Wide Ruins parents protest
Adults want school audit
Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau
WIDE RUINS — Parents staged a protest here Wednesday, calling
for an audit of the Wide Ruins Community School, Inc. They also wanted
to bring attention to several grievances against the school board
and administration.
"We want the school audited and the school board members investigated,"
said Antoinette Avery, president of the parent's advisory committee.
The parents are angry about alleged mismanagement of school funds
and the lack of books and other equipment and activities for the students.
The parents said the school ran out of food for students on Feb. 28
and 29.
"The 88 dorm students had to be shipped home," Eloise Lee
said, "and even now, if students want seconds, they are given
peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches."
Meanwhile, due to the school's poor record keeping,
she said, it has not received $90,000 in federal food subsidies over
the past three months. "They (school officials) don't get the
paperwork in on time," Lee said.
The parents of students who attend Wide Ruins also lost out on the
tribally supported clothes program that reimburses parents for money
spent on school clothes.
"We were told to turn our forms (for the reimbursement) in on
time," Avery said, "and we turned them in two months early.
Last year was the second year that parents lost out on the clothing
money because the school did not do their part."
One of the most recent problems involves a gas leak in the school.
The school was not evacuated, and children remained in the gymnasium
until they were told to go back to their classrooms, parents said.
It was the second time that Executive Director Albert Yazzie had ordered
the children to stay in the building during a gas leak, Lee said,
adding, "He's compromised the safety of our children."
Cheryl Sam said her daughter, who is in the third grade, has had six
teachers so far this school year. The teachers either voluntarily
left the school system or were fired, Sam said.
The parents have other complaints against Yazzie and the school board.
They allege that both Yazzie and the school board have
used too much school money for travel.
Last year, Lee said, members of the board and Yazzie took their spouses
to Hawaii, a trip that allegedly cost the school $20,000. The group
also has traveled to Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev.,
and Tucson.
Most members of the board and Yazzie are currently in Washington,
D.C., to lobby Congress for money for the school and could not be
reached for comment.
Training is often cited as the purpose of the trips, but there appears
to be little knowledge brought back from the excursions, Lee said.
She wants to know why the board held a special meeting in Window Rock,
not in the Wide Ruins area, to pass an agenda item on a school board
trip to Orlando, Fla.
At a regular school board meeting in March, the board tabled action
on out-of-state travel. But at a special meeting in Window Rock, held
two weeks later, the board approved the Orlando trip, Lee said.
"I don't think they should hold meetings out of the community,"
said Lee, who attends most of the board's meetings.
The parents said their biggest bone of contention is the fact that
Yazzie is the school's administrator.
Two years ago, when the school was first incorporated, the school
advertised to fill the executive director's position. Lula Stago,
who was the school's principal, applied for the job. She had 20 years
of experience in education and held a doctorate in education.
Four days after the application deadline, Yazzie's application appeared,
the parents said. He was chosen for the position by a school board
that includes his sister, Dorothy Baldwin, the parents maintain.
Stago filed and won a grievance with the Office of Navajo Labor Relations.
The school board appealed ONLR's decision, lost and was ordered to
pay $40,000 to Stago. The board was also ordered to readvertise the
position, but has failed to do so, Lee said.
But the school board has filed another appeal, and parents
said they are upset that money that should be spent on the school
is being used to fight the legal battle
Meanwhile, Anita Woolly, the wife of one teacher, said the school
has 30-year-old carpeting and her husband's classroom has no door
and no blackboard.
Math and phonics books are the only books in some classrooms,
parents said. Yet a new section for administrative offices was completed
shortly after Yazzie became executive director, Lee said.
So far, two chapters, Klagetoh and Houck, have passed resolutions
supporting the parents' committee, which is hoping an audit will expose
the problems at Wide Ruins. Parents want an independent company to
do the audit.
An audit was approved by the board months ago, Lee said.
"But they have brushed it aside. We want to push it."
Some teachers declined to talk, saying they were afraid of retaliation
from Yazzie. The Wide Ruins School Board is scheduled to meet at 8
a.m. April 24.
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Anglo fights ban by Hopis
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — Marsha Monestersky, one of two Anglo women the Hopi
Tribe is trying to banish from Hopi Partitioned Lands, said Wednesday
she believes the Hopis have no right to make her leave.
"They have a weak case," she said. "I have the right
to be here, and I don't have to recognize their authority."
That may be the crux of the Hopi Tribe's case against Monestersky,
a human rights activist who has been living for the past eight years
as a volunteer in the HPL half of the Former Joint-Use Area that was
turned over to the Hopis in 1986. She said she first came to the area
in 1975 to help Hopi traditionalists with their work with various
United Nations organizations.
