Chamber sponsors free Friday night Ceremonial dances
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Friday night performances at this year's Gallup
Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial will be free to general admission
patrons.
The announcement of free general admission was announced Thursday
by Ceremonial President Louis Bonaguidi who said that the free
admission is being made possible by a $15,000 donation from the
Gallup Chamber of Commerce.
People will still have to pay for the 1,200 reserved seats for
Friday night's performance but the Chamber gift is expected to
fill most, if not all, of the other 5300 general admission seats
at Red Rock Park.
Bonaguidi said that parking fees will still be charged Friday
night. "We need those funds to pay for security and insurance
for the exhibit hall," he said.
He said he approached the Chamber of Commerce several weeks ago
with the idea of the chamber sponsoring a free performance instead
of paying for a free barbeque. The $15,000 figure, he said, was
based on what the Ceremonial took in at
last year's Friday night performance.
At the time he first approached the chamber, he suggested that
the money be used to allow any Native American to get in free
on Friday, harkening back to the early days of the Ceremonial
in the 1930s when Native Americans got in free to all performances.
But the chamber board, after thinking is over, decided it would
be better to allow everyone to get in free, rather than going
through the hassle of trying to determine who is and who is not
Native American.
Bonaguidi said his thinking was to accept people's word at the
gate. If they said they were Native American, they would be allowed
in free, no questions asked.
But Barbara Quinones, president of the chamber, said that the
board wanted to show appreciation to everyone who has supported
the Ceremonial.
She said the free admission will encourage parents with large
numbers of children to come to the Ceremonial this year. It may
also encourage a lot of people who have not attended the Ceremonial
in years to come as well, she said.
The $15,000 donation is about what the chamber has spent on the
Ceremonial in recent years, she said. The barbeque has cost about
$11,000 and the chamber has also paid for banners.
"We may also do other things for the Ceremonial this year as well," she
said.
She added that the chamber is now talking to a couple of corporations
and organizations about joining the chamber in sponsoring that
free night so that all of the financial burden will not be on
the chamber.
Indian trader Ellis Tanner, who is on the chamber board, said
that he felt the chamber was going in the right direction in
sponsoring the free performance, adding that area businesses
should consider stepping in to help sponsor the free night to
show their appreciation to the people who patronized their store
during the year.
No one knows just how popular the free show will be so Bonaguidi
was asked what will happen if all the seats are filled and there
are still some people who want to go in to see the performance.
"We have never sold out a Friday night performance so I guess it would be
wonderful if we found ourselves in that position," he said.
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'I lost on Jeopardy!....baby'
Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff Writer
GALLUP — I watch the game show Jeopardy! every night right before
dinner. The habit began with my mother sitting at the kitchen table
when I was 12 years old, watching Art Fleming host the show, where
contestants could win hundreds of dollars. Now the dollar amounts
are in the thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands.
The premise of the show is simple - 60 questions in 12 categories.
They are in the form of an answer and the contestant must provide
the question.
Sounds easy enough. Every night I play, amazed by the useless bits
of information I have retained back in the recesses of my brain.
So when KCET in Los Angeles called my husband to do a show on his
art pieces at the Los Angeles Zoo, I decided to tag along and take
the Jeopardy! test to see if I could become a contestant. After all,
a co-worker told me he had taken the difficult test a couple of years
ago, and he almost passed. I was at least as smart as he was. He
told me he only missed passing the test by one question.
I looked on the Jeopardy! website and found the information on how
to take the test. I made an appointment. The test consisted of 50
questions, each on a different subject. I looked up other people's
test experiences. Many had posted online their stories of taking
the Jeopardy test
"Study the Bible, U.S. presidents, vice presidents, state and world capitols,
flags of each country, Shakespeare, mythology and the table of elements," one
test-taker had posted on his website. "There is sure to be one question
on each of these."
The Bible? I would need some help there. But my co-workers helped
me out, bringing in bible books and children's bible stories for
my perusement.
I spent hours studying the Bible. I memorized the U.S. Presidents,
state capitols and world capitols, and instead of reading a novel
at night, I studied the world atlas, places in which previously I
never had any interest. Southern Russia, Indonesia, Africa, the northern
coast of South America.
