First home is financed on reservation
Landmark home loan opens door for those needing housing
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GOAT SPRINGS, Az. — Ron and Karen Maldonado hoped and sweated
for more than three years before their dream of owning their own home
became a reality.
While their tale would be a common one in almost every American community,
on the Navajo Reservation, it's a first the
first time that a Navajo family has been able to get a bank to loan
them money for a home built on trust land.
"It took us three and a half years to find a bank that was willing
to give us a loan," said Ron Maldonado.
Three banks in this area turned down the request, even though Fannie
Mae, the biggest U.S. mortgage financier, agreed to buy it. The family
finally had to go to a small bank in Pueblo, Colo., to get the loan.
"I have to admit that there were times when we almost gave up,"
Ron Maldonado said. "In fact, if the Pueblo bank had decided
to turn us down, we were prepared to go out and just buy a trailer."
That's what a lot of middle-class Navajo families have had to do in
the past to get a home on their reservation homesites.
While low income families were able to get homes through the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development, middle income families
had to built their homes in nearby border communities or on private
lands within the boundaries of the reservation.
"No one wanted to loan money for a middle-class family to built
on trust lands because of concerns about default," said Ron Maldonado,
who works for the Historic Preservation Department of the Navajo Nation.
Since the land is being held in trust for the Navajo Nation by the
federal government, a possibility of default caused a lot of concern
in the past. How could a bank take over a home when the homesite was
owned by the federal government and the family that defaulted since
had ownership of the homesite lease.
Without the security of being able to foreclose and take over possession
of the building for resale to someone else, four years ago no bank
in the country would be foolhearty enough to loan someone like the
Maldonados $100,000 to build their home.
But in 1996, a new program was established by the tribe, working with
Fannie Mae and the Navajo Partnership for Housing, to make it possible
for middle-income families to get the financing for their own home
mortgages.
And the way they worked it out was simple.
If a family who gets a home mortgage defaults, a procedure has been
set up so that the home can be resold, either to the tribe itself,
a relative of the family that has defaulted or, if these two options
are not taken, to any Navajo family willing to take it over.
That would mean that for the first time in the tribe's history, someone
other than the owner of the homesite lease would be living on the
land.
"This would be a major incentive for us not to default,"
said Karen Maldonado. "We don't want another family living on
our homesite lease."
When the program was first introduced in 1996, Navajo officials thought
they would have several families approved during the first year. But
it turned out to be a harder sell to the banks than originally expected.
"We were told from the very beginning that we were going to be
breaking down doors and I think that was another incentive for us
to keep on going," said Ron Maldonado.
The Maldonados were in the first class of prospective homeowners that
the Partnership held on the reservation. By now, only three of the
original 15 Navajo families is still in the program.
"There were several times during the past three years when we
tried to convince ourselves to just forget the idea and buy a trailer,"
he said.
But the family did stick with it and just recently they moved into
the 1,400 square-foot home that Ron and Karen Maldonado chose from
a number of proposed designs. The home is located on Karen Maldonado's
homesite lease in Goat Springs, a small Navajo community midway between
Window Rock and Fort Defiance.
The situation with Romero
Brown didn't help the Maldonados either.
Ron Maldonado said that Brown, a Navajo businessman who secured an
off-reservation loan to build a motel in Window Rock and then defaulted
because of allegations the hotel was not built property, was brought
up constantly by banks as a reason for not loaning money to Navajos
living on the reservation.
"We were finally able to convince the bank in Colorado that these
were two different things," Ron Maldonado said.
Nor, officials for Fannie Mae are predicting a mini-housing boom on
the reservation. Anywhere from three to 10 more loans
are expected to be approved in the next few months.
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Couple is entranced by old bottles of
every shape, size
Sylvia Carlson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Gallup has certainly seen its fair share of characters
pass through town and flea market vendors John and Mary Green have
to rank right up there with the most colorful.
Among the boxes, shelves, crates and tables that fill the spot they
rent at the flea market on 9th Street, most available space is filled
with bottles. Antique bottles and jars in all colors, shapes and sizes
fill their makeshift sales space and are sorted by color on tables
customers pass by.
The Greens, who have been married for 30 years, live in a mobile home
at the flea market with their three Chinese Pug dogs, Meiling, Chinling
Chaing and Ming, and know the history behind most of their curios,
including what sells best.
