Sweat lodge



Nathan Eldridge, 13, left, Erwin Yazzie, 13, center and Sean Garcia, 14, right, spent two hours building this much of a Navajo sweat lodge Tuesday. The lodge is being built by these three Rehoboth Christian School students as part of a social studies class project.

Photo by Craig Robinson



Gallup High School senior Missy Garcia shows the last page of the book "Tiki Tiki Tembo" to teacher Sue Shell's first grade class at Indian Hills Elementary School. All this week people from the community are invited to read books to the students.

Photo by Jerry W. Kelley

 

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Police probe stabbings, bomb threat

Jim Maniaci
Dine Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Several people received serious injuries recently as Navajo police handled a half-dozen aggravated battery incidents in Tuba City, Borrego Pass, Sawmill and Wide Ruins.

Tuba City Junior High School also had to be evacuated for about two hours on March 15 due to a bomb threat. After officers and teachers scoured the institution and found nothing, students returned to classes from their wait on the football field.

The next day, when an officer arrested three 14-year-olds for stealing a bicycle, two of them admitted to calling in the bomb threat to the local police station.

Sawmill home invaded

Three Sawmill area men were booked into the Window Rock Jail Tuesday on seven charges each after they invaded an area home and severely beat up a man they believed burglarized the home of one of their mothers.

Window Rock Law Enforcement District officers arrested Latroy Tsosie, 20, who lives north of Mile Post 15.5 on Bureau of Indian Affairs Route 7, and Jerald Tsinijinnie, 21, and Myron Tsinijinnie, 18, both of the Navajo Forest Products Industry Sawmill subdivision.

Officers charged each with aggravated battery, simple battery, trespassing with force, theft, criminal damage and disorderly conduct.

They allegedly broke into the Billiman home, southeast of Mile Post 15 on BIA Route 7, around 3 a.m. Tuesday, beating up Leandro Charley, 23, inflicting severe swelling to the right side of his head and face, plus cutting his left elbow, the report said.

Brothers hurt each other

No charges had been filed as of Wednesday morning after three Wide Ruins brothers beat and cut each other, leaving one of them unconscious in a pool of blood before Window Rock Law Enforcement District officers found him last Friday.

Sally Benally called police shortly before 2 a.m. on March 16 to report Ronald Benally, 22, and Roybert Benally, 20, were fighting at their home two miles west of Mile Post 387.5 on U.S. 191. She then met the responding officer as she headed towards Sage Memorial Hospital in Ganado with the younger brother.

Roybert told officers he didn't know what he used to defend himself against Ronald, but his older brother was bleeding heavily
from the head. The younger brother was stabbed in the neck, left ear and right shoulder.

Officers found Ronald at a home two miles to the northeast, near U.S. 191 where he had allegedly stabbed his 16-year-old
brother on the right ankle. The youngest brother then got hold of a wrench and hit Ronald three times. This forced him to leave,
the report said.

Continuing their search, officers found Ronald laying in a pool of blood not breathing. The Ganado Fire Department revived
him and took him to Sage, about 25 miles to the north.

Tuba City man stabbed

A 32-year-old Tuba City man was stabbed six times around 1:15 a.m. Friday, but apparently was not seriously wounded, near a former car dealership in the Western Agency community.

The Law Enforcement Department report identified him as Ervin Smith of the Tuba City Mutual Help Housing subdivision.
A witness called the police station to report eight people were beating up on one man. When officers arrived they found Smith
awake, but drunk, with three wounds to his right rib cage, two more in his right arm and one in his left elbow.

Man stabbed in face

An 18-year-old Glendale, Ariz., man faces an aggravated battery charge from a St. Patrick's Day incident at a Tuba City home that resulted in police seizing 42 cans of unopened beer and six people facing unspecified liquor possession charges, according to the district report.

The case began with a call from the Tuba City Indian Health Service hospital about a stab wound victim, Riley Earl Saganitso,
32, of the Tuba City Mutual Help Housing subdivision. He had a one-inch cut on his left eye, but the wound missed his eye.

