Police vehicles surrounded the Bank of America
after it was robbed Wednesday afternoon.

Photo by Craig Robinson

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Detail of a mural by Native American artist Allan Houser is shown at the Intermountain School gymnasium in Brigham City, Utah.

Associated Press Photo

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Missing Gallup Teen
Pedro Ramirez Maldonado

 

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City bank robbed again

Bill Donovan — Staff Writer

GALLUP — The main office of the Bank of America was robbed Wednesday, possibly by the same man who robbed it three weeks ago.

Wednesday turned out to be a big day for bank robberies in New Mexico with three other banks, two in Albuquerque and one in Taos being hit as well.

FBI spokesman Doug Beldon said the man came into the Gallup bank about 3:45 p.m. with a black canvas bag in his hand. He stood in line with other customers until a teller was available.

He walked up to the teller and passed her a note demanding money. He also claimed he had a police scanner with him.

The FBI said the robber threatened the teller by saying, “Don’t even think about it.” After the teller complied, he left with an undisclosed amount of money.

The man wore a white baseball cap with a Polo logo and a gray pullover sweatshirt during the robbery.

Beldon said the cap and sweatshirt the man was wearing were found by Gallup police about a block from the bank.
The robber was described as an anglo male, about 30 years old, weighing 120 pounds with a slender build and dirty blond hair.

Local police officials Wednesday were looking at the possibility of the same man being responsible for the two robberies just minutes after the investigation began.

Gallup police spokesman Capt. Bobby Silva said that not only were the circumstances of the two robberies alike, but the general description of the suspect were also similar.

“The two robberies occurred at different times during the day with two different tellers,” he said. “Otherwise, they are very similar.”

Like the first robbery, the suspect claimed to have a gun in his pocket. Silva said Wednesday’s suspect only spoke a few words to the teller, threatening to take it out of his pocket if there were any delays.

Wednesday’s robbery happened so fast that customers in the bank were unaware of what was happening.

One woman at the bank said that she didn’t know a robbery had taken place until bank officials locked the doors and refused to allow anyone to leave until police arrived.

Police scanners after the robbery reported that police had stopped a suspicious car on Interstate 40 not far from Gallup, but police later said that this turned out to be a false lead.

A New Mexico Educator Credit Union on Albuquerque’s northeast side was hit 9:30 a.m.

Beldon said the robber, donning a beanie cap, handed a teller a note demanding cash and threatening violence. The teller complied and the man left with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Witnesses said the man appeared to be in his mid-20s, 5-foot-8 and had a medium build. Beldon said the man is suspected in several other Albuquerque bank robberies.

A Wells Fargo Bank in Albuquerque was held up Wednesday afternoon. The robber handed the teller a note demanding cash and implied that he had a weapon. The teller gave the man cash and he fled.

Witnesses said the man was in his late 40s. He had blue eyes, dirty blond hair and a mustache.

Earlier in the day, a man wearing a blue bandanna over his face walked into the Centinel Bank of Taos and handed the teller a crumpled up note.

Beldon said the teller threw the note in the trash and then noticed the man was wearing gloves. The teller then looked up and noticed the bandanna over the man’s face.

The robber told the teller to get the note out of the trash and read it. The note demanded cash.

The teller complied and the robber made off with an undisclosed amount of money. He was described as being in his mid-20s, 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds. He had bright blue eyes, brown hair and freckles.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Taxpayers in McKinley get reprieve

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — New Mexicans in 21 counties including McKinley, Cibola and San Juan have been given an additional nine months to file and pay their federal taxes because of last year’s fires that ravaged the state.

To cut through red ink at the Internal Revenue Service, the agency asks the taxpayers to write “Cerro Grande Fire” in red ink atop their tax returns for 2000.

“It’ll help the service center to process tax returns,” Bill Brunson, an IRS spokesman in Phoenix, said Wednesday.

“We’re talking about getting a giant stamp, but we do have our supply of red pens,” said Lorraine Hartway, a certified public accountant in Los Alamos.

