Rashid feared for life
Trader recalls escape from kidnappers
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Gallup Indian trader Jim Rashid, who was kidnapped two
months ago at Acoma Pueblo's Sky City Casino, outsmarted his attackers
by pretending he did not speak Spanish.
Rashid, who won more than $8 million on slot machines at Sky City
last year, says his understanding of Spanish and a lucky break in
Gallup helped him escape from the four Hispanic males who kidnapped
him and threatened to kill him.
He talked to the Independent last week, describing in detail the events
that took place the evening of Jan. 10 and the early morning of Jan.
11. He declined to talk about statements made by one of the kidnappers
that linked him romantically with the wife of another kidnapper.
His account, for the first time, spells out the fact the kidnappers
intended to kill him. He said he had to convince them he had enough
money in his business safes for them to decide they should take him
to Gallup to get the money before they killed him.
About 7 p.m. on the night of Jan. 10, Rashid said, he went to El Dorado
restaurant, one of four businesses he owns in Gallup, to have dinner
with a couple of friends.
When he finished eating, he said, he had intended to go home. But
he had bought a new 2000 Suburban that day and decided to take it
for a test drive to Sky City Casino a place he said he used to frequent
on Sundays.
At Acoma, he parked up front by the main entrance as usual, next to
three or four cars.
He was halfway out of his truck when a masked assailant in army fatigues
stuck a .45-caliber handgun in his face. The suspect then cocked the
firearm and said, "Get back in the truck, m- f-, or I'll blow
your head off," Rashid said.
Unafraid, Rashid said, he did not pay attention to the threat. He
turned to the right and tried to run, but before he could move, three
more gunmen in camouflaged caps and clothing appeared and started
hitting him on the head.
He began screaming for help, but the attackers were hitting him on
the head repeatedly. Within two minutes, they had "got the best
of me." Rashid said he was injured but was never on the ground
during the beating.
'I'll shoot you'
The suspects placed him in the back seat of his truck, face down on
the floorboard. Rashid said the masked gunman then gave him the rules:
"If you make a move or open your mouth, I'll shoot you."
While instructions given to Rashid were in English, the masked man
directed his accomplices in Spanish. If they were to be stopped by
police, Rashid said, the man told his buddies to shoot them. The masked
man would shoot Rashid.
The masked man produced Rashid's gun a .38-caliber nickel special
from an inconspicuous place in the truck, indicating to Rashid the
suspect somehow knew where he kept the weapon.
Still in the casino parking lot, the head captor called someone on
a cellular phone and said in English, "We've got him, but I want
to be sure he's the right person."
The kidnappers then drove about 15 minutes to an unknown location
on Acoma Pueblo, forced Rashid out of the truck, pulled up the poles
of a chain-link fence and walked him through. Rashid said he was led
to a spot underneath a tree about 75 feet from a highway.
The masked man demanded to know who Rashid was, he said. If he lied,
they would "finish" him there.
"I gave them my real name and told them I'm an Arab," he
said. "I acted like I didn't know a word in Spanish."
In Spanish, the main aggressor told the others to take care of Rashid.
The chief captor was leaving but would return.
Because he was lying face down on the ground and it was dark, Rashid
said, he could not tell whether the kidnapper was picked up by someone
or used his truck.
Within 15 minutes, the masked man was back and told Rashid, "I'm
sorry, but I'm contracted to kill you." He ordered the three
others to hold Rashid and told him to raise his head, that he was
going to shoot him with his own gun.
Bullet grazes head
The masked man fired a shot. The bullet grazed Rashid's head, taking
off some of his hair, he said. At that moment, Rashid believed the
gunman was going to kill him.
The gunman left again for 15 minutes. When he returned, he told the
others: "Looks like it's clear. We should finish up and go."
Once Rashid heard the command, he began his life-saving process. "What
do you want to kill me for?" he asked. "If you take me to
Gallup to my store, I'll give you a half million in cash."
The masked man replied he was not there for the money. He was contracted
to kill Rashid. The assailant then hit him repeatedly in the face.
Again, Rashid told him he had $4,000 in cash on him, as well as gold
and diamond rings. But the masked man said he did not need Rashid's
money or jewelry.
Rashid continued to restate his offer, but the masked man asked his
accomplices for a knife, saying in Spanish he was going to cut off
Rashid's penis.
Then he asked the others, "What do you think? Should we go to
Gallup and get a half million dollars? We could still do the job anyway.
We'll kill him in Gallup." They replied it was up to him, and
he left again for 15 minutes, Rashid said.