At a two-day hearing in Hopi court on March 28 and 29, Monestersky
was accused of being present on the HPL on several occasions without
a permit and for writing a check for $35 that bounced in 1995.
"If they expel everyone who wrote a bad check, half the people
here would be gone," she said.
The bad check charge, she said, was "ridiculous."
During the hearing, Monestersky's attorney, Mick Harrison, got Eugene
Kaye, an aide to the tribal chairman, to admit the tribe has made
no move to exclude any others from HPL for bouncing a check.
Monestersky said the charge has a number of other problems, including
the fact that the tribe could not establish any criminal intent in
connection with the check, which is required under tribal law.
Also, even the tribe's version of the incident admits that it occurred
off the reservation, where Hopi laws do not apply, even if she had
been a Hopi, Monestersky said.
The check charge, she said, was an excuse the Hopis were using to
get her banished from the HPL forever.
"What they really wanted to do was stop me from working with
Navajo families here," she said, "and helping them stick
up for their rights."
For much of the past decade, Monestersky has been working as an unpaid
volunteer, helping Navajo families in the HPL try to cope with livestock
impoundment and the effects of the coal mining operation by Peabody
Coal Co.
She said she was able on a number of occasions to get the U.S. Bureau
of Indian Affairs to release impounded livestock after she was able
to prove the impoundment was not done legally. She also has helped
get testimony and draft affidavits from Navajo families in their legal
fight against Peabody's use of area groundwater for their coal slurry.
This has not made her popular with government and coal mining officials,
she admitted.
"I have been working as a legal assistant," she said, "and
I have been the only one out here on many occasions when the Navajo
families have needed legal help."
That's why she believes the Hopis want her removed. That's also why,
she said, the exclusion hearings have also been held against Arlene
Hamilton, another Anglo who the Hopis say has refused to recognize
the authority of the Hopi Tribe over the HPL.
Monestersky views her plight as a freedom-of-speech issue, saying
she has fought to give Navajo families a voice in their concerns over
the way the Hopi Tribe has treated them.
This fight has generated support from Navajo families living on the
HPL.
Three Navajo elderly women, all grandmothers, testified at the hearing,
saying they all have adopted Monestersky into their families, and
praised her for the work she has done on their behalf as well as for
other Navajo families.
A hearing officer has until April 28 to decide what kind of recommendation
he will make in Monestersky's case.
Monestersky said if the final decision calls for her banishment, she
will continue her legal fight because she has no intention of leaving
her friends on the HPL.
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Kin plead: Keep killer behind bars
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The family of a Navajo woman shot to death by her
common law husband a Gallup police officer wants Thomas Mayes Sr.
to stay behind bars rather than be released early on parole.
The New Mexico Adult Parole Board will meet at the minimum security
prison in Santa Fe on April 24 to consider the early parole request
by the 36-year-old prisoner.
A San Juan County jury convicted him in 1992 of manslaughter, aggravated
assault and two counts of child abuse in the June 14, 1991, killing,
even though the McKinley County District Attorney's office wanted
a murder conviction.
Bullets from Mayes' service revolver struck Ella Johnson in the back
of the head while she was in her car at a local Gallup hotel. A friend
in the car, Ocelia Slinkey, then 19, was wounded twice and survived.
During a press conference Wednesday at the Navajo Nation Inn in Window
Rock, Varala James made a tearful appeal to the board and Gov. Gary
Johnson not to let her mother's killer out early. Then only 12 years
old, James was in the back seat of a car in the parking lot of the
Gallup Holiday Inn that morning, along with another of Johnson's four
children.
Under state law in effect at the time, Mayes is eligible for parole
after serving half of a 16-year sentence. The law has since been stiffened.
State law requires at least five years on parole. If the board rejects
Mayes' request, it will be two years before he can apply again.
Mayes, who had been promoted to the rank of corporal, lived with Johnson
for eight years. The city of Gallup had to pay $1.4 million to Johnson's
children after losing a lawsuit concerning the police department's
failure to provide counseling to Mayes.
Gallup's police chief at the time, Frank Gonzales, also came under
heavy fire at the time for not disciplining, removing or helping the
officer who had a history of domestic violence.
The night before the fatal shooting, the couple had
quarreled while at Red Rock State Park and other officers had to escort
Mayes away. In the months prior to the shooting, officers filed more
than a dozen domestic violence and related charges against Mayes.
In her sobbing and emotional appeal at the press conference, James
said serving eight years would not provide justice for Mayes killing
her mother and she still fears for her safety and that of her family
if he is released.
