Family lives in tent after fire
Chinle rugweavers getting no assistance from tribe
Sylvia Carlson
Staff Writer
CHINLE, Ariz. — While a lot of elementary school children plan
which of their new school clothes to wear first, Lisa Jones is wondering
whether her 9-year-old son will have any clothes at all to wear.
School started Monday in Chinle and Jones' son has been wearing the
same outfit all week after everything the family owned was destroyed
in a house fire on the morning of July 29.
"They have lost everything," said Shirlene Jones, Lisa's
sister-in-law from Cottonwood. Shaking her head, Shirlene gestures
at the charred remains of the house's three bedrooms: "Even their
weaving tools ... it's all gone."
The Jones family was a tightly knit group of seven who shared a three-bedroom
home near Chinle. Patsy Talley, Lisa's aged mother and owner of the
house, taught all three of her girls how to weave, and the women made
their living from selling their rugs to the local Best Western Canyon
de Chelly Inn.
Now, without any tools or wool, there is no way to make ends meet.
This is what seems to bother Talley who grew up on the land where
the house was the most.
"She (Talley) keeps talking about that," Shirlene said.
"That's her valuable thing that she lost: her tools."
But other valuable things were lost, too, including the family home.
The family has erected a blue tarp under which they sit all day. There
are a few pieces of their sofa to sit on along with some kitchen chairs
dropped off by relatives. A table has been constructed with a board
and cinder blocks. An open fire slowly burns under the only cooking
pot, another loan from family members.
There are two tents behind the tarp where the Joneses sleep on the
ground with blankets a relative gave them. The tents and tarp-shelter
are hot during the day and cold at night.
Talley, who is old and has a medical condition, has to be driven by
someone to use the neighbor's bathroom everyone else just hikes the
quarter-mile next door for indoor plumbing.
Lisa's niece, 2-year-old Angel Jones, was living with them when the
house burned down, and also has a serious medical condition, one which
requires her to be fed through a tube going into her navel, as well
as special formulas and medications.
Angel's eating machine, along with the rest, was destroyed by the
fire.
Going into what is left of the kitchen and living room of the house
to try and salvage belongings is not an option, Lisa said. "They
told us it was too burned out. It might collapse at any time,"
she said.
When Lisa and her family first noticed the fire from a neighbor's
yard fortunately, most of the family was out of the house when it
started they called the police right away. Lisa tried to go in to
get water from the tap to put out the flames, she explained, but the
smoke was already too thick.
An hour later, fire trucks showed up. The firefighters from Many Farms
ran out of water not much later, she said. The house, and most everything
in it, was consumed by flames within a couple of hours.
There is no insurance and the now homeless family is hesitant to rely
on the tribe for any help. "They said there is no special emergency
fund," Lisa said.
"The tribe doesn't do anything for the people," said a local
resident who wishes to remain anonymous. "They don't do anything."
On top of that, the family cannot even apply for emergency food stamps
because the police report must be done first. The Joneses were told
by police that it would take 10 days for the report to be done. So,
the Joneses are working on every other possible option.
Shirlene and her husband, Lisa's brother, Dwayne, have helped the
family out with transportation because they do not have a vehicle.
They went with Lisa to tribal headquarters in Window Rock to give
a letter explaining their situation to council authorities.
"The office said yesterday they were supposed to be contacting
us," Lisa said Thursday, but so far there has been no word.
Shirlene echoed sentiments about the tribe's unwillingness to help,
especially in light of the raises the council members just approved
for themselves, adding, "They (the tribal council delegates)
don't want to wait for their share to come."
For the time being, the family is relying on help from friends and
relatives. After contacting the Navajo Housing Authority to see about
getting a new house, the Joneses were told that they would have to
wait until a family moved out of one, probably a month, maybe longer.
Even then, the family will have to pay a deposit, something that seems
impossible since they have no weaving tools to earn some money.
