric, 6,600 gas and
36,200 water and sewer customers with 9,800 miles of distribution
lines.
NTUA, established in 1959 as a department of the Division of Natural
Resources, became independent in 1966 and is now governed by a seven-member
board appointed by the Government Services Committee of the Navajo
Nation Council. It has headquarters in Fort Defiance and district
offices in Chinle, Dilkon, Kayenta and Shiprock, plus sub-offices
in Crownpoint, Nageezi, Red Mesa and Tuba City.
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Diné College sets 1st hearing
Nov. 28
Diné Bureau
GANADO, Ariz. — The first of five hearings by the Diné
College administration about the reorganization, reduction in force
and the direction the college is headed will be held 1-4 p.m. Sunday,
Nov. 28, at the Ganado Chapter House.
Chinle Chapter House will be the location of the second hearing, from
6-8 p.m. on Nov. 29. Tuba City's Chapter House will be location of
the third hearing, from 10 a.m. to noon on Dec. 1. Kayenta's hearing
will be held in the Monument Valley High School Auditorium from 10
a.m. to noon Dec. 2...
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Abuse program gets donation
Staff report
GALLUP — The New Mexico State Police Association recently donated
$10,000 to the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The
funds are to assist survivors of domestic violence and their children
who seek shelter from the
violence in their homes.
"This donation will help provide much needed crisis intervention
and response" said Michele Fuller, director of Battered Families
Services in Gallup. "We want to thank the New Mexico State Police
Association members, especially those that work in our part of the
state, for caring about survivors of domestic violence. It is an honor
for the Coalition to have been selected
by the association to receive such a donation..."
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Dream begins at Many Farms
By Richard Benton
Special to the Independent
MANY FARMS, Ariz. — Ground has been broken for a new classroom
building and student activity center at Many Farms High School. The
Navajo Nation is in charge of planning, designing and building the
school, a first for the tribe
The school administration and Many Farms High School Board have fought
14 years for the project, since the original classroom building was
condemned and demolished in the mid 1980s...
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NPC facility at Hopi shows commitment
to education
By Stan Bindell
Special to the Independent
POLACCA, Ariz. — More than 200 tribal and educational officials
and students were on hand recently for the groundbreaking of a Northland
Pioneer College building that will be located on the campus of Hopi
Junior/Senior High School.
First Mesa Consolidated Villages, which leases the land to the high
school, donated the land for the NPC site just nort"""www"""resident
of the Hopi Junior/Senior High School Governing Board and a member
of the NPC Governing Board, said the community college is critical
to the success of Native American students who attend two-year colleges
before going on to four-year universities. He said such students perform
better...
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Music therapy provides right notes for students
By S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Music therapy may not be new Aristotle and Plato used
its principles with their students but it has only recently resurfaced,
and the Gallup-McKinley County School District is one of the places
where music therapy is being used as a modern-day technique.
U.S. schools began to use music for therapy in 1975, and by 1985,
schools in New Mexico had incorporated some of these principles
into their programs. But the Gallup-McKinley schools are the first
in New Mexico to have a full-time music therapist on staff...
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Gallup's field turf gets rave reviews
By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The new artificial turf at the Gallup Public Stadium
has lived up to its billing and then some.
"We've had a number of games on it so far and I can't think
of any injuries that have been reported," said Ed Ping, athletic
director for the Gallup-McKinley County School District...
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