She said Mayes' spending 16 years behind bars let alone eight would
not be enough to erase the pain she felt over having her mother killed
before her eyes.
She said she lived more than half her life with Mayes and knows what
he is capable of. She accused Mayes of abusing her, mentally and physically.
The family, led by one of Johnson's sisters, Eloise,
and her daughter, Sonlatsa "Sunshine" Jim-Martin, formed
the Ella Johnson Victims Advocacy Coalition to fight Mayes' release.
If the coalition cannot convince the board he should stay in prison,
it wants strict conditions on his parole on behalf of the victims
and survivors, to "expose and reform the political power structure
and justice system in the city of Gallup" and change state laws
"involving felony convictions resulting in death."
The group wants people to send a flood of letters to the governor,
the board, the district attorney and Navajo Nation President Kelsey
Begaye, demanding that Mayes serve his full term.
The current McKinley County District Attorney, Mary Helen Baber, has
thrown the full weight of her office behind the family. Baber was
an assistant city attorney at the time and focused on the domestic
violence in the case.
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Casino hosts boxing bout
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
ACOMA PUEBLO — Boxing fans, get ready. A championship professional
fighting card will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Sky City Bingo Hall.
The main event features a 12-round contest between Andres Fernandez
of Albuquerque and Jose Jesus Garcia of Juarez, Mexico. The men will
be fighting for the North American Boxing Association Junior Featherweight
Championship.
Fernandez is the former amateur Mexican champion and former WBB champion.
Garcia is a former Olympian boxer and an amateur champion.
Three other bouts on the card include Albuquerque's
Adriano Sanchez pitted against Deltonia Clary of St. Petersburg, Fla.
Another bout includes women boxers Adriana Delgado of Albuquerque
against Lelani Salazar of Tucson. Yet another bout features Steve
Aragon of Grants and Vernon Payne of Albuquerque, both making their
professional fighting debut.
Weigh-ins will take place at 5 p.m. Friday at the Wyndam Hotel next
to the Albuquerque International Sunport. Press and fans are invited
to the weigh-ins.
According to a Sky City Casino press release, tickets are $15 for
general admission. Seats on Rows 2-5 cost $25, and first-row seats
go for $50 each. The press release said tickets can be bought in advance
from the Sky City Casino cashier's cage or at the door on the day
of the fight.
The card is featured as a nonalcoholic, nonsmoking event. Fans must
be 18 years old or older to be admitted.
Casino General Manager Denis Floge said the championship fight could
be a first.
"We're delighted to have this fight card and the championship
bout here at Sky City Casino," he said. "This may be the
first time a championship fight is held at a New Mexico casino."
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Acomas to build 150-room hotel
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
ACOMA PUEBLO — Ground will be broken Sunday at Acoma Pueblo for
a 150-room hotel and conference center.
The hotel and conference center will be built onto the existing Sky
City Casino off exit 102 on Interstate 40 in Acoma Pueblo east of
Grants.
The groundbreaking will be held at 1 p.m. although Fred Kosik, director
of marketing, said construction already has started on the Sky City
Hotel and Conference Center...
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Police chief makes case for more officers
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP — City Police Chief Danny Ross pleaded his case Wednesday
for more police officers, arguing that his department needs to go
from 52 officers to 67.
"Our workload calls for more than we have," Ross told a
city budget hearing.
Ross made his request to members of the city council and City Manager
David Ruiz during the first of four days of budget hearings during
which city personnel will present a list of their needs to city leaders...
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Felon leads cops to guns, dynamite
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — A 19-year-old former convicted felon desperate not to
go to jail again sang like a canary to police recently. And because
of his song, cops recovered a buried cache of stolen guns and more
than 80 sticks of dynamite.
The guns were wrapped in a blue tarp and buried in the back yard of
Lawrence Lamb, 952 N. Sage St. The dynamite was found beneath a tree
about a quarter mile off State Highway 117 near the Sandstone Bluffs
Overlook...
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Kayenta school board renews contracts
Recall effort continues
George Joe
Special to the Independent
KAYENTA, Ariz. — Almost 100 people packed the meeting hall Wednesday
where the Kayenta Unified School District Board was meeting, expecting
the board was going to fire several employees, including the district's
popular superintendent.
Instead of a mass firing, the school board voted 4-0 to renew the
contract of Tommy Yazzie as superintendent for another year, at a
salary of $81,000.
The board also renewed the contracts of acting Monument Valley High
School Principal Jacqueline Holiday and the district's business manager,
Joseph Begay. The only contract not renewed was for Craig Brandow,
principal of Monument Valley High School...