"Everything is lost," Shirlene said, ruefully. "We
(she and husband, Dwayne) just visit them every day, to be with them
here so they won't think about what happened."
It is not an easy thing to while staring at the skeleton of what used
to be a home.
How to help
Donations of money, clothes, food or other supplies
to the Jones family would be appreciated. A check can be sent to "Catholic
Charities in Chinle, care of the Jones Family" at: P.O. Box 2119,
Chinle, AZ 86503.
The Catholic Indian Center in Gallup, and the Catholic
Church, the Talbot House and the Best Western Canyon de Chelly Inn
in Chinle accept donations of food, clothes and supplies as well.
| Top |
60 dead in reservation traffic deaths
This year's total 'just too many'
Jim Maniaci
Din Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — With the 60th traffic fatality of the year recorded
on the Navajo Reservation Wednesday, tribal police are issuing an
appeal to drivers not to get behind the steering wheel after drinking
alcohol.
"That's just too many people to go in such a short time,"
said Lt. John Begay, spokesman for Dorothy Fulton, acting chief of
the Law Enforcement Department.
On Friday, he estimated 80 percent of the deaths involve alcohol.
This includes the latest incident in which a 15-year-old Shiprock
boy, and a 21-year-old Kirtland man who was driving, both died instantly
from massive head traumas when they ran a stop sign at a high rate
of speed and slammed into the side of a semi tractor-trailer on U.S.
666 about five miles south of Shiprock around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Officers found a can of beer on top of the dead boy, inside the crumpled-up
car that hit the truck so hard it cut the air hoses to the brakes.
Lt. Begay asked party-goers, "If you're going to drink, get someone
else (sober) to handle the wheel. We've averaged two (traffic) deaths
a week since the first of the year."
Begay said the current slaughter usually of young people between the
ages of 20 and 35 is in contrast to when he joined the force 18 years
ago. "It used to be every now and then. I don't ever recall seeing
so many people die on the roads," he said.
Begay added, "It's too many, just too many." He added that
the collisions and rollovers are far more serious now, with more multiple
injuries or more than one person dying, such as in the latest incident.
Tribal police identified the dead driver as Jason Jones, 24, of Kirtland;
the boy was his passenger and lived in the non-profit subdivision
in Shiprock.
They were headed east on Bureau of Indian Affairs Route 13. When the
truck driver realized the speeding car was not going to stop, he managed
to slow down to 55 m.p.h. in a 65 m.p.h. zone, the Shiprock Police
District report said.
But the impact still dragged the car 700 feet south of the impact,
the report said.
Jones rammed the middle of the truck, severing the semi's air hoses
to its brakes, and killing the 1991 Suzuki two-door sedan's driver
and passenger instantly, police said.
No injuries were listed to the truck's occupants, William D. Rico,
25, of Ocklawaha, Fla., or Mateo Iglesias, 31, of Shelby, N.C.
| Top |
Could it be over?
P&M workers will vote to end strike
Jim Maniaci
Din Bureau
TSE BONITO — Striking McKinley Mine workers will vote Sunday
on a proposed six-year contract that would end the second-longest
strike in the 38-year history of the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining
Company's largest operation.
Voting will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the office of Local
1332 of the United Mine Workers of America, located on the northwest
side Tse Bonito. Local President Lawrence Oliver estimated it will
take about an hour to count the votes.
The contract that expired May 14 covered 311 people. Sunday would
be the 84th day of the strike, with the current picketing at both
the north (main) and south (New Mexico Route 264) entrances being
surpassed only by the four-month long work stoppage in 1974.
McKinley's workers produced more than 7 million tons of coal last
year, almost 39 percent more than second-place Kemmerer, Wyo., whose
UMWA members went back to work earlier this week.
The tentative agreement was reached with P&M Wednesday in Salt
Lake City where similar negotiations are taking place at the Airport
Marriott between the UMWA and Peabody Western to cover workers at
the Kayenta, Black Mesa and Lee Ranch Mines whose contract will expire
at the end of the month.
