Diné court to get Stago's side
Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Supreme Court has agreed to hear
oral arguments March 4 in granting a reconsideration of its May
4, 2001 decision in the Stago v. Wide Ruins Community School
Inc. case.
The tribal Supreme Court's May 4 decision has had the practical
effect of leaving all community (grant) school employees on the
Navajo reservation without a court to hear their cases. The cases
involve those where teachers and school personnel have school
policy and contract-related issues opposed by the school management
they serve.
The Stago case evolved from a Navajo Labor Commission ruling.
The commission found that in not hiring Dr. Lula Mae Stago, a
more qualified candidate than her competitor for the position
of school executive director, the Wide Ruins school board violated
its own policy that set forth requirements for the position.
They awarded her the job and back pay.
The school appealed the decision, which was reversed by the Navajo
Supreme Court. The tribe's highest court ruled that Navajo courts
do not have subject matter jurisdiction and that the case should
be handled in federal court under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Timothy Joe, former director of the Office of Navajo Labor Relations,
said the Stago decision has left grant school employees from "Navajo
Mountain to Alamo" without a court — federal or tribal — to
hear their contract-related cases.
Window Rock attorney Larry Ruzow, who represents Stago, said
just for the Navajo Supreme Court to agree to hear oral
arguments is a win for his client.
"They never heard it the first time," he said, explaining that the
May 4 decision was based only on the submission of briefs.
Though courts rarely change their decisions, the Stago v. Wide
Ruins case has two other factors that may aid Stago. Only Chief
Justice Robert Yazzie is left from the court that made the original
decision. Associate Justice Ray Austin has since retired, and
acting Associate Justice Loretta Morris of Crownpoint was acting
in a fill-in role to round out the three-member court. Austin
and fellow former Associate Justice Wayne Cadman have been replaced
by two new permanent Associate Justices, Marcella King-Ben and
Irene Ferguson.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice — which rarely
intervenes in tribal court decisions — submitted a friend
of the court "amicus curiae" brief July 23, asking
the Navajo Supreme Court to reverse its decision. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Christopher Chaney wrote that the Federal Tort Claims
Act, which protects federal employees such as those from the
Bureau of Indian Affairs against suits arising from injuries
and accidents, was never intended to cover contract-related matters
stemming from former Navajo BIA schools that have attained"grant" status.
Grant, or community schools, are former BIA schools that have
converted to management by tribally controlled school boards
under the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988. The funds
to administer the school are still federal funds, but jurisdiction
over school matters is completely under the control of locally
elected, Navajo school boards.
Chaney wrote that if the federal government were sued under the
Tort Claims Act every time a contract-related matter came forth
from a grant school, the United States would be exposed to "unwarranted
litigation and liability."
Chaney also said that by taking jurisdiction away from its own
courts, the Navajo Supreme Court's Stago decision is a self-inflicted
blow to the tribe's sovereignty.
The tribal Supreme Court decision rested on an "unduly broad
reading" of Section 314 of the 1991 Interior Appropriations
Act, Chaney wrote, an act that finds when a civil action is brought
against a tribe or tribal organization, it is deemed "an
action against the United States and one to be defended by the
(U.S.) Attorney General."
Since the United States has not waived its sovereign immunity
against suit in contract-related cases stemming from grant schools — which
would require an act of Congress similar to the Federal Tort
Claims Act — federal courts would have to reject such claims,
Chaney wrote. That set of legal circumstances, along with the
Stago decision, has meant that grant school employees have no
court to hear their cases and are much more at the mercy of the
school boards who control their contracts.
Ruzow said Stago and others have not filed an appeal of the Stago
decision in federal court, which would be the U.S. District Court
for the District of Arizona, due to the "great deal of money" required
for an appeal.
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Bingaman: BIA checks in the mail
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A key U.S. Interior Department official assured
a New Mexico senator Tuesday that the checks are in the mail to allottees.