Saganitso found Michael Escalante Jr. of Glendale on a couch with a 14-year-old girl and while ordering him off the living
room furniture, got cut with an eyeglass screwdriver the young man pulled out of his clothes. Hostess Priscilla Saganitso took
away the tiny screwdriver from Escalante, the report said.

The suspect and girl headed south on foot from the home, about 1.5 miles northwest of the historic Tuba City Trading Post.
Officers said they never found the young couple and only know the girl as "Heather."

But a 30-can case of beer was found in a tool box, along with two unopened 12-ounce cans of beer, in a 1972 Chevrolet pickup
truck. Officers also reported seizing 10 unopened 12-ounce beers from a 1991 Ford Ranger pickup truck.

Of eight people at the house, officers arrested six on unspecified liquor charges, released one adult and sent a woman to the IHS
hospital after they couldn't wake her up.

Hit and run

A 39-year-old Borrego Pass man apparently ran over a 33-year-old Borrego Pass man Tuesday night, didn't know it, and drove off, the Crownpoint Law Enforcement District report indicated.

Theresa Tolth called police to report the incident, and they found Gary Tolth, who lives about six miles east of the local trading post, sitting by the side of the road. She told officers the suspect, Larry Curley, a neighbor, was very drunk.

Officers found the suspect's 1995 two-door Ford car and arrested him on unspecified criminal and traffic charges, the report
said.

Marijuana found at school

A police K-9 unit found five bags of what is believed to be marijuana in a search Wednesday morning at Window Rock High School.

Officers arrested a 16-year-old girl who lives in a Fort Defiance mobile home park after a Dilkon Police District narcotics-sniffing dog handled by Sgt. Daniel Lee "hit" on her backpack.

Other police dogs found suspicious backpacks, but no actual "pot," the report added.

Gas fire in home

Nine residents of a Fort Defiance home escaped injury and the home suffered only minor damage around 4 a.m. March 13 when gasoline being used in a wood-burning stove spilled onto the floor.

Family members at the home of Marie Begay, 44, quickly put out the flareup, but the fire smoked up the walls and ceiling at the
Mutual Help Housing subdivision on Old Red Lake Road, according to the Window Rock Law Enforcement District report.

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Kayenta housing back on track

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The president of Fort Defiance Housing Corp. said a meeting Tuesday with Kayenta Township representatives has "reaffirmed" the partnership necessary on the 229-unit Teeh-in-Deeh subdivision.

"All the negatives turned positive," Fort Defiance Housing President Everett C. Ross said.

A "punch list" of agreed-to specifications on water lines, sewer lines, electric lines and other infrastructure should be complete by the end of the week, he said. Disputes that the housing developer has had with the township over the $1.87 million infrastructure agreement are "all pretty much resolved," Ross added.

The township acts as the subgrantee for the $1.87 million grant from the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act. The grant covers water lines, road paving, underground utility lines and other amenities for 20 houses in the 1998 grant year, 40 in 1999, 75 in 2000 and more thereafter. Roads and curbs are built for about the first 60 units.

The first home owners were supposed to move in last October, but that has been delayed in part due to a disagreement between Fort Defiance Housing and Kayenta Township over infrastructure specifications. The disagreement heated up last month when former township Manager Peter Deswood Jr., who was terminated by township commissioners March 3, wrote a Feb. 13 letter
to Ross, saying, "An inspection of the street development (roadway, road width, road base, asphalt thickness, curbing,
sidewalk, manhole tops) is not in keeping with the (township) approved master plan."

Ross fired back in a Feb. 14 response letter that all pay requests, checks and construction drawings had been delivered to the
township, and offered that accountant Connie Sauvegeau had completed her December 2000 audit and needed no more records.

Ross said Wednesday that the township "master plan" was not finalized until April 2000. The housing corporation, however,
had submitted its infrastructure plans to the township last November, which were then approved by a Navajo Housing
Authority review in December. The township's "master plan" was thrust on For Defiance Housing "after we had already started
construction," Ross said.

Any errors in project design came from the township's original engineering consultant, Rising Sun Engineering, according to
Ross.