Oliver said that if the Tse Bonito local's members ratify the agreement,
workers could be back on the job at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
"The first two or three days probably will be spent cleaning
up and in safety checks, possibly with federal inspectors on site,"
he said. Those who took jobs out of the area, some more than 300 miles
away, would have until Thursday to return to Tse Bonito, he said.
Ratification also would bring dismissal of the union's two unfair
labor practice charges, filed in Phoenix, he said.
Oliver, plus Vice President Sandy Jesus and Dan Thompson, represented
the local on the UMWA bargaining team.
"I want to say that it was a big effort, a concerted effort,
on the workers part. We underwent a lot of hardship. But the unity
portrayed has given us a victory for the UMW. It was a significant
gain in this tentative agreement," Oliver said.
The local's president added, "But the situation that we had was
a lose-lose situation. The company lost product and the miners lost
income. The only person who made money was the outside consultant,
David Smith. He and P&M thought we were divided and said so at
the beginning in the early negotiations. We proved them wrong. I believe
that without the outside consultant we could have reached agreement
before the expiration of the old contract."
Oliver also said the weekly picketing at different Chevron Corporation
sites the San Francisco-based conglomerate owns P&M proved decisive.
The pickets, especially in Denver, portrayed a racist attitude by
P&M over the health insurance
question. Smith returned and settled on a contract less than a week
after being contacted to resume the collective bargaining, once the
story hit the Denver newspapers.
The company proposed, but did not include in the tentative agreement,
paying workers a monthly bonus (first proposed at $100) to drop the
100 per cent company-paid coverage, which one estimate valued at $635.
Since 285 of the 309 people out on strike are Navajo and would most
likely use the Indian Health Service, it looked discriminatory since
it was only being
proposed for McKinley.
Oliver said Chevron did not want that kind of an image.
P&M also dropped its desire to pay overtime only after 40 hours
a week instead of eight hours a day. This would have led to an extended
work day and a floating work week, with miners losing out on up to
$20,000 a year extra income.
In Wyoming, P&M settled after union members rejected going to
a 12-hour work day.
| Top |
Wheelchair-bound students claim UNM is
not accessible
Sylvia Carlson
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the passage
of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but according to some,
Gallup and the University of New Mexico branch are not up to code.
About 15 people including six in wheelchairs showed up Friday at UNM-Gallup's
Gurley Hall to protest the lack of access on campus and to demand
they get to speak with an authority figure.
The group of mild-mannered protesters came from around the region,
some from Gallup and others from Aztec who joined to support friends.
"We thought this would make a bigger impact ... people with different
kinds of disabilities," Doris Dennison said.
Dennison has been trying unsuccessfully to get the university to come
into ADA compliance for more than a year.
Dennison has been in a wheelchair 14 years and decided last year she
wanted to go back to college. Before she enrolled, however, she did
her homework: she called the coordinator for students with disabilities
to see how the access on campus was.
It turned out that it was not very good. Dennison was directed to
facilities management and told that office that she would be interested
in returning to school if the campus would be accessible.
Dennison was told that she needed to enroll in the university before
the school would make decisions regarding accessibility changes.
"I told him (the facilities management supervisor) that the ramps
are too steep for me," Dennison said, and was told that if she
was enrolled in classes on campus and came to a steep ramp, all she
needed to do was to call security to push her up the ramp.
Considering the limited time inbetween classes, Dennison thought this
was a little absurd. "I said, 'that's not convenient,' and probably
a reason why a lot of people (with disabilities) don't come here,"
she added.
At the university, the ramp in front of Gurley Hall is way too steep
for people in wheelchairs. It supposedly was designed only for deliveries,
but is the only one available right now as the east side of the building
is under construction.
"This one out here is scary," said Daniel Harless, a supporter
of Dennison who showed up at the protest, and is also in a wheelchair.
"I had to go down backwards."