An estimated 40,000 Indians with individually allotted trust lands
which companies lease for oil, gas, timber and grazing production
have not been paid by the U.S. government since November. This includes
about 3,100 Navajos, mostly in the Eastern Agency, who have about
16,000 members in their families.
J. Steven Griles, deputy Interior Department secretary told the U.S.
Senate Energy-Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday the royalty
checks were being written and could be mailed the same day, according
to a statement from Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
"The fact that the Interior Department has committed to sending checks immediately
is good news," Bingaman said. "This is exactly the result I was looking
for, though I wish it had not taken the department so long to arrive at this
solution.
"Navajos who rely on royalty checks to pay for their food and shelter were
getting so desperate that the Navajo Nation had to step in and offer financial
assistance. I am pleased the federal government is finally stepping up to its
responsibility."
The Navajo Nation Council dipped into its tiny Undesignated Reserve
Fund for more than a half-million dollars, to provide one-time emergency
grants of $300 and $700 to 1,170 Diné allottees in the Eastern
Agency.
Being distributed through the Huerfano Chapter, about 1,000 grants
totaling about $180,000 were given out in five days, according to
chapter officials.
The only other government financial assistance to the allottees has
been general assistance checks for food, clothing, shelter and transportation.
It is being distributed through the Navajo Nation's Social Services
Division.
Last week, Bingaman applauded President George W. Bush's administration
for planning to increase Indian trust reform activities by more than
$83 million to $312.2 million for fiscal year 2003. The bump up is
intended to fund reforms in the BIA and the Office of the Special
Trustee to help resolve the situation that led to the Dec. 5 shutdown
of the Interior Department's Denver computer system.
Federal Judge Royce Lambreth pulled the plug on Dec. 5 after he had
a hacker break into the system and set up a phony account to prove
how vulnerable the system was. Interior Department Secretary Gale
Norton had believed the system was secure. It was all part of a 1996
class action law suit seeking restitution for decades of alleged
federal mismanagement of the trust accounts.
Bingaman wrote Norton on Jan. 18 urging immediate action, even without
the computer, to get people the money owed them. He said when he
didn't receive a reply he telephoned Norton personally on Jan. 24.
Many tribal leaders recently told the U.S. House of Representatives'
Resources Committee why they unanimously reject an Interior Department
plan for a new Bureau of Indian Trust Asset Management (BITAM).
The reorganization being pushed by Norton would combine a federal
district court Office of the Special Trustee with all First American
trust functions in the BIA to help fix the long-time problem-plagued
tribal and individual trust accounts programs.
While the National Congress of American Indians, which represents
smaller tribes, got most of the publicity in the all-day Feb. 7 hearing,
the Navajo Nation, as part of the new Council of Large Land-based
Tribes, joined in what Navajo Legislative Branch Press Officer Carolyn
Calvin called "an impressive display of Indian solidarity against
BITAM and in favor of a plan to address trust asset management reform
in concert with the sovereign Indian governments."
Joining CLLT President Jonathan Windy Boy were Navajo Nation Council
delegates Ervin Keeswood, the council's Government Services Committee
chairman, and George Arthur, the council's Resources Committee chairman.
Tribal testimony said Native American leaders have seen nothing so
far from Norton that would show the long-standing problem would be
solved. The CLLT testimony said a federal judge had already found
five breaches of trust in a 1996 class action suit.
The Navajo Nation Washington Office helped the two council delegates
meet with staff members of Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl,
and Reps. Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Chris Cannon of Utah and Tom Udall
of New Mexico about allottees not receiving their federal money.
The House of Representatives committee members seemed to support
the tribes and sharply questioned Norton and the BIA's Neal McCaleb
about their plans to get royalty checks flowing again to allottees
in the Individual Indian Money program, Calvin said.
A chorus of tribal and federal leaders have urged Norton to improve
the department's Internet websites with enough firewalls and added
security measures that Alan Balaran, special master for a District
of Columbia judge, to order reconnection.