The two days before the test I decided to do my best to keep my brain
sharp. While I watched my husband being interviewed, I was thinking
about trivia. I didn't drink any liquor and I ate sushi every night
before the test (in L.A.) to keep my brain sharp. I went to bed early
and did everything I could to improve my chances.
The hotel we stayed at was filled with Jeopardy! contestants, test-takers
and Wheel of Fortune contestants and their families.
The test is no longer given on the Sony lot in Culver City for security
reasons. I stood in line with a lot of other nerdy looking
people, mostly balding men in cheap suits, and was seated to take
the Jeopardy! test.
They warned us. Not only were the questions extremely hard, but they
are the proprietary information of Jeopardy and we could not repeat
the questions to anyone. So I can't write what the questions were.
But I will say that out of 80 people, only 13 passed the test. And
that didn't include me. I flunked.
But I remember the questions I didn't know the answers to. The flag
question, the Shakespeare question, the president question, the 1990's
TV question, the rock n'roll question (how embarassing) and yes,
the Bible question. I missed countless others also. But I got some
surprising ones...the question on the table of elements (thanks to
living in an area where silver is a widely-used metal), literature,
food, and some that were just so off-the-wall. But, as Alex Trebek
pointed out to us from a giant TV screen, in order to pass you needed
to get 35 out of 50 correct.
Out of the 80 people who took the test, only 13 stayed on to do auditions.
And they were all the balding men in cheap suits.
Only one female passed and at least half the crowd was female. More
than half the crowd was there taking the test for their second, third
or fourth time. They never told us how many we got right, what the
correct answers were, or any other individual information. All we
knew, was we either passed or failed.
For those of us that flunked, we could come back and take the test
again in a year's time. They let us keep the pen that said "Jeopardy!"
Oh jeez, what do I tell my co-workers? They all knew I was coming
here to take the test. How embarrassing!
The Jeopardy! Contestant Search Crew had an answer.
"When your co-workers asked you how you did, tell them you missed it by
one."
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Teen causes gun scare at junior high
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A 14-year-old runaway was arrested Thursday by city
police after he made several threats to shoot police officers and
security guards.
The youth, identified as Jacob McBroom, did not have a weapon, although
police said that McBroom acted as if he had one throughout the incident
and told them "go ahead and shoot me, I have a gun and I will
shoot you."
School officials said the incident began a little before 11 a.m.
when he went up to a teacher at the school who questioned him about
being reported as a runaway, When the teacher began asking questions,
McBroom reportedly ran outside the building and security personnel
were called in to take him into custody.
When security approached him, he reportedly began acting in a threatening
manner and the school's resource officer, Andy Yearley, was called
in to help.
When Yearley got to the scene behind the school, he saw that the
suspect had a blue sweatshirt on his left arm. "I ordered the
subject three times to stop and show me his hands, (but) he would
not," Yearley wrote in his report.
Yearley drew his gun and McBroom continued to threaten to shoot him.
"At that time I believed that the subject did have a gun," Yearley
wrote. "So I aimed my duty weapon and continued telling him to stop. The
subject then pulled his arm back towards his body and continued to walk to the
north."
As he walked away, McBroom kept yelling for officers to "get
away," swinging his arm toward them.
After a couple of minutes, however, he found himself cornered in
the tennis courts and against the fence. Yearley and the security
guards surrounded him and took him to the ground, although he continued
to resist.
After he was handcuffed, police noticed that McBroom had silver paint
on his fingers and the youth reportedly admitted to have been sniffing
paint.
He was transported to the juvenile facility, where was was charged
with aggravated assault on school personnel, aggravatwed assault
on a police officer, being a runaway, resisting arrest and sniffing
paint.
Junior High Principal Rick Carpenter said that school personnel were
not aware until the incident was over that McBroom was claiming that
he had a weapon so there was no lockdown.
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HUD rep tours Navajo homes
Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer
CHURCH ROCK — As he walked under what soon will be the finished
doorway of an under-construction home in the 65-unit Church Rock
subdivision, which just a day or two earlier, had a solid foundation
but not the wooden frame perched above it, Chris Boesen had a question.
