Thoreau Hawks make it to finals
Robert Arrieta
Staff Sports Writer
THOREAU — The Thoreau Hawks know how to win, and
they know how to win big.
After blowing out Navajo Pine on the opening night of the Thoureau
Hawk Classic tournament, the Hawks' girls basketball team kept their
momentum going against the Crownpoint Eagles.
The Hawks did not quite make it to the triple digits they scored Thursday
night, but they did manage to beat the Eagles 56-33.
"Our defense is always pretty good," Thoreau coach Jori
Flom said. "I'm real pleased with the defense's hustle lately.
They come out and alway give a good effort. When your defense is playing
that good, you can expect your offense to get more chances to shoot."
The Hawks defense did indeed keep the Eagles from taking too many
shots.
The Hawks shot the ball 61 times compared to the Eagles taking only
41 shots.
Both teams matched up well in the opening quarter and both coaches
used similar strategies in the game.
"We're not a very big team so we try to run more and keep the
game fast," Crownpoint coach Sheri Moore said. "We didn't
get many shots tonight. When we did, we didn't make them count. We
need to shoot better."
The Eagles will have to rely on better passing today against a bigger
Grants team that they will face.
"It's going to be a much different game for us
against Grants," Moore said. "Grants is very physical. They
like to play a zone defense and use their size. We're going to have
to take our shots quickly before they can get their defense set. They're
a good team. We'll hopefully play our best and we'll see what happens."
The Hawks also are hoping to run a fast game today as
they face Newcombe for the championship game.
"We're going to need to control the tempo," Flom said. "We're
going to have to press the fastbreak and run on them."
One area that Flom said she is still insisting her team improve in
is turnovers. Although the Hawks got the best of the turnover ratio,
they still gave the ball away 17 times, which is too many for Flom's
taste.
"We need to work on our turnovers," Flom said. "We
have to keep our turnovers down."
The Eagles turned the ball over 22 times and several
of those turnovers were converted into Hawk baskets.
The Hawks' offense was led by Katrina Velasquez and Lisa Ramone, who
each scored 14 points, and Cindy Morgan, who had 11.
Velasquez is coming off a 19-point Ramone had 12 points
the night before.
"Katrina is a great all-around athlete," Flom said. "She
always hustles for us. We have some good athletes on this team."
In the earlier games Newcomb edged passed Grants in a nail-biter of
a game.
The Skyhawks edged the Pirates 33-31 to move on to the championship
bracket.
A second-half power surge by Sandia's offense was too much for Navajo
Pine to handle as they lost 66-41.
At half time, Sandia had worked to a two-point lead but when the third
quarter opened, they blew the game wide open when they outscored the
shell-shocked Warriors 26-11.
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Diné College hearings still bogged
down
George Hardeen
Special to the Independent
TSAILE, Ariz. — Six members of the Navajo Nation Council's education
committee came here this week looking for progress, compromise and
perhaps some reconciliation between factions involved in the Diné
College turmoil. They didn't find it.
And after listening for more than six hours Thursday to more than
a dozen faculty, staff and community people opposed to both the college
reorganization and the current administration, the committee members
wanted to hear from college president Tommy Lewis.
They didn't find him, either.
"I'm very disappointed that Dr. Lewis is not here," said
James Bilagody, Tuba City/Coalmine Mesa council delegate and soon-to-be
the newest member of the board of regents. "There better be a
good reason why he's not here."
There is.
On Saturday, the college's board of regents will hold a special meeting
in Ganado to consider Lewis' request to resign Dec. 17 rather than
wait until his contract expires April 15. The board must also consider
whether to pay the balance of Lewis' contract, a portion of it or
none.
And then there's the question of who replaces him until
a new president is selected. Francis Becenti, the acting vice president
for academic affairs, acknowledges he's not the most popular guy on
campus right now. If the regents turned to him, he said, he'd have
to consider his options. "I think the board will look for someone
as neutral as possible," he said.
Another possibility is James McNeley, the former vice president for
six years who recently requested a return to teaching. Many faculty
are opposed to him returning to administration, saying long-standing
problems had gone unresolved in the past while he was there, and they
don't hold out hope that McNeley's the right man to restore their
faith.
Now that nine hearings and a student forum have been held, a survey
with nearly 600 respondents has been conducted, reports have been
compiled and resolutions from six chapters have been passed almost
all of it overwhelmingly opposed to the reorganization and administration.
The regents are trying to reorganize by sending staff and services
to branch campuses with resulting budget cuts and layoffs at the main
Tsaile campus. The ensuing controversy has made the immediate future
of Diné College anything but clear.
Around 6 p.m., near the end of Thursday's hearing but before the administration
had a chance to present its case, the education committee lost its
quorum when two members left and was unable to take any action.
Speaking was Preston Brown, the college's personnel director and acting
vice president for administration. Wallace Charley of Shiprock, the
committee's vice chairman who ran the hearing, asked Brown twice if
he was comfortable giving the administration's report.
When Brown deferred twice to "the author" of the report,
which had Lewis' name on it, Charley adjourned the meeting. "The
person we wanted here is the president himself," Charley said.
Lewis had been informed a week earlier that the committee
had decided to come to the campus to conduct a hearing and reported
as much to the board of regents at its last meeting.
Charley said the hearing was scheduled at the request
of the student-staff-faculty consensus group because traveling to
Alamo, N.M., for its regularly scheduled meeting on Friday was out
of the question for many.
Committee member Emerson Jackson of Teec Nos Pos said because the
two opposing sides didn't talk to each other, there was no follow-through
on most of the five directives the committee issued a month ago.
