Luminaria protest

1,000 luminarias burn in front of the Gallup Cultural Center Saturday evening as the Gallup Right to Life group protest the upcoming anniversary of the supreme court ruling on abortion in the Roe v. Wade case. Each luminaria was marked with five names to represent the 5,000 abortions performed in New Mexico last year.

Photo by Jeff Jones



As tribal leaders, officials from the State of New Mexico and the US Government listen, Dick Charley states his displeasure with not receiving trust payments from the BIA Sunday in Nageezi.

Photo by Douglas Tesner

 

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Karigan projects nearly complete

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

ST. MICHAELS — Navajo Nation employees who work inside the creaky Division of Economic Development trailers along Highway 264 can't wait for the promise of spring, when they'll move across the road beyond the highway's north side.

There, they expect by May to be able to enter and stay inside the two-story Karigan Professional Office Complex, a 29,000-square-foot structure to contain four suites on the lower floor and division offices on the upper floor. The complex is just west of the Indian Health Service administration building.

Inside the current trailers division employees have occupied since the 1980s, one secretary who works at her desk types away on a computer knowing that a bulge in the ceiling above her wants to come down.

"We're trying to get out of here, these dilapidated and dangerous trailers," said Tony Perry, the division's Project Development Department director.

The Karigan office complex, coordinated by project manager Jeannette Jones, is an L-shaped structure perched on a hill that looks larger than two stories. The tribe is hoping to have one or two private business tenants occupy part of the lower floor suites.

"We're still working out the negotiations," Perry said.

Jerry Silver, superintendent of the Chuska Development Corp. of Tohatchi, said it will be the first large-scale tribal administration building constructed in the area since the 1980s. Columns with corn-stalk symbols will round out its unique design. Brick work is to start Monday.

The 116-acre Karigan projects site involves much more than the Karigan Professional Office Complex, which only takes up a little more than two acres.

The tribe envisioned a first-class subdivision for Navajos with medium- to upper-incomes, which would be as high-quality as any housing tract outside a large city in the southwest. Also offered would be a large child care center, apartments and other developments.

Those plans are coming to fruition. The Navajo Nation purchased the entire acreage from a trustee of the Karigan family in 1994 for about $500,000, DED Chief Financial Officer Phil Scott said. There are also plans to restore the small Karigan Trading Post, built around the 1920s.

Karigan Estates, with three separate paved entrances already built along Highway 264, will be a unique housing project in Indian Country. There are 181 homes planned using nine different designs and varying lot sizes. The homes will range from about $92,000 to $156,000.

Karigan Estates and the overall 116-acre site is located on fee-simple land, meaning it's an island of private land within the Navajo Nation. Jim Pullaro, representing Evans Southwest of Scottsdale, Ariz., the project developer, said the most unique aspect of Karigan Estates is that it will offer conventional financing for American Indians on fee-simple land within a reservation. He expects the prospective buyers who should be able to start viewing model homes in March — to be "98 percent Navajo." There is also a chance that a small number of homes may be sold to non-Navajos considered "essential" to the reservation, such as doctors and teachers.

An opportunity exists for "100 percent financing," which would mean no down payment, but the typical Karigan home will be 90 percent financed, Pullaro said. Interest rates are at 6.5 to 7 percent, which creates a great buyer's market. The list of interested buyers is already at 159.

"The rates are phenomenal, about the lowest we've seen in 40 years," Pullaro said.

Evans Southwest is believed by Pullaro and Scott to be the largest builder of homes in Indian Country. The company usually works with funds provided by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. This will be Evans Southwest's first "for-profit" housing complex, though $6.9 million was obtained from the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) for project roads and other infrastructure.

Scott said one of the main hindrances to economic development on the Navajo Nation will be addressed by the subdivision and its owners. Off reservation, home buyers can build equity against their homes and borrow against it later, such as for refinancing or as leverage to purchase a new home. This is a very difficult prospect in Indian Country, where it's also difficult to find land for commercial development and housing purposes due to restrictions such as grazing rights and lack of water delivery systems.

Karigan Estates will be marketed entirely on the reservation, Pullaro said. Marketing and home-showing is being handled by the non-profit Navajo Partnership for Housing in St. Michaels.

Two child care planners from the Crownpoint Institute of Technology, visiting the already finished Karigan Child Care Center on Friday, called it the most impressive children's center they have seen on the reservation. Completed in September and set to open in March, the 15,000 square-foot center can accommodate 200 children ages infant through fifth grade and more than 30 staff.

"There's probably nothing like this on the reservation," said project planner Wava Begaye, a division administrative services officer.

The center has 16 classrooms, a large playground with equipment ready for use, and a spacious cafeteria. The $2.8 million pricetag was paid almost entirely from funding by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Design was by Weller Architects, with construction completed by Arviso Construction Co. of Iyanbito.

Begaye said the center will be started for business by Valerie Lee, whom the division is working with to lease the facility.