“I’m enjoying writing ‘Cerro Grande Fire’ because it (filing extension) truly is a benefit to people,” she said.

The Cerro Grande Fire burned more than 47,000 acres in the Jemez Mountains and destroyed more than 200 structures in Los Alamos, leaving about 400 families homeless.

The National Park Service started the blaze May 4, 2000, to clear brush in nearby Bandelier National Monument, but strong wind swept the fire out of control. The fire was declared controed July 20.

U.S. Pete Domenici sad he felt the IRS “acted fairly and uniquely” in providing the extension...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency last May 10 declared 21 counties disaster areas because of fires: Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, DeBaca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Guadalupe, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos and Torrance.

They were all lumped under a Cerro Grande disaster declaration, said Janet Lowe, a FEMA spokeswoman in Santa Fe.
New Mexico had 2,466 fires that scorched 519,177 acres during 2000 more acreage than any year in the past decade.

Taxpayers who live in or have their primary business in the 21 counties have until Jan. 16, 2002, to file and pay their federal taxes, Brunson said.

The deadline for taxpayers in the state’s other 12 counties is April 16.

“What I’m seeing is that the people who did lose their homes and lost everything (in the Cerro Grande Fire) are truly concerned and preoccupied in coming up with their inventory lists for FEMA and insurance companies for everything they lost,” Hartway said.

“Doing a tax return right now is just one more thing they don’t have to worry about,” she said.

Hartway said she wondered whether the IRS was granting a generous extension in New Mexico because the Cerro Grande Fire was started by a fellow federal agency.

”Nothing works like guilt. Every mother knows that,” she said.

Taxpayers in the 21 counties will not have to pay interest or penalties for filing by next Jan. 16, the IRS said.

Taxpayers who do not live in the counties but were affected by the Cerro Grande Fire also could receive the nine-month extension, Brunson said.

“For example, if an individual had a tax-preparer in Los Alamos whose tax records were destroyed and who moved to some other area, because of the relationship to the fire the individual would have an additional nine months as well,” he said.

Rebecca Garcia, manager of the Rio Grande Cafe in Espanola, said the extension will not affect the restaurant.
“We already filed. Might as well get it behind us,” she said.

Diane Rivera, office manager of Garcia Glass and Glazing in Santa Fe, said the business also has filed.
“It doesn’t help me at all,” she said.

But Tessa Quintana of Santa Fe, office manager of Cassidy’s Landscaping in Tesuque, said the extension might help her.
“But I haven’t decided yet. It’s (taxes) kind of on the back burner,” she said.

The federal extension also applies to the state, said Victoria Bransford, public information officer for the state Taxation and Revenue Department.

The state also will waive tax penalties, buth interest payments are a question.

The state Legislature approved and sent to Gov. Gary Johnson a bill that would waive the interest. Johnson had not acted on the measure Wednesday, but was expected to approve it.

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Chinle leader wants high bid for youth hall

Jim Maniaci — Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — A chapter president has come out in favor of one of the two companies the one with the higher figure bidding to run the new tribal juvenile hall in Chinle.

The contract is expected to be awarded April 9 by the Navajo Nation Council’s Public Safety Committee, with the other company offering a substantially lower bid by about $300,000.

In a two-page statement issued late last week, Chinle Chapter President Jim Claw went so far as to claim that the Central Navajo Youth Corrections Advisory Council which the Public Safety Committee disbanded as having completed its task had been “completely shut out of all matters related to the newly constructed, but as yet unopened, juvenile corrections center in Chinle.”

Claw said he and others met with Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye to present their complaint.

The chapter president blasted Navajo Corrections Department Director Wilbe Antone, who replied earlier this week,

“Everybody has a right to express their views and concerns. It’s their freedom of speech.”

Two non-profit corporations bid to be awarded the contract to operate the 48-bed, 36,000 square-foot fortress-like complex built on the site of the old Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school on BIA Route 7 in the shadows of Canyon de Chelly in Chinle.

