While his dad works on his truck Monday, Rhett Chee, 1, of Chinle Ariz., trise to help with a speed wrench at an auto-parts store on Highway 666 in Gallup.

Photo by Jeff Jones

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City asked to chip in for Native Appreciation Day

Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Organizers of Gallup Native American Appreciation Day are asking the city to contribute $40,000 to this year's festival.

This and various problems that city officials are trying to resolve in connection with this year's event were discussed at Tuesday's city council work session.

Ellis Tanner, a Gallup Indian trader, said event coordinators want to make this year's event "a little bit bigger and a little bit better," with more food, games and live bands.

"This is a special day (for Native Americans)," Tanner said. "I feel strongly, and think everybody here knows I do, about taking care of them and thanking them. No other border town does anything like appreciation day."

Mayor John Pena said he supports the city's involvement in the annual festival but needs to find out where the requested funding will come from.

One option the city is reviewing is using funding from the Gallup Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The total budget is projected to cost about $120,000 compared to last year's expenditures of $116,565, said Barbara Matthews, president of the Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce.

However, she said, $19,500 of this money also will be used to fund Gallup's involvement in the Navajo Fair, Zuni Fair and Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial.

The remaining $100,500 will be used for Appreciation Day, she said, specifically to pay for entertainers, stages and lighting, insurance, extra security, tents, noncash awards, supplies for the barbecue, advertising and the fireworks display.

City Manager David Ruiz, as well as several city council members, voiced concern about the large amount of city services required for the event.

The city spent about $18,000 last year in services from the police, solid waste, public works and parks and recreation departments, Ruiz said.

Councilman Pat Butler expressed concern about the event taxing city resources and becoming too big for the city to handle.

Another concern for Ruiz was security for the festival. He said although the city provided large police presence last year, in the event of a call, those officers will have to leave the festival.

"When we say we've got to have traffic control, and we've got to have security and all that, Ellis, that's an area where I'm going to have to find out just how many people can we have there," Ruiz said. He urged Tanner to look into hiring a private security firm to work with the city.

Ruiz also brought up last year's parking problems at the sports complex, saying people were parking all over the place, even in the retention pond.

Tanner said the committee will bring in private security and also look into providing additional parking areas.

On the organizer's side, repairing the barbecue pits at Red Rock State Park, one of the sites of the event, was a major concern. "We're asking for trouble," Tanner said. "We're going to get some people sick if we don't get (the barbecue pits) layered and bricked."

Ruiz assured him the city would take care of the problem.

The city manager said a question he frequently is asked deals with the subject of cash prizes that are given out throughout the day. Why does Tanner do it, Ruiz asked, and how much money will be given out?

Tanner said a total of $10,000, most of it $100 bills, is used in a raffle, with first prize being $5,000, second $1,000 and third $500

Tanner said he gives away the money because thinking about the chance of winning $5,000 produces a sense of excitement in the players, many of whom "haven't got a lot they can afford."

Tanner said he hopes the raffle will be another incentive for Native Americans to come to Gallup instead of Farmington, which is trying to attract their business.

While last year's festival drew more than 7,000 participants, organizers expect that number to reach 10,000 this year.

Ruiz said that discussions about the funding request are premature and that he first needs to review the request with city department heads.

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Miss Navajo set straight on tribal policy

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — A chastened Miss Navajo agreed publicly Tuesday to strictly follow tribal government rules in the future about donations, gifts, travel and fund-raising.

Victoria Yazzie also agreed to communicate more with her supervisor, Carol Yellowhair, and blamed her current problems on not receiving proper education in tribal procedures.

Yazzie had come under attack for accepting gifts without getting approval and for problems within her department, caused mostly by friction that existed between her and Yellowhair.

Council delegates concluded the problem with Yellowhair, who is coordinator for the department, came about primarily because Yazzie was not telling Yellowhair what she was doing.

Three major incidents became so serious that the Government Services Committee had to step in Tuesday and hold a four-hour session two of those hours behind closed doors to resolve the problem. One incident involved borrowing jewelry from a Gallup trader and accounting for it.

The queen said the question about keeping jewelry borrowed from the Ellis Tanner Co. had been resolved. The company merely needed to have the loaned jewelry back when it conducted its inventory.

Yazzie said she also had opened a personal account at the trading post and was making payments from her bi-weekly tribal paycheck on other jewelry.

Another problem centered on 756 posters that Larry Thompson of South West Marketing in Phoenix had donated to her. Thompson said Monday he had donated the posters to Yazzie, so she could use them to promote the Miss Navajo office. Yazzie told the committee she would like to sell the posters to raise money for travel and a scholarship dinner that will cost $3,000 to produce.

In the third incident, the queen had accepted a $5,000 donation from the Kayenta Township she is from Kayenta to help with her expenses. The committee accepted the grant last week, after the fact, rather than in advance. By that time, Yazzie had spent some $1,800, most of it to buy material for ceremonial dresses she has worn as Miss Navajo.

