Ramah gets past Sanders
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
RAMAH — The Ramah Mustangs are beginning to feel more like a
complete basketball team these days.
With sophomore forward Tucker Simons and junior wing Austin Clawson
back in the Mustang lineup, Ramah wore down Valley Sanders with free
throw shooting in the fourth period to pull away for a 82-69 victory
Friday night.
"It means a lot to have them both back," Ramah
head coach Grant Clawson said about Simons and Clawson. "We've
had a hard time early in the season getting together as a team. Tucker
and Austin have a big impact on the team. They'll score 25 points
combined per game besides playing solid defense. Our defense is what
saved us tonight with the turnovers."
Simons, who missed two ballgames because of a technical he received
during the game against Zuni which Ramah lost and then missed the
St. Michael game which the Mustangs lost 61-58, pumped in 20 points
while Clawson chipped in seven points. During a 72-46 win over Newcomb
last weekend, Simons scored 13 points and Clawson added 12 points
for their usual 25-point total.
The Mustangs are still missing junior Preston Morris who will be getting
a checkup Jan. 10 on his playing status.
Ramah, 4-5 overall, will be off for the holidays before
returning to play at Reserve Jan. 7. Valley, 5-2, will travel to Cibecue
tonight.
The gsme was hotly contested for three periods with neither team ahead
by more than five points.
The Valley Pirates moved into the lead 34-33 late in the first half
after a three-pointer by R. Jay Thomas, who led the Pirates with 21
points along with three treys.
The lead changed hands two more times with Mustang senior point guard
LeeVon Martinez dishing out an assist to senior center Curtis Merrill
for the score underneath the basket for a 35-34 Mustang lead. But
the Pirates countered with a pair of free throws by J.C. Baldwin that
gave Valley a one-point lead. Thomas then nailed a jump shot for a
three-point Pirate lead, 38-35.
However the Mustangs stormed back in the final seconds of the period
for three quick baskets off Pirate turnovers.
Martinez, who led all scorers with a game-high 27 points along with
four treys, scored and then came right back with a three-pointer with
13 seconds left in the half. Ramah closed out the first half with
another score by Simons off a steal for a 42-38 Mustang lead at intermission.
The game was nip-and-tuck in the third period while Valley got into
serious foul trouble. Wilbur Begay got his fourth foul midway through
the third period and sat out the rest of the period.
The Pirates broke a 55-all tie with a minute remaining in the third
quarter after Arlison Six sank one of two free throws for a slim 56-55
Pirate lead. Valley made it a three-point ballgame as Six scored off
a fastbreak. But the Mustangs capitalized on a pair of Pirate turnovers
in succession that paved the way for a pair of quick scores by Martinez
that gave Ramah the lead at 59-58.
Valley got the lead back for the final time at the start
of the fourth period on an inside score by Six.
But the Mustangs stole the lead back for good as Martinez
buried his fourth trey of the game from the corner.
The Pirates were forced to foul the Mustangs, who started running
time off the clock with about four minutes left in the game and leading
by seven points, 70-63.
The Pirates lost three players on fouls with Six leaving 6:24 left,
Begay with 1:31 and Baldwin with 1:19 left.
The Mustangs marched to the charity stripe in the fourth period to
seal the win.
Ramah sank 16-of-30 free throws in the fourth period, 23-of-41 for
the game. Martinez was a perfect 4-for-4 at the line in the fourth,
Simons and Tyson George were both 3-for-4, Tyler Morsbach 3-for-6,
Merrill 2-for-2 and Clawson 1-for-6.
Ramah took a 20-16 first period thanks to Martinez pumping in 10 of
his game-high 27 points in the period along with a pair of treys.
Valley's Thomas accounted for 11 of his team's 16 points in the first
period.
The Mustangs led 42-38 at intermission with Martinez having scored
16 of his points and Simons right behind with 12 of his 20 points
by halftime. Valley's Thomas, who was held in check with just three
points in the second half, had 18 points of his 21 points tallied
by intermission.
