Construction



Dean Mortensen uses the bucket of a bulldozer as a platform to weld from Tuesday as he assembles the framework for a hay barn in Bluewater Village.

Photo by Jeff Jones

 

 



BIA hears tales of Navajo neglect
Tribal reps vent concerns


Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

WINDOW ROCK — Imagine if Texas, President George W. Bush's home state, was in a predicament where 46 percent of Texans lacked electricity, two-thirds of homes had no telephone service, and at least one-third of the homes were without running water.

"What would the national debate be?" asked Michael Utter, a consultant with the Four Corners Enterprise Community Corporation.

To make matters worse, imagine if Texas was in the solid waste pickle the Navajo Nation is in, with only 3 percent of its solid waste sites approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"What is the effect of this on land and water in the long run?" he offered, knowing his questions were headed for a federal report and no immediate answer.

Utter cited U.S. Census data on the Navajo Nation from 1990, since related data for 2000 isn't yet available.

"I'm sure there has been some improvement," he said.

Still, Utter said the dire statistics on basic needs the Navajos lack was a good way to gain attention from a Southwest Strategy group attending a Tribal Land and People Summit "listening session" held Wednesday at the Diné Education Center. In attendance was Neil McCaleb, the Interior Department's new assistant secretary for Indian affairs. He is the BIA's top-ranking official.

Southwest Strategy consists of officials from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Army, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state officials from New Mexico and Arizona, and other federal agencies. Created in 1998 by the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, and the under secretary of Defense/Environmental Security, Southwest Strategy's mission is to restore the region's cultural, economic and environmental quality of life.

Judging by the "listening session" responses, there is a long path ahead to meeting that goal. Navajos and Apaches, many of them tribal government leaders and administrators, cited an unfriendly working relationship with the U.S. government, specifically the BIA, as infringing on tribal missions of self-determination and sovereignty. Many Navajos mentioned a lack of water rights as standing in the way of their long-term progress.

Chairman Vincent Randle of the Yavapai-Apache Nation, a tribe of 1,800 members located at Camp Verde, 40 miles south of Flagstaff, discussed Arizona tribes' struggles with the state over gaming compacts. The state and its non-Indian gaming ventures, such as racetracks, cite the tribes' "unfair business advantages," which means not having to pay certain taxes, Randle said.

However, the tribe has just 652 acres and so, Class 3 gaming including card games and slot machines is the only economic opportunity small tribes have to thrive economically, a prerequisite of self-determination, Randle said. A federal judge recently ruled that Indian gaming in Arizona is illegal, and that Arizona Gov. Jane Hull does not have the authority to negotiate gaming compacts.

Randle said Interior Secretary Gale Norton's stand on the issue will go a long way in showing if federal trust responsibilities
to tribes still exist.

"This is not the time to succumb to the pressure of state governments to destroy Indian nations," Randall said. He added that tribes obliged to share casino revenues with states should be given "exclusivity" on Indian-style gaming.

"Gaming is the only real economic enterprise that's ever done any good for us," Randle added.

Tony Klesert, director of the Navajo Nation Archaeology Department, said the tribe has been given the duty of taking over all field work for roads formerly completed by the BIA. But when the department submits its administrative fees to the BIA, it "zeros them out," Klesert said. This has cost the Navajo Nation $900,000 over the past three years.

"We're sinking into debt because they're withholding normal fees, just normal administration costs," he said.

Leonard Butler, who directs Navajo Nation rangers and the program's 15 field officers, said such an underserved staff creates a danger for rangers responsible for park systems, livestock and other duties. Injuries to Navajo rangers and police officers have occurred, and Butler fears something worse.

"It is very difficult to bury a police officer who needed to send the message out that he needed help ... needed backup," he said.

A tribal resources officer said his program is ill-equipped to handle crimes that include the theft of Navajo medicine bundles, which can fetch $25,000 or more on the market.

Philmer Bluehouse, a Navajo medicine man, said the "pain and suffering" of Navajo people is evident when they haul their water in 55-gallon drums, knowing that urbanites in Phoenix have water aplenty to soak their lawns.

