Federal proposal could bring young Navajo
offenders back home
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — If the federal government gets its way, many of
the Navajo youth incarcerated in federal juvenile facilities will
be coming back to the reservation to be housed in the tribe's newest
juvenile center.
Federal officials told the tribe Friday they want to rent one-fifth
of the beds at the new tribal juvenile center in Chinle for long-term
use.
The problem is: The Central Navajo Youth Corrections Center is scheduled
to open in April as a short-term detention facility.
If the two governments sign a contract, it would allow
at least some of the 22 Navajos under age 21 now in federal custody
for serious felonies to return to the reservation.
Almost 300 juveniles 70 percent of them North American Indians are
now serving federal sentences, but they are scattered all over the
country at 43 locations. They also make up a tiny fraction of the
more than 135,000 U.S. Bureau of Prison inmates.
Teams from the U.S. Departments of Justice and the Interior met at
the Navajo Nation Museum Friday with a variety of Navajo officials,
including the center's advisory committee coordinator, Cora Phillips,
who made another passionate plea for more help for delinquent tribal
youth.
Also present were Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye, Division
of Public Safety executives, the tribal Prosecutor's Office, Navajo
Nation Council delegates, representatives of the Central Navajo Youth
Correction Center and Apache County Supervisor Joe Shirley.
The Bureau of Prisons wants to house the young inmates for up to two
years. But federal officials said they did not want to overwhelm a
new staff in a new facility, so they proposed beginning with 10 beds.
When opened, the center will have pods that can hold six prisoners
each. The multimillion dollar center will have 48 regular beds, plus
an intake area that can hold another half dozen people.
Initially the U.S. Congress approved funds for several detention centers,
which keep inmates for a short time. But the Chinle community determined
and Begaye told U.S. officials he agrees that the Navajo Nation needs
a center that would hold troubled boys and girls for a greater amount
of time to allow attempts to rehabilitate them into law-abiding citizens.
About five years ago, the new center's advisory board started work
on a program to include traditional counseling in attempts to rehabilitate
wayward youth. Everyone thought, until a few months ago, the federal
government had approved the change of focus for the center.
At Friday's conference, both federal agencies committed to doing what
they could to help the Navajo Nation with the project, including changing
the focus or housing both types of inmates.
Chinle will be the third tribal juvenile detention center. The first
center, at Tohatchi, can hold up to 14 children. The second, at Tuba
City, can hold several dozen, but has never operated at capacity.
Three more of the Navajo Reservation's larger communities
are ranked ninth, 10th and 11th on the U.S. list of 17 juvenile halls
to be built.
The United States has paid for the top seven, so Kayenta should be
funded within a few years, followed by Crownpoint and Shiprock. The
Kayenta Township also is considering building a juvenile center in
Kayenta with its own bonds.
Wilbe Antone, director of the tribal Department of Corrections,
told the audience of about three dozen people that in 1997 the juvenile
halls received 485 boys and girls. The next year this increased to
491 children, with a noticeable shift in the mix more girls and fewer
boys.
Antone said Navajo police detains up to 3,500 young people year.
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Navajo debtors' jail could be abolished
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — The Navajo Nation may be on it way to abolishing the
practice of sending tribal members to jail if they can't pay their
debts.
The Navajo Nation Supreme Court recently issued a permanent injunction
prohibiting a tribal judge from throwing Bessie Pelt, a Montezuma
Creek, Utah, woman, into tribal jail for failure to pay a debt.
"Essentially, she was in a debtor's prison," said Derek
Haskew, the DNA-People's Legal Services attorney who represented her.
"Debtor's prison has been abolished almost everywhere, because
it is ... an unfair punishment," he said. "It treats people
who are having financial difficulties in the same manner as violent
criminals, and it makes a positive solution that much more unlikely."
It's a practice that has been abolished by all the states,
in some cases with residents having to amend the state constitutions.
It's also been abolished in most other countries.
Putting a debtor in jail is uncommon on the Navajo Reservation, mainly
because the tribe lacks jail space, but it apparently happens a couple
of times a year.