ADA policy dictates that every ramp has to be "one and 12"
that is, drop one inch for every 12 inches in length. According to
some people in wheelchairs, many of the ramps at the university are
not up to code.
Despite the absence of the facilities management director and the
students with disabilities coordinator, the protesters had their demands
met promptly first meeting with Tom Ray, director of student services,
and later with Robert Carlson, the university's executive director.
In a conference room near Carlson's office, the group outlined what
sort of changes are needed on campus, not only to bring it up to ADA
compliance, but to make it easier in general.
Carlson was receptive to the ideas, but reiterated that the university
has little money to get everything done immediately. Some of the things
in need of renovation include:
• bathroom handicapped stalls too many at UNM are not wide enough
to accommodate a wheelchair-bound person who has to get on the toilet
from the side.
• soap, among other things, in the bathrooms is often too high
for people in wheelchairs to reach.
• elevators are often out of service, or not equipped with an
emergency phone.
• phones in general on campus are often too high off the ground.
• wheelchair ramps that are too steep, or have metal handrails
that are too hot to hold on to in the summer months.
• certain doors, such as to bathrooms, are too heavy for someone
in a wheelchair to open.
These were just some of the things the group mentioned
in conference with Carlson. He said that the budgetary committee makes
its preliminary budget in October, and that is when money might be
allotted for these necessary amendments.
According to ADA law, all public places and institutions are required
to be in compliance, or else fines can ensue. In addition, when a
structure is being built, there is supposed to be money set aside
for making certain everything is up to ADA code.
| Top |
Area in brief
Board meeting
WIDE RUINS, Ariz. — The Wide Ruins Community School will hold
its board meeting at 9 a.m. Monday at the school's Rainbow Conference
Room. Information: (520) 652-3251.
Special meeting
ZUNI — The Zuni Board of Education will hold a special meeting
at noon Monday in the board room. Information: (505) 782-5511.
Revival
QUERINO CANYON, Ariz. — A revival will be held at 6 p.m. Monday
at the Querino Canyon Church of God, located at exit 343 on I-40.
Information: (505) 722-3272...
| Top |
UNM Nursing school pass rate puts program
at risk
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Not enough nursing school graduates are passing the
board exam the first time they take it after leaving the University
of New Mexico-Gallup's nursing program.
This will be taken into consideration as the New Mexico Board of Nursing
decides in October whether to allow the local program to continue.
The board requires all nursing schools to get an 80 percent pass rate.
In other words, 80 percent of a school's graduates must pass when
they first take the test. (Graduates must pass the board exam to attain
a nursing license.)
The pass rate is supposed to be a measure of the quality of education
a nursing program offers. A pass rate does not measure the quality
of nurses who begin work all nurses who pass the board exam are qualified
to work in health care...
| Top |
City loses big money in police lawsuits
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Gallup Police department last week lost $53,000
in civil lawsuits involving alleged misuse of force by an officer
and the illegal search of a home.
In press releases, William Stripp, the attorney representing both
plaintiffs, accuses city police of violating the constitutional rights
of the victims.
In the first case, the victim, Benjamin Skeet, alleged that Gallup
Police Detective Matthew Wright hit him several times with a police
baton and then called him a"f Indian."
A McKinley County Sheriff's Investigator, Daniel Henio, testified
that he witnessed Wright throw the victim to the pavement and knee
him in the back while he was laying on the ground...
| Top |
What exactly will voters decide on September
5?
Jim Maniaci
Din Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Independent incorrectly described what voters
will decide in a Sept. 5 referendum about the size of the Navajo Nation
Council, according to the two top tribal attorneys.
In a press release, Chief Legislative Counsel Steve Boos and Attorney
General Levon Henry said referendums proposing changes to Title 2
of the tribal code must be shown in a particular way on the ballot.
Henry explained, "Because the voters must approve the actual
amendments to Section 102, they have to be shown the exact text of
the amendment in order for the approval to be legally effective."