"I am aware that this is a listening session," Bluehouse said. "I am also aware there are people with ears who can't hear."

Rose Yazzie of Black Mesa, Ariz., said her people must tolerate coal dust produced by Peabody Coal and the fact that Peabody has water to slurry coal to the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada. Black Mesa lacks running water for the Navajos there and has no well for the people, she said.

"It puts a big question in my head. What kind of leaders do we have?" Yazzie asked.

|
Top |


Gallup man to stand trial for vehicular homicide

Andrea Egger
Staff Writer

GALLUP — A district attorney put together sketchy evidence and made a case for vehicular homicide against a Gallup man Wednesday.

Magistrate Rhoda Hunt determined Senior Trial Prosecutor James Bierly had enough probable cause to take Kevin Bowman
of 508 Freedom Drive to trial over charges of vehicular homicide, reckless driving, aggravated driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident involving death or great bodily harm and failing to render aid. Bowman is charged in the Aug. 1 death of Gerald Bitsilly in a hit-and-run crash on Barbara Street near Marguerite Street.

But no one identified Bowman as having been near the accident. Witnesses saw someone of Bowman's build and saw a four-
door car the same color white as Bowman's car.

About the best evidence in the case was brought in late in the case, four hours into the preliminary hearing, by Detective Matthew Wright. Wright searched Bowman's car and found evidence of blood, clothing and body tissue in the undercarriage of Bowman's car, suggesting the car had run over a person.

Some of the fibers of clothing found underneath the car matched the clothing Bitsilly wore.

But Bierly couldn't prove that Bowman actually drove the car that night and no one saw him behind the wheel.

It was a piecing together of all the witnesses' statements that brought the case together. Still, it was a close call for the prosecution.

Witnesses' accounts


Nathaniel Tsosie of Gallup testified that the sound of screeching tires awakened him around 1:45 a.m. Aug. 1 in his motel room at the Best Value Inn on Barbara and Florence streets. He looked out the window and saw a white four-door car had screeched to a stop on Barbara and then continued on Florence to the nearby Chiquita Mobile Home Park.

A few minutes later, he saw the car leave the trailer park and drive by the motel and turn east onto Highway 66. He couldn't see the driver.

Erica Torres testified that around 2 a.m. Aug. 1, she went to the Best Value Inn to visit a friend who was working there. As she drove down Barbara, she struck something that was in the road.

She was scared and continued on to the motel and returned with her friend. They discovered that Torres had hit a man lying in the road.

Torres called 911


Meanwhile, Med Star Ambulance emergency medical technician Freddie Espinosa was just manuevering an ambulance out of the El Dorado restaurant parking lot on Highway 66, a few miles east of the Best Value Inn, where he had just finished treating a patient. Espinosa testified a light-colored four-door car swerved at the ambulance and almost ran into it.

Espinosa's partner called dispatchers and reported the reckless driver. They didn't get a license number.

Instead of waiting for police, Espinosa decided to follow the car, which had turned off on a side street out of view. Espinosa turned onto Aztec Avenue, continuing east. At Clark Street, he saw a car which he believed was the same car.

Espinosa followed the car in the ambulance until it stopped in front of 508 Freedom Drive. In the dark, Espinosa saw a man exit the car and approach the ambulance with his hands up, "like if we wanted to fight or something."

Espinosa cruised the ambulance along Freedom while his partner called in their location to dispatchers. Espinosa testified that the man continued to follow the ambulance, then turned and walked around to the back of the house at 508 Freedom Drive.

Gallup Police Officer David Evans had also been called to the El Dorado that night. As he was leaving, he heard Espinosa call on the radio about the reckless driver. He began searching the area.

When Espinosa reported his location on Freedom, Evans headed over to the house on Freedom. A check of the license plate of the white car, parked in front of the house, showed that it belonged to Bowman.

Deputy medical investigator Craig Meo testified that he was called out to Barbara Street after Torres reported the man lying in the road.