When the leader returned, he said they would go to Gallup for $800,000,
not $500,000. "I told him I guarantee you $500,000. I do have
that at my store (Pow Wow Indian Jewelry)," Rashid said. "And
I'll get you $100,000 from El Dorado
and about $55,000 to $60,000 at the Shalimar."
The masked man told the others, "So far he hasn't lied to me.
Let's go for it," Rashid said.
The masked man told his accomplices they risked getting stopped by
the police, because the truck had dealer tags. In that event, the
masked man said, he would distract whoever interfered, while the others
shot that person in the back. Then, the masked man said, he would
shoot Rashid.
Assailants stay calm
At no time, Rashid said, did the assailants appear nervous.
To keep from getting pulled over, Rashid said, they drove under the
speed limit, stopping after about five minutes. He said the masked
man talked for about a minute to someone whom Rashid could neither
see nor hear.
As the truck rolled down the highway and passed what Rashid assumed
by their sound were semitrailers, no one spoke. No one drank, smoked
or listened to the radio. In the silence, Rashid began to think that
perhaps in Gallup he would get a break, that he would know what to
do if given a chance.
At the Pow Wow, one of the assailants stayed in Rashid's truck. Rashid
opened the safe and tried to hand the masked man the money, but he
refused to touch it, asking Rashid to put the cash in an empty Corona
box.
"That's not a half a million dollars," the masked man said.
Rashid replied he had another safe. "Just open it," the
assailant said.
The assailants made Rashid put the money in the box, he said. Meanwhile,
the gunmen took one rifle and one Uzi out of Rashid's office, the
masked man asking the others whether they should kill Rashid here
or go.
"I said you forgot the $100,000 from El Dorado and the money
from Shalimar I promised you," Rashid said.
The masked man said he was not going because Shalimar was still open,
and Rashid's friend, retired Gallup police officer Chris Mazon, worked
there.
So Rashid told him El Dorado was closed. He wanted, he said, to give
the assailants the gold and diamond jewelry inside. The masked man
said he was not interested in the jewelry.
The masked man directed the others to meet him at the back door of
El Dorado and to leave the doors to Shalimar open. Once they had the
$100,000, they would bring Rashid back to the store, kill him and
leave his truck out front.
Money goes in trunk
Rashid said the masked man put the box of money in the trunk of a
dark-colored, four-door car behind the store and remained with the
money. Rashid said he doesn't know how the car got there.
Two assailants dragged Rashid to the restaurant/lounge, where he tried
to get them to use the east door near the bathroom and bar, but they
refused. "That tells me he's been there," Rashid said.
Rashid said an assailant walked him to the restaurant safe at gunpoint,
while another stood guard at the west door. "Which made me happy,"
Rashid said. "I gained more confidence one on one."
The restaurant had closed at 10 p.m., he said. Now, it was 1 a.m.
and there was little light near the safe. Rashid said he could not
see to open the safe, so his assailants hit him in the back of the
head with a gun. "You know how to open the others," the
assailant said. "How come it's taking you so long to open this
one?"
"I was buying time," Rashid said. "Maybe someone will
come out of the bar."
Convincing the gunman to turn on the lights in the dining room, Rashid
opened the safe, which held two days worth of money in 11 purple-and-gold
Crown Royal bags.
After Rashid loaded the assailant's left arm with the money, they
began walking toward the restaurant's middle room. At last given a
chance to escape, Rashid jumped about 10 feet, diving through the
swinging doors of the packed bar.
The assailant dropped one bag of money and took off, Rashid said.
At first, the 40 or so people inside the bar thought the bloody Rashid
had gotten into a fight, so he had to clarify that he had been kidnapped.
He told his customers to call the police and sent a
couple of them to get Mazon from the Shalimar. "I told everyone
to come out of the bar," he said. "We've got a chance to
catch these guys.
Police do good job
Rashid said the Gallup Police Department and local FBI did an excellent
job, aided by the fact that he had stayed alert.
Using Rashid's descriptions of the assailants, police have apprehended
four people in connection with the kidnapping. Jesus Ernesto Serrano-Cerda,
33, was arrested in the restaurant parking lot, where he was asleep
behind the wheel of a vehicle Rashid described to police.
Surveillance of the Super 8 Motel on Historic Route 66, where Serrano
told police the assailants were staying, yielded the arrest of Gilberto
Lupercio Hurtado, 20. Tracing calls on the cellular telephone led
to the arrest of a female suspect, Mireya Davila, 19, who told police
where the fourth assailant, Efrain Reyes (alias Miguel Israel), 32,
could be found.