There are 36 beds for boys and 12 for girls in pods around a central courtyard. The complex includes a medical care unit, gym-cafeteria, classrooms, offices and a booking area with several holding cells.

The advisory council formed a nonprofit corporation with virtually inter-locking officers and they battled Antone and his boss for years over the project.

The tribe obtained federal funds to build and operate a short-term detention center the standard federal concept while the council, backed by the community, wanted a long-term corrections treatment center introducing a new approach in a facility the group hoped to have former Attorney General Janet Reno dedicate as the prototype for the future treatment of delinquent juveniles.

Last year the Navajo Nation Council’s Public Safety Committee backed Antone and Clah in maintaining the new juvenile hall had to open as a short-term facility because of the federal grant’s conditions. Federal officials said the grant could be amended to reflect the new direction, aimed at returning wayward youth to a harmonious life through a combination of modern Western and traditional Din methods.

The advisory council thought the grant had been amended and had operated for almost a half-decade on that principle.
Public Safety Division Director Herb Clah, who handled the project since his appointment two years ago, and Antone recommended the contract be awarded to Canyon de Chelly Youth Guidance Center, led by Mabel Henderson of Chinle.
Antone said Henderson’s firm offered a price about $300,000 less than the advisory council’s Hozhoogo Nooseli Bil Haahodi’neeh (HNBH).

Officers of the advisory council during last year’s battles were Jon D. Colvin, Dr. Peter Stuart, Shirley Stone and Verna H. Salabye when the corporate board included all four plus Stanley Robbins, Adelaide Link and Bruce Draper.

In his statement the chapter president said Antone misled the Public Safety Committee at its Feb. 12 meeting.
Claw challenged Antone, telling the committee a former program director assembled the advisory council to construct the center; that the council never had a tribally approved plan of operation; and was not recognized as an entity of the central government or chapter.

The chapter president said he has been involved since the start of the concept 12 years ago, and that several chapter resolutions “going back a very long time” recognize and support the council.

Claw said that only nine days before the committee meeting, Antone spoke to the Chinle Agency Council which then voted 40-0 to insist control and oversight of the new juvenile hall “be returned to the local community and to once again designate the advisory council as the group to provide the oversight and control.” He added that Chinle Chapter voted 50-0 on Jan. 28 for the same thing.

The chapter president said this would be in line with the principles of the Local Governance Act. (Only one chapter, Shonto, has earned its LGA certification to operate its local affairs independent of Window Rock’s control.

Antone replied, “To the best of my understanding, I don’t know of a resolution that recognizes the advisory council. I would like to see it. Does it go back 12 years?”

Apache County District I Supervisor Joe Shirley backed the chapter and advisory council, too, requesting the tribal president to look into alleged personnel policy violations. Shirley ran for president in 1998 when Begaye won the election.
Antone said he believes this refers to the sub-contract to operate the center.

The Public Safety Committee will award what is actually a subcontract through the tribe and the proposed pact is now going through its Title 2 Section 164 review to be presented to the seven-member committee chaired by Freddie Howard (Bird Springs and Tolani Lake Chapters) at its next regular meeting.

Shirley also wants the tribal president to examine the contracting process which resulted in the recommendation to award the contract to Henderson’s firm. He said her corporation has no ties to Chinle.

“This contract should be stopped and a thorough review should be undertaken by an impartial group which includes Chinle and other central Navajo chapter representatives,” Shirley said.

Claw told Begaye if a large chapter such as Chinle “is treated this way by Executive Branch employees, it sets a dangerous precedent and that other chapters will soon receive the same treatment.”

The chapter president concluded, “We support the advisory council; we will defend them and will not abandon them. They represent the local control that our chapter and our agency desire.”

The federal grants to the tribe for the Chinle center also included funds for the Tuba City juvenile hall, which is run by a nonprofit corporation. The grant application outlined the need for five such facilities spread across the huge reservation, with the other three to be in Kayenta, Shiprock and Crownpoint.