He wanted to know in which Indian Housing Plan fiscal year the subdivision's
federal funds were approved.
That would be fiscal year 2000, Navajo Housing Authority Director
Chester Carl answered.
"Damn, that's fast," said an impressed Boesen, who is a deputy assistant
secretary with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office
of Congressional and Intergovernmental relations.
Boesen works in Washington directly with HUD Secretary Mel Martinez,
the first-ever Cuban American to serve in that Cabinet post. Based
on the progress he has seen since 1995 in Navajo country, the year
the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA)
was implemented, Boesen said he will recommend that Martinez visit
the Navajo Nation
to applaud its housing projects success.
NHA has been steadily increasing the number of homes in each fiscal
year that are categorized as new construction, rehabilitation and
planned units. In fiscal year 1998, the number was 1,001 units; in
2000, 1,145; in 2001, 2,277. The tribe's successful housing authority
has been receiving about $90 million yearly from NAHASDA, plus millions
more from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
NHA administers and manages more than 7,000 reservation housing units,
and that number is just the beginning: the tribe has a need for between
20,000 and 30,000 units to meet present demand. The 65-unit Church
Rock subdivision, to be completed in about a year, Carl said, is
actually one of NHA's smaller projects. About five miles north, the
900-unit Springstead Estates undergoing its schematic design phase
will become far and away the tribe's largest housing project when
it is completed.
Boesen toured both sites Thursday in the company of Carl and NHA
media consultant George Joe. The trip also featured: a stop at Cabinets
Southwest, a three-year-old NHA-operated business near Church Rock
that manufactures oak cabinets for NHA homes as well as the private
sector; three modular homes being built by U.S.veterans in west Gallup;
a stop at Southwest Indian Foundation headquarters in downtown Gallup;
and a trip to Crownpoint to view a student housing project.
Boesen said it is apparent that NHA is becoming more efficient in
the area of a quick turn-around time between appropriation of NAHASDA
funds and actual home construction. Originally of Albuquerque, Boesen
knows Navajo country well, and reported to Carl while Boesen was
executive director of the American Indian Housing Council and Carl
its chairman.
"When I first came out here in 1995, none of this stuff was going on," Boesen
said. "I think they're doing a good job. It's very impressive, especially
the coordination of all the federal agencies, like HUD and agriculture."
President George W. Bush appears to be impressed, too. Boesen said
he is proposing for fiscal year 2003, starting Oct. 1, an increase
for Indian Housing Plans.
Besides the federal agency coordination on Indian housing appropriations,
NHA has its own local partners to work with. As one example, Carl
said the Church Rock subdivision is working with Fort Defiance Housing
Corp., a large housing firm on Navajo land that will manage the project
for NHA and handle collections. The construction firm is Lodge Builders.
Carl said filling the homes once they're finished won't be a problem:
there's already a long waiting list. The "semi-mortgaged" units
place occupants based on income eligibility. The most any occupant
will pay will be 30 percent of a family's adjusted net income.
"The waiting list grows when people see construction," Carl said.
The Boesen-Carl tour of the mammoth Cabinets Southwest warehouse
plant was prefaced by Carl's comments that the project is earning
its own way, but barely. Now is a difficult time to obtain lumber.
"A lot of vendors are going under," Carl told Boesen.
Still, Cabinets Southwest averages 1,400 boxes per month, which equates
to about 700 cabinets. About 20 percent of the oak cabinets are sold
to private businesses, Carl said.
Boesen asked how Cabinet Southwest prices compare to Home Depot's. "We're
a little on the low side," Carl said.
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Disabled Shiprock students to get
portable buildings
Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer
SHIPROCK — Navajo parents of 16 high school-aged children with
mental and physical disabilities in the Central
Consolidated School District were assured Thursday by Superintendent
Linda Besett that purchasing a new portable building for the students
is one of her top priorities.
About 50 people, mostly Navajo parents and concerned community residents,
attended the meeting at Shiprock High School.
The meeting had a positive result, with Besett offering that when
the Community-Based Instruction (CBI) students return from spring
break April 1, she will meet parents' requests of returning their
children back to their established site for the remaining
nine weeks of the school year. Springs break starts today for Central
schools.