Several facts led Meo to believe that the man, who wasn't identified for at least a week after his death, had been hit by two vehicles. One reason was because there was little blood in the area where his body was found, but several feet away was a large pool of blood, suggesting the man at one time was lying in that spot.

Meo also determined that a large abdominal wound, which exposed internal organs, wasn't bleeding. This suggested the injury occurred after death.

Meo's investigation determined that the car driven by Torres hit Bitsilly after he was already dead and dragged him to the position in which he was found.

Meo noted a large tearing of skin to the face and head, exposing some fractured skull and his broken jaws. Debris on all sides of his clothing indicated Bitsilly had rolled around underneath a vehicle.

Mother testifies

Bowman's mother, Helena Bowman, testified that she had asked a medicine man what happened in the accident. She testified about a conversation she had with her son at the jail, in which she told him what the medicine man had said that Kevin Bowman might have struck the man, but he didn't kill him.

After she told her son this, her son told her: "I might've run over him, but I didn't kill him."

Bowman also testified that she tried to wake up her son when police came to the house but he wouldn't wake up. She could tell he had been drinking alcohol that night.

Detective Wright also confiscated various empty containers of alcohol in Kevin Bowman's bedroom. Officers also found beer cans in the car.

These facts led to officers charging him with driving while intoxicated. A blood test to determine Kevin Bowman's blood alcohol content was taken several hours after the accident. The results were not announced in the hearing.

Wright testified that he crawled under Kevin Bowman's car the morning of the accident and took photographs of "scrape marks, blood, human body tissue and clothing." He said the blood appeared fresh.

Wright told defense attorney Bobbie Franklin that there was no damage to the car's hood or bumper, indicating the man wasn't standing when he was hit. Franklin asked if the man might have already been lying on the ground when the car hit him, and
Wright said it was possible.

Franklin argued that Bierly hadn't proven Kevin Bowman was in the car. She said they had proven his car was involved in an accident, but they hadn't even been able to prove the car had struck Bitsilly.

Bierly said he only had to prove that it was possible that Kevin Bowman caused the accident.

After Hunt determined there was enough probable cause to take the case to a District Court trial, she set a $25,000 property bond.

| Top |


Milan clerk faces firing before trial

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

MILAN — Accused embezzler Sandra Gonzales could stand trial on Sept. 17, which would be 479 days after a village audit uncovered a public money theft scam involving more than $180,000.

The audit showing more than $180,000 in missing money could go back only five years into the alleged affair because of the statutes of limitations; however, the village's insurance company paid off more than $225,000 in the case.

Gonzales, the village clerk, was suspended from her job on May 15, 2000, but was never fired. A Thirteenth Judicial District grand jury on Nov. 2, 2000, handed up a 44-count indictment, 43 of them for embezzlement and one for destruction of public documents to reportedly cover the missing money.

The 40-year-old Gonzales and her continued tenure as the village clerk will be a matter of discussion and action at tonight's village of Milan Board of Trustees meeting. Listed as a "Discussion/Action" item on the agenda, it simply states "Termination of Sandra Gonzales."

Gonzales is on suspension without pay and her continued association with the village came under fire once before when Mayor Elisabeth Lopez-Rael, an outspoken critic of the clerk, tried to get the trustees to fire her at a Nov. 16, 2000, meeting. The board balked during a closed session discussion of the matter and refused to terminate the clerk.

Lopez-Rael on Wednesday said she has no idea on which side of the controversial fence the board will jump Thursday, but she would like to see Gonzales finally fired.

The public money scam was uncovered by state contract auditor Gary Gaylord, who went to the state auditor with his findings and eventually went back through five years of books and documents. Gaylord began his audit in April 2000 and it soon became apparent that something was not quite adding up.

Many of the records he needed had been destroyed, Gaylord said, which is why the tampering with evidence indictment was handed up. Gonzales worked for the village for 23 years before the 1998-99 audit triggered the investigation which led to the indictments and her suspension.

The five-year period investigated was from May 23, 1996, until April 28, 2000. Lopez-Rael fired Gonzales in 1999, but the board of trustees, at constant odds with the feisty mayor, reinstated the clerk within days of the suspension.