Currently Antone’s department operates a small and outdated juvenile hall in Tohatchi, along with the contract for the Tuba City hall.

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Developer agrees to save Houser mural at Indian school
(see related photo above)

BRIGHAM CITY, Utah (AP) — It began as a stereotypical battle: arts and community groups fighting a real estate developer over the planned demolition a mural painted by one of the nation’s best-known native artists.

But on Tuesday, the developer offered to pay whatever it costs to rescue the mural, which was scheduled to be reduced to rubble along with the gymnasium that houses it and the rest of the abandoned Indian school as early as next month.

”I am flabbergasted,” said Nelson Foss, the curator of a foundation dedicated to the works of the late Allan Houser, who painted the mural in 1954 while teaching at the school. “I just heard five minutes ago. It’s amazing, it’s philanthropic.”

The 6-foot-by-12-foot mural of a Navajo horseman is painted directly on the plaster wall of the gym’s entryway and could cost about $40,000 to remove. One appraisal pegs the mural’s value at about $50,000.

”I don’t know how big of a task it’s going to be to have the thing removed,” said Matt Petersen, a partner with Cape Advisors, Inc., the company that owns the property. “Hopefully it will be simple, but like everything else it probably won’t be.”

Petersen, who started the week saying the mural could come down at any time and on Tuesday pledged to give the Santa Fe-based Allan Houser Foundation three weeks to raise funds to move it, said Wednesday that Cape decided it would be easiest to remove the mural on their own terms, rather than face potentially lengthy delays.

At the time, the Institute of American Indian Arts was lobbying Congress to save the painting and a small group of Brigham City residents plan to ask the city council Thursday to stop the demolition.

The last-minute decision means the mural will be the last trace of the Intermountain Indian School, except for a faint “I” etched into the rocky hillside above the campus.

”I cry every time I come here,” said Karen Bagaii-Wilson, a Navajo woman who was born and raised at the school, where her mother taught and her father drove a bus. “This is all that I’ve known. My whole childhood, when people asked what my reservation was, I said the Intermountain School.”

The school, which opened in 1950 on the grounds of a former military hospital, once housed 2,100 students in its barracks. It was one of about 150 federal boarding schools nationwide for native children.

For most, attendance was mandatory. Children as young as five were rounded up on reservations and sent to schools hundreds of miles away. When they arrived, their hair was cut and they were ordered not to speak their native languages.
”It was traumatic,” said Dan Edwards, who attended the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Ore. from the age of 8 to 13 and is now director of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah. “For little children, it was really hard.”

The Brigham City school, which first taught only Navajos and later became the Intermountain Intertribal School, was one of the best, Edwards said. Students were taught a few native traditions and parents were allowed to visit.

And there were Indian teachers on campus, including Houser, a Chiricahua Apache who arrived to teach art in 1951.
By then, Houser had already exhibited his work at the New York World’s Fair and the National Gallery of Art and had painted a set of murals at the Department of the Interior building in Washington. Houser was given the National Medal of the Arts by President Bush in 1992, two years before he died.

In 1954, he painted the gymnasium mural in the bright terra-cotta colors of the Southwest. At about the same time, Houser also painted a Navajo family on horseback in the adjacent auditorium, which was torn down soon after the school closed in 1984.

When the school shut down, the city turned part of campus into a golf course and sold the rest to Petersen’s company. Cape Advisors converted some of the dorms into townhouses but plans to tear down the rest and build a mix of homes and apartments.

Demolition is already underway, and a bulldozer sits across the street from the gymnasium. Petersen said it is unclear whether the mural will stay in Brigham City or be donated or sold out of state.

Houser’s son, Bob Haozous, said the mural may be more important than the 12,000 drawings in the foundation’s archives because it was done for the Indian children. The red buttes reminiscent of Monument Valley, the streaking herd of mustangs and the bright turquoise of the riders’ headband would have reminded the students of home, said Haozous, who retook his family’s Apache name.