"There are certain things that were supposed to have been done
and that hasn't happened," he said.
He said he was also disappointed that not a single student
spoke.
Zoncho Tso, president of the Diné College Associated Students,
said Thursday was the last day of instruction before final exams and
students couldn't miss class. Each committee member did receive a
report on the student forum, however.
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Navajo police help catch Apache cop killer
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Navajo police assisted in the capture of a father
and son suspected of gunning down a member of the White Mountain Apache
Police Department Thursday morning.
The Navajo Department of Law Enforcement sent a sergeant
and four officers to the Fort Apache Indian Reservation to join tribal,
county, state and federal authorities in the manhunt that resulted
in the capture of two suspects less than 24 hours after Officer Tenny
Gatewood Jr., 38, was killed on a remote road near Hawley Lake.
Navajo Chief Leonard Butler said his officers assisted the White Mountain
Apache department because of the close cooperation between the two
police departments. The Apaches often send officers to help patrol
during the Navajo Nation Fair, for example.
Journeying to White River were Sgt. Calvin Begay and
Officer Burton Hosteen of the Dilkon Police District, Officers Franklin
Betone and Ferrell Begaye of the Crownpoint Police District and Officer
Anthony Vann of the Chinle Police District.
Gatewood, a nine-year veteran of the Apache police department, was
shot and killed Thursday around 11:40 a.m. when he checked out a truck
on a remote mountain road in southwestern Apache County.
Apache Tribal Police Chief Raymond Burnette said Gatewood
stopped a vehicle that matched the description of one used in an alleged
beer burglary at a convenience store.
After the vehicle was stopped, Gatewood struggled with
two suspects and was fatally shot in the head. The suspects allegedly
fled on foot.
The Department of Public Safety closed down all highways
in the area, and the White Mountain Apache Game and Fish Department
sent out trackers to follow the suspects, said FBI spokesman Ed Hall.
On Friday morning, Frank Monte Banashley Jr., 18, and his father,
Frank Banashley Sr., 38, were arrested after a DPS helicopter spotted
two separate campfires a couple miles from the shooting scene, said
Ted Quasula, the head of law enforcement for the Bureau of Indian
Affairs.
The senior Banashley still had a handcuff clipped to his wrist when
arrested, Quasula said. Burnette said the man had a nonlife-threatening
shoulder wound, but it was not immediately clear whether it was related
to the struggle with Gatewood.
The Banashleys were taken to Flagstaff, and prosecutors filed a complaint
charging the use of a firearm in a crime and the killing of a federal
officer, which could bring the death penalty.
Murder charges were to be filed against the two Friday night before
U.S. Magistrate Steven Verkamp in Flagstaff, where the two Fort Apache
Indian Reservation residents were taken under heavy guard, Hall said.
Gatewood, a "homegrown" officer who spent
most of his life on the reservation, was the first White Mountain
Apache officer killed in the line of duty, Burnette said. He was married
and had four children.
The Associated Press contributed to this store.
| Top |
Navajo president rises from days as homeless
drunk
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — Little is left of the old Kelsey Begaye.
Once, he was a drunk who cared about little more than
his buddies and his next bottle of booze. He was a homeless man in
Los Angeles who passed his days on park benches and his nights in
shelters.
That he would rise to become president of the nation's
largest American Indian tribe seemed, if not impossible, certainly
unlikely...
Senators discuss problems with Navajo
officials
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — While they agree about helping the Navajo Nation
with economic development including the Gallup-Navajo water supply
project U.S. Senators Pete Domenici and Jon Kyl support different
candidates for the Republican Party's nominee for U.S. president.
In an interview Friday afternoon at the conclusion of
a day with Navajo leaders, Domenici said he told Texas Gov. George
Bush a long time ago he would support him for president.
Domenici said, "Frankly, I believe he will be the nominee and
become president," adding that he is a personal friend of the
governor's parents, former President George Bush and his wife Barbara...
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New project hopes to meet low income
housing needs
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Thirty-two new units at Cliffside Apartments may offer
relief to local low-income families, said Ernie Watson, public information
coordinator in Albuquerque for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Rural Development program.
"This complex is really needed here in Gallup," Watson said
this week after the ground-breaking ceremony for the new buildings.
"There is a shortage of housing, especially for the low-income
group."
Every fiscal year, the U.S. Congress appropriates funds to USDA for
rural projects. This year, the Cliffside Apartments received $2 million
from that fund to build new apartments...
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Navajo chef stirs up something good
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Chef Bennie McDonald, one of the two people who cook
at the El Navajo Cafe, began his cooking career when he was 15. His
first job was at McDonald's in Gallup.
But his mother remembers he was always around the stove when she was
cooking. He can't recall whether he was interested in the food or
just wanted to be warm, but something caught and his held his interest.
He was 17 when he entered the Job Corps's culinary arts program in
Roswell, N.M., where he was faced with a tough instructor who had
graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York...
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Bus system meet draws 30
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Organizers called the turnout of 30 citizens and
agency representatives interested in establishing public transportation
for Gallup "encouraging." Supporters met Friday at the
library to discuss public transportation options.
Zachary Bangel, president of the local chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind, said he organized the meeting after seeing
a need in Gallup for public transportation. "I grew up in Brooklyn,
and I guess I took public transportation for granted," he said.
"I'm lucky enough to have a car in my household, but many other
people are not as lucky."
Bangel has lived in Gallup for nearly a year and a half. In that
time, he's organized an NFB chapter and made bus service for Gallup
a mission for his group...
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