Ordained into the priesthood


Archbishop Richard Gundrey, left, of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch, ordains inmate Osman Charles Fero a priest, Tuesday, at Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa, N.M., while Father Dennis Bryan, right, the prison chaplain, reads. Fero, serving a life sentence for murder, joins 68 other clergy ordained by the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch nationwide _ although he is the only one is prison. The church, not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, also ordains women.

Phot by the Associated Press

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Cibola, McKinley at fire risk
Restrictions in place as of today

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — It was no April Fools' joke Monday when fire restrictions were placed on Cibola National Forest and as of 8 a.m. today the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management followed suit.

The fire hazard in all federal lands in Cibola and McKinley counties is high, when just a few short weeks ago it was moderate. But lack of moisture and strong, drying winds, changed the fire outlook picture drastically.

"It's not looking good," said David A. Langley, fire management officer for the El Malpais National Monument of the National Park Service. He referred to the dry conditions sweeping the huge expanse of National Park Service land in Cibola and McKinley counties. There are 1,039 acres of NPS land in McKinley County and 114,277 acres of land in Cibola County.
BLM lands are experiencing the same dryness on its 419,000 acres of public property in Cibola County and 280,000 acres in
McKinley County, which is why the BLM today ordered fire restrictions on all of its lands.

Much the same restrictions were put in place Monday in the 521,035 acres that make up the Mount Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest in McKinley and Cibola counties.

Conditions are so dry that fire crews began looking a the situation in the Rocky Mountains a month earlier than usual. According to the National Inner Agency Coordination Center in Boise, Idaho, the weather has been responsible for the dryer than normal conditions causing fuels, such as undergrowth, in the Southwest to circumvent normal growth. States NICC: "Southwest fuels in early March are similar to those found normally in May with complete consumption of large fuels noted in recent prescribed burns."What's more, NICC said fire indices in the southwest are now at record levels.

Ominous in its remarks, NICC states: "In terms of overall fire severity, the areas of greatest potential include: Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Great Basin and Rockies."

The restrictions are Level II type. On National Forest, BLM and National Park Service lands the restrictions are:
Campfires, charcoal grills and stove fires are prohibited without a special permit, except in Forest Service-developed camp and picnic grounds where grills are provided.

Smoking is restricted only to within an enclosed area of a vehicle or building, a developed recreation site, or while stopped in an area with at least a three feet in diameter area cleared of all flammable material.

Fireworks are prohibited.

Operating an internal or external combustion engine without an approved spark-arresting device is prohibited.

On Monday it was not just the Mount Taylor Ranger District of Cibola National Forest that went under restrictions. Cibola National Forest Supervisor Liz Agpaoa put the entire forest under fire restrictions including the Mount Taylor District, Sandia Ranger District, Mountainair Ranger District, Magdalena Ranger District and the Black Kettle National Grasslands. In all it encompasses 1,949,637 acres of land.

While the restrictions talk about established campgrounds, most such campgrounds in Cibola National Forest have not yet opened, however, May is the big month for openings.

The McGafey Campground opens May 15. Water is available and at the fee-campground. Reservations are accepted.

Quaking Aspen Campground opens May 1. Water is not available at the campground, however, a $5 per day, per camp unit fee is charged. Reservations are not needed at the Quaking Aspen Campground.

Coal Mine Picnic Grounds open May 1. Water is not available and there is a $5 per day charge for using the facilities.

Lobo Canyon Picnic Grounds open May 1, there is no water available. Charge is for groups only at $25 per group.

For information on all campgrounds and picnic areas call the Mount Taylor Ranger District office at 287-8833.

Langley said fire restrictions signs were posted Tuesday on BLM and Park Service lands.

Mount Taylor Ranger District Fire Information Officer Richard Garcia said the restrictions are not meant to hamper the fun of forest visitors. "We just want to be safe with the public," he said. "So far, we've been safe."