Navajo leaders called for the federal bureaus involved to hand-carry
computer discs with the information, instead of transmitting it over
the Internet, so the checks could begin to flow again. But the time
and cost for the oil and gas companies to install a new system, tribal
leaders and the BIA were told, would take too long and cost too much.
Diné leaders still maintain the hand-carried system would
work. "After all, these checks had to be cut before the Internet
existed and Interior's obligation to pay Navajo allottees promptly
continues in spite of any Internet shutdown," Arthur commented.
Keeswood added that even without the exact information from the oil
and gas companies, the amounts due could be estimated and checks
written.
This would, "decrease the unnecessary suffering and harm that
our people are enduring," Keeswood said.
Despite the controversy, the Navajo Nation continues to take part
in the consultation process. A committee of two from each of the
12 BIA areas, including Navajo, is figuring out how to proceed.
Frank Seanez, then acting director of the Navajo Office of Legislative
Counsel, said in seven consultation hearings, all tribes rejected
Norton's notions of the solution, "based on unanswered questions
... relative to the proposes structure of the BITAM, the impacts
... on the remainder of the BIA, the affect ... on the delivery of
direct services to members of Indian tribes ... and by the Indian
tribes through self-determination contracts and grants, as well as
self-governance compacts."
Navajo leaders also intensely dislike the two men Norton named to
head up BITAM, Deputy Interior Secretaries Ross Swimmer and Griles.
The CLLT testimony blamed both for past problems with trust accounts.
Calvin said both "exercised review and approval authority over
the department's decision in 1987 to approve royalty payments to
the Navajo Nation from Peabody Coal at a much cheaper rate than calculated
by other federal officials."
As a result, the tribe has two suits in court, one against the company
and one against the federal government. The tribe had expected to
gain a 20 percent or 25 percent but ended up with the standard 12
percent federal rate.
Calvin said Rep. Udall asked Norton if she checked into conflicts
of interest of the two men and why Norton hadn't portions of Judge
Lambreth's order to temporarily turn on the department computer (in
Denver) to process checks for allottees.
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Murder suspect Chee seeks hearing
aid
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A Twin Lakes man accused of beating another man to
death at the Zia Motel in December is undergoing vision and hearing
tests to enable him to have a trial set in District Court.
Attorney Joseph Campbell of the New Mexico Public Defender's Office
in Albuquerque said Tuesday his client, Neilwood Chee, 61, needs
the tests to make sure he understands what's going on at trial.
"He's been deaf for some time," Campbell said.
Chee also needs to have his eyes checked to ensure he can read court
documents, his attorney said. They are waiting on Public Health Services
to set a date for Chee to have those tests.
Chee is accused of beating to death Ray Yazzie, 54, during an argument
while the men were drinking alcohol together Dec. 3 with Laverta
Archie, 26, of Fort Defiance, at the Zia Motel, 915 E. Highway 66.
An employee at the motel found Yazzie unconscious but alive Dec.
4 and called the police, saying she thought he was passed out from
intoxication and she needed him to be removed from the room.
Police found blood on Yazzie's face and knew he wasn't just intoxicated.
Yazzie was treated at Gallup Indian Medical Center, then transported
to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. He died
around 3 a.m. Dec. 5.
The Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque determined
Yazzie died from "traumatic brain injury caused by a blunt trauma
to the head," after a pathologist completed Yazzie's autopsy,
according to Magistrate Court records.
Assistant District Attorney Sean Fitting said Chee "became deaf
later at life, and he's not competent at signing and doesn't know
sign language. He can communicate by writing," which is how
Gallup Police detectives obtained a confession from Chee.
Fitting said Chee is living off of Social Security checks, and a
hearing aid probably costs about two months pay. Now, the state will
pay for the hearing aids so Chee can stand trial.