One major issue cited by Deswood were "improper road widths" that have been constructed too narrowly and therefore do not
meet the traffic study requirements within the subdivision. Ross said that issue has "died." Infrastucture costs for road widths
and other amenities are built into the $120,000 per-unit maximum for each house, and there simply wasn't enough funding
within the $1.87 million agreement for larger road widths, he added.

Underground power lines for the first units to be occupied are installed and have been inspected by the Navajo Tribal Utility
Authority, Ross said. By the end of June, about 127 of 229 total homes will be completed.

"Ever since Pete (Deswood) left, everything clicked and fell into place," Ross said. He has been working with project civil
engineer Lonnie Bernally and other township technical staff while the township searches for a new manager.

In a related issue, Fort Defiance Housing recently promoted consultant Beth Cascaddan. At a housing corporation-sponsored
construction meeting March 7 in Window Rock, Ariz., Cascaddan signed in as the housing corporation's vice president of legal
administration.

"She coordinates things with our lawyers," one of whom, Albert Hale, works under contract for the developer, Ross said.

Ross added that he is aware Cascaddan reportedly does not a law degree. But she does not need one to operate as a legal team administrator, he pointed out.

"I know she doesn't present herself as a lawyer," he added.

Cascaddan, the township's former business development specialist, who left her position around late August, received heavy criticism from her successor, Dan Nakai, for keeping for months a township laptop he said contained sensitive business site lease and personal mortgage information. Under Deswood's direction, the township had initiated a termination process against
for, among other items, falsifying her resum.

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Navajo bills move through Arizona legislature

Jim Maniaci
Dine Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Two Navajo Nation bills continue to advance through the Arizona legislative labyrinth, although the amount has been reduced to $15.6 million over four years.

If the bills reach Gov. Jane Hull's desk, and she signs them, they will add hospital-clinic and senior citizen center construction to the state's previous community college commitment, which was a first for Arizona, although legislative funding for reservation projects has been a common practice for years in the New Mexico Legislature.

The Arizona House of Representatives voted 49-7-4 on Monday to approve HB-2531, the reservation's hospital-clinic construction law, worth $11.6 million during the next four years. The Senate must now consider the matter.

All six northeastern representatives, Jim Sedillo and Tom O'Halleran of District 2, Sylvia Laughter and Albert Tom of District 3 and Jake Flake and Debra Brimhall of District 4, voted for the bill.

The Appropriations Committee had chopped the hospital-clinic construction allocation for Ganado's Sage Memorial Hospital from $4 million a year for four years to $2.3 million each year. HB-2531 originally would have provided $6 million a year.

This final bill also will provide $580,000 a year to build the Dennehotso Clinic east of Kayenta.

The House voted 45-11-4 Monday to approve HB-2533, the senior citizens centers construction bill, but altered how the $4 million over two years will be provided to the state Economic Security Department.

Again, all six northeastern lawmakers voted for the bill, with the Senate having to approve the same bill before it can go to the governor for signature or veto.

In fiscal year 2001-2002 the ESD would spend $1.5 million on the centers, with $2.5 million the following year.

The revisions deleted the list and amounts for Hopi centers in Kykotsmovi, Hotevilla, Tewa, Bacavi and First Mesa Consolidated Villages, and Navajo centers in Tees Toh, Le Chee, Low Mountain, Fort Defiance, Rough Springs, Bird Springs, Dennehotso, Dilkon, Mexican Water, Cove, Blue Gap, Greasewood Springs, Chilchinbito, White Cone, Sweet Water, Wide
Ruins and Hard Rock.

Last week Navajo President Kelsey A. Begaye obtained the support for both bills Assistant Floor Leader Sen. Chris Cumminskey, D-25, according to legislative liaison Mellor Willie.

Willie added that Navajo leaders hope the bipartisan support both bills gained in the House can continue in the Senate.