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Legends showcasing talents
Tour of top area players moves to Fort Defiance
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. - The Tour of Legends 2000 switches to the Window
Rock High School Veterans' Memorial Fieldhouse in Fort Defiance, Ariz.
Saturday night for the second game of a five-game series.
Tour of Legends coordinator Bo "Bear" Whitelock points out
that the annual basketball series that showcases the top senior boys
and girls basketball players from the area has a worthwhile cause.
"We're in our seventh year and so far we've given out over 60
basketball scholarships to the athletes so they can go to college
and play basketball," Whitelock said...
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'Street corner baby' seeks mom
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — On a street corner somewhere in Gallup 37 years ago,
a Navajo woman who could not feed her four-day-old infant gave her
baby to a woman who could.
That child went with her new mother to Naylor, Mo., where she grew
up. Bettye Mae Maynard, now 37, has returned to Gallup to find her
roots.
Maynard and her husband spent this week searching marriage certificates,
the phone book and Navajo Census Bureau records, looking for a Lily
May Ellis, who would be in her 50s or 60s...
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Deaths
Dolly Romero Garcia
GALLUP — Memorial services for Dolly Romero Garcia, 45, will
be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 18, at the First Baptist Church
in Gallup.
She died April 8 in Tucson, Ariz. She was born May 22, 1954, in Seattle,
Wash.
Garcia was employed by Thunderbird Supply Co. in Gallup, until she
moved to Phoenix, where she worked as a registered respiratory therapist.
Survivors include her husband, Victor Garcia; sons, Victor Garcia
Jr. and Michael Garcia; mother, Bess Romero; brother, Tim Romero;
sisters, Lorease Paisano, Marsha Ruiz, Regina Romero, Renee Trujillo,
and Natalie Saucedo; and one granddaughter.
She was preceded in death by her father, Anthony A. Romero, and brothers
Anthony Lorenzo Romero and Milton Romero.
The family will receive relatives and friends after the services at
the First Baptist Church.
Donations can be made to the Bethany Christian Reform Day Care Center,
1110 S. Strong.
Erlinda "Linda" Marie Madrid
GALLUP — A funeral Mass for Erlinda "Linda" Marie Madrid,
45, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Gallup.
The Rev. James E. Walker will officiate. Burial will follow at Sunset
Memorial Park in Gallup.
Rosary will be recited at 7 tonight, April 13, at Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Madrid died April 12 in Gallup. She was born April 26, 1953, in Gallup.
Madrid graduated from University of New Mexico-Gallup with a degree
in cosmetology. She was a member of Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Survivors include her husband, Max Madrid Jr. of Gallup; sons, James
Madrid, Paul Madrid, and Steven Madrid, all of Gallup; brothers, Arthur
Diaz, Freddie Diaz, Louis Diaz, and Martin Diaz, all of Gallup, and
Tommy Diaz of Turlock, Calif.; sisters, Christine Diaz of Gallup,
and Susie Murphy of Simi Valley, Calif.; and three grandchildren.
Madrid was preceded in death by her father, Martin Diaz Sr.; mother;
Delores "Lola" Diaz; brother, Joe Diaz; and sister, Maria
Adelieda Diaz.
Pallbearers will be Christina "Tina" M. Diaz, Delores "Dee
Dee" Diaz, Felix Lujan, Ernest Madrid, Robert Miller, and Robert
Moraga.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Arnold Bitah
WINDOW ROCK — Services for Arnold Bitah, 46, will be held at
11 a.m. today, April 13, at the Tse Bonito Community Bible Church.
Pastor Milt Shirlson will officiate. Burial will follow in St. Michaels.
Bitah died April 7 in Albuquerque. He was born Dec. 19, 1953, in Gallup.
Bitah was a graduate of Gallup High School and attended Albuquerque
Business College. He was employed by the Window Rock School District
as a business manager and assistant business manager; the Navajo Nation
Division of Social Services; and the Navajo Nation Tax Commission.
Survivors include his wife, Nancy Bitah of Window Rock; daughter,
Alvera L. Canyon of San Diego, Calif.; parents, George and Mary Bitah,
both of Blackhat; brother, Donald Bitah of Fruitland; and sisters,
Rose Bitah of Window Rock, Janet C.
Etcitty of Albuquerque, Irene Bitah-Lee of Phoenix,
Marietta Armstrong of Glendale, Ariz., Roselyn Bitah and Jurista Skeets,
both of Gallup, and Delores Sombrero of Tuba City, Ariz.
Bitah was preceded in death by his brothers, Edward Bitah and James
Bitah.
Pallbearers will be Emerson Yazzie, Ernest John, James Smith, Tommy
Joe, Samuel M. Canyon and Darrell Skeet.
Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
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