Navajos offer first redistricting maps
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation proposed Monday night wrapping
11 of Arizona's 21 Indian tribes into one sprawling Congressional
district.
The U.S. House of Representatives district would cover more than
half of Arizona's 113,909 square miles occupied by one-eighth
(about 641,000 people) of the state's 5.13 million population.
Arizona's most populous tribe the only one with more than 100,000
Native American residents also proposed a gerrymandered state
legislative district encompassing one-third of those 21 tribes.
More than a dozen people spoke to Arizona Independent Redistricting
Commission Chairman Steven Lynn and Commissioner Joshua Hall during
the public hearing in Window Rock, starting with Navajo Nation
Vice President Dr. Taylor McKenzie and Council Speaker Edward
T. Begay.
The Navajo proposal was being unveiled publicly for the first
time, and no one opposed it.
Repeatedly commissioners heard Navajos say the Hopi Tribe should
be included along with the Navajos, the San Carlos and White Mountain
Apaches, San Juan Southern Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai and Kiabab-Paiutes
in both districts. Also part of the Congressional district would
be the Prescott Yavapais, Camp Verde's Yavapai-Apaches, and Payson's
Tonto Apaches.
(At a previous hearing Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor testified his
tribe wants to remain in a separate district from its Navajo neighbors,
whose reservation surrounds the Hopi reserve.)
Frank Seanez of the Office of Legislative Counsel presented the
narrative behind the maps, claiming there is no "packing"
(overloading a district with minorities) that includes the 61,331
of 104,565 Navajos in Arizona over age 18. Thus the Navajo plan
meets the requirements of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Voting
Rights Act, he said.
He also said the Navajo proposal meets the other five requirements
of Arizona's Proposition 106, which took redistricting away from
the politics of legislators. The five conditions are:
Equal populations to the extent that is practical.
Contiguous districts (the 1990 Hopi plan required taking some
Navajo populated areas as a corridor to connect the Hopis to the
non-Navajo Third Congressional District).
Respecting communities of interest as much as practical. Most
of the three and a half hours of comment emphasized the Indian
tribes and their rural non-Indian neighbors make up such a community
of interest.
Boundaries should follow visible geographic features, city, town
and county boundaries and undivided census tracts to the extent
that is practicable.
Districts should be competitive (among political parties) if this
is not detrimental to the other goals.
Speaker Begay noted letters of support from Yavapai-Apache, San
Carlos Apache, and Hualapai leaders.
The commissioners' Window Rock appearance was one of 15 first-round
hearings being held across the state to obtain public comments
on what people want included or excluded from districts. Initially,
as required by the proposition, the commission presented a grid
map as a starting point for discussion. But because the proposition
required the first map to be based only on
population and dissected the Navajo vote President Kelsey A. Begaye
and Speaker Begay both blasted it in public statements.
The next hearings will be at 7 p.m. (standard time) Wednesday
at the Community Education Center of Northland Pioneer
College's campus in Holbrook, 2251 E. Navajo Blvd.
Lynn and Hall explained that the IRC will use the first round
of public comments, which end Thursday in Glendale, to draw up
the draft proposal. The new maps will then be the subject of another
round of public hearings.
Comments from the second round of hearings will be used to revise
the draft maps into final versions, which then must obtain the
approval of the U.S. Justice Department. Once the federal government
in Washington, D.C., approves the third set of
maps, the commission will send them to the Arizona Secretary of
State for certification.
Plans are for the upcoming 2002 elections to be held with the
new districts. Arizona gains two seats in the U.S. House.
Hall said after the hearing the Navajo presentation was the most
articulate and best prepared he had experienced. Hall, a St.
Johns resident with a business in Pinetop-Lakeside, is a Democrat
and the only rural member among the five commissioners.
Lynn, a Tucson resident, is the only independent commissioner.
He said so far both urban and rural residents have said they
don't want to be mixed together in the same district.
He added that so far the only other actual map has come from the
Democratic Party in a Prescott hearing, and it was only for the
area's state legislative district.