Even better, by August, the start of the 2002-03 school year, the
students are scheduled to have a new, 60-by-28-foot portable on the
west side of Shiprock High School complete with a wood shop, large
classroom, electrical drops for a "mini computer lab," kitchen,
bedroom for the family living component of the program, and two restrooms,
one with a shower. By ordering the portable now, the district will
be able to save $40,000 under the approximately $180,000 price quoted
last year.
The established site for the CBI program at Shiprock has for years
been a spacious building located next to Career Prep Alternative
High School and the Central administration offices. That can no longer
be the site, parents were informed during a March 12 Central school
board special meeting, so as to meet the federal mandate of "inclusion." Inclusion
means that special needs students must, like all students, be placed
in the "least restrictive environment possible." This requires
them to be mainstreamed into a high school environment with other
Shiprock High students. The established site will soon become
Central office space.
Community-Based Instruction is a district program for high schoolers
in Shiprock and Kirtland that provides disabled students with independent
living skills, basic learning and job-related skills. Some CBI parents
expressed anger and disappointment that their children were moved
the week of March 4-8 into two small, not-yet-prepared classrooms
at Shiprock
High School that lacked adequate accommodations such as hot water
in one room. Parents said their children were being picked on by
the regular-track students, alleging that one CBI student even received
a black eye. The Shiprock Chapter passed a resolution March 10 by
a 55-0 count objecting to the "forced relocation" and urging
that students be moved back to their established site immediately.
At Thursday's meeting in Shiprock High School, it was apparent from
parents' comments that the district has some ground to make up in
the area of re-establishing trust with CBI parents. Besett began
her remarks by again offering as she did March 12 that she had no
knowledge and was not part of the decision that involved the March
4-8 relocation to Shiprock High. During that period, CBI students
and their parents had to lift boxes themselves. Besett promised that
wouldn't happen again.
CBI parent Roger Shaggy, who spoke only in Navajo Thursday and had
his comments translated, said he believed that communication broke
down between parents and district officials because promises were
made but weren't kept. He noted that the students "bring in
money for the district," and wanted to know what assurances
parents will have that the promises will be kept this time. Another
parent, a father, asked Besett to provide them with meeting minutes,
which she agreed to do later.
Shaggy even suggested that Besett be "replaced" by an administrator
who understands the needs of Diné children.
"I take offense if anyone says that I don't care about boys and girls, because
that's where my heart is," Besett said, adding, "and I've offended
Central office people many times for taking that stand: Let's save money on our
boys and girls."
Besett acknowledged that "Somehow, some of the trust in the
administration has been lost ... I'm hoping you will give me a chance
and trust me."
Any group that wants to oppose what is best for children at Central
will be opposed by Besett, she offered, "even if it means (my)
leaving the district."
Shiprock CBI has two teachers, Cathy Hendrix and John Lunkley, who
have been with the program 11 and 12 years, respectively. They said
Thursday that they trust and support Besett and the change of venue
she is offering. Lunkley has announced that he will soon be retiring
from the program.
CBI parents' spokesperson Elizabeth Curley presented Besett with
letters of appreciation, but did toss in a few questions beforehand. "How
well will (the portable) hold up 15 years from now?"she asked.
"Hopefully in 15 years we'll have a new high school and construct the appropriate
classrooms then," Besett answered.
| Top |
Chamber sponsors free Friday night Ceremonial
dances
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Friday night performances at this year's Gallup
Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial will be free to general admission
patrons.
The announcement of free general admission was announced Thursday
by Ceremonial President Louis Bonaguidi who said that the free
admission is being made possible by a $15,000 donation from the
Gallup Chamber of Commerce.
People will still have to pay for the 1,200 reserved seats for
Friday night's performance but the Chamber gift is expected to
fill most, if not all, of the other 5300 general admission seats
at Red Rock Park.
Bonaguidi said that parking fees will still be charged Friday night...
| Top |
Local team to play Harlem Ambassadors
Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent
GALLUP — Mark the date Friday, April 12 on your calendars.