To show both the current and proposed text together, a legislative
style of presentation is used. In this style the proposed new language
is underlined while the old language has a line through it...
| Top |
Road work
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — A new U.S. 160 highway repaving project will begin
Monday as an adjacent one moves into its final two weeks, the Arizona
Department of Transportation announced Friday.
The new resurfacing will be from Arizona Route 564, the road to Navajo
National Monument, and Arizona Route 98, the highway to Page and Lake
Powell. It will begin Monday, while the work from Kayenta west to
Route 564 will be still
underway for another two weeks.
Fann Contracting of Prescott will pave driveways and pads near the
guardrail end sections on Aug. 14, which will restrict traffic to
one lane result in quarter-hour delays between Routes 564 and 98.
On Aug. 28, the contractor will move onto the main highway, right
after Kiewit Western Corporation of Phoenix finished repaving the
20-mile stretch from Kayenta to Route 564...
| Top |
Strike could be over if sides agree to
contract changes
Diné Bureau
TSE BONITO — Here is a summary of proposed changes included in
the tentative agreement for a six-year contract at the McKinley Mine:
The "20 and out" provision, so that if a worker has 20 years
with the mine, and gets permanently laid off (such as if the mine
closes down) he or she will get a pension, even if he hasn't reached
age 55, with the layoff defined as six months or more
without a refusal to return.
Raises retirement benefit by $8 after the fourth year, doing so in
steps.
Eliminates the earnings income limit from preventing a retiree from
getting the health insurance coverage...
| Top |
Deaths
Jimmy Belone
TWIN LAKES — Funeral services for Jimmy Belone, 51, will be held
at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 7, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Tohatchi.
Father John Mittlestadt will officiate. Burial will follow at Lone
Pine Cemetery in Mexican Springs.
Belone died Aug. 2 in Twin Lakes. He was born July 18, 1949, in Keams
Canyon, Ariz., for the Mountain Cove People Clan into the Red Running
into Water People Clan.
Belone served in the U.S. Army. He did silversmithing and mechanic
work.
Survivors include sons, Christopher A. Belone of Lawrence, Kan., and
Conan R. Belone of Albuquerque; daughter, Kimberly J. Belone of Albuquerque;
parents, Rose Etsitty of Twin Lakes and Herman Dee Etsitty of Twin
Lakes; brothers, James Belone Jr., Herman V. Etsitty, Truman Etsitty,
Pedro Etsitty, and Eugene Belone; sisters, Julie Belone and Norma
Etsitty, both of Twin Lakes, Genevieve Bitsie of Mexican Springs,
and Sandy Anderson of Phoenix; and two grandchildren.
Belone was preceded in death by grandmothers, Alice Y. Robertson and
Mabel Bitsie Begay; father, James Belone Sr.; and brother, Norman
Etsitty.
Pallbearers will be Christopher A. Belone, Herman V. Etsitty, Truman
Etsitty, Harry Plummer, Conan R. Belone and James Belone Jr.
The family will receive relatives and friends at Mexican Springs Chapter
House.
Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Richanda Reyna Jaramillo
GRANTS — Mass of Christian Burial for Richanda Reyna Jaramillo,
infant, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Aug. 7, at St. Teresa Catholic
Church in Grants. Burial will follow at the Grants Cemetery.
A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, at the San Rafael
Catholic Church and visitation will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the
church.
Richando died Aug. 4. She was born March 14, 2000.
Survivors include parents, T. Walter and Romanita (Romie) Jaramillo;
brothers, T.W. Jaramillo, Reyes Jaramillo, Timmy Jaramillo and Rosendo
Jaramillo; grandparents, Richard and Ramona Chavez, Rudy and Beatrice
Chavez, and Toby and Sandie Jaramillo; and great-grandmothers, Genevive
Garduno, Lena Chavez, and Premia Baca.
Pallbearers will be T.W. Jaramillo, Reyes Jaramillo, Timmy Jaramillo
and Rosendo Jaramillo.
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