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Diné Bidziil leaders see critical time

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

SHIPROCK — The topics will be more serious than any proposed to date by the approximately 18 Dingrassroots groups who collectively form the Diné Bidziil (Navajo Strength) Coalition, which is set to meet Saturday at the Shiprock Chapter House.

Those issues are: honoring the great leaders of Navajo history and tapping into their wisdom; mentoring the Navajo youth leaders of tomorrow; and a discussion of how other tribes in Arizona are enjoying a water rights bonanza while the Navajo Nation suffers in water rights misery.

"We're facing the most critical time in the Navajo Nation's history," said Norman Brown of Shiprock. On critical issues that together tie into the Navajo peoples' desire to have their government better serve them, "We don't have the luxury of waiting around 30, 40, 100 years," he added.

Brown is president and founder of Diné Nationalists, a grassroots group that will be coordinating Saturday's Diné Bidziil meeting in tandem with the Diné Sovereignty Defense Association. Like his fellow Navajos who are association members, Brown is keenly aware that the Navajo Nation Council will soon take up the issue of what way, if any, it will change the
direction of tribal water rights policy.

And, also like his fellow activists who are Diné Sovereignty members, Brown fears that if the Navajo Nation doesn't start to pursue its water rights much more vigorously, there may not be a Navajo reservation 100 years, or even 50 years from now.
The tribe will simply have out-populated its ability to keep up with growth given its far less-than-adequate water supply.

"The longer we wait to file water claims, the more the communities downstream (off reservation) will grow and take advantage of our water rights (lapse)," he said.

Brown said the coalition plans to invite Navajo water rights attorney Stanley Pollack to their meeting, with a goal of asking him some key questions, starting with why the Navajo Nation has never filed a claim for the main stem of the Colorado River — in Arizona or Utah — or for that matter, why it still hasn't filed a claim for the San Juan River in Utah and New Mexico. The tribe is involved with the state of New Mexico in settlement negotiations over the San Juan River, but did not precede negotiations with a claim.

Noting that a recent Arizona Republic issue focused on a dozen small Arizona tribes, which control a combined 1 million acre feet of water per year — enough to meet the residential needs of five million suburbanites — Brown remarked, "If other tribes have succeeded in their water claims, why haven't we?"

One of those tribes, the Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix — with a population of just 15,000 — soon is expected to sign the largest Indian water rights settlement in U.S. history, which will see the tribe receive more than 650,000 acre-feet of water. The tribe plans to use most of that water for long-dormant farming. As many tribes do, the Gila River Pima and Maricopa peoples will also lease a large amount of water to city and suburban users, earning millions of dollars annually. Each acre-foot on the open water market leases for at least $1,200 to $1,500 per acre-foot.

The Navajos' water rights plight won't be the only focus of Saturday's meeting. The coalition will also focus on the accomplishments of such Diné leaders past as Barboncito, who helped form the first"Navajo Strength" coalition, Brown said.
Barboncito united with about a dozen other head men to forge the path toward the Navajos' return home from "Hweeld," the 350-mile "Long Walk" to Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo. He noted that the negotiations with the U.S. government for the return to Diné Bikeyah (the people's land) was accomplished in a time devoid of non-Navajo tribal lawyers.

Brown said the Navajos are at a point in their history where they had better reflect on their great leaders of yore and call on that wisdom that worked so well before.

"We're following in their footsteps," Brown said. "Their vision was for a strong and unified Navajo Nation. We want to define that vision even more."

To do so, Diné Bidziil must honor, nurture and mentor the future tribal leaders of tomorrow, Brown said. The median age of a Navajo on the reservation is 24 years old, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, and Diné youth are the most under-represented group when it comes to how well tribal government meets their needs, he added.

Saturday's meeting will involve hearing from and honoring members of several youth-oriented grassroots groups belonging to Diné Bidziil. ECHOES, or Educating Communities while Healing and Offering Environmental Support, is a group whose members were instrumental in halting a proposed pumice mine operation near Flagstaff. The Black Mesa Water Coalition is a group of university-age Hopis and Navajos who have traveled to Washington to speak against the continued depletion by coal companies of the Navajo Aquifer.