The three male suspects have been jailed until their trial, but Davila
is under house arrest at her Colorado home. Rashid is not happy about
Davila being at home, even though she is wearing a monitoring device.
"That was unfair to me," he said, adding the FBI should
have waited until it got all his money back. So far, $164,000 is missing,
he said. And Rashid believes at least one kidnapper is still on the
streets.
"The investigation is going," he said. "It looks like
they will find out who contracted them out for the killing."
Rashid said he is unsure why someone would want to kill him. "I
don't have any enemies," he said. "I don't have the slightest
idea, but he's going to come up."
Rashid said he will never go back to Sky City Casino,
especially since firearms are forbidden inside. That leaves him no
way to protect himself, he said.
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Hopis rebuke outsiders
Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — The head of the Hopi Tribe's land dispute office remembers
his uncle once told him the tribe had a prophecy: One day a white
man would come to the Hopis' land and disrupt their lives.
"They will put words in your mouth," his uncle said of white
men. "They may seem friendly and compassionate. However, that
is just a front. Underneath, they are full of wickedness and evil,
extremely deceiving and utmost conspiring."
Cedric Kuwaninvaya says now he believes his uncle's
vision has come true, and the outsiders and political activists who
have been camping out at the homes of Navajo resisters on the Hopi
Partitioned Lands are those people.
Hopi leaders dislike the outsiders, many of whom are from European
countries and say they have been sent by their governments to observe
what is going on between resisters and Hopi government officials.
Two weeks ago, Kuwaninvaya tired of the rhetoric coming from the outsiders
in defense of the Navajo resisters issued a challenge. He publicly
asked the foreign observers to meet with him and other Hopi leaders
and hear their side of the story.
So far, he said, not one of them has come by for a meeting.
Members of the Swedish American Indian Foundation and
European and Japanese delegations came to the area to support the
Navajo resisters as the latest deadline in the century-old land dispute
approached on Feb. 1.
More than a dozen foreign observers showed up as the deadline approached,
and while the Hopi tribal government asked non-Indians to stay away,
they camped out at the homes of Navajo families who had refused to
sign an accommodation agreement with the Hopis.
While in the area, they gathered statements from the Navajo resisters.
To defend their stand, some foreign representatives sent a letter
to the editor of the Independent that stated the group has been working
on the issue for years.
"If they have been working on this conflict for
so many years," Kuwaninvaya asked, "why didn't they let
the Hopi know?"
Kuwaninvaya said he has been involved with the land issue for many
years, and he has never heard from the activists.
He characterized the foreign activists as "self-proclaimed
human rights observers (who) perpetuate racist and intolerant attitudes
against the Hopi. ... They have not learned all the facts."
Kuwaninvaya said he is offended by their reference to
the area as the "so-called Hopi Partitioned Lands" since
the HPL is part of the Hopi Indian Reservation.
"Such blatant disregard for the sovereign jurisdiction
of the Hopi Nation is an insult and an abuse," he said.
He accused the outsiders of "promoting allegations of police
harassment, racist attitudes against tribal governments" by referring
to them as "puppets" who promote fear and violence, he said.
The Hopi government and villages in Hopi have had to
close their doors because of bomb threats, he said.
"This is the tragic legacy of so-called human rights
observers on our land who willingly fan the flames of intolerance
against Hopi by their outright support for a taking of Hopi land,"
stated Kuwaninvaya. "Others follow their example by taking the
next step of threatened or actual violence."
The activists believe one of their roles is to witness
instances of harassment, including the confiscation of livestock.
But livestock is being confiscated from both Hopis and
Navajos due to drought conditions, Kuwaninvaya said. Reducing the
number of livestock is a part of range management.
Neither Hopi nor Navajo families have the number of
livestock permits they should have, he said.
The outsiders and political activists frequently pepper their rhetoric
with phrases such as "cultural genocide," an issue that
angers Hopis.
"They overlook the harm that the Hopi have endured,"
Kuwaninvaya said. "The prejudice that has been most noticeable
has been the prejudice, discrimination and intolerance against the
Hopi people, who have been dispossessed of their land for over 100
years."
Another common thread in the speech of the activists
is that traditional people in both tribes have divided themselves
from their councils, which they say are merely puppets of the U.S.
government.
"The sad truth is that we continue to suffer colonial
attitudes when so-called human rights activists suggest that we are
unable to govern ourselves and that we are not 'traditional' enough
to be Indian," he said.
