Camp Courage helps kids get in touch with tradition
Sylvia Carlson
Staff Writer
CRYSTAL — Camp Courage had so many children interested that it
had a sign posted outside the mess hall telling people that there
was no more room and to go home.
And this is the camp's first year.
Camp Courage is a camp for children ages 10-13 sponsored by the Police
Athletic League (PAL) and other organizations. It is a new camp that
tries to build bridges between youth and positive adult role models
through a week of activities that include everything from archery
to a puberty ceremony.
The camp is using the facilities at Camp Asaayi near Crystal. "The
number of officers here is really amazing," said Levon Benally
of the Tohatchi PAL. Officers primarily from the Navajo police force
turned out to help chaperone. Benally spoke of the Navajo tradition
of coming together and how so many people joined forces to make Camp
Courage a reality.
Children at the camp Thursday morning helped "grandma" Madalin
Chavez make traditional blue corn meal mush over a fire. Chavez, who
speaks very little English, works as a volunteer with Na'Nizhoozhi
Center Inc. (NCI) and is among several people from the center working
at Camp Courage.
"We made our own baking powder," Latisha Notah, 13, said,
adding that "(grandma) said the most important thing is not to
use hot water." Notah said she thought she could probably make
the corn mush on her own now, in part because making the mush was
a big part of her puberty ceremony.
"You have to sit down, kneel," Notah said, "I had to
grind that corn for about 45 minutes," she said with a smile.
This fall Notah will start eighth grade at Crownpoint Middle School.
"The best part was getting to taste it," Aaron Jim said.
Jim is 12 and attends Tohatchi Middle School. "One of the rough
things was who's going to take a shower first ... it was pretty cool,"
Jim said. "Tuesday we went fishing yesterday,
canoeing," he said.
"It's pretty fun here," Jim said, "I know I've learned
some things here I wouldn't have learned."
Thursday afternoon Jim and the rest of his afternoon activity group
had their chance at water activities, which included watching a model
airplane and model boat perform all kinds of stunts and canoeing in
Lake Asaayi.
Daniel Thomas, who is the district commander with the Navajo Police
in Tohatchi, has been working on getting Camp Courage off the ground
for a year and a half.
Thomas said that programs like Camp Courage and the Student, Junior
and Citizen Academies, all give people "a better understanding
of what law enforcement does how they can help the community and how
the community can help them."
The mission statement for Camp Courage reads: "The mission of
Navajo Camp Courage is to promote and support healthy growth and development
within our young people toward positive character and integrity, and
the development of leadership capacities, to engage youth to participate
in community advocacy and service."
Apparently the camp sounds so good to children and parents that by
Thursday there were 78 children at Camp Asaayi when the limit was
supposed to be 62. Benally said six children showed up Thursday morning
to join the camp.
According to Benally, children weren't supposed to show up until Monday
afternoon, but everyone was so eager to get there that 65 campers
were at the camp mid-morning, ready to go. "The kids are really
energized," he said.
Benally smiled and gestured at the boisterous group that was cleaning
the mess hall after lunch and said, "You'd think they'd
be running out of energy."
Lorencita Yazzie, a 23-year-old volunteer from NCI, said, "We
have them go to bed at 9, but they're not tired!" It seems the
chaperones are more than ready to hit the hay when lights-out rolls
around.
"It's fun though," said Miss Indian New Mexico, Shanelle
Franklin, 23, of Tohatchi, "but I'm tired." Franklin said
it is really nice getting to know so many young girls and spending
time with them. Both chaperones are having a great time and getting
plenty of exercise.
Franklin's cabin was getting ready for the evening's talent show a
group skit of the Navajo creation legend, with Notah starring as the
Changing Woman.
Camp Courage is so successful that organizers already are planning
to have two sessions next summer, so no one has to be turned away
by a sign on the mess hall door.
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Death of 'favorite uncle' haunts family
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GANADO, Ariz. — Donald Tsosie, 41, left his sisters' homesite
in Ganado with his girlfriend on March 29, 1998, promising to return
the following week with groceries. But he never came back.
Three weeks later, after spending several days searching through Gallup
and the surrounding areas, Tsosie's sister Laura Kee reported his
absence to the police.
In late April 1998, Tsosie's brutally bruised and beaten body was
recovered from a steep ledge near Farmington where his killer or killers
had dumped him.
The Tsosie family first learned his fate when they visited Gallup
and heard rumors about the discovery of the body. They called Chinle
police who confirmed the tragic story. Tsosie's older sisters, Nora
Dennison and Kee, traveled to Farmington to make the positive identification
and claim the body of their brother.