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Ute Mountain tribe model for farming
success
Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer
TOWAOC, Colo. — The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm and Ranch Enterprise
northwest of Shiprock has reached an all-time high level of success.
This year, for the first time, the Ute Mountain farm will realize
production of all 7,634 of its acres. The farm, established in 1987
by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council, produces alfalfa, triticale,
corn and wheat. It's located 45 miles northwest of Shiprock.
Though alfalfa, the farm's top crop by acreage, is not known to be
a big cash crop, the farm managed last year to make a "healthy
profit," General Manager Paul Evans said.
Evans was brought in nine years ago to manage the farm by the Mid
Kansas Agri Co., which oversees the farm and has taken a diminishing
management role as the farm has achieved greater levels of success.
"We get along well and work well together," Evans said.
Mid Kansas helps the Ute farm stay focused on "the big picture,"
Evans said. If there is a livestock, crop or personnel issue at stake,
Mid Kansas will bring in an outside expert for consultation purposes
at its own expense.
Mid Kansas has instilled with Ute farm personnel the notion that working
with outside consultants, such as Crop Quest of Dodge City, Kan.,
is not only advisable, but necessary to keep a healthy farm's concepts
and ideas modernized.
"I want fresh ideas," Evans said. "I want people around
here who are looking at other farms all the time. All of the people
with Mid Kansas are entrepreneurial. They have their own businesses
and their own areas of expertise."
Brad Bennett, a Mid Kansas consultant, works closely with Ute Mountain
Ute Tribal Chairman Ernest House, Evans said.
"The tribal leadership has had a hand in all this because we
really can't do anything without their approval," he said. "They
have been very supportive of us."
The Ute Mountain Ute farm, small compared to the Navajo tribe's sprawling
Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, has not yet delved into specialty
crops. The focus has been "on building the farm," with profits
going back into farm operations and capital costs, Evans said.
Healthy yields of alfalfa and other crops aside, the best thing the
Ute Mountain farm has going for it is its work force, Evans said.
Evans said he has strived to produce a work environment where "people
enjoy coming to work every day." That means good farm organization,
but not making things so structured that there's no room for new ideas.
In fact, the farm's 24 full-time employees rotate on a wide range
of tasks so they will have a well-rounded understanding of how agronomy
works. The farm is set up on purpose that way. Programs are offered
to employees frequently to provide more training and retraining in
their areas of particular interest.
"Our employees wear a lot of hats around here," Evans said,
noting that his head of farm technology is also the farm's main irrigation
operator.
This year, two Ute Mountain farm employees have been promoted to block
manager status.
"We feel like we've brought them along at a steady pace, showing
them how good farming should be done, and have not promoted them before
they're ready," Evans said. "Basically, they're in the positions
they're in because they've earned it.
They've proven themselves, and if they've done that, I don't think
they can fail."
Evans said he's always willing to try out an employee in a new farm
position. What he's looking for is work ethic, performance and the
ability to work alongside others.
"Some people don't care to advance (to supervisor or beyond).
They just want to come to work," he said.
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe maintains a farm internship program for
those in the 10th grade through their college years. This year, four
to five students will be rotated through a summer program, taking
their turns at crop, irrigation, construction and office work. Some
of the previous interns have gone on to become full-time farm workers.
"I'm just a little bit like a coach," Evans said. "The
employees out there, they're the ones that do the work."
The Ute Mountain Ute's ranch enterprise has a predominantly Angus-based
cow-and-calf herd of about 700 head. Pastures are located at the farm
and a ranch near Mesa Verde National Park.
The farm uses about 23,000 acre-feet of water annually provided by
the Dolores Irrigation Project. The farm benefits from a gravity-fed
system linked to McPhee Reservoir, located 10 miles north of Cortez,
Colo., which feeds into the Towaoc Canal, a distance of 41 miles.
The farm uses 110 center sprinkler pivots.