Attorneys for DNA, however, think that is too many times.
Pelt, the mother of three children, was thrown into a tribal jail
when one of her creditors went to court and complained she had failed
to pay a judgment. She said she didn't have the money, but DNA attorneys
said she was told she "had to pay or else."
District Court Judge Ray Begay ordered her put in jail on a Thursday
in August, and Pelt called DNA for assistance. Attorneys could not
remember the exact date Pelt was jailed.
While the legal aid agency doesn't handle many criminal cases, attorneys
in the Montezuma Creek office immediately began preparing a motion
to present to the courts the following day in the hopes of getting
her returned to her children before the weekend.
However, the courts were closed on Friday, because all tribal judges
were at a judicial conference, and the courts were closed.
"We found Chief Justice Robert Yazzie and the other judges at
the conference," said Claudeen Bates Arthur, DNA's legal director.
When she approached Yazzie, she asked him, "Isn't it a Navajo
tradition not to turn away someone in need?"
That apparently worked. After reviewing the documents
during their lunch break, Yazzie signed the release order. The supreme
court, in an order issued recently, made the order permanent and told
attorneys the supreme court would issue a formal decision in the near
future.
Arthur said she hoped the decision would be broad enough to abolish
the practice of tribal court judges throwing tribal members in jail
if they can't pay their debts.
The problem was created, she said, in a loophole that exists in tribal
law that allows creditors to get a court judgment requiring the person
being sued to pay a judgment. When the person fails to pay a portion
of or all the judgment, creditors argue the debtor is in contempt
of court for failing to make the payments.
This allows the tribal judge to throw the individual in jail until
the debt is paid thus ending the contempt or until the person posts
a bond equaling the amount owed.
Arthur said this didn't make sense.
"How are they going to get the money if they are in jail?"
she asked.
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Bill Gates will give computers to tribes
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Gates Foundation is trying to bridge the digital
divide on the Navajo Nation.
Each community on the reservation that has telecommunications infrastructure
will receive from two to four computers and software from the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation.
There will also be money to provide telecommunication infrastructure
in reservation communities where it is currently lacking.
Jessica Dorr, grant program manager for Native American Access to
Technical Programs of the Gates Foundation, visited the Navajo Reservation
Thursday and Friday to assess the tribe's computer needs.
Dorr, who has been working with Theresa Hopkins, director of the tribe's
general services office, toured the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni reservations
this week.
The goal of the project is to equip each of the tribes within the
four corners area with computers, she said.
An announcement of how many computers and where they will be placed
is expected in June.
Dorr will be back in the area in March to provide demonstrations to
the chapters on how to use computers.
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Shelly: Dems are breaking rules
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — At a meeting of the local Democratic Party Tuesday night,
McKinley County Commissioner Ben Shelly said he would protest any
action the group took because he thought the meeting was invalid.
Four days before the meeting, Shelly had asked New Mexico Party Chairwoman
Diane Denish to intercede and postpone the meeting.
He said at the meeting and in a letter to Denish that he believed
the public, especially the Native American public, was not properly
notified of the party's meeting...
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NAPI farmers fine tune potato skills
Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau
FARMINGTON — Workers for the Navajo Agricultural Products Industries,
preparing for the possibility of a potato processing plant, are becoming
potato farmers for the first time this year. The 160-acre test plot
is a joint venture with NAPI and R.D. Offitt of Park Rapids, Minn.,
the company that wants to run the processing plant. The test plot
will grow three varieties of potatoes used for french fry processing.
RDO also wants to the test the land the tribe will use to grow potatoes.
"We want the potatoes produced here," said LoRenzo Bates,
general manager of NAPI. Bates not only wants the potatoes grown at
the NAPI site, he wants the potato processing plant there as well.
He's waiting for the tribe to give its final approval on its portion
of the proposed $154 million french fry plant. Building of the plant
has stalled for the past two years, in part because of the question
of where disputes will be heard in state or tribal courts...
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A new Chamber prexy is in love with this
town
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — When Barbara Matthews found out in the fall of 1993
that she might be moving to Gallup, the first thing she did was call
the Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce.