After the employee found Yazzie in the room, Gallup Police got a
description of Archie, who rented the room for the three of them
Monday. The clerk said Archie had just left a few minutes before
police arrived.
"We were right behind them," said Gallup Police Lt. John Allen.
Thinking the pair might still be in town, police searched nearby
local establishments and found Archie with a man, later identified
as Chee, at the American Bar.
Detectives had to hire a sign-language interpreter in Albuquerque
for Archie, who is also deaf and mute.
Archie told police through the interpreter that Chee got angry with
her on Dec. 3 and broke her glasses.
Then he punched Yazzie and kicked him when he fell down. Archie tried
to stop Chee, but he grabbed her thumb and bent it backwards, so
she retreated, she told police.
Chee continued beating Yazzie, then they all went to sleep, with
Yazzie still lying on the floor.
The next morning, when Yazzie appeared to be in the same position,
she told detectives she knew Chee had "done something bad" to
him.
She left the motel after she saw Chee take $20 from Yazzie's wallet.
Archie went to the American Bar, where Chee later found her. She
said Chee handed her notes Dec. 4 saying he was "sorry for what
he did to Ray," according to court records.
Police photographed the motel room, which was spattered with blood
on the walls, floor and bed sheets.
While they interviewed Archie, detectives put Chee in the Na' Nizhoozhi
Center, as he was intoxicated.
Through a series of notes passed to and from Chee, detectives said
Chee admitted he beat Yazzie because Yazzie was doing "Kung
Fu" moves in the room. This irritated Chee.
The next morning, Chee noticed Yazzie was lying in the same position
Chee left him the night before. He told detectives he tried to awaken
him by kicking him.
Chee denied taking any money from Yazzie.
After learning Yazzie had died, detectives arrested Chee and charged
him with murder, battery and robbery. Yazzie gave up his right to
have a probable cause hearing, where Fitting would have to prove
he had enough evidence against Yazzie to take it to trial.
This meant that his case was sent for arraignment to District Court,
where he will face trial or a plea agreement.
At the arraignment in January in front of District Judge Grant Foutz,
Campbell asked for time for the hearing and vision tests to be completed.
| Top |
Area sports
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
GRANTS — A second chance on a crucial free throw attempt proved
key as Grants turned back Socorro 59-52 in District 3AAA play Tuesday
night.
With the district win, Grants (13-8 overall, 6-1 in district) clinched
its second straight District 3AAA title. The Pirates will close out
the regular district season with a road game at Cobre Friday. Grants
also earns the right to host the district tournament finals Saturday,
Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. The Pirates also earned a trip to the regional
tournament the first weekend of
March which will be hosted by the winner of the district tournament.
"It's nice (winning the district title for the second year in a row)," Grants
coach Gerald Horacek said. "But we also qualify for regionals this year.
Our kids have done it all year long winning the tough ones."
With 36 seconds left and with the Pirates clinging to a precarious
one-point lead, Grants junior guard Boudy Melonas went to the free
throw line for what was signalled by the scorekeeper as Socorro's
10th team foul of the second half which would have made it a two-shot
foul. Melonas, who finished with 12 key points, missed on the first
shot and then Socorro head coach Gilbert Peralta stormed the scorer's
table to protest the incorrect foul total for his team. The foul
total read 10 when it should have been one less at nine which would
have meant that Melonas had a 1-and-1 and not a two-shot foul.
After the correct foul total was punched in for Socorro, Melonas
received a second chance at his free throws due to the mixup. This
time, Melonas nailed both both free throws that gave the Pirates
breathing room with a 55-52 lead.
"That (the free throws) was huge," Horacek said.
Then the Warriors, now 9-10 overall, 2-5 in district, turned the
ball over when 6-4 senior forward Stephan Hall, who led with 17 points,
traveled with the ball. Socorro promptly fouled Melonas again with
17 seconds left. Melonas again sank both free throws for a 57-52
Pirate cushion.