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County to CSC: Return $8,000
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — McKinley County is asking Correctional Services Corp.
to return $8,000 that belongs to former inmates. CSC managed the McKinley
County Adult Detention Center from June 1997 until this past January.
That $8,000 is part of the Inmate Trust Fund. When people get booked
into the jail, they can put whatever money they have brought with
them into the Inmate Trust Fund. The inmates then can retrieve their
money when they are released.
When CSC left in January, it turned over $1,800 to cover the amount
of money that inmates who were still at the jail had put in the Inmate
Trust Fund. CSC gave the $1,800 to the new operating company, Management
and Training Corp.
However, McKinley County wrote to CSC saying that many former inmates
had not yet claimed their money, leaving a total of $8,000 behind
in the fund. CSC kept that money.
CSC's Harold "Bob" Bass said the money from former prisoners
is about $3,800, not $8,000. Bass is vice president of business development
with CSC and was the facility administrator when CSC managed the detention
center in Gallup.
McKinley County provided the Gallup Independent with
a list of former inmates who had not retrieved their Inmate Trust
Fund money. The money owed inmates on that list totaled $8,000.
But Bass said CSC has written checks from the Inmate Trust Fund to
former inmates and is waiting for those checks to clear.
Many inmates only have a few cents or a couple of dollars
in the fund. Some inmates have been transferred from the county jail.
These inmates may not ask for their money back or bother to cash a
check worth little money. Bass said whatever is left in the fund will
remain with CSC.
"That money remains in our trust because that was during our
operation there," Bass said.
If former inmates do ask for their money back, they will have to contact
CSC, he added.
Doug Decker, the county's general counsel, said, "As
long as it's being accounted for to that inmate, it can be with anybody.
"The county is looking out for the inmates. You need to get it
(the money) back to some local trustee, so the inmate can have an
easier time getting it back."
A tug-of-war with money between McKinley County and
CSC has prolonged the relationship between the county and the former
managing company of the Adult Detention Center.
The $8,000 is part of $82,515 the county is withholding from its final
payment to CSC to cover building repair and unpaid bills from local
vendors.
When CSC left the jail in January, the county had one final payment
of $223,440 to give the company.
After noting several unpaid bills, expenses to repair the detention
center and the $8,000 missing from the Inmate Trust Fund, the county
decided to withhold $67,515. An additional $15,000 was withheld in
case new expenses or bills surfaced.
In writing to the county, CSC has addressed all but
three of the 27 items for which the county says CSC owes money.
In a letter, the county wrote that CSC must install $3,000 worth of
cameras and repair $3,000 worth of tables and locker doors in inmate
pods.
Including the money from the Inmate Trust Fund, CSC
has not paid for or explained in writing why it will not pay for these
three items.
For other items the county listed, CSC has contended it was either
not responsible or has provided proof of payment.
The two organizations are still negotiating the money
being withheld from the county's final payment to CSC.
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Tribe wants power over business leases
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation is sending a formal request to
Congress that would eliminate the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs from
the process of approving business site leases on the Navajo Reservation.
Navajo officials have been talking about doing this since the days
of Peter MacDonald, who served as Navajo Nation chairman from 1971
to 1983 and 1987-89. But for the first time steps are now under way
to get Congress to relinquish federal authority over business site
lease approvals.
The BIA requires 34 steps before a business site lease can be approved.
The Navajo Nation adds 24 of its own steps, many of which mirror the
BIA requirements...
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Teacher continues quest for quality
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — As people enter Gallup Middle School for tonight's Gallup-McKinley
County School Board meeting, Tom Payton, the president of the local
school employees' union, will hand out pamphlets titled "Political
Baloney or Common Sense?"
The pamphlet is about how to improve elementary education, Payton
told the Gallup Independent. His handouts are a follow-up to his presentation
at the board's Feb. 22 meeting on the low performance of students
within the school district on standardized state tests.
Payton is a history teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle
School...
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Campers gear up for new season
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — For people who yearn to see majestic elk walking in
aspen trees, watch a mule deer pick its way through the woods, hear
woodpeckers finding food in the trees or listen to the winds dancing
through tall pines camping is the answer.
Although May 13 is the official opening date for established campgrounds
in the Mount Taylor District of Cibola National Forest, people can
still camp out now.