Dennison broke the news to Tsosie's five children about their father's
death at their home in Navajo. Three of the children have since moved
to Chicago, with their mother.
For the sisters, Donald's death reminded them of another grim chapter
in the family's history. It is something Dennison said she hadn't
thought about for a long time until the discovery of Donald's body.
The sisters, then barely school age, watched as an angry and intoxicated
stepfather chased their mother around a shed, finally catching her
and clubbing her on the head. She died at the scene, one month away
from the birth of another child.
Donald was about 1 year old when their mother was killed, Kee said.
"I don't remember a lot of the details. But I remember hearing
them argue and standing over her when she was lying there on the ground,"
he said.
The stepfather was convicted of the murder and died after serving
his sentence.
The abandoned Tsosie children were sent to be raised by their traditional
grandparents.
"We didn't have toys like kids do now," Dennison said. "We
played games we made up. And herded sheep."
The children tended 200 to 300 sheep, Dennison said. "Our grandma
didn't want us to go to school because they needed our help with the
chores and sheep," she said. The children did all of the tasks
associated with the sheep, including the butchering, and managed to
finish only about seven or eight years of school.
Trips into Gallup with their grandparents in those days meant traveling
in wagon pulled by horses. "It was the only transportation we
had," Kee said.
"When Donald was about 7or 8 ( years old), he and a boy cousin
were sleeping in the wagon," Kee said, with a choked up voice.
"We (the sisters) pushed the wagon so it went down the hill.
The boys never knew it until they woke up and didn't know where they
were. There were many times of jokes and fun. That's what I have lots
of memories about."
Donald attended a boarding school in Toyei for awhile. Both sisters
later attended boarding school in Utah.
"Donald went through sixth or seventh grade," Kee said.
"After he came back from school, he learned carpentry skills
to earn a living." Tsosie worked for a while in Phoenix as a
construction worker.
Later, when the sawmill opened in Navajo, Tsosie worked pulling green
chain for about six years. After the mill closed, he went back to
carpentry and roofing or odd jobs when construction jobs were scarce.
Donald's sisters and niece described him as a man with a sense of
humor and many friends.
Tsosie started a family and occasionally struggled with drinking,
his sister said. It was during one of these drinking episodes that
Tsosie became a murder victim.
Despite his problems, his niece Regina Dennison said, "He always
had a smile to give out. He had lots of friends and everyone loved
my uncle."
Regina Dennison called Tsosie her "favorite uncle," and
described him as a man who loved children. "He liked to play
basketball with us a lot," she said. "Anything to keep us
from getting bored around the house."
When he was between jobs, both sisters said, Tsosie would help out
with the kids and fix things around their homes. "Every day,
Donald would wash a load of the kids' clothes in the bathtub, then
hang it outside to dry," Kee said.
"And he was a great cook. Crazy bread was his specialty. Everyone
else calls them 'biscuits.'"
Tsosie's body was discovered within a few days of Regina Dennison's
high school graduation. "It put my whole graduation on hold,
" she said. "Our family just needed to deal with this."
Robert Fry and Leslie Engh, the accused murderers of Tsosie, are in
jail in Aztec awaiting trial. Both men are also charged in the brutal
June slaying of Betty Lee, a Shiprock single mother of five. It was
after the Lee killing that the two men were linked to Tsosie's death.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Fry and Engh.
"I can't believe he is gone," Regina Dennison said. "I
keep thinking he's just out in town having a good time. We miss him
very much. I just keep waiting for him to come walking up the road."
Not even a photograph of the dead man remains.
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Election panel to shoot for Aug. 1 vote
Council stalls on stripping board's power
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation election merry-go-round apparently
will stop going in circles on Aug. 1.
Eunice Begay, chairwoman of the beleaguered Board of Election Supervisors,
said Friday that every effort humanly possible will be made to conduct
voting on Aug. 1 for chapter-level offices and the referendum on reducing
the council to 24 delegates.
"We will try to make Aug. 1," she said.
After almost three hours of debate Friday, the council rejected a
move to immediately strip the supervisors and election
director of their power and have the Inter-Governmental Relations
Committee and Legislative Services director hold the election Sept.
5. The vote was 56-16-8 against imposing immediate sanctions.
Voting for immediate sanctions were: George Arthur, Andy Ayze, Kenneth
Begay, Ralph Bennett, Leo Gishie, Nelson Gorman, Ernest Hubbell, Norman
John, Ervin Keeswood, Wilford Lane, Tom LaPahe, Johnny Naize, Harrison
Plummer, Harold Wauneka, Robert Whitehorse and Wilford Yabeny.