At the time of the suspension and the months following it, Gonzales allegedly transferred huge sums of money from the village, according to the grand jury indictment. The last time money was taken was on April 28, 2000, when she allegedly embezzled $4,969.11 from village accounts about the same time Gaylord was poring over the ledgers.

Assistant District Attorney Mike Calligan is the lead prosecutor on the case and Gonzales' attorney is Paul Kennedy of Albuquerque.

Gonzales is currently working in Albuquerque.

She began her career at Village Hall when former State Rep. Toby Michale was the village mayor. Her career spanned a good portion of the village career of Warren Mathers, who became the village's mayor as well, until he was defeated by Lopez-Rael in 1998 in a hotly contested race.

The grand jury indictments allege Gonzales committed embezzlement of more than $2,500 some 32 times and embezzlement more than $250 some 11 times.

Gonzales faces up to 114 years in prison and/or fines up to $215,000 in the case.

The case is but one of three high-profile criminal cases in Cibola County over the last two years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still investigating an alleged insurance scam, involving government entities, reportedly by Donna Smith, the daughter of State Sen. Joseph Fidel. Charges have not been filed in that federal case, in which millions of dollars were allegedly scammed.

The other high-profile case is that of former Grants Motor Vehicle Department office manager Barbara Goltz, 40, who was fired from her state job in a case that reportedly involved selling fake identification cards, and infractions with commercial driver licenses. It is still being investigated. No charges have been filed in that case either.

| Top |


Pirates behind schedule
Grants football preview

Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

GRANTS — Second-year Grants football head coach Jerry Burns says he's expecting a much tougher game with Shiprock Friday night than last year's Grants' rout.

"They're a good football team," Burns said of Shiprock. "They're bigger than us."

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Shiprock.

Despite having one season under his belt, Burns says the second year has been difficult.

"It's been a real hard year," Burns said. "We're not very good. We've lost a lot of players to injuries and some of the kids have quit. We just haven't jelled. We've had to work so hard. We haven't have good two-a-days. We got behind in practice since we started practice late because of late physicals."

Burns says he's still unsure who will get the starting nod at quarterback with the battle between junior Boudy Melonas and sophomore Jared Rivera.

"Both have a lot of talent," Burns said of his two quarterbacks. "Boudy's a gamer. Both can run and run the option. Boudy has the better arm and throws better. Jared has the size at 6'2" and he can run."

Melonas played quarterback on the freshman team as an eighth grader, but sat out his freshman and sophomore years. The junior prospect says he decided to turn out this season.

"I was afraid of getting hurt before the basketball season," said Melonas, a starting guard for the Pirates. "I always told myself I'd go out and then I wouldn't. This year I pushed myself to go out. The team needed a quarterback and I always liked playing quarterback. Once I get on the field, I'll be a little nervous. It will be nice being in the game again."

The Grants quarterbacks will be throwing to wide receivers senior John McNeil, junior Mario Rios, junior Johnny Gallegos and Reserve transfer Josh Roundy.

Key players on defense for the Pirates will include senior tackle Jessie Miera, senior tackle Milo McMinn, sophomore tackle Perry Stephens, and senior middle linebacker Brandon Gutierrez.

In the backfield junior Floyd Brito, Michael Gutierrez, sophomore Cody Rivera, senior George Vigil, and senior RoShaun McKinney, who like Melonas did not play last year and instead concentrated on playing basketball.

Shiprock head coach Monte Maxwell says his Chieftains will be better prepared for the second meeting with the Pirates after last year's decisive loss.

"Grants beat us soundly last year," Maxwell said. "We didn't play well that ballgame. We couldn't tackle the quarterback (Wade Pynes)."

Shiprock returns nearly its entire backfield back from last year's state playoff team. The Chieftains went 5-6, won the District 1AAA title. They lost to Portales 28-0.

Running the Chieftain Pro I offense is junior quarterback Dewayne Dale (5'10", 170 lbs.). Dale finished the season at that position after starting quarterback Hendrick Begay was injured.

"He stepped in last year and showed a lot of promise," Maxwell said. "He's our leader on offense."