"Even the old cobalts," Mary said, gesturing at a box full
of bright blue bottles in all sizes. "I'm selling those for a
dollar," adding that the cobalt bottles are popular right now
and big sellers, although she prefers the small brown bottles.
Looking through the crates and boxes of blue, brown, green, purplish
and plain clear bottles is like a trip back in time, when little brown
bottles were marked "poison" on the side, and medicine bottles
had lines on one side to tell patients how much a dose was.
There are old Coke bottles, Sparkle Soda bottles and Chief Beverage
bottles all from Gallup bottling companies. There are old baby bottles,
antique Noxema jars, brown glass Clorox jugs and a wealth of liquor
bottles some of which have the corks still in them.
"You know those old remedies were nothing but booze," Mary
said, smiling and gesturing to an old bottle that reads "Dr.
Kilmer's Swamp Root" on the front, and another that says "snake
oil."
She explained that the different tints of the old Kerr and Ball jars
have to do with when they were made. "Before 1918 they used manganese,"
she said, which turns the jars purple after exposure to the sun. Then
they switched to selenium, she said, "which is what turns jars
green now."
I found one of these Mason jars lying on its side," John said,
"with a serving spoon inside. Somebody had just left it."
He said they go treasure hunting at old dumps or abandoned homesteads,
finding everything from bottles to cookie jar lids, salt shakers to
music box and face powder tops, license plates to marbles.
"We'll be driving and say, 'Look at that old chimney over there,'
and we'll stop to look around," Mary said. Most of the stuff
they collect bottles and jars among everything else was once someone's
trash, usually burned. John said they find some bottles that are completely
melted, but most are still intact.
"We'll pick a bottle up out of the ground," to see exactly
where fire melted it, John said. He said it struck him as strange
that most of the time the corks in bottle ends are unaffected by the
heat of the fire that scorched the rest of the bottle.
Mary has a book that dates most of the bottles and jars and approximates
their worth, which is surprising from time to time.
She sold an old Avon bottle a few weeks ago for about $8 and later
discovered it was worth around $12.
"When we used to dig 20 years ago in Nevada," Mary said,
"we didn't find a bottle one day, but we did find a dime worth
$700." A discovery like that doesn't happen too often, but when
it does it makes the hours in the dirt more worthwhile.
Originally from the east coast, the Greens met more than 30 years
ago when Mary was working as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital in
Phoenix; John is an electrician by trade. Of her experiences in psychiatry,
Mary laughed and said that "it helps in flea marketing."
The couple has done all sorts of things before they settling on selling
antique and vintage items at flea markets. "We used to go mining
and dredging for gold in Alaska," Mary said. At one point they
were getting almost an ounce an hour.
Now the couple divides their time between the flea market in Gallup
and one in Sierra Vista, Ariz. Mary and John sell here all summer,
but around Oct. 1 they pack everything up in their mobile home and
trailer and head further southwest.
During the winter in Arizona they stay on a friend's ranch and have
full access to a well, in addition to wide-open range land available
for them to treasure hunt on. There, the flea market is smaller but
offers more antiques, and the small, colored bottles are in demand.
According to Mary, the bottles "sell like hotcakes" in Arizona,
and they make better money off them there. At their lot in the Gallup
flea market, the Greens have to haul all their own water, making it
difficult to wash all the bottles they find.
They get plenty of exercise.
"Sundays we go and bottle-dig," Mary said. They pack up
their mobile home and three dogs one of whom is expecting and due
in early August and "pick a road and drive on it," she said.
"You can see anything when you stop."
Although Wal-Mart's opening "devastated the flea market,"
John said, and the ongoing construction on 9th Street has virtually
stopped weekday customers, Mary and John try to find other ways to
make ends meet. John does electrical work and they make do, hoping
for an occasional sale that will make life easier.
No matter how they make out at the end of the day, Mary thinks it
is worth it. "We enjoy it," she said, smiling as usual from
behind dark glasses "We enjoy what we do."
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Tuba City School board plagued by resignations
Pamela G. Dempsey
Special to the Independent
TUBA CITY, Ariz. — "Why the interference?"
That was the question that plagued the Tuba City School Board at a
recent session following the resignation of Assistant Superintendent
and Business Manager Richard Stokes.