Friday's failure left Tuesday's resolution sanctions only if the board
and director do not hold the election Aug. 1 in place. The council
approved that resolution by a two-vote margin. It includes an extension
for the return of absentee ballots until Monday, Aug. 7.
Proponents put the immediate sanction resolution on the council agenda
Thursday night but delayed action, fearing they lacked enough votes
(59) to pass it.
Thursday afternoon supervisors declined to proceed on Tuesday's council
mandate, saying they had not received the signed copy, so there was
no official action to consider.
They also were upset because they could not receive independent legal
advice.
In its June 29 opinion to delegate Keeswood, the Legislative Counsel's
Office said the board could delay the election for up to two months
and print new ballots for any of four specific conditions. Without
meeting those conditions, the opinion said an October vote would be
invalid.
Supervisors maintain the council gave them the power to interpret
the code. The board used another election code section covering unforeseen
circumstances, which the Legislative Counsel's Office didn't mention.
Because the election office can't spend what it doesn't have, the
board interpreted that as the unusual circumstance by which that code
section allows delaying the election.
The code establishes the first Tuesday in August as the general election,
but allows the five exceptions.
Begay said at its regular meeting Thursday, the board will consider
repealing its postponement.
She also said that when Speaker Edward T. Begay interpreted the resolution
after the council's vote, he went beyond its intent. She said he said
he didn't understand the word compromise.
"How can you work with anybody when they don't know the meaning
of the word compromise?" she asked. "It's a slap in my face
when I made every attempt to compromise."
Delegate George Tolth attempted a compromise: allow the board and
director to conduct the election on Sept. 5, keeping the conditional
sanctions.
His amendment failed 26-51-1. Three delegates who voted with the losing
side in the final tally on the immediate sanctions voted for the compromise.
They were resolution sponsor Naize, Lane and Whitehorse.
Indicating acceptance of a compromise, the board chairwoman told the
council, "Sept. 5 is doable. Oct. 3 is better and Nov. 7 would
be even better."
Under heavy grilling by Keeswood, Elections Director Carol Kirk Perry
said the ballots for three agencies have been sent to the printer's,
Ink Impressions in Albuquerque. A fourth agency's ballots were returned
for corrections and a fifth agency has not turned in its materials
to the central office, she said. Perry didn't name any agency.
Supervisors, on June 22, delayed the election when they were not assured
the council's leadership would provide money for the balloting. Election
officials maintain they were short-changed during the budget process
last year, and their repeated requests for financial relief fell on
deaf ears.
On July 10 the Inter-Governmental Relations Committee reallocated
$153,189 to the election office, to use only for an Aug. 1 election.
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Blood trail ends at suicide attempt
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — A 31-year-old San Diego, Calif., woman, fearing she
was pregnant by a space alien, walked to the top of a mesa, picked
up a sharp rock and slit her throat almost from ear-to-ear in an apparent
suicide attempt Friday.
Miraculously, the unidentified woman survived the ordeal.
Cibola County Undersheriff Johnny Valdez and State Police Officer
Billy Cunningham followed a more than two-mile blood trail for some
five hours before they found the woman alive, but bleeding heavily
and dazed on the flat-land below the mesa.
A Mount Taylor Ambulance rushed the unidentified woman to Cibola General
Hospital in Grants where doctors performed emergency surgery Friday
afternoon. At 4 p.m. Friday, therapists were talking to the woman
after she got out of surgery. The authorities said her father was
rushing to Grants from Wisconsin.
Cunningham said the woman told him she was driving to Wisconsin to
visit her parents. She stopped in Plano Colorado a hamlet of mobile
homes and a few houses about 15 miles west of Milan and Grants and
just south of Interstate 40 in Cibola County when something apparently
snapped.
The bizarre incident apparently began in San Diego, when the woman
left her home to drive her Jeep Cherokee to Wisconsin. Described by
Valdez and Cunningham as wearing survivalist clothing and appearing
physically fit, the woman was known to have bought gasoline in Gallup
about 7 a.m. Thursday.
Cunningham said it appeared as if she slept in her vehicle Thursday
night.
At 8 a.m. Friday a Plano Colorado resident telephoned the sheriff's
department to report a vehicle parked on the side of a road at the
base of the mesa with its windows open, stereo blaring and no one
around.
"They said the vehicle wasn't there earlier," Valdez said
leading the authorities to believe she spent the night somewhere else.
Deputy Harry Hall and Cunningham went to the scene.
Valdez said the two law officers were about to have the vehicle towed
to Grants when blood was spotted.
Cunningham said it appears the woman cut her left wrist at the vehicle.
That action unwittingly helped the distraught woman.