Thousands upon thousands of open acres are available for campsites
in the Cibola National Forest. All campers have to do is pitch a tent
or park the recreational vehicle in almost any spot and start enjoying
spectacular scenery...
| Top |
Center pays tribute to Route 66, Acoma
culture
Mary E. Davis
Staff Writer
ACOMA — Historic Route 66 was about 20 years old when Roberta
Buss of Albuquerque used it to drive with her infant daughter and
a Siamese cat in tow from Gallup to Chicago to see her parents.
"That was the way you had to get from one place to another, pretty
much," Buss said. "It was a famous road from Chicago to
California, and we used it all the time. Oh, we had so much fun."
"There's a lot of memories," her husband, Julius Buss, said...
| Top |
Illegal aliens caught
Police say heavy vans dangerous
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Fifty-one illegal aliens were captured
this morning after police spotted two overloaded vans swerving at
Mile Post 12 on Interstate 40 four miles outside of Gallup.
New Mexico State Police Captain Glenn Thomas said an officer initially
pulled over a white 1987 GMC van for weaving all over the road about
4:30 a.m.
During the traffic stop, which yielded the arrest of 21 illegal immigrants,
an assisting officer noticed a second vehicle, a gray Dodge van, veering
in and out of its lane, he said...
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Navajo police reports
Navajo cops arrest 4 on liquor charges
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Navajo tribal police arrested four people last
week on charges of delivery of liquor.
Using a series of rotating roadblocks Wednesday and Thursday, police
arrested Melvin T. Bede, 24, of Whippoorwill; Tina Tayah, 24, and
Forrest Hunter, 21, both of Chinle; and Hansen Benally, 21, of Jeddito.
Police confiscated a dozen 40-ounce bottles of Budweiser beer, three
dozen 40-ounce bottles of Olde English ale, eight dozen 375 milliliter
bottles of Garden DeLuxe wine, 12 dozen 12-ounce cans of Budweiser
beer, two pints of Southern Comfort, four 12-ounce wine coolers and
two 22-ounce bottles of St. Ides special brew. Police would not disclose
the locations of the arrests...
| Top |
Wingate holds off tough Thoreau for district
title
Big plays down stretch help Bears to 6AAA crown
District 6AAA Championship
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
GALLUP - Wingate's Titus Nelson drilled a crucial three-pointer and
Nate Edison sank 3-of-4 free throws that gave the Bears a hard-fought
53-49 victory over Thoreau during the District 6AAA finals Saturday
night in front of a capacity crowd at Gallup High.
"That was huge," Wingate coach Peter Viola said of Nelson's
trey with less than three minutes left that gave Wingate some breathing
room at 50-45. "That gave us momentum and that shot opened it
up. This third game with Thoreau was definitely the toughest."
The district finals between regular season district champion Wingate
and No. 2 seed Thoreau was hotly contested with a total of 14 lead
changes and seven ties...
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Deaths
Linda Dimas
GALLUP — Services for Linda Marie Dimas, 55, will
be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 7 at the St. Francis Church. Father
Diego Mazon, O.F.M. will officiate. Burial will follow at the Sunset
Memorial Park.
Rosary will be recited at 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 7
at the St. Francis Church.
Dimas died March 2 in Gallup. She was born April 29,
1944 in Gallup.
Dimas attended Gallup High School. Her hobby was riding
horses.
Survivors include her husband, Bobby Dimas of Gallup;
daughters, Linda VanOsdol of Jamestown, Helen Dimas of Gallup and
Ray Lynn Dimas of Gallup; mother, Delfina Martin of Gallup; sisters,
Barbara Wilson of Gallup, Leona Diaz of Gallup and Laura Amos of Dallas,
Texas; and four grandchildren.
Dimas preceded in death by her father, Robert Marion
Martin Sr.; brother, Robert Martin Jr.; and grandparents, Reyes Hernandez
and Erlinda Hernandez.
Pallbearers will be Ernest Wilson Jr., Keith Wilson, Clyde VanOsdol,
Marcos Sanchez, Roger Olsen and Chris Carrillo.
The family will receive friends and family after the burial services
at 200 West Princeton.
Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Winifred Lucy Brown
NAVAJO, N.M. — Services for Winifred Lucy Brown, 41, will be
held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 7 at the Latter Day Saints Church
in Crystal. Branch President Clifford Thompson will officiate. Burial
will follow on family land in Crystal.
Brown died March 2 in Fort Defiance, Ariz. She was born Jan. 17, 1959
in Rehoboth into the Salt People Clan for the Towering House People
Clan.