Navajo Nation law requires donations worth more than $1,000 to be accepted by both the president and the council's Government Services Committee.

Yazzie's public declarations to the committee came at the end of the meeting that also included a former Miss Navajo, Tina (James) Tofoya, and Gabriel Freeland of the presidential staff.

Committee Chairman Ervin Keeswood counseled Yazzie that in certain circumstances, she could lean on Tofoya's shoulder, since she would have the background as a former Miss Navajo.

Council Delegates Harold Wauneka of the Fort Defiance Chapter and Johnny Naize of the Tselani-Cottonwood Chapter issued more than a dozen directives to Yazzie, Yellowhair and Freeland.

The orders include Keeswood writing to the tribe's auditor general, Elsie Benally, for an audit of the Office of Miss Navajo for the past five years.

Other directives included:

Keeping proper records.

Following the policy that says the director of the Office of Miss Navajo will initiate fund-raising, with the queen to participate but not initiate on her own any such projects.

Compiling a list of past donations.

Providing some sort of security for the queen's apartment in Window Rock.

Having the director work with the queen in preparing Miss Navajo's speeches and other presentations.

Researching the conversion of the office into a private operation.

Chaffing under a lack of funds led Yazzie, who wants to become a school teacher, to try to raise money on her own.

This led to questions about how some of the money already raised was being spent.

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President Clinton to visit Shiprock

Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — President Clinton will visit Shiprock on April 18 to bring attention to the nation's digital divide among minority and nonminority communities.

"This visit will highlight the needs of our Navajo neighbors, who, along with our state's Hispanic community, simply do not have the kind of access to technology that is so important today," said Diane Demish, chairwoman of the Democratic party of New Mexico.

The Shiprock visit is also part of the president's New Market's Initiative, which seeks to bring economic growth and prosperity to some of the poorest areas in the country.

"Speaking as a Democrat," Demish said, "I'm especially happy that President Clinton will be shedding light on the underside of what is generally seen as the best economic times we've ever had."

Congressman Tom Udall, D-N.M., who represents northern New Mexico in Congress, will accompany Clinton during his tour of Shiprock.

"I am honored that Mr. Clinton has chosen our state and my district as an area to highlight issues that are so important to our economic and social development," Udall said.

"I agree with the President that we must act now to close the digital divide that prevents residents in the far reaches of New Mexico from joining the technological age."

At Diné College in Shiprock, computer technician William Walters said he was told of Clinton's visit two days ago by a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs official.

The official told Walters that Clinton planned "to donate some computers over here" at the college, Walters said. The college's computer manager, Delbert Paquin, did not return calls seeking comment.

In September 1992, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, visited the Navajo Nation and were in the Navajo Nation Fair Parade. During their visit, Hillary Clinton promised the Clintons would return to the reservation.

On a visit to New Mexico in the summer of 1999, Hillary Clinton also visited Sky City Casino, Acoma Elementary School and Acoma Pueblo.

Exact time and place of the Shiprock visit have yet to be announced. Plans are still being finalized for the visit and it is not known what other New Mexico activities will take place at that time.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Township supports Deswood

Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau

KAYENTA, Ariz. — The Kayenta Township Commission supports Peter Deswood "in everything he is doing," the commission's chairman said Tuesday.

The chairman, Jerry Gilmore, was responding to a letter sent him last week by Daniel Peaches, who represents the township and the Kayenta Chapter in the Navajo Nation Council.

The letter sharply criticizes Deswood for his running of the township and says he has overstayed his time there...

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Voters OK school tax

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — Twelve percent of the Grants/Cibola County School District voters went to the polls Tuesday to approve the public school capital improvements tax question by a close vote. In another squeaker, voters also turned down the general obligation bond issue.

Of the 12,500 registered voters in the district, 1,492 cast ballots.

Voters passed the tax question by 815 to 775 votes. Although the figures are expected to stand, the school district will canvass the votes Friday. The figures represent a 40-vote difference...

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Mime 'speaks' to students

Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent

GALLUP — Ernest McDaniel has been a California surfer dude, a wild game hunter in the Pennsylvania woods and a New York snow skier. Lately he's been an Indian cowboy riding a lot of tough bulls.

And for a few brief minutes recently, at Indian Hills Elementary School in Gallup, McDaniel was a hapless dental patient, a goofy race car driver, a Rapunzel-like princess stuck in a tower, an old man who lost his dentures to an apple and a Navajo mom who slapped fry bread around a little too vigorously...

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Benefit powwow set for weekend

Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — It has taken months of preparation and work, but this weekend, seven social work students will host a powwow at Northern Arizona University.

The powwow is a project for "Community Organization," a televised NAU class the group is taking in Tuba City.

"We were told to complete a community prohject," Elsie Elthie, the group's leader, said...