She apparently walked from the vehicle to the top of the mesa where
she fired a flare pistol into the ground, found the rock and cut her
throat. She barely missed the juggler vein. Bleeding heavily, the
woman began to walk.
Cunningham followed the blood trail from the car to the top of the
mesa where he was joined by Valdez.
"At first I didn't know what we had there, maybe a homicide,"
Cunningham said.
The two lawmen found large splotches of blood on the mesa top, leading
them to believe that is the point she cut her throat.
Other law enforcement officers were called in on the search. Even
at that point no one knew what was going on except there was a vehicle
at the base of the mesa, blood was around the Jeep and a trail of
blood led to the top of the mesa and then the blood trail meandered
along on the top of the mesa.
"We followed the blood off the mesa back onto the flatlands,"
Valdez said.
About 1:30 p.m. Cunningham and Valdez spotted a woman walking and
called to her. Immediately the two knew something was horribly wrong.
"When she turned around you could see the wound to her neck,
and all the blood," Valdez said.
Wounded and bleeding, she amazingly managed to walk more than two
miles when the lawmen spotted her.
"She was walking and talking," Cunningham said. "She
said she was on her way to Wisconsin to see her parents."
Law officers said no signs of alcohol or drugs were found.
"She just told me that she had been impregnated by an alien ...
that she didn't want to have an alien baby," Cunningham said.
"She cut her throat with a rock."
The state police would not release the name of the woman until her
relatives were given the details of the incident.
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Man gets 50-year term for murdering motorist
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — An Arizona man who pleaded guilty to murdering a "Good
Samaritan" was sentenced Friday to 50 consecutive years in a
correctional facility.
Gildardo Rodriguez accepted a plea and disposition agreement charging
him with second-degree murder in connection with a March 17, 1999,
incident during which he killed Ernest Parker, a resident of Georgia.
The accused also pleaded guilty to charges of armed robbery, unlawful
taking of a motor vehicle and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
All charges had added penalties due to the aggravating circumstances...
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Correction
The Navajo Housing Authority funded the building of all the houses
for Navajo families not the Navajo Utility Authority, as incorrectly
stated in Friday's article, "Houses spring up for Navajos."
The Navajo Housing Authority owns the warehouse where the houses are
being built.
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Court rules in favor of Laughter
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday
in favor of Navajo legislator Sylvia Laughter, allowing her to run
for re-election to the Arizona House of Representatives.
The ruling overturned a decision by the Maricopa County Superior Court
that Laughter was six votes shy of the number to qualify to be on
the ballot.
Friday's decision came just as the deadline for putting Laughter's
name on the ballot for the state primary was eminent.
Lisa Hauser, Laughter's attorney, said the ruling came just in time
since the counties were planning to start printing the ballots Friday
evening to allow for absentee voting for the Sept. 12 primary...
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Marlins blank Phillies
Onawa Lacy
Staff Sports Writer
GALLUP — The Marlins shut out the Phillies 17-0 Friday night
in the Pee Wee Tournament being held at Veterans Memorial park. The
Diamondbacks also took a win over the Orioles 17-7.
The big boys of the Diamondbacks and the Orioles took the field in
the late game. The teams were allowed to use the pitching machine
for tournament play, which was a change for the league who had coaches
pitching throughout the season.
Orioles Devin Garcia was the big man at bat first. Devin hit a single
to the pitcher and was able to make it around to third before getting
out for running out of the baseline. Greg Brenner popped one up to
the infield, and was then caught by shortstop PJ Gutierrez...
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Walks prove fatal as Cibola defeated
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
LAS CRUCES - Walks proved to be the Cibola Angels' undoing during
the fourth round of the Pee Wee Reese state tournament at the Paz
Sports Complex Friday afternoon.
Three Cibola Angels pitchers were unable to find the strike zone in
the second inning, issuing a total of nine walks that led to 10 runs
on just two hits that led to a 15-7 loss to the Las Cruces Sparkplugs.
The Cibola Angels, last year's state runners-up, ended up finishing
fourth overall in this year's state tournament...
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Ramah honors Eoff for efforts as state
senator
Amanda Witt
Staff Writer
RAMAH — W.S. "Smitty" Eoff, a former senator, was honored
Friday at the Ramah Senior Citizens Center which he was responsible
for getting funded.
Eoff served in the New Mexico Senate from 1976 until 1988. He was
responsible for getting the community of Ramah the senior center in
1986.
Eoff was chairman of the Capital Outlay Committee which funded special
projects, such as ball parks, senior centers and buses. Eoff said
the center was his No. 1 priority, and it was passed without any opposition...