Brown attended elementary school in Salina, Utah; attended junior
high school in Navajo, N.M. and high school in Fort Wingate. She was
employed with Thriftway in Navajo, N.M. as an assistant manager for
five years; at the NTUA as a custodian for 6 years; and later became
a homemaker. Her hobbies included making arts and crafts, sash belts,
quilts, baskets and traditional clothing.
Survivors include her daughters, Shannon Brown of Tempe, Ariz. and
Nadine Brown of Navajo, N.M.; father, Paul P. Brown of Navajo, N.M.;
brother, Kalvin P. Brown of Crystal; and two grandchildren.
Brown was preceded in death by her mother, Lucy F. Brown; and grandfather,
Sam Dinehdill.
Pallbearers will be Aubrey Francisco, Steven Brown, Aaron Francisco,
Falon Francisco, Jon Lewis and Randy Roberts.
The family will receive friends and family after the burial services
at the Crystal Chapter House.
Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
John Skeet Sr.
HUNTERS POINT, Ariz. — Services for John Skeet Sr., 61, will
be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 7 at the St. Michaels Franciscan
Church. Father Meldon and Father Martan will officiate. Burial will
follow at the Veterans Cemetery in Fort Defiance, Ariz.
Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m., tonight, March 6, at the St. Michaels
Franciscan Church.
Skeet Sr. died March 2 in Tucson, Ariz. He was born July 17, 1938
in Hunters Point, Ariz. into the Water's Edge People Clan for the
Black Sheep People Clan.
Skeet Sr. had served in the U.S. Army as a heavy weapons infantryman
and was honorably discharged in December 1963.
He was employed with Indian Health Service of Fort Defiance, Ariz.
as an environmental technician. After 34 years of service, he retired
in October of 1998. He was also a member of the Native American Church.
His hobbies included rebuilding old trucks and traveling with family.
Survivors include his wife, Eileen Skeet of Hunters Point, Ariz.;
sons, Kenny Kempton of Hunters Point, Ariz., Chris Skeet of Schofield
Brks., Hawaii and John Skeet Jr. of Hunters Point, Ariz.; daughters,
Kathy Dickson of Fort Defiance, Ariz. and Jeanette Skeet, Johnnette
Skeet, Karen Skeet of Hunters Point, Ariz., Jennifer Burbank and ReGina
Skeet, all of Hunters Point, Ariz.; mother, Eleanor Skeet of Hunter
Point, Ariz.; brothers, Tom Skeet of Sparks, Nev., Jimmy Skeet of
Chinle, Ariz., Larry Skeet and George Skeet, both of Hunters Point,
Ariz., Raymond Skeet of Fort Defiance, Ariz. and Robert Skeet of Fruitland;
sisters, Terry Jones of Flagstaff, Ariz., Mary Skeet of Hunters Point,
Ariz., Rose Mary Taliman of Hunters Point, Ariz., Lorraine Palmer
of Phoenix, Ariz. and Elayne Skeet of Window Rock, Ariz.; and 16 grandchildren.
Skeet was preceded in death by father, Tom Skeet; and
grandparents, Martha Notah and Hosteen Nez.
The family will receive friends and family after the burial services
at the St. Michaels Mission Gym.
Ernest Benjamin Wilson
CRYSTAL — Services for Ernest Benjamin Wilson, 51, will be held
at 11 a.m., today, March 6 at the Latter Day Saints Church. Brother
Lafe Damon will officiate. Burial will follow on the family plot in
Crystal.
Visitation will be held one hour prior to the services at the church.
Wilson died March 2 in Navajo, N.M. He was born May 11, 1948 in Navajo,
N.M, into the Black Streak Forest People Clan for the Red Running
into the Water People Clan.
Wilson attended Lehi High School in Lehi, Utah. He was a carpenter
in the construction industry and was a Vietnam veteran who served
two tours in Vietnam. His hobbies included basketball and rodeo.
Survivors include his son, Blaine Wilson; daughter, Hope Wilson; father,
Sam Wilson; brothers, Alfred Wilson, Perry Wilson, Benjamin Wilson,
Lafe Damon and Ralph Wilson; sisters, Betty Wilson and Judy W. Clark.
Wilson was preceded in death by his mother, Rose Wilson.
Pallbearers will be Larry Halona, Ben Laughing Jr., Freeman Yazzie,
Bryon Jones and Perry Wilson.
Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Effie D. Lee
BREADSPRINGS — Services for Effie D. Lee, 88, will be announced
at a later date.
Lee died March 3 at the Cibola General Hospital in Grants.
A family meeting will be held at 6 p.m., tonight, March 6, at the
Breadsprings Chapter House.
Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
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