However Socorro again committed another key turnover when Kedar Bhasker
was called for traveling after being pressured by Pirate senior guard
Joe Ross, who tallied 15 points along with a pair of treys, with
11 seconds on the clock.
Grants sealed the game when Bhasker was called for a technical on
the foul.
Pirate guard Victor Aldaz,, who led the Pirates with 16 points and
four treys, sank the back end of a two-shot foul before Ross added
another free throw as the Pirates grabbed a 59-52 district win.
The first three periods were close with Grants up 15-10 in the opening
period with Aldaz burying two of his three treys in the game and
26-24 at the half. The Pirates again led after three periods after
Aldaz nailed his third trey, this one from the corner, that pushed
the Pirates back in front, 35-33.
In the fourth period, Aldaz sank three free throws after being fouled
on a three-point attempt that tied the score at 40-all.
The Warriors slipped into the lead on Joseph Santillanes' trey. But
the Pirates stormed back as Melonas drilled a pair of successive
pullup jumpers midway through the fourth quarter.
After Hall's score inside that gave Socorro the lead back by one
point, Grants retook the lead on Ross' trey.
Melonas scored off an offensive rebound and Pirare senior RoShaun
McKinney, who was coming off a 22-point performance against Hot Springs,
sank the first free throw but missed on the second. Luckily 5-foot-11,
240-pound senior center Jesse Miera, who got into early foul trouble
and eventually fouled out late in the game, grabbed the loose ball
and put the ball into the hoop for a key score as the Pirates led,
52-45.
The Warriors rallied to close the gap to just one point, 53-52, after
Santillanes banked a trey in and Nick Sramak converted a 1-and-1
with 47 seconds left in the game.
But Melonas marched to the free throw line for the key two-shot foul
that was changed to a 1-and-1 after he missed a free attempt. On
the second trey, Melonas made good on both free throws.
The Pirates sank 6-of-8 free throws in the final 36 seconds, 11-of-16
in the fourth period, that secured the win.
"Boudy (Melonas) stepped up tonight," Horacek said. "Joe (Ross)
is always there with his play. He's the best player in the district. He does
what we needs to be done. And Jesse's (Miera) three points were huge as well."
Grants shot 48 percent from the field, 20-of-42, with Socorro shooting
40 percent, 19-of-48. The Pirates had an edge from long range, hitting
on 6-of-21 while the Warriors were 4-of-14.
| Top |
Senate OKs more prison time for DWI
accidents
SANTA FE (AP) — A proposal to toughen the penalty for vehicular
homicide by a drunken driver was approved Tuesday by the Senate.
The bill would make convictions of vehicular homicide while under
the influence of alcohol or drugs a second-degree felony punishable
by 15 years in prison.
Currently, it's a third-degree felony that carries a six-year prison
sentence.
The bill also would apply tougher penalties to convictions of great
bodily injury by vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or
a drug...
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Lawyer's hit and run death case thrown out
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — A judge threw out an indictment against
a lawyer charged in a hit and run collision that killed an Arizona
State University student.
Attorney Mark Torre, indicted in October on charges of second-degree
murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, was denied a
fair hearing before a grand jury, Maricopa County Superior Court
Judge James Keppel ruled Tuesday.
Jessica Woodin, 18, of Red Bank, N.J., was killed Aug. 18 when
she was hit by Torre's Ford Mustang as she crossed a Tempe street,
authorities said.
The judge said that in outlining the case against Torre to the
grand jury, the prosecutor used the wrong set of laws and suggested
what charges should be brought against Torre...
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Greasewood Springs man recaptured
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Deputy U.S. Marshals recently captured a 30-year-old
Lower Greasewood man who had walked away from a half-way house
in Phoenix and returned home to the Navajo Reservation.
The deputy federal marshals, as part of the USMO "Fugitive
Task Force," took Ronnie Lee Yazzie into custody around 9
a.m. Friday about a dozen miles southeast of his residence near
Greasewood Springs, according to Bill Noble, spokesman for Arizona
District Marshal Al Madrid.