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Deaths
Janet "Sister" Marzilli
GALLUP — Funeral Mass for Janet "Sister" Marzilli,
59, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, July 24, at Sacred Heart Cathedral
in Gallup. Burial will follow in Sunset Memorial Park. Father Pat
Universal will officiate.
A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Sunday, July 23, at Sacred Heart
Cathedral. Visitation will be held 2-5 p.m. Sunday at Rollie Mortuary
Palm Chapel.
Survivors include husband, Donald Marzilli of Gallup; sons, Patrick
Tafoya and Stanley Tafoya, both of Gallup; daughter, Melecia Chavez
of Gallup; father, Gabriel Saucedo of Gallup; brothers, Gabe Saucedo
and Johnny Saucedo, both of Gallup, Jimmy Saucedo of Kirtland, and
Phillip Saucedo of Albuquerque; sister, Lorraine Saucedo of Las Vegas,
Nev.; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Marzilli was preceded in death by mother, Clara Saucedo, and brother,
Charlie Saucedo.
Pallbearers will be Charlie Saucedo Jr., Gabe Saucedo, James Saucedo,
Jimmy Saucedo, Johnny Saucedo and Phillip Saucedo.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Masa "Mike" Tatsukawa
GALLUP — Services for Masa "Mike" Tatsukawa, 78, will
be held at 10 a.m. Monday, July 24, at Rollie Mortuary Palm Chapel.
The Rev. Jerry Eastridge will officiate. Cremation has taken place.
Tatsukawa attended Commercial Art School in Chicago. He was employed
as an illustrator by Marshall Fields. His family moved to the Gallup
area in the late 1940s and was former owner of the Eagle Cafe. He
was a builder and an avid tennis player.
Survivors include wife, May Tatsukawa of Gallup; son, Robert Tatsukawa;
daughter, Paula Goforth of Gallup; and sister, Kiyo Ogawa of Monterey
Park, Calif.
Tatsukawa was preceded in death by parents, Manroku and Okuma Tatsukawa,
and sister, Emi Nomoto.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of the arrangements.
Lorene E. McAlister
TSE BONITO — Funeral services for Lorene E. McAlister, 85, will
be held at 7 p.m. Monday, July 24, at the Tse Bonito
Mortuary Chapel. David G. Hilderman and Dr. Robert E. Hilderman will
officiate. Burial will follow at the Palm Cemetery in Las Vegas, Nev.
McAlister died July 20 in Gallup. She was born June 2, 1915, in Warren,
Ark.
McAlister and her husband were business owners. She was an accomplished
porcelain artist.
Survivors include daughter, M. Joann Hilderman; brother, Herman Blythe;
five grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
McAlister was preceded in death by parents, Thomas and Charlicie Blythe;
husband, Louis J. McAlister; and son, Jack McAlister.
The family will receive relatives only at Dr. Hilderman's residence
in Tse Bonito.
Donations can be made to Gildeons, Frances Adult Day Care or the Community
Bible Church Building Fund.
Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of the arrangements.
John Willie
LITTLEWATER — Funeral services for John Willie, 74, were held
at 10 a.m. today, July 22, at the Latter-Day Saint Church in Crownpoint.
President Julram Benally officiated. Burial followed in Littlewater.
Willie died July 17 in Crownpoint. He was born May 5, 1926.
Willie was employed by BIA facility maintenance as a heavy equipment
operator and Santa Fe Railroad and Union Pacific. He retired after
35 years as a police officer. He was vice president for four years
at Littlewater Chapter House, was a medicine man, a Native American
Church roadman, and a member of the Medicine Man Association.
His hobbies were weaving Navajo wedding baskets, bead working, canvas
and carving woodwork, silversmithing and raising livestock.
Survivors include wife, Nancy S. Willie of Littlewater; sons, Thomas
Willie of Mentmore, Glen J. Nez of Shiprock and Ronald Willie and
Jameson Willie, both of Littlewater; daughters, Irene Gibson, Lorraine
Willie, Rosita Willie and Shirleen Willie, all of Littlewater; brothers,
Ben Willie of Kayenta and Shorty Willie of Heartbutte; sister, Bessie
Ramone of Heartbutte; 14 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren; and
five great-great-grandchildren.
Willie was preceded in death by parents, Fred and Mary Willie; sister,
Francis Ramone; brother, Woodie Willie; and daughter, Rosie Willie.
Pallbearers will be Thomas Willie, Ronald Willie, Jameson Willie,
Glen Nez, Levore Largo and Norman Silago.
Roy Jamison
CASAMERO LAKE — Services for Roy Jamison, 84, will be announced
at a later date.
Jamison died July 20 in Grants.
Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
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