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Chinle dominates Quads

Abelita Rose Freeland
Staff Sports Writer

CHINLE, Ariz. — Chinle was the best out of three teams at the Chinle Quad at the Chinle Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

The Quad ended up being just a trio when Ganado for some unknown reason didn't show up for the event, but that didn't keep Chinle, Hopi and Pinon from going out the giving the effort before the big Chinle Invite on Saturday, where more teams will
come to participate.

"I am proud of the kids," said Chinle boys coach Kenneth Sangfroid. "They were on task and did the things they need to do.
There was good effort from all the teams. This was a working peak for Saturday."

"I thought we did real good today," said Pinon coach Chris Fried. "Placing at these type of meets doesn't necessary mean a
whole lot, but the team has some good times and were able to compete against the other schools."

Chinle senior Corey Terrell won two field events for the Wildcats. He won the pole vault competition at an even 9'0 and the
shot put with a throw of 38'0.

Despite participating in the shot put event for the first time and winning, it will not be an event that Terrell will be in on
Saturday. Due to just a few numbers of athletes in the Chinle Quad, it left more opening for other to participate in the different
field events, but the athletes that have been practicing and training for the shot put event will be the ones competing.

Taking second to fifth in shot put were Wildcat Terrance Lee with 35'5, Corwin Bahe followed his teammate with 33'5, Bruin
Cory Honauyma finished fourth at 31'6 and Wildcat Ricky Bethel took fifth 31'1.

In other field events, Raymone Van Winkle dominated the long jump, beating his nearest competitor by almost a foot and a half.

Van Wrinkle on the event with a jump of 18'1. Eagle Robryan Wartz came in second at 16'8, Wildcat Antonio Yazzie place
third with a 15'9 jump, Bruin Shawn Kooga in 13'10 and Wildcat Kevin Bahe jump 13'7 for fifth.

Wildcat Kristen St. Germaine continues her winning ways on the track, as well as off.

"Kristine (St. Germaine) is running at the meets like she practices," coach Keiser comments on St. Germaine. " She ran hard at
Round Valley and when she came back on Monday she worked so hard she threw up at practice, so she's been working really
hard."

St. Germaine won the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:47.34 more than 15 second faster than Hopi's Kim Zahne who finished
second in 6:02.62. St. Germaine also won the triple jump with a 28'0 finish.

The Wildcats took the third to fifth place finishes in the 1600 meter with Colleen Yazzie coming in at 6:05.32, Quinlyn Halwood
in fourth with 7:00.21 and Michelle Roan behind at 7:03.11.

"The girls are doing well for a pretty young team" Keiser said about on the Chinle girls. The Lady Wildcats consist of a couple
of juniors with little experience and freshman and sophomores.

Another person to keep a close watch on is Pinon's Kristina Muzzie whose been sprinting her way to solo and team wins.

"She has been coming along excellent. She is probably one of the hardest workers we have and goes above and beyond all the
things I expect from her," coach Fried comments on junior Muzzie. "She is really dedicated and definitely someone to keep your
eye on, as far as the region."

Muzzie help her team win the 4x100 meter relay, coming from behind to beat Chinle with a time of 59.16 to Chinle's 59.96.

She also won the 400 meter dash in 1:11.50, four second faster than Bruin's Lillian Polaka who finished 1:14.18 and Wildcat
Maria Paul with a time of 1:14.98.

Muzzie won the 200 meter dash in 31.49, followed by sister Shoshanna Muzzie in 31.87 and Chinle's Andrea Yazzie in fourth
with 31.92 and Wildcat Jennifer Mike in 32.19 for fifth.

"They (Hopi) ran where we wanted them to be," said Hopi coach Harvey Honyouti. "We still have a lot of work yet. We can
practice, but here we were able to compete against other teams."

Coach Honyouti felt that his team was able to receive a little bit of practice to give his young team of freshman and sophomores
a feel of what bigger meets will be like.

"I think we well do okay," Lady Wildcat coach Steve Keiser on Saturday's meet. "Today was a good dry run for us and a good
hard practice to them."

Coach Keiser looks forward to seeing the competition of Tuba City, Page, Monument Valley and Winslow.