For the game, Ramah sank 23-of-41 free throws while
Valley was 6-for-16 at the line. The Pirates had 29 fouls while the
Mustangs had 18 fouls.
Ramah's Martinez led all scorers with 27 points and four treys with
Simons with 20 points and one trey. In all 10 players scored for the
Mustangs.
Valley's Thomas finished with 21 points and three treys with Six with
12 points.
Ramah also took the JV game, winning 79-73 over Valley Sanders.
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Reservation fire coverage questioned
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Navajo tribal officials were still assuring residents
of the Navajo Reservation Friday that there will be adequate fire
protection in place for the weekend.
But a press release issued by tribal firefighters not only disagrees
with those assurances but says tribal officials have locked out volunteers
who want to return to work.
It's the latest in a series of skirmishes between tribal public safety
officials and firefighters who walked out on Wednesday in protest
of a decision by the tribe to demote rather than fire the tribe's
former fire chief, Dickie Bain.
Larry Foster, chief aide to Navajo Nation President
Kelsey Begaye, said late Friday afternoon that "everything was
under control."
Since the walkout, tribal officials have been in contact with fire
officials in various counties, the forestry department for the Bureau
of Indian Affairs and the various fire departments that protect BIA
boarding schools.
Arrangements have been made for these entities, along with new tribal
volunteers and the tribal police, to respond to any fire calls for
the duration of the walkout.
But a press release issued by the Navajo Nation Volunteer
Firefighters' Association said that people whose home catch on fire
will have to hope they live close to a BIA or county fire station.
Otherwise, federal regulations prohibit BIA fire trucks from responding
to fires too far from the schools they cover, and county fire stations
are a sizable distance from the reservation.
"You may be fortunate enough to have the Fort Defiance, Tuba
City, Indian Wells or Chinle departments respond to cries of help,
only to find that the well-qualified, competent and certified firefighters
that you expected have been replaced by untrained, incompetent and
unqualified personnel," the association press release said.
Foster said he wasn't sure how many of the 11 full-time tribal firefighters
and 50 or 60 volunteers walked out when the tribe's director of public
safety, Herb Clah, announced that he had decided to remove Bain as
fire chief but allow him to stay on as a captain in the fire department.
Melvin Young, a past president of the firefighter's association, said
he didn't know how many of the firefighters have walked out either,
although he said those in Window Rock did and expects that many of
the others throughout the reservation walked off as well.
"We want to stand behind the firefighters on the tribe's payroll
who were the only ones who stood behind us when we needed equipment
and training. Dickie Bain never did that," said Young.
Young and other members of the association still blame Bain for the
lack of funding that curtailed training of new volunteers and prevented
many of them from getting all the equipment they needed to fight reservation
fires safely.
"An untrained, unqualified and uncertified firefighter
is as good as your own efforts using a garden hose or pouring buckets
of water to douse engulfing flames," said the association press
release in explaining the effects of the budget cuts on the quality
of firefighting for some of the tribe's newer volunteers.
The association says the walkout is now becoming a lockout.
Several volunteers who had walked out Wednesday tried to go back to
work Thursday and were told they had been fired.
"That was followed by locks being changed on all the doors,"
the association's press release stated. Young added that firefighters
in both Window Rock and Tuba City told the association they had gone
to their respective fire stations and found new locks on the doors.
Foster said the president's office is leaving disciplinary action
against those who participated in the walkout to Clah. This has resulted
in the association's going after Clah, although not as badly as they
went after Bain.
"Mr. Clah has dealt with us in a negative and unprofessional
manner," according to the association's statement.
Clah was not available for comment Friday, but Foster said the public
safety director, as well as the president, were treating the firefighters
fairly.
Young said he didn't believe this, but he said the association
is willing to sit down with tribal officials and try to work through
the situation.
