FBI: Kaibeto man was murdered
Diné Bureau
KAIBETO, Ariz. — Navajo detectives and the FBI are investigating
as an apparent homicide the death of a 54-year-old rural Kaibeto man.
Billie Yazzie Warner's family found him around noon last Wednesday
about five miles from home under a tree on Navajo Route 20. The location
is about nine miles south of Kaibeto.
Jason Littlefoot, 19, a member of the Warner home, said the older
man had not responded to efforts to revive him.
Littlefoot had called the Tuba City Police District station to request
help, and Officers Perry Champagne and Dale Dennison were the first
on the scene. After their brief initial report, they turned the case
over to the Criminal Investigations Department and the FBI.
Detectives determined that Warner had been drinking with two other
people on Nov. 30 and apparently died from exposure during the night
after he had been beaten up.
Tribal police said no arrests have been made, but the case is still
under investigation.
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Grants inmate gets into a fix
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — A 43-year-old prisoner at the women's prison here got
herself into a fix because she apparently didn't take her fix in November.
Now the grand jury has charged her with felony possession of a controlled
substance.
Tina Cortez, 43, whose address is listed by the grand jury as the
prison, allegedly had heroin, a controlled substance, in her possession
on Nov. 10, and she reportedly knew it was heroin.
The indictment does not state how she got the drug. The charge is
a fourth-degree felony.
The incident was investigated by the Grants Police Department.
The incident happened at the Corrections Corp. of America Women's
Facility. The facility is being upgraded to handle more women prisoners
after prison and CCA officials in Nashville, Tenn., agreed to the
increase.
In other matters the grand jury:
Indicted Steven Scalf, 32, of Belen, with one count of possession
of a controlled substance (methamphetamine), possession of more than
one ounce of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. The methamphetamine
possession charge is a fourth-degree felony, and the other two charges
are misdemeanors. Scalf was arrested on Oct. 7.
Indicted William Jake, 30, of Thoreau, with unlawful taking of a vehicle,
a fourth-degree felony, and larceny of more than $250, also a fourth-degree
felony. The charges stem from a July 9 incident.
Indicted Nazareth De La Cruz, 21, of Milan, with tampering with evidence
in a drug arrest case and possession of one ounce or less of marijuana.
The tampering charge is a fourth-degree felony and the possession
charge is a misdemeanor.
Indicted Jan Medina, 37, of Santa Fe, with driving while under the
influence of intoxicating liquor, driving while his license was suspended
or revoked, driving without giving a proper turn signal and failure
to carry proof of financial responsibility. He was arrested Oct. 12.
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Pearl Harbor still vivid for Ramah man
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Paul Merrill didn't think it was strange when he first
saw planes flying over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. that Sunday morning
back in 1941.
But Dec. 7 would not be a normal day for people in Hawaii or anywhere
else in the world after they learned what the Japanese air force did
to the American ships lying peacefully in the waters off the coast
of Hawaii.
"I remember I was at breakfast trying to decide what to do that
Sunday when I saw the planes coming," said Merrill, who retired
to Ramah after spending 46 years as the owner and operator of the
Fort Wingate Trading Post.
Merrill thought the planes were a continuation of the war games that
had been going on for the past few days between the U.S. Army and
Navy. But then he heard the bombs falling and the American ships in
the Navy yard exploding.
"The house I was living in overlooked the Navy yard we were about
half a mile away and I could see the red circle on the planes. But
at first, I couldn't digest what was going on," he said.
What was going on was an unprovoked attack on the American fleet in
the Pacific, an act that would "live in infamy" and would
pull the American people and other countries into a war with the Japanese
and Germany.
Merrill, 80, is apparently the only person in the Gallup area today
who was at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day. In the weeks following
the attack, however, hundreds of Gallup area residents would join
the effort, either by having their national guards units called up
or by volunteering.
By 1941, Merrill was in his third year in the Marines.
"I ran away from home and joined up soon after I graduated from
high school," he said. "I wanted to get away from Ramah,
figuring I wasn't meant to be a farmer. There was no money in that
and no other jobs."
So like many others before and since, he looked to military service,
where, after a few months in San Diego, he was assigned to Pearl Harbor.
During his first year, he spent time on guard duty, but by the time
the attack occurred, he was in charge of the post exchange, where
servicemen purchased everything from groceries to souvenirs to send
back home to their girlfriends or families.