The National Native American Youth Coalition, based in Gallup, advocates a variety of issues fostering Navajo youth involvement, such as a real youth voice before the Navajo Nation Council. Members of the Pine Springs (Ariz.) Association will discuss civil rights violations in the Bureau of Indian Affairs education system. Brown said its members will document civil rights violations that detail how Navajo children continue to be denied access to the teachings of their own culture and language.

Such teaching are required under civil rights laws, "which are not being enforced," Brown said critical, since Navajo language and culture appear to be losing out in reservation schools to mainstream English-only education.

"Our Navajo language and culture, it's the basis of our strength, how we think. It makes us unique," Brown said.

Other issues to be discussed Saturday will be Eastern Navajo uranium mining proposals, the status of the long-undeveloped Bennett Freeze area in western Navajo, and an update on the Diné for Better Government group's lawsuit against the tribe for what its members consider an unlawful $10,000 pay raise that delegates granted themselves in July 2000. Saturday's meeting will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Staff chief: NAPI board progressing

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

WINDOW ROCK — Arvin Trujillo, Navajo President Kelsey Begaye's new chief of staff, said he is appreciative of the BIA regional office in Gallup for proposing an increase in fiscal year 2003 funding for the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP), and offered that he believes Navajo tribal farm officials and the farm board will work together to justify that confidence.

Trujillo has only been chief of staff for about two months, replacing Derrick Watchman, who is running a campaign for Arizona's new congressional District 1 seat. The new Navajo Agricultural Products Industry Board of Directors took on their duties Jan. 5 after their appointments and reappointments by President Begaye. A fifth and final member to represent grazing District 13 in the San Juan/Nenahnezad area is on the way.

Trujillo said he wants the NAPI board to fulfill its potential to turn the tribal farm into a money-making operation, and knows that can only come with time, commitment and each board member filling a "niche" of expertise that they will individually bring to the table.

"We're starting to work on that right now," he said of the fifth board appointment. "We're putting some names together."

A proposal still being worked on — internally at NAPI — is what if any annual compensation each board member should receive, Trujillo said. New NAPI board credentials require that three of five board members have expertise in agribusiness, thus justifying such compensation in the view of the President/Vice President's Office. However, a proposal to give each board member $20,000 annually did not go over well with tribal council delegates who themselves sit or have sat on tribal enterprise boards.

A main purpose of today's NAPI/NIIP visit by Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb, the presentation of which has been orchestrated by Navajo Speaker Edward T. Begay, is to convince McCaleb that NAPI is moving in the right direction, Trujillo said. So the 80 to 90 Navajo officials expected to be in attendance at farm headquarters will address McCaleb with a common view: It is in best interest of all parties to keep NIIP funding for 2003 at its present 2002 level of $25.3 million — or increase it.

The Bush administration has proposed trimming NIIP — NAPI's water-delivery system via Navajo Dam — from its present $25.3 million this year to $13.1 million in fiscal year 2003, which begins Oct. 1. In a March 4 letter to Begaye, McCaleb said a national priority of homeland security spending — and NIIP construction's apparent outpacing of NAPI production — are the main reason Bush proposed a temporary NIIP reduction.

Thus the tribe is battling on two fronts this week: Emphasizing the importance of NIIP to NAPI, and going full out to convince all parties that NAPI is well on its way to turning its financial fortunes around with a new set of internal rules and revamped top-down management structure.

The new NAPI Board of Directors is going through a difficult adjustment period, which was not to be unexpected, Trujillo said. Two of the Begaye appointees are non-Navajos with extensive agribusiness experience — James Manassero, an executive from a large lettuce and other produce-growing farm based in Salinas, Calif., and Daniel O'Neill, an executive with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.'s agricultural investments arm.