Last year's offensive sparkplug, tailback Marcus Benally (5'4", 150 lbs.) is also back. The returning senior was an All-State performer who averaged 150 yards rushing per game last year. He was the Class AAA leading rusher with 1,500 yards on the ground and over 2,000 all-purpose yards.

Also back is senior wide receiver Kendrick Powell (5'10", 170 lbs.).

Key players on Shiprock's 4-4 defensive front will be sophomore linebacker Xavier Franklin (5'9", 188 lbs.), senior linebacker Owen Mike (5'8", 170 lbs.) and senior lineman Lamar Tulley (6'0", 225 lbs.).

"We're ahead of last year," Maxwell said. "We have a smaller roster with twenty-five kids compared to forty-five last year but we have a lot more heart. The team really came around at the end of the season. We want to start the season at that level."

The Pirates posted a 5-5 won-loss record last year with wins over Shiprock, Gallup, Taos, Espanola and their only district win over Bernalillo.

Grants started off last season with a 2-0 mark with wins over Shiprock and Gallup. The Pirates host the Bengals next week.

| Top |


Warhawks capture city championship

Michael Peretti
Staff Sports Writer

GALLUP — The Dine' Warhawks wrapped up the Gallup Women's City Softball League championship Wednesday with a 18-5 win over the Classics.

The Classics, taking second in the tournament, defeated Jacks Southwest in the earlier game. Taking fourth in the tournament was NCI.

"I think we did really well," said the Dine' Warhawks head coach Raymond Holtsoi. "We did what we were supposed to."
In the third inning, Brenda Etsitty hit a home run over the left field fence.

The winning pitcher was Ronnie Hickson...

| Top |



Newcomb fielding a small squad


Michael Peretti
Staff Sports Writer

A year after going to regionals, Newcomb head volleyball coach Alan Carter is preparing to coach his smallest team yet.
"We won't be deep, but we'll be okay," said Carter.

The Zuni Lady Thunderbirds will be the first District 1AA volleyball team to take the court. They host Rehoboth this afternoon.

Newcomb and Navajo Pine will play Saturday.

Defending district champs Navajo Prep will play at Tohatchi Saturday. Efforts to reach coach Shawna Becenti for an preview were unsuccessful...

| Top |




Council's pay raise foes are stymied


Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

CHINLE, Ariz. — The lawsuit that attacks the $10,000 Navajo Nation Council pay raise by claiming the checks can't be written legally has been delayed by the pending removal of one of the district court's two judges.

And with the tribal Judicial Branch already short one of its 14 district court judges (spread among 10 courthouses), there simply isn't anyone to fill in. Also adding to the burden is one Navajo Nation Supreme Court vacancy, which means Chief Justice Robert Yazzie has to call on a district judge if he wants a full three-justice court to decide an appeal.

On Sept. 6 the council's Judiciary Committee is scheduled to interview three candidates to add to the list of potential nominees it will send to President Kelsey A. Begaye. The president will select one for the council's confirmation or rejection, and the new judge will serve a two-year probationary period before facing ratification for permanent status...

| Top |



Group lobbies to change courthouse into museum

Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Some 65 years ago, the Gallup area was gripped by the harsh realities of the Great Depression, with many area residents unable to find work that would enable them to buy food and other necessities.

Their lives were turned around with the creation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the WPA the Works Progress Administration that provided jobs in the public sector for more than 8.5 million people nationwide from about 1935 to 1943.

Now a group of Gallup residents, headed by Beverly Hurlbut, has come up with the idea that once a new county government building is constructed, to use the current courthouse for a national museum commemorating the WPA and the people who were a part of it.

"As near as we can tell, there is no WPA museum in the whole country," Hurlbut said...

| Top |



BIA head praises tribes

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

WINDOW ROCK — The Interior Department's highest-ranking BIA official, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neil McCaleb, has been on the job since July 4.

During this brief span, he has observed what works and what doesn't in Indian Country. He made his thoughts known during a Wednesday afternoon press conference at the Peterson Zah Navajo Nation Museum and Visitor Center.