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Warden: Be wary of hungry bears
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Something's 'bruin' in Cibola and McKinley counties
and it is something people do not ordinarily see, but once they do
see it beware.
Black bears, hungry for an easy meal, have been coming out of the
wilderness and into the back yards and homes of area residents.
Two have been killed so far, another was shot and believed to be still
wandering the wilds, and more have been sighted. One was spotted in
Grants behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken in the western part of the
city.
Others have been sighted in populated areas in Bluewater Acres, La
Jara Subdivision in the Zuni Mountains and even Ramah.
One, after being captured in a bear trap in Bluewater Acres and taken
to the Marquez Wildlife Area some 70 miles away,
simply walked back to his home and was killed.
The reason bears are coming to town?
In one word food.
These critters are used to an abundant food supply in the mountains
and valleys of Cibola and McKinley counties.
A lack of adequate rain supply this year, coupled with a carryover
of very dry weather from last year caused the food supply
primarily pion nuts and acorns to still be in the trees.
When bears first come out of hibernation they tend to "bulk up"on
protein-rich insects first, then switch to fruits and nuts to add
weight and fat.
Even seeing a bear in the wild is a rare sight. But these bruins,
black bears to be exact, are not only being seen, they are being seen
in towns and populated areas.
Craig Sanchez has to deal with bears first-hand as a game warden for
Cibola County and he's looking for a little rain.
"We had a fairly good snow over the winter, but between the snow
and now we've had no moisture to speak of and that's what we need
for the trees to drop the fruit (acorns and pion nuts)."
Weather forecasters say the state usually slips into the monsoon season
in mid-July, but weather patterns which New Mexico has been undergoing
in the past few days indicate that the monsoon season may actually
be starting now.
"I sure hope so," Sanchez said. "We really need the
moisture."
Lack of moisture is the reasons state and federal wildlands have been
placed under fire restrictions.
Meanwhile, all the ravenous bears know is there's food for the taking
around human beings.
"The bears are not as afraid of humans as they usually are, because
they are hungry," Sanchez said.
A young fellow camping with friends near Questa recently found out
the hard way when a famished black bear that began
gnawing on his leg. Sanchez said from what he knew about the attack
the fellow cooked the evening meal and smoke from the cooking food
got into the hapless fellow's clothes.
"He went to bed with the same clothes on and the bear smelled
the smell of food and went after it," Sanchez said. "That's
a good lesson for campers. Don't go to bed in the same clothes you
cooked in."
Since late May, two bears have been shot in the Bluewater Acres area.
In one instance a bear weighing more than 300 pounds raided a homeowner's
chicken house.
A bear trap was put in the area. On June 8, Gallup Game Warden Drew
Spencer got a telephone call about the bear. When he got on the scene,
a big black bear was there, so Spencer shot the bruin with a tranquilizer
gun.
A bit later the bear went to sleep and Sanchez and a Cibola County
Sheriff's Department deputy showed up.
"It took three of us trying to drag that heavy bear across the
ground to the bear trap," he said.
The plan was to put the bear in the trap, drive him to the Marquez
Wildlife Area some 70 miles away and return. Sanchez said the trio
had to strap the bear onto Sanchez's Wildlife Department pickup truck
wench and wench the bear into the air so it could be placed inside
the bear trap.
Sometime in the process the sleeping bear came out of its stupor,
was given another shot of tranquilizer and it went back to sleep.
The bear slept the entire way to Marquez where it was deposited.
Two weeks later, the bear came back home, got into the chicken house
and this time the bear was shot and killed as a nuisance bear. Sanchez
said he believes the bear spotted in Grants was the same bear that
was on its way back to Bluewater.
"Bears have an amazing sense of direction," Sanchez said
Another bear in the same area might have started to chase a resident's
children, so the father of the children shot and wounded the animal.
"We tracked it quite a ways before we lost the trail," Sanchez
said.
Yet another bear was shot and killed as it tried to rip through screened
windows to get into a man's home in Ramah the last week of May.
"If you spot a bear, call the New Mexico Department of Game and
Fish," Sanchez said.