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Correction

GALLUP — A story in Tuesday's Independent incorrectly referred to carbon monoxide as the type of gas that was causing problems at Tobe Turpen Elementary School.

The story should have listed the gas as carbon dioxide.

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More jobs in oil and gas industry

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — With a devastating price bust behind it, the New Mexico oil and gas industry is most certainly in the boom part of a never-ending cycle.

"Black and white," says Bob Gallagher, president of the New Mexico Oil and Natural Gas Association. "That doesn't even
come close to describing the difference."

According to the latest figures from the state Department of Labor, more than 10,400 people were working directly in the oil and
gas industries in mid-2000.

Only a year earlier, that number was at 8,630. Companies were shutting their doors and idling their operations...

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Deaths

Elizabeth N. Wauneka

FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. — Services for Elizabeth Wauneka, 92, will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, March 23 at Family Church Assembly of God. Pastor Robert Villa and Hoskie Bryant will officiate. Burial will follow on private family land.

Wauneka died March 18 in Gallup. She was born Aug. 10, 1908 in Sosila, Ariz. into the Edge Water People Clan for the Bitter Water People Clan.

Survivors include her sons, Albert Wauneka, Sr. and Jerry Wauneka both of Fort Defiance; daughters, Mabel Chee of
Sheepsprings, Jennie Lopez of Albuquerque, Julia Plummer of Fort Defiance and Christine Wilson and Margaret Keith both of
Crystal; brother, Milton Wauneka of Denver, Colo.; sisters, Eleanor Jones of Sosila, Ariz. and Francis Laughing of ToAbe'e,
Ariz.; 22 grandchildren; 50 great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.

Wauneka was preceded in death by her husband, Joe Loley; brothers, Alfred Wauneka, James Wauneka, Peter Wauneka, Sam
Wauneka, Tom Wauneka and Zhone Wauneka; and two grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Joshua Begay, Ranley Berry, Rodney Berry, Garron Keith, Harvey Nelson, Howard Nelson, Kellen
Shirley and Brandon Shonnie.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Willie P. Tafoya Sr.

WINSLOW, Ariz. — Services for Willie Tafoya Sr., 73, were held at 11 a.m., March 14 at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, Winslow, Ariz. Father Dan Hussey officiated. Burial followed at Desert View Cemetery, Winslow.

Tafoya Sr. died March 10 in Flagstaff, Ariz. He was born April 27, 1927 in Winslow.

Survivors include his wife, Dora Tafoya of Winslow; son, Daniel Tafoya of Prescott, Ariz.; daughters, Pat Perea of Parker,
Ariz., Gloria Martinez and Debbie Trujillo both of Gallup; 21 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

Tafoya Sr. was preceded in death by his son, William Tafoya II.

Pallbearers were John Montoya, Louis Perea, Charles Perea, William Trujillo III, Danny Martinez, Wayne Martinez, Daniel
Tafoya and Frank Trujillo II.

Gordon Hale Crawford

BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz. — Services for Gordon Hale Crawford, 83, will be held at 3:30 p.m Saturday, March 24 at Vista Verde Memorial Park, 4310 Sara Road SE, Rio Rancho. Rev. David Snyman will officiate.

Crawford died March 19 in Bullhead City. He was born June 7, 1918 in Mount Vernon, Ind.

Crawford moved with his parents to Belen, then to Gallup with his wife, where they stayed until his retirement. He was
employed with the Santa Fe Railroad as an engineer and fireman. He finished his career as a fireman and engineer on the
passenger train between Gallup and Albuquerque. He started the fire department in Navajo Dam, where he moved after
retirement and was Fire Cheif. He was a member of the Elks Lodge, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the United
Transportation Union.

Survivors include his wife, Clela Crawford of Bullhead City; son, Dale Crawford of Mohave Valley, Ariz; five grandchildren
and three great-grandchildren.

Crawford was preceded in death by his parents, Bishop Hale and Mae Van Way Crawford; sister, Norma Crawford Marlowe
and Gayle Crawford Landers.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Dayna Crawford Gardner, 2812 W. Island Lp, Rio
Rancho.