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Delegate sees solution to allottees royalty payment problems

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

NAGEEZI — A tribal council delegate said Sunday a way exists — one the Bureau of Indian Affairs uses it for its employees — to pay Indian allottees their natural resource royalties.

Delegate Ervin Keeswood said the necessary information could be copied onto computer discs and hand-carried to each agency involved in the process.

Keeswood discussed the solution during another rally at the Nageezi Boys and Girls Club. Many allottees have gone without their royalties since Nov. 17 and for some the royalties are their only income. The initial rally on Feb. 11 drew a similar crowd of about 300 people going into their third month without royalty checks.

Allottees represent Navajo families with about 16,000 men, women and children, according to Cecelia Belone, tribal Social Services Division director.

They have at least $500,000 tallied at the Farmington Indian Minerals Office, Manager Kevin Gambrell said. The office is overseen by four federal agencies as a one-stop center. Its parents are the U.S. Mining and Minerals Service, the BIA, the Office of Trust Fund Management and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's New Mexico office.

Gambrell said the royalties were paid mainly by oil and gas producers leasing individual Indian allottees' land, but can't be distributed until a solution is found, principally an order from the federal judge who shut down the system.

Increasingly Washington, D.C., District Court Judge Royce Lambreth is being blamed for ordering the U.S. Interior Department to unhook its Internet connection on Dec. 6 and causing a near financial disaster for allottees.

The department used the Web to transmit royalty information so Doug Lords of the Office of Trust Fund Management in Albuquerque could write and mail the checks. He explained to the crowd that only Navajo allottees receive their checks from Albuquerque; all others come from Anadarko, Okla.

Judge Lambreth ordered the disconnection when a court-appointed computer hacker broke into the BIA files and set up a sample account. Concluding the Denver-based computer was too vulnerable, the judge shut out all Interior Department bureaus from using it.

Diné allottees and their growing chorus of supporters maintain the BIA should have been given top priority, not the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service, which the judge allowed to be reactivated.

That chorus brought Navajo President Kelsey Begaye, Council Speaker Ed T. Begay, and tribal presidential candidate Joe Shirley to the chilly gymnasium Sunday, along with key aides of New Mexico's Congressional Delegation.

Belone's Eastern Agency staff set up tables and hand-carried a stand-alone computer to sign people up for general assistance checks, which President Begaye told the audience won't have to be repaid when the royalty checks do arrive.

"G.A.," as the checks are almost universally called, technically is "family financial assistance" for those "without resources to meet their basic needs for food, clothing and shelter costs," according to a division pamphlet. Applications can be filled out at division offices in Crownpoint, Gallup, Pueblo Pintado, Dzilth Na O Dithle and To' Hajiilee.

Begaye announced he will assemble a team to try to keep the issue alive so a long-term solution can be found. He also wants to be certain the allottees receive both interest on their delayed funds and a penalty from the U.S. government for causing some to lose homes and vehicles to repossession and starving livestock from a lack the money to buy feed.

The president said he will ask the Navajo Nation Council for emergency grants to allottees who don't qualify for "G.A." but who have been hurt financially.

During Friday's management board meeting of the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry in Albuquerque, it was suggested the tribally owned and operated enterprise supply hay and feed, especially to elderly animal owners, he said.

Speaker Begay wanted to know why allottees couldn't get paid every two weeks, like BIA or tribal employees.

The speaker cautioned that although everyone insists on a quick solution, it will take time to resolve the problem and "that's why we have General Assistance (checks)."

Instead of complaining about the past, "We need to move forward so this doesn't happen again. We need to show the federal government we mean business," Begay said.

He also revealed that federal workers were ordered to stay away from the first meeting.

Eloise Chicharillo, Navajo Region BIA director in Gallup, told the crowd, "We're all in this together, and we are as frustrated as you are." She said the decisions were being made at a higher level than her office.

Joe Trujillo, a key staff member for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., charged Judge Lambreth with overreacting and said "the wrong people are paying the price."

The senator's aide said that if the situation continues it will, indeed, become a true national emergency with some 40,000 individual Indian allottees are affected.

Pete Valencia read a letter from his boss, Congressman Tom Udall, to U.S. Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton, whom the judge blames for the problem, although her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, couldn't solve the trust fund mismanagement during his 8-year term as Bill Clinton's head of the Interior Department.

Because of his constituents difficulty in paying bills, buying food, clothing, and "other basic necessities...I would like to see the department be more aggressive to address the concerns of system security and restore operations, while ensuring compliance with the court order," Udall wrote.

The New Mexico Congressman, whose district includes the Navajo allottees, is pleased that a Congressional oversight hearing will be held on Feb. 6 about the trust fund.

"I look forward to hearing the department's justification, as well as have my concerns and those of my colleagues, answered," his letter concluded.

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Area sports

Michael Peretti
Staff Sports Writer

FORT DEFIANCE — A slow start in the first quarter put both Window Rock teams down early against Ganado Saturday night. The Lady Scouts were able to recover, the boys were not.