The charge was violating his supervised release from an April 1995
voluntary manslaughter case that involved assault with a knife
and drunk driving in the death of a brother, Noble said...
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Olympics show Diné, Gallup partnership
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Navajo Nation appears to be doing its part in
promoting the booth that the city of Gallup is sponsoring in Salt
Lake City during the Winter Olympics.
City Manager David Ruiz, at Tuesday's regular meeting of the city
council, said the tribe's Discover Navajo 2002 Foundation, which
is running the tribe's $1.7 million pavilion in downtown Salt Lake
City, is preparing to start publicizing the fact that Gallup is
a partner to the venture.
A press release on this partnership was scheduled to go out Tuesday
night to media in the Salt Lake City area promoting the relationship
between Gallup and the Navajo Nation and the inter-relation the
city has with thousands of Navajos who visit there daily to shop
and sell their arts and crafts...
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Body found behind video store
Man's death is not laid to foul play
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Police detectives stepped over 40-ounce beer bottles
and kicked them out of the way as they investigated the
scene of a death behind Front Row Seat on Gallup's east side Tuesday
afternoon.
Around 4:30 p.m., two people walking through the field behind the
video store saw a man lying among hundreds of bottles of beer,
said Gallup Police Lt. John Allen. They found the man had no pulse
and asked the clerk inside the store to call the police.
The man was lying in a curled-up position on his right side. Allen
said he was about in his late 50s to early 60s...
| Top |
Puzzle: When is a plaza not a park?
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A few weeks before the county went to the polls last
November and approved a new courthouse complex and plaza, the county
released a color drawing of what it may look like.
Architects working on the design Tuesday revealed some very preliminary
drawings of a couple of possible looks to the plaza and neither
looked anything like the drawing. In fact, it turns out that the
original drawing wasn't even a plaza in the first place - it was
a park.
County and city officials met Tuesday for the first time to talk
about the proposed plaza. Leaning against one of the walls was
a copy of that picture, which showed new additions to the present
courthouse and a wide expanse of land in front of the courthouse
which was created by blocking off the street in front of the courthouse
and removing all of the buildings just north of the courthouse...
| Top |
Deaths
Alfred Plummer Sr.
TOHATCHI — Services for Alfred Plummer, Sr., 97, will be held
at 10 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 14 at the Christian Reformed Church,
Tohatchi. Paul Redhouse will officiate. Burial will follow in Tohatchi.
Visitation will be held from 2-5 p.m., today at Cope Memorial Chapel.
Plummer Sr. died Feb. 10 in Gallup. He was born March 15, 1904
in Tohatchi into the Folding Arms People Clan for the Red House
People Clan.
Plummer Sr. attended Albuquerque Indian School. He retired from
30 years with the BIA. He received an Outstanding
Performance Award. He was a carpenter, farmer, welder, leatherworker
and shoemaker.
Survivors include his sons, Henry Plummer of Vanderwagen, Tony
Plummer of Rock Springs and Richard Plummer of
Cherokee, N.C.; daughters, Alice P. Francisco of Window Rock, Bertha
Destea and Lucille Begay both of Tohatchi; 49
grandchildren; 70 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great grandchildren.
Plummer Sr. was preceded in death by his son, Alfred Plummer Jr.;
daughter, Emma Manuelito Tracey; parents, Dibelhchee
Neclai and Tah'Hoos Baah; brothers, Ned Plummer Sr. and Mike Plummer
and sisters, Annie Becenti and Sarah Thompson.
He was a grandson of Chief Manuelito.
Pallbearers will be Henry Francisco Jr., Shanne Yazzie, Oscar Destea,
Hubert Curley, Billy Destea Jr. and Ricky Destea.
The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial
services at Tohatchi Chapter House.
Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
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