As the organization's new president, Matthews said she sees her relocation
to Gallup as a valuable asset when talking with people who are thinking
of moving here. "Who better to do it than someone who has relocated
to Gallup and stays, not because they have to, but because they want
to?" she said...
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Naked legislators and some other woes
Walter Howerton Jr.
Santa Fe Bureau
SANTA FE — The New Mexico Legislature ended with the Democrats
imagining they really did a good job (even if there isn't a budget),
the Republicans imagining they were in the driver's seat (well, sort
of) and Gov. Gary Johnson imagining Manny Aragon naked (whooeee!).
Bob Dylan once said, "Even the president of the United States
sometimes has to stand naked."
But that was Dylan and the president. This is Johnson and Aragon fighting
over the budget. Dylan is a poet; Johnson is a governor still searching
for something meaningful to rhyme with "voucher." There
is poetic politics and there is plain old politics...
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Deaths
Howard Marshall Rowe Jr.
GRANTS — Services for Howard Marshall Rowe Jr., 53, will be held
at 1 p.m., Monday, Feb. 21 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints. Bishop Ernest Whetten will officiate. Burial will follow
at the Pioneer Memorial Park in Bluewater Village.
Visitation will be held one hour prior to services at the church.
Rowe Jr. died Feb. 16 in Grants. He was born July 31,
1946 in Canon City, Colo to Howard Marshall Rowe Sr. and Lorine Capshaw
Rowe.
Rowe Jr. was a resident of Grants. He was a shoe shine boy at Pat's
Barber Shop for several years.
Survivors include his mother, Lorine Rowe of Bluewater Village; brother,
Dale Roe of Pinedale, Wyo.; and sisters, Connie Marsing, Kathleen
Brown and Janice Bush, all of Bluewater and Leslie Cardin of Grand
Junction, Colo.
Pallbearers will be Dale Rowe, Paul Rowe, Gene Marsing, Arthur Shult,
Rodney Bush, Jerry Shult, Wesley Shult and Earl Brown.
Terry R. Metzger
MILAN — Services for Terry R. Metzger, 41, will be held at 10
a.m., Monday, Feb. 21 at Grants Mortuary Chapel. Burial will follow
at Grants Memorial Park.
Visitation will be held from 4-7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20 at the Grants
Mortuary Chapel.
Metzger died Feb. 17 in Milan. He was born Oct. 19, 1958 in Laramie,
Wyo. to Leon and Barbara Metzger.
Metzger was a life-long resident of Grants. He was a 1976 graduate
of Grants High School. He was employed at Lee Ranch Coal Company for
15 years.
Survivors include his wife, Denise Metzger of Milan; son, Todd Metzger
of Milan; daughter, Deidre Metzger of Milan; parents, Leon and Barbara
Metzger, both of Milan; brother, Scott Metzger of Milan; and grandmothers,
Ellen Powell of Walden, Colo. and Lela Metzger of Durango, Colo.
Pallbearers will be Brad Sauter, David Marsing, Jim Ed Strickland,
Rollie Waldie, Brad Wilson and Ray Eagle.
Geane Renee Hanson
TUCSON, Ariz. — Memorial services for Geane Renee Hanson, 43,
will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Feb. 22 at the Friends Meeting House,
931 North Fifth Ave.
Hanson died Feb. 13 in Phoenix, Ariz. She was born Jan. 10, 1957 to
Eugene and Wilma Hanson in Carlisle, Pa.
Hanson attended public schools in Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania
and graduated with a B.S. from Millersville University (PA) in 1978;
and M.Ed. (1984) and Ph.D. (1992) at the University of Arizona. Her
professional experience included primary, elementary and middle schools
in Pennsylvania and Arizona followed by teaching and/or consulting
positions at the University of Arizona, Hamline University (MN), Prescott
College (Tucson Branch) and in the Four Corners area including numerous
school on the Navajo Nation.
Hanson's sisters included Kathryn Johnson of Minneapolis, Minn. and
Kristine Kraft of Minot, N.D.
Donations can be made to the American Cancer Society.
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