The Lady Scouts rebounded for a 68-44 win after falling behind by six points in the first quarter for a 68-44. In the boys game, Window Rock fell behind 12-0 early and never recovered, falling to Ganado 81-62 in 3A North Conference action at the Ft. Defiance Fieldhouse.

"I thought we played incredible," said Window Rock head coach Cindy Parravano. "It was the best game I've seen us play all year. I was happy that the girls played as a team and just played smart basketball."

After falling behind 7-2 halfway through the first quarter the Lady Scouts went on an 11-8 run the rest of the quarter to pull within two, 15-13.

In the second quarter the Lady Scouts put together a 14-1 run to take the lead for the first time and did not have much trouble the rest of the way.

Window Rock's Roberta Haskie hit a three to open the second quarter and put the Lady Scouts ahead 16-15. After another Scout basket, Waynette Taylor and Melissa Peterson hit a pair of baskets to put Ganado back up 19-18.

From that point on, the rest of the quarter belonged to the Lady Scouts. Haskie made a basket to put the Lady Scouts ahead and then Jodelle Bitloy and Gwen Tom hit three-pointers to start the Window Rock run.

Ganado would only score a free throw by Jolene Benally during the run and it was not until 3:31 when Tashina Baker put in a basket that Ganado was able to break the Window Rock run.

The two teams matched each other basket for basket the rest of the half, with the Scouts taking a 42-28 lead into the locker room at the half.

Neither team did much scoring in the third quarter, with the Lady Scouts outscoring the Lady Hornets 10-8. With 2:41 left in the quarter Benally went for a loose ball and ended up in the Window Rock bench. She left injured and did not return until the fourth quarter.

Window Rock doubled up Ganado in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lady Hornets 16-8.

"I think our communication broke down," said head coach Gwyn Grant. "We played aggressive the first half but we need to step it up in the second half."

Parravano said the win was big for Window Rock in the conference, as they are now in a good spot to take control of first place.

"This was a crucial win for us," she said. "It is always tough the second time around. We only beat them by 11 the first time, and this win was big for us."

Haskie led all scorers with 23 points for Window Rock. Bitloy and Tom finished with 13.

Leading the way for Ganado was Peterson with 11 points.

The Lady Scouts, 18-4, 6-2 conference will play at St. Michael this week. The Lady Hornets, 13-9 and 3-5 in conference will play at Tuba City on Tuesday.

Boys Ganado 81, Window Rock 62

Ganado may have started slow, missing their first six shots, including three lay-ups, but Window Rock started even slower.

The Scouts did not score until 1:14 left in the first quarter. By then Ganado already had 12 points, enough of a cushion that they would not need much more, cruising to the win.

By the half Ganado had pushed their lead to 20 points, 37-17 and Window Rock could only match Ganado in the second half.

"I thought it was a great defensive effort," said Ganado head coach Richard Bratt. "It gives us some confidence going into (Monument Valley) next week. Now we have won two conference games in a row."

Bratt said that the Hornets have been trying to work on their fast break plays more, as well as their blocking out and rebounding.

The Hornets missed several lay-ups in the first half, and did not have as many chances in the second half. With the Scouts down 20 in the second half they had to foul and put Ganado on the line to try and get back in the game, but it did not work.

The Hornets hit 12-of-16 from the line in the second half and made all but one of their lay-ups in the second half.

The Scouts had 30 turnovers in the first half, and only five of them coming from Ganado steals. The other 14 turnovers came from passes going out of bounds, traveling or double dribble.

To start the second quarter Window Rock was called for a technical foul when they started with six players on the court although it took awhile for the referees to catch it. The Scouts went 24 seconds with six players on the court before it was caught and the game was stopped. Neither team scored during the time that the Scouts had the one-man advantage.

Leading the way for Ganado was Ty Lynch and Lavon Salabye with 13 points apiece. Tyler Pete finished with 10 and Kasey Bluehouse had 12.

Leading scorers for Window Rock were Brian Yazzie and John Huyser, both with 13. Asa-Ryan Begay and Ryan Naswood both had 11.

Ganado, 14-8 and 5-4 in conference will play Monument Valley on Thursday.

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Diné coalition aims for council, people

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

GALLUP — More than 90 participants representing 18 Diné grassroots groups faced a dilemma posed by organizers to help them unite under common causes.

The dilemma concerned whether the target of their efforts to change the Navajo government should focus on decision makers — the 88 tribal delegates — or the Diné people. The groups, meeting Saturday at the Best Western Inn in west Gallup, decided that they will prepare a number of short and long-term actions geared toward the Navajo Nation Council. They will also steer a public education campaign toward the Navajo people.

The coalition effort, called Diné Bidzill, is united under the theme "One mind, one voice, one prayer." Members agreed that true government reform must come from the Diné people and not the Navajo government...

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