”The fact that he painted this scene of Navajo people in their own environment, for these students who weren’t allowed to speak their own language or have their own medicine men is just so amazing to me,” he said. “Can you imagine the spirit they got from this thing?”

On the Net:
Allan Houser Web Site: http://www.allanhouser.com
Allan Houser Foundation: http://www.allanhouserfoundation.org
National Museum of the American Indian: http://www.nmai.si.edu

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Dad seeks information on missing Gallup teen

Staff Report

GALLUP — A Gallup man whose son has been missing almost three weeks is hoping the public can help him.
Pedro Ramirez Maldonado, 18, has been missing since Friday, March 9. He is a student at Gallup High School and is about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs around 185 pounds.

His father Bulmaro Ramirez told the Independent that Pedro did not show up for school on Monday, March 12, and although he has filed a missing persons report with the local police there have been no leads.

Pedro has a light mustache, but no scars or tattoos. He has black hair and black eyes and his father said he should have his permanent resident identification card with him.

If anyone has information on the whereabouts of Pedro Ramirez Maldonado, call 722-6772 or notify the Gallup Police Department.

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Man hits Shiprock cop with rock

Jim Maniaci — Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — A Shiprock police officer was injured late Tuesday when a man he was trying to arrest hit him on the side of the head with a rock and escaped.

Navajo Police Officer Harold Moses, no age listed, was taken to the Shiprock Indian Health Service hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile police are looking for Peterson Herder, 42, who lives south of Mile Post 20 on U.S. 64 west of Shiprock, according to the district report. The report indicated alcohol was involved, but did not specify how...

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Deaths

Margaret Chakee Martin

TOHAJILEE — Services for Margaret Martin, 93, will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, March 30 at the Baptist church, Tohahilee. Pastor Jerry John will officiate, Burial will follow at Tohajilee Cemetery.

Martin died March 25 in Laguna. She was born July 4, 1907 in McCarty into the Edge of Water CLan for the Sage Brush Hill Clan.

Martin was a farmer, sheepherder and rug weaver. Her hobbies included crocheting. She retired from the Canoncito Senior Citizen Center.

Survivors include her daughter, May Skeet fo Tohajilee; seven grandchildren and nine great grand children.

Martin was preceded in death by her daughter, Mary Mae Benally.

Pallbearers will be Anthony Baca Jr., Jimmy Benally Jr., Nathan Platero; Christopher R. Tosie; Lewis Fernandez; Herman Wilson and Ephraim Atencio.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Anthony Bacas residence.

Sammie Lee Francis

WOODSPRING, Ariz. — Services for Sammie Francis, 33, will be held at 10 a.m., March 30 at the Ganado Catholic Church, Ganado. Father Flann ONeill will officiate. Burial follow at Kinlichee Cemetary, Kinlichee, Ariz.

Francis died March 24 in Ganado. He was born March 3, 1968 in Ganado into the Salt People Clan for the Dark Streak in Wood or Forest People Clan.

Survivors include his father, Sam Francis; brothers, Harold Francis, Tucson, Ariz., Samuel Francis, Prescott, Ariz, and John Francis of Wood spring; sisters, Kathleen Ashley of Tucson and Lucille Francis of Woodspring.
Francis was preceded in death by his mother, Jenny Francis.

Pallbearers will be Herman McCabe, Tullie Yazzie Jr., Anderson Henry, Albert Nez and Jonasm Wauneka.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Betty Francis residence, six miles north of old Woodspring Store, Route 26 going to Sawmill, Ariz.

Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Jennie Saucedo

GALLUP — Services for Jennie Saucedo, 83, will be announced at a later date.

Saucedo died March 27 in Gallup. She was born Dec. 7, 1917 in Eagle Pass Texas.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Aristeo Rangel Sr.

YAH TA HEY — Services for Aristeo Rangel Sr., 75, will be announced at a later date.

Rangel Sr. died March 28. He was born July 7, 1925 in Mentmore.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

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