Once he heard the bombs exploding, Merrill said, he headed for the
Marine barracks to get his orders. As he left his home, he heard the
first sirens from the base and the fire trucks going to put out the
fires and rescue any sailors still alive.
"In the first phase, the Japanese sent 181 planes to bomb the
base, sinking about half of our fleet," he said. "That lasted
about an hour. After that came the second wave, which also lasted
about an hour."
Although the attack was a surprise, there was some attempt to shoot
down the planes. Some of the ships, he said, had antiaircraft guns,
some servicemen were firing machine guns, and there were even some
attempts to bring down the planes with M-1 rifles.
But the Americans had only a little ammunition and the nearest ammunition
dump was 25 miles away. "By the time we were able to get more
ammunition and bring it back, the fighting was almost over,"
he said.
Merrill and others were assigned to putting out the numerous fires
that were breaking out over the naval base. He said it was impossible
to describe the chaos and the noise that overwhelmed everyone as they
tried to rescue sailors from the burning ships.
"We would find pieces of bodies everywhere," he said.
Most of the damage was done at the naval base. The Marine barracks
weren't touched, and Merrill said he knew few of the 3,400 or so men
that ended up dead or missing that day.
Merrill would spend another year at Pearl Harbor, but
he said it would be several years before the naval base returned to
the serenity that existed before Dec. 7.
Although initial reports indicated the Japanese were ecstatic over
catching the Americans "with their pants down," said Merrill,
they would live to regret their actions.
"In the first place, the Japanese attacked at a time when the
base's aircraft carriers were away, so none of them were destroyed,"
he said.
But the biggest mistake the Japanese made, he said, was not realizing
that such a preemptive attack would do something American politicians
had been trying to accomplish for several years convince Americans
to support the country's entry into the war.
"After the attack, everyone was volunteering, wanting to get
into the war. The attack made everyone mad," Merrill said.
Merrill would continue to have a distinguished career with the Marines
throughout the war. On an August night in 1945, after the surrender
of Germany, he was on a troop ship preparing to join hundreds of thousands
of other Americans as they landed on the shores of Japan for the next
phase of the war.
"We expected the fight in Japan to take several years and cost
more than a million casualties," he said. But before the landing,
he said, he and the others were told that the United States had dropped
two atomic bombs on Japan, forcing it to surrender.
The war was over, and Merrill would soon find himself back in the
Gallup area, where he has remained ever since.
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Area firefighters say they weren't paged
Staff Report
GALLUP — An apparent lack of communication was given as the reason
firefighters from Window Rock did not respond to a recent fire in
Sawmill.
A fire on Nov. 29 damaged the home of Suzie Segay, 54. Firefighters
from the Navajo Pine Fire Department put out the fire after the Window
Rock Fire Station failed to respond.
Acting Navajo Fire Chief Laurence Garnernez said the Window Rock firefighters
didn't respond because no one paged them.
The report about the fire went to the Window Rock Police Department,
whose captain, Steve Nelson, said Monday he checked with his officers
on duty that day who said they paged Window Rock firefighters and
no one answered...
City council meets, only to adjourn
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — A city council meeting here didn't happen for the second
time in a row this time after the council had a question about what
was on the agenda.
The first canceled meeting occurred Nov. 15, when Councilor Ruben
Aranda failed to show up because of a motorcycle accident and Councilor
Ron Ortiz didn't appear. Their absences left Councilor Shirley Taylor
as the only council member at the meeting. Since there was no quorum,
Mayor Bill Snodgrass ended the session...
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Gingerbread night a treat Parents, kids
enjoy making sweet hogans
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. — The joy of building traditional gingerbread
houses or Navajo hogans filled the Tse Ho Tso Intermediate School
gym Monday night as 150 people took part in the annual Window Rock
Unified School District event.
Officially, it was the monthly Navajo immersion program night held
for parents and their sons and daughters to learn more about Navajo
language and culture...
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Police nab 17 illegal aliens in van
Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Seventeen illegal Mexican nationals were picked up and
taken into custody by New Mexico State Police when their van tried
to cross the Munoz overpass near Interstate 40 early today.
State Police Captain Glenn Thomas said the aliens originated from
Mexico but it is unclear where they were heading when the van they
were traveling in was stopped just after midnight...
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Y2K watchers say tribal offices ready
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation officials may find out Wednesday
whether the tribal government is Y2K ready.
Two key government officials both of whom have been closely involved
in making sure that everything that can be done has been done said
Monday they believe the Navajo government indeed is ready...
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