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No 'smoking gun' in cops' crash report

Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Gallup police Tuesday released the incident report in the March 13 tragedy that left three members of a Navajo, N.M., family dead in an accident involving a high-speed police pursuit.

The release came about four hours before state laws required police to either release the report or be sued by the Gallup Independent. The newspaper's attorneys had a lawsuit ready.

But the release of the report was something of an anticlimax: District Attorney Mary Helen Baber was right there were no secret details that would prove embarrassing to the city police department...

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Sports Briefs

Gallup girls tennis team falls to Valley

GALLUP — The Gallup Bengal girls tennis team suffered a 3-2 loss to the Valley Vikings this past weekend.

The Bengals won both doubles matches. Anna Min Nolte and Tena Bulthius captured a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Tristin Anderson and Antoinette Vernon while Jennifer Charley and Erika Foutz beat Meghan Lodge-Tarryn Sauters 6-2, 6-4.

In singles, Gallup's No. 1 Amy Yellowhorse suffered a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Erica Sanchez, No. 2 Ashley Hren was beaten 7-6, 6-3 by Hanna Taylor-Noren and Racine Shorty fell 6-3, 6-3 to Heather Fischer...

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Educators lukewarm about money plan

Walt Howerton Jr.
Santa Fe Bureau

SANTA FE — While lawmakers are crowing about fixing the public school capital outlay funding system and keeping themselves out of court, various area school officials aren't so enthusiastic.

Steve Kennedy, lobbyist for the Gallup-McKinley County schools, described school officials as "lukewarm" in their response to a package of bills passed by the New Mexico House and Senate that will pump $600 million into school construction and repair in the next 10 years.

"They don't feel that this is a complete resolution," Kennedy said...

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Deaths

Leonard Yazzie

TWINS LAKES — Services for Leonard Yazzie, 78, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 6, at Cope Memorial Chapel in Gallup. The Rev. Dennis Gardner will officiate. Burial will follow at the Gallup City Cemetery.

Yazzie died March 30 in Gallup. He was born Feb. 9, 1922, in Twin Lakes into the Meadow People Clan for the Towering House People Clan.

Yazzie was a resident of Twins Lakes and Sanders, Ariz. He was retired from the railroad and was a sheepherder.

Survivors include wife, Agnes Yazzie of Page, Ariz.; sons, Michael Yazzie of Page and Gary Yazzie of Church Rock; daughter, Gloria Yazzie of Page; sisters, Lillie Cadman and Martha Watchman, both of Twin Lakes; five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Yazzie was preceded in death by his mother, Alice Yazzie.

Pallbearers will be Clete Begay, Phillip Wilson Jr., Guy Bitsilly, Marvin Jameson, Leander Thomas and Nathan Damon.

The family will receive friends and family after the burial services at Martha Watchman residence.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Mary Watchman Bitsie

MEXICAN SPRINGS — Services for Mary Watchman Bitsie, 80, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 6, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Tohatchi. Father John Mittelstadt will officiate. Burial will follow on family land in Mexican Springs.
Visitation will be held from 3-5 p.m. today, April 5, at Cope Memorial Chapel in Gallup.

Bitsie ue mirrors many of the issues district officials planned to use the general obligation bond money for, including building, remodeling and making additions to school buildings as well as providing equipment and furnishing school buildings.

The money also will be used for buying or improving school grounds and for buying computer software and hardware for students to use in the classrooms. Part of the tax money will also be used for maintenance of public school buildings and public school grounds and for buldren and 24 great-grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Delbert Bitsie, Pierre Watchman, Derek Watchman, Ervin Tsosie, Erwin Tsosie and Stanford Watchman.
Cope Memorial Chapel of Gallup is in charge of arrangements.

Walter M. Kennedy

KIRTLAND — Services for Walter M. Kennedy, 83, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, April 7, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Stake Center on Highway 64. Bishop Keith Lee will officiate. Burial will follow at the Kirtland Cemetery.

Visitation will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, April 6, at the Chapel of Memories Funeral Home, 458 Country Road 6100, in Kirtland and one hour before services at the church.

Kennedy died April 3 at the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington. He was born Dec. 24, 1916, in Farmington to Walter Leroy Kennedy and Viola (Smith) Kennedy.

Kennedy was an Indian trader and spend 40 years on the reservation. He retired in 1982 after 32 years at Dennehotso Trading Post, but was still buying rugs until his death. He was married on Dec. 27, 1945.

Survivors include his wife, Flora (Eaton) Kennedy of Kirtland; son, Ivan Kennedy of Kirtland; daughter, Lavina Bailey; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Kennedy was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Earl Kennedy, Troy Kennedy and Harold Kennedy; and sisters, Blance Moore, Lucille McGee and Pearl Kennedy.

Pallbearers will be Robert Bailey, Jerald Kennedy, Dustin Bailey, Bo Kennedy, Jason House, Dennis Johnson, Troy Townsend and Jerry Wheeler.

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