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Mariners score 21 runs in rout of A's
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
GALLUP — The Fort Defiance Mariners exploded for 10 runs in the
third and nine more in the fourth en route to crushing the Gallup
A's 21-4 in five innings in the 13-14-year-old baseball division Monday
night at Veterans Memorial Complex.
The Gallup A's, who were playing one player short, took the early
lead in the top of the first off Mariners starting and winning pitcher
Brandon Slim with a single run on an RBI-single by pitcher Will Armijo.
The Fort Defiance Mariners pushed across two runs in their half of
the first with the first run coming on a pair of errors at second
and on a pickoff throw that sailed off the mark and the second coming
on a double to right by leftfielder Chris Neswood.
The A's came back to tie the game in the third as shortstop Josh Black
doubled and Armijo, who was a perfect 3-for-3 with three singles and
two RBI, singled up the middle.
However in the bottom of the third, the Mariners marched 13 batters
to the plate and erupted for 10 runs on just four hits sandwiched
around three errors and seven walks from three A's pitchers.
Catcher Brandon Hickson drove in two runs with a triple, centerfielder
Colleen Slinkey drove in two more runs with a single and Neswood doubled
inside of the first base line for another run as the Mariners broke
out to a commanding 12-3 cushion.
The A's tallied their final run of the game in the fourth as rightfielder
Kendell Miller walked and advanced on a basehit by first baseman Kyle
Spolar. Miller stole third and came into score on a balk.
The Mariners added to their lead in the fourth with nine more runs
as they marched 13 batters to the plate, lashing out six hits sandwiched
around three errors, three walks and a one hit batter.
Shortstop Shawn Wauneka and third baseman Beau Bitsuie each had two-run
singles with first baseman Brian Shirley with a pair of RBI-singles
while second baseman Jeremy Curley had an RBI-double.
In the fifth Slim gave up successive singles to Josh Black and Armijo
but was able to get out of the jam as he got the next two batters
to ground out to end the game on the eight-run rule.
Mariners pitcher Brandon Slim went the distance and scattered four
runs on seven hits. Slim fanned six and walked one.
A's starting pitcher Will Armijo was the losing pitcher lasting two
plus innings and giving up seven runs on six hits. Reliever Chad Mangus
lasted just one third of an inning and gave up five runs on one hit.
Orlando Yazzie finished the game and allowed nine runs on six hits
in two and two-thirds innings.
Pacing the Mariners' 13-hit attack were Colleen Slinkey who was 3-for-3
with three singles and two RBI; Brian Shirley 2-for-2 with two singles,
two RBI and two walks; Chris Neswood 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles
and two RBI; Brandon Hickson 1-for-3 with a single and two RBI; Beau
Bitsuie 2-for-3 with two singles and two RBI and Shawn Waunkea 1-for-2
with a single, two RBI and two walks.
The A's leading hitters were Will Armijo who was 3-for-3 with three
singles and two RBI and Josh Black who was 2-for-3 with a single and
a double.
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Blue Jays score two runs in two losses
Abelita Rose Freeland
Staff Sports Writer
GALLUP — Two was the grand total of runs the Blue Jays scored
in a pair of losses in the 13&14 year old softball division Monday
evening at Veterans Memorial Park.
In the early game, the Rockies won 7-1 and the Angels beat the Bluejays
12-1 in the second game.
Rockies 7, Blue Jays 1
The Rockies and Blue Jays battled the three innings before the Rockies
pulled away with the win.
Both teams first remained scoreless after two complete innings of
action and then were tied after the third inning...
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Newspaper to sue for police report
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Independent plans to sue the city of Gallup if the
original incident reports on the shooting of Police Cpl. Larry Brian
Mitchell are not released within two days.
Mitchell was killed May 30 in a shoot-out with Gallup man Robert Kiro
at his home in Red Hills Mobile Home Park. Kiro was barricaded in
his home for nine hours before the shoot-out and surrendered to Gallup
Police two hours later.