"We are ready to negotiate and arrive at a satisfactory outcome,"
said the association's statement, adding that the firefighters are
hoping to have the assistance of Begaye in their efforts.
In a personal message to Begaye, the association said, "We do
not feel that you are receiving accurate information and that you
are unconcerned about us."
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'Sister Jean Lynch leaving Indian Country,
going east
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Since 1982, Sister Jean Lynch has been working in the
trenches, trying to bring hope and a new life to area alcoholics.
With the help of the Southwest Indian Foundation, which
funded her work, Sister Jean, a member of the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament, has made a difference to hundreds of families in the area,
many of whom showed up Monday night at a reception sponsored by SWIF
to say thank you and goodbye.
On Monday, she returns to her Mother House in Philadelphia, where
she has been given a new assignment counseling young people in drug
and alcohol programs.
"I'm going to miss the people in this area,"
she said. "The scenery is great, but it is the people that I'll
miss the most. One reason for this is that I have learned more from
the people here than I have given them."
Alcohol counseling
Working in such communities as Pion, St. Michaels and
Navajo, N.M., Sister Jean has counseled Navajo families that have
been torn apart by the drinking habits of one of their members.
She brings to the role of counselor a passionate love for people and
a belief that eventually with the help of their families most alcoholics
will gain the strength to control their drinking.
But she's also a realist who understands that alcoholics have to want
to change their lifestyle.
"If we start going through the program, and after awhile, he
hasn't made a change in his lifestyle in some way, I would tell him
to come back when (he is) ready," she said.
And time after time, the person would eventually come back. The sister
would welcome the person and start working with the family again.
Traveled the country
Training in the beginning as a teacher she believes that counseling
is just another form of teaching Sister Jean has traveled over many
parts of this country since joining the order when she was about 20
years old.
She grew up during the Depression in a middle-class family, raised
first in Manhattenville, a part of New York City, and then Maine.
Her father represented a steamship company, so much of her early years
were spent near the ocean.
Before being assigned to the Gallup Diocese, she spent
time in a number of U.S. cities and dioceses, including New Orleans,
Atlanta, St. Louis, Cleveland, Harlem and Philadelphia, most of them
as a teacher in Catholic schools. She also spent a lot of those years
working with black students.
Although she had spent some time on the Sioux Reservation in South
Dakota, it wasn't until she was working on a degree in counseling
psychology at Bowie State in Maryland a major black college that she
began thinking of working with Native Americans.
One of her classes dealt with multicultural counseling, and it was
the course's practice to divide the class into groups.
Native American culture
Although much of her previous teaching experience had
been in predominately black schools, she found all the black groups
in the class were filled. So she joined the group dealing with Native
Americans, which was so interesting that she began on her own time
spending several hours a day in the library studying Native American
culture.
Not long after that, the administrators of her order told her there
was a community on the Navajo Reservation that once had sisters from
the order.
"They said they planned to return to Pion and wanted
to know would I like to go. I, of course, said yes," she said.
She said as soon as she got to Pion, she realized the Navajo people
were facing a major problem with alcoholism. She also realized there
weren't many people providing the kind of help that Navajo families
needed.
"There were only four (Alcoholics Anonymous) groups on the reservation
at that time," she said.
Since then, more AA groups have been formed, and organizations
like SWIF have been putting expanded funds into substance-abuse counseling
courses.
She stresses the importance of getting people to make
changes in their lives.
"My theory of counseling," she said, "is to ask, 'How
do you perceive yourself, how do you perceive others, how do you perceive
life?' If you can change any of these perceptions, he's on his way
to recovery."
As she leaves for Philadelphia, she leaves behind a number of people
who, thanks to her, are now coping with sobriety. But, she stressed,
although she's leaving, the organizations that funded her work such
as SWIF will still be around and will be working just as heard to
see that her work continues.
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Area in brief
Veterans meeting
BREADSPRINGS — The Breadsprings/Pine Haven Veterans meeting will
be held at 1 p.m., Saturday Dec. 19 at the Bread Springs Chapter House.