It's the evening your favorite school principal, fire chief, police
officer, district attorney, mayoral candidate, radio DJ, or next
door neighbor is scheduled to get creamed by the touring Harlem
Ambassadors basketball team.
The Harlem Ambassadors will be in Gallup for a night of basketball,
comedy, and family entertainment. The charity game, which will
benefit Habitat of Humanity of Gallup, will be played at 7 p.m.
on April 12 at the Gallup High School gym. Tickets are $10 for
adults, $5 for students, and children four and under will be admitted
free...
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Work to resume on Ariz. Rt. 264
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Work is starting again on $22 million worth
of highway improvements between Ganado High School and the New
Mexico border.
The first of the three projects that is expected to be completed,
in May, is from Mile Post 440.9 at Burnside Junction to Mile Post
447.6 on the east side of Ganado. Most of the work was done before
the winter shutdown.
When completed, improvements will include four new streetlights
at Burnside, where the new high school is located, and two new
streetlights in Ganado, where U.S. 191 intersections Ariz. Route
264 by Sage Memorial Hospital. In the future the downtown Ganado
streetlights will be converted into traffic control signals. Electric
conduit is being installed underground for future use...
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Spring break boozing not what doctor ordered
ATLANTA — Mitch Reiner's spring break itinerary is as crystal
clear as the Bahamian waters he's swimming in this week: To get
toasted. And try to chat up every bikini-clad "chick" he
can, to get their phone numbers.
But he's a dean's list kid, and while the 19-year-old from metro
Atlanta is in the Bahamas along with 50,000 or so other spring
breakers, there will be plenty of tests.
Of judgment. Of facing down peer pressure. And too often, the students
flunk, the American Medical Association warns in a spring break "alert..."
| Top |
Deaths
Margaret L. Chicharello
COYOTE CANYON — Services for Margaret Chicharello, 56, will
be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, March 23 at Cope Memorial Chapel.
Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park.
Chicharello died March 19 in Gallup. She was born April 17, 1945
in Fort Defiance.
Chicharello graduated from Gallup High School, attended University
of Utah of Radiology School and University of New Mexico for Ultrasonographer.
She was employed as an X-ray Tech at Gallup Indian Medical Center.
Survivors include her sons, Ryan Chicharello of Fayetteville, N.C.
and Mario Chicharello of Coyote Canyon; daughter, Jaclyn Chicharello
of Coyote Canyon; and three grandchildren.
Chicharello was preceded in death by her husband Felix Chicharello
Jr.
Pallbearers will be Mario Chicharello, Ryan Chicharello, Kris Chicharello,
Micheal Chicharello, Coby Garcia and Ace Garcia.
The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial
services at Coyote Canyon Chapter House.
Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Newton Brown
SAWMILL, Ariz. — Services for Newton Brown, 89, will be held
at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 23 at Our Lady of Blessed Scarement.
Father Gilbert Schneider O.F.M. will officiate. Burial will follow
on family land, Sawmill.
Visitation will be held one hour prior to services.
Brown died March 19 in Fort Defiance, Ariz. He was born July 4,
1912 in Chinle, Ariz. into the Tangle People Clan for the Ute Division
of the Red Running Into the Water People Clan.
Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Betty Yazzie Chee
COTTONWOOD, Ariz. — Services for Betty Chee, 78, will be held
at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 23 at Black Mountain Mission. Pastor
Frank James will officiate. Burial will follow at Black Mountain
Mission.
Chee died March 19 in Payson, Ariz. She was born Dec. 25 in Hardrock
Mission into the Red Bottom People Clan for the Salt People Clan.
Chee was a foster grandmother. She received many certificate awards.
Survivors include her husband, Wilson James Chee; sons, Danny Chee
of Springfield, Mo., Paul James and Fred James of Blue Canyon,
Ariz.; daughters, Marjorie Taylor of Cherokee, N.C., Earlinda Yazzie
of Sanders, Ariz. and Victoria Dixon of Yarmouth, Iowa; brothers,
Henry James of Blue Canyon and John James of Tolani Lake, Ariz.;
sisters, Lucy Chase of Hardrock Mission, Ariz. and Bessie Yazzie
of Sanders; 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Chee was preceded in death by her parents and brother.
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