The Independent sent a letter to Gallup Police Chief Danny Ross on
June 13 requesting the reports through the New Mexico Arrest Records
Information Act and the state Inspection of Public Records Act. The
city has yet to give a written response.
The city's attorney, Lynn Isaacson, did not respond to various calls
to his office Friday and Monday...
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Zuni teen-ager stabs officer
Staff Report
GALLUP — A Zuni Police officer was stabbed in the abdomen Saturday
during a domestic incident.
Shirley Bellson, tribal administrator, said Zuni Police Officer
Elroy Zunie was by himself when he responded to Cedar Street in
Black Rock. Zunie was assisting a family having problems with a
juvenile.
During a scuffle, the teen managed to stab the officer, Bellson
said.
The 16-year-old male reportedly stabbed Zunie in the lower abdomen,
below the bulletproof vest. Zunie was taken to Zuni Public Health
Services and later, Gallup Indian Medical Center...
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Shiprock man injured at party
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — An argument at a drinking party in Cudeii early
Friday sent a Shiprock Chapter man to the Shiprock Indian Health
Service hospital for almost four dozen stitches.
The victim was Daryl Gene Benally, 30, who lives south of the Non-Profit
Corporation Mobile Home Park in Shiprock, police said.
Benally was drinking with three males at the home of Gerald Badonie,
18, who lives about a half-mile northwest of the Cudeii Chapter
Navajo Housing Authority subdivision.
Since the case remains under investigation, no arrests were made,
according to Navajo Criminal Investigations Department spokesman
Captain Samson Cowboy...
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Lots of action on Route 66 this week
Staff Report
GALLUP — There will be a lot of kicks on Route 66 this week
the History Channel's Great Race stopover in Gallup, the local Route
66 Association's Route 66 Music Festival and Horseshoe Pitching
Competition and the Indian Capital Car Show commemorating the 75th
anniversary of Route 66.
The Great Race
One hundred vintage automobiles will stop in downtown Gallup between
11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday as part of the History Channel's Great
Race. The 14-day, cross-country race is following much of old Route
66 this year. The public is invited to view the cars and talk with
crew members along Coal Avenue, between First and Fourth streets.
Gallup will be hosting lunch for the race crews and also providing
entertainment for the afternoon.
Music and horseshoes
The Gallup Route 66 Association is hosting a free music festival
from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Fridayat the Red Rock State Park Arena. The
concert kicks off with music by the Calhouns, a group that plays
a variety of music, from oldies to country to rock and roll...
Ceremonial's costs concern area families
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Is the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial pricing
itself out of the local market?
That's something that has been under discussion by Ceremonial officials
for the past several weeks, after a number of complaints about the
pricing were brought up at a meeting this spring in which local
residents were asked to express their thoughts about how the Ceremonial
was being run.
One of the concerns that was expressed by several people at the
meeting focused on the prices being charged for this year's events
and especially the decision to raise prices for the nightly Indian
dances, which this year will top out at $25 for adults for the Saturday
night performance...
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Deaths
Floyd Edward Aragon
BLUEWATER — Services for Floyd Aragon, 73, will be held at 2
p.m. Friday, June 29, at Grants Memorial Park.
Aragon died June 23 in Albuquerque. He was born July 19, 1927 in Gallup.
Aragon was a member of B.P.O.E. He was a proprietor of the Western
Bar on old West Highway 66.
Survivors include his wife, Dorothy Jean Biondic Aragon of Bluewater
Village; sons, Lou Aragon of Saint Louis, Mo., and Floyd Aragon Jr.
of Grants; daughter, Marian Pascetti of Thoreau; sisters, Maggie Padilla
of Los Angeles, Calif., Rose Garcia of Phoenix, Sally Martinez of
Kingman, Ariz., and Barbara Lopez and Bessie Muniz, both of Whitter,
Calif.; nine children and two great-grandchildren.
Aragon was preceded in death by his sisters, Betty Baca and Mary Espinosa,
and brother, Leo Aragon.
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