Information: (505) 778-5788.
Chapter meeting
OAK SPRINGS — The Oak Springs Chapter House will hold their regular
chapter meeting and Christmas dinner at 10 a.m., Sunday Dec. 19. Information:
(520) 871-6179/6182.
Christmas dinner
HOUCK, Ariz. — The Houck Chapter House will hold their community
Christmas Dinner at 10 a.m., Sunday Dec. 19 at the Houck Chapter House.
Information: (520) 688-2734...
Tribe starts rescue, fire backup plan
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation's Division of Public Safety has
started a backup plan for fire and rescue services after volunteers
and paid employees walked off the job this week.
The walkout, which began Tuesday, was because embattled Chief Dicky
Bain was allowed to stay with the department. Bain was demoted to
the rank of captain.
DPS Director Herb Clah said his division on Wednesday
began providing fire and rescue coverage for the Chinle, Indian Wells,
Tuba City and Window Rock areas. However, Clah did not specify how
this was being done...
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Lights burn for fallen cop
Sculpture honors brother
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
LUKACHUKAI, Ariz. — Nathan Redhouse doesn't want people to forget
the sacrifice made by his brother, Samuel, when he went to work that
morning in 1997.
So he used his grief to fashion a sculpture that he hopes will remind
people of his brother and other members of the Navajo Division of
Law Enforcement who have died in the line of duty. Samuel Redhouse
was killed on Feb. 17, 1997, when he responded to a call about a man
in the Iyanbito area with a gun.
Nathan Redhouse said he felt his brother's presence when he was making
a sculpture to honor him. "Spiritually, he's still around,"
he said...
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No lights at Chichiltah Head Start
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
CHICHILTAH — On Nov. 18, the lights went out on Chichiltah Head
Start.
That's the day the Head Start teachers learned the chapter had failed
to pay it's electric bill.
But now, thanks to efforts by Head Start teachers here and parents
of the preschoolers, the lights are back on and students are preparing
for their annual Christmas party, to be held today at the school.
The problems at the school began when staff arrived on the morning
of Nov. 18 and found the school building cold and without electricity...
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Flu-like bug fills hospitals
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — People with flu-like symptoms are filling the waiting
rooms of the Indian Health Service clinics and hospitals.
"Our workload has jumped up dramatically during the past three
weeks or so," said Dr. Doug Peter, chief medical officer for
the Navajo Area IHS.
Over the past several weeks, IHS doctors and nurses have given some
30,000 flu shots to children, adults with respiratory problems, the
elderly and those considered high risk...
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Public defender helped Mayes 'escape'
Andrea Egger Rider
Special to the Independent
GALLUP — Forrest Buffington remembers how former Gallup Police
Officer Thomas Mayes "escaped" a first-degree murder conviction
in 1992 when he shot and killed his live-in girlfriend.
It was through the work of Albuquerque's Joe Shattuck, the New Mexico
Public Defender's Office capital crimes attorney. While Shattuck works
mainly on death penalty cases, Mayes wasn't facing death.
"Joe did well. He got (Mayes) from a capital charge
down to the bare minimum of what he was charged with," the former
Gallup district attorney said in a telephone interview Friday from
Albuquerque, where he was on business...
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Judge OKs death-penalty prosecution
GRANTS, N.M. (AP) — A judge on Friday granted two of three prosecution
grounds for seeking the death penalty against a man accused of murdering
a deputy sheriff who was driving him to prison.
District Attorney Mike Runnels had filed the notice of the death-penalty
prosecution against Michael Archuleta in July and petitioned the court
on three grounds shooting a peace officer during the lawful performance
of duty, murder of a witness and killing in the process of escape
from a penal institution.
Archuleta is accused of killing Sierra County Deputy
Kelly Clark last March 4 while she was transporting him from the Truth
or Consequences jail to the prison in Grants...
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