In his July 7 resignation letter, Stokes wrote: "I believe the
board president's continual interference with the day-to-day operation
of the district prohibits making the necessary corrections to bring
(the school district) into compliance with (federal regulations) and
to modernize the financial functioning of the district as required
by law."
Judy Secody, school board president, said in response that she had
never interfered with the administration, with the exception of advising
Stokes to stop yelling at the staff.
Stokes replaced Business Manager Ed Hall, who also resigned last year.
The entire board was questioned last week by staff members on rumors
of harassment and "forcing out" employees, such as Marilyn
Durocher, former junior high principal who resigned at the end of
June for other employment in Flagstaff.
Secody said she didn't know why Durocher left, adding, "It came
as a surprise to us. We've always been very supportive of her."
Secody said the board has not and will not interfere with any school
operations.
"Our job only consists of taking action on the items sent up
by the administration," she said.
However, Stokes paints a different picture in his letter.
"Her failure to understand that change is difficult combined
with her continual violation of policy and standard board procedures
make it impossible to facilitate office changes even to the smallest
degree," he stated. "Her support of personnel and out-of-date
practices that lead the district to become dysfunctional is counter-productive
at best."
Secody dismissed the letter simply as Stokes' parting shot.
"Mr. Stokes told us that either he gets a 2.5 percent raise or
he quits. He's only been employed with the school for four months,"
she said.
Among the resignations lies another issue, one of "vacation buy-backs."
During last week's meeting, Superintendent Chee Benally was questioned
by the board for actions he took on "buying back" unused
vacation days from nine administrators without prior board approval.
"No one has time to use their vacation," he explained during
the meeting. "From May to August, their calendars are filled
(with school business)."
The board tabled the issue until a legal opinion can be heard.
"If we do approve this action," Secody said, "what
about the rest of the staff? And what funds were used for this?"
This issue came at the same time that Benally is due for an evaluation.
His employment and salary discussions scheduled for executive session
were tabled pending his evaluation. Rumors of his possible termination
were also addressed last week.
Evaluation does not mean termination, Secody said.
The resignation of Stokes and Durocher, as well as two more teachers,
spurred yet another rumor of the resignation of Helen Stalenaker,
special education director for the district.
"That is not true," Stalenaker said after finding out about
the rumor that her resignation was turned in. "This board has
always been supportive of me and I have no intentions of leaving."
The next board meeting will be at 6 p.m. Aug. 2.
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Most council proposals fail
Dine' Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — On the third day of the summer session, the Navajo
Nation Council took the following actions Wednesday:
* Voted 56-18 to reject a $10,000 a year raise for the president,
vice president and 88 council delegates because 59 votes were needed
for passage;
* Voted 53-19 to reject changes to the Sovereign Immunity Act to expand
who can sue the tribal government in certain situation because 59
votes were needed for passage;
* Voted 50-23 to reject clarification of the Judiciary Committee's
oversight role of the Judicial Branch because 59 votes were needed;
* Voted 46-25-1 to kill proposed revisions to the Education Code concerning
school board membership qualifications because 59 votes were needed;
* Voted 36-16-12 to reject changes to declare that there would be
no conflict of interest for a council delegate, to serve on an elected
school board or county commission, or to be appointed to a tribal
commission or enterprise board because 59 votes
were needed for passage;
* Left in limbo a resolution to allow delegates to be county commissioners
or supervisors since a motion to table would have killed the proposal;
* Voted 70-0 to add to the agenda a resolution of condemnation of
the Washington State Republican Party proposal to do away with Indian
tribes as separate governments.
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Council rejects change to tribal court
system
Jim Maniaci
Dine' Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Preferring immunity from being sued to the anticipated
creation of more jobs, the Navajo Nation Council turned back a proposal
Wednesday to let outsiders with contracts sue the tribe in tribal
court.
The 53-19 vote fell six delegates short of the number needed to adopt
the resolution that would expand who could sue the Navajo Nation in
certain circumstances ( a waiver from the council).
Currently the council automatically grants the privilege to sue the
tribe only to Navajo-owned businesses with construction development
and reclamation contracts. It is an exemption in the Sovereign Immunity
Act...
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Man survives five days in wild
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A Tucson man says his plans for a weekend
fishing trip with friends turned into five days of isolation, frustration
and fear when he lost his way in the White Mountains.
Jeremy Ertz, 24, told the Arizona Daily Star he became lost last Thursday
night while driving to a remote campsite called White Crossing, along
the Black River on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.