McCaleb, an Oklahoma Chickasaw who was director of state transportation for 10 years, plans to hold a tribal energy summit, probably in the fall in Washington. He wants to know what can be done to help place the nation's 560-plus tribes in the same economic success arena as the Southern Utes of Ignacio, Colo.

Southern Utes are experiencing financial windfalls benefiting all tribal members because their leaders have tight control over their own extracted minerals program, he said. The tribe is triple-A bond rated with Standard and Poor, and Fitch...

| Top |


School board will review hazing policy

Tara Drolma
Staff Writer

GRANTS — Rick Horacek, the new principal at Grants High School, says a "zero tolerance" policy against hazing is not the way to resolve the problem.

Even though the policy on hazing is at the back of the Discipline Policies and Procedures handbook for students, Horacek said he spoke with each class this week and made it clear hazing will be treated seriously.

Mary Lee Meisner has a student at Grants High and she told the School Board on Tuesday there have been five sexually related "hazing" incidents at the school in the past two years. She said hazing has been tolerated at the high school for a long time and it is "about time somebody stood up and did something."

Earlier this year, New Mexico State Police were called in to investigate the "hazing" of two 14-year-old freshman boys on the Grants High School boys baseball team by two older boys, a 19-year-old senior and a 17-year-old junior. The event took place on the bus after a March 6 game in Farmington...

| Top |


Deaths

Virginia Jameson

BORREGO PASS — Services for Virginia Jameson, 75, will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 24, at Cope Memorial Chapel. Pastor Kee Keyonnie will officiate. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park.

Jameson died Aug. 19 in Gallup. She was born March 21, 1926, in Borrego Pass into the Bitter Water for the Hairy People.

Jameson worked as a foster grandparent in Baca. She was a member of the Established in the Word Ministry in Yah Ta Hey. She received numerous awards and certificates for working with children.

Survivors include her husband, Willie Jameson of Borrego Pass; sons, Floyd Jameson and Freddie Wero, both of Gallup, and Don Jameson of Phoenix; daughters, Shirley Jameson of Phoenix, Maizie Will of Wisconsin and Elaine Jameson of Gallup; brothers, Henry Largo and Harvey Largo, both of Littlewater; sister, Bessie Largo of Littlewater; 29 grandchildren and 53
great-grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Floyd Jameson, Pat Jameson, Ronnie Jameson, Dion Johnson, Dominic Jameson and Freddie Wero.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Iyanbito Chapter House.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Jean "Dee" Shipley

BRIMHALL — Services for Jean Shipley, 35, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 24, at Gospel Lighthouse Assembly of God, Crownpoint. Pastor Carlos Baki will officiate. Burial will be held at Crownpoint Community Cemetery.

Shipley died Aug. 22 in Gallup. She was born June 2, 1966, in Crownpoint into the Black Streak of the Forest People Clan for the Yellow Meadow People.

Survivors include her parents, Edison Miller of Brimhall and Elta Shipley of Peach Springs; brothers, Delray D. Joe, Jodie D. Joe Sr. and Johnnie J. Joe Sr., all of Brimhall and Jefferson D. Joe Sr. of Standing Rock; and sisters, Juanita Jeff of Becenti and Jennie J. Tsosie of Brimhall.

Shipley was preceded in death by her grandmother, Akis'bah Sam.

Pallbearers will be Jodie D. Joe Sr., Delray D. Joe, Jefferson D. Joe, Sr., Don D. Tsosie, Al D. Tsosie and Ronny R. Jeff.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

| Top |



Contact the Gallup Independent

Please send the Gallup Independent feedback on this website and the paper in general.

E-mail: gallpind@cia-g.com

By mail:

The Independent
PO Box 1210 Gallup, NM 87305
500 N. 9th Gallup, NM 87301


| Home | Daily News | Archive | Classifieds | Subscribe |

All contents property of the Gallup Independent.
Any duplication or republication requires consent of the Gallup Independent.
Feel free to send any questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com
E-mail the webmaster at martyr_dom@hotmail.com for problems concerning the website ONLY.