After running out of gas, Ertz set up camp next to his truck. He said
he spent the next few days hiking between the camp and a helicopter
pad about a mile away where he built a bonfire in hopes of attracting
attention...
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Jury awards bottle owner Pepsi million
dollar prize
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Finders aren't keepers, a jury decided Wednesday
in settling a three-year-old dispute over a prize-winning bottle of
Pepsi.
The woman who bought a $1 million bottle of Pepsi Cola gets to keep
the cash because she didn't get to drink from the bottle.
Her co-worker's argument that she was entitled to the company's grand
prize after finding the bottle while cleaning up fizzled with the
eight-person jury...
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Good Samaritan stabbed after trying to
help
TRUCHAS, N.M. (AP) — A good Samaritan who pulled over to help
a stranded motorist had an 8-inch knife rammed into his head by the
man he was trying to assist, police said. The motorist turned out
to be a convicted felon, wanted on a parole violation.
Javier Martinez, 20, was allegedly stabbed several times for no apparent
reason when he tried to assist Rufino Martinez, no relation, Sunday
night along N.M. 76, Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Detective Joe Vigil
said.
Javier Martinez remained in stable condition Wednesday and had been
moved out of the intensive-care unit of the hospital where the knife
was surgically removed...
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Navajo maseuse has the touch
Stan Bindell
Special to the Independent
SANTA FE — Vangie Redsteer has a special touch and as a masseuse
she is using that touch to help people especially those who have been
in abusive situations.
Redsteer, a former resident of Leupp, Ariz., now living in Santa Fe,
said she is familiar with abusive situations so she wants to help
women in these situations.
"My sense of touch lets people know I care. Children should be
touched in caring ways. Most children don't get that," she said...
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Corrections
The Frances Day Services Center operated a program called the Retired
Senior Volunteer Program before it closed. That program, along with
the senior companion program, will go to bid soon to find a new administration
organization to run it.
The name of the program was incorrect in Tuesday's edition.
Also, the status of the three branches of the Navajo government was
incorrectly stated in Wednesday's story about the Navajo Nation Council's
action concerning the tribal Board of Election Supervisors and election
administration.
While the three branches are separate, they exist by the grace of
the Legislative Branch and thus are not independent . By council action
the tribal Judicial Branch began moving away from direct council control
in 1959 and the Executive Branch in 1990.
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Deaths
Marie Manuelito Allison
TOHATCHI — Funeral services for Marie Manuelito Allison, 77,
will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, July 21, at St. Mary's Catholic Church
in Tohatchi. Rev. John Mittelstadt, O.F.M. will officiate. Burial
will follow on private family land.
A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. tonight, July 20, at Rollie Mortuary
Palm Chapel.
Allison died July 15 in Albuquerque. She was born May 12, 1923 in
Rehoboth into the Water Edge People Clan for the Salt People Clan.
She was the great-great-great-granddaughter of Chief Manuelito.
Survivors include husband, Isaac Allison of Tohatchi; daughters, Isabelle
Allison, Flora Claw, Grace A. Smith, and Elsie A. Watson, all of Tohatchi,
Shirley Bowman of Window Rock, and Lynda Francisco of Jones Ranch;
brothers, Wilson Benallie of Rock Springs, Willie Bradley of Standing
Rock, and Peter Sage of Tohatchi; sisters, Alice S. Benallie of Tohatchi,
Fannie Curtis of Shiprock, Louise Etsitty of Mexican Springs, Ella
Roanhorse and Juanita Willeto, both of Tohatchi; 14 grandchildren;
and 18 great-grandchildren.
Allison was preceded in death by her father, Sandoval Badoni; mother,
Benzebah Sage; son, Edgar Michael Allison;
daughter, Martha Theresa Allison; sister, Alice Mae Hardey; and grandson,
Paul Smith.
Pallbearers will be Harry Bowman IV, Tony Curtis, Sr., Kyle Smith,
Ronald Smith, Ellison Watson and Elton Watson.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Dorothy Bowman
GALLUP — Services for Dorothy A. Bowman, 93, will be announced
at a later date.
Bowman died July 18 in Gallup. She was born May 9, 1907 in Mulholland
Well into the Water Flowing Together People
Clan for the Charcoal Streaked Division of the Red Running Clan.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
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