Two other board members, both Navajo, are reappointments from the old board — new Chairman Gary Nelson, who is also manager of the tribe's Kayenta (Ariz.) Township, and Ervin Chavez, who works for the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington.

Under NAPI's new Plan of Operation, no elected officials of any kind are to serve on the board, and each board member must have a bachelor's degree. Chavez is running for a San Juan County commissioner's seat against Wilson Ray.

Despite Chavez's unsuccessful effort to have Bob Krakow replaced as the Bureau of Indian Affairs' NIIP manager, Trujillo said he is highly appreciative of Krakow's and BIA regional Director Elouise Chicharello's proposal to increase NIIP funding to $30 million. Trujillo said as long as he has known Krakow, the long-standing BIA employee has done "a good job" for both NIIP and NAPI.

Asked if the new NAPI board is fractionalized, Trujillo answered, "I think the appearance is there." Manassero and O'Neill voted against the anti-Krakow move, while as board chairman, Nelson votes only to break a tie.

Despite the Krakow episode, Trujillo said he believes each NAPI board member is seeking a way to improve farm operations and productivity, with Nelson having the added chairman's responsibility of working extra hard for and with his fellow board members. All working relationships can be improved for the sake of NAPI, Trujillo believes, and he has been developing a beneficial working relationship with former farm board member and San Juan/Nenahnezad Delegate George Arthur.

"We don't need to fight through things; we're working through a process," Trujillo said.

Arthur spent time in Washington recently advocating for a NIIP fiscal year 2003 funding level increase to $30 million. He also sees the new NAPI board as having growing pains that need to be and can be worked out.

"I think they're somewhere in the process of learning to work together," Arthur said. "There's a wide variety of interests on the board, what they want to bring in."

While in Washington advocating for NIIP, Arthur was able to meet with the staffs of New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman and U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, and with the staff of Arizona Sen. John McCain. Arthur said this is the first year that the tribe's oversight committees — in charge of tribal enterprises and other federally funded programs — have been able to weigh in beforehand on tribal priority projects undergoing the congressional appropriations process.

The final deadline for proposed spending on tribal projects is Friday.

Arthur has been following closely the proposed BIA internal reorganization with serious concern.

"I have gone after the responsibility of the federal government to finish NIIP," Arthur said of the mammoth, $600 million water-delivery system that will be part of McCaleb's post-luncheon tour today.

In the future, at full buildout, NIIP will contain 11 blocks providing center pivots, irrigation canals, laterals, pumping stations and other water-delivery infrastructure to NAPI. Currently, eight blocks of the NIIP project have been completely or partially completed, with some, such as block one, undergoing an extensive rehabilitation process. Part of the water-delivery infrastructure includes the mammoth, $40 million Gallegos pumping station.

Alfalfa and winter wheat are presently in the ground, and potato planting has begun. It is the goal of NAPI General Manager Tsosie Lewis, the emcee of today's tribal presentation, and Krakow to have 50,000 acres in production by the end of this year. A BIA-paid consultant, Steve Wilmuth, has been working with Lewis to help meet that goal.

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Area Sports

Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

GRANTS — From the very start to the finish, Grants head coach Walter Sarracino had confidence in freshman starting pitcher Randy Ramirez.

Even though Bernailillo roughed up Ramirez for eight runs in the first inning, Sarracino stayed with his starting pitcher. And despite having the bases loaded in both the sixth and seventh innings, Sarracino stuck with Ramirez.

In the end, Ramirez and the Grants Pirates prevailed with a stunning 14-11 come-from-behind District 3AAA victory over No. 3 ranked Bernalillo Tuesday night.

The baseball game was the first game played under the Grants High new baseball stadium night lights, the first night home game played by the Pirates in about 25 years.

Grants (8-4 overall, 1-1 in district) will host Cobre Friday in a single game in district play at 3 p.m.

"I had to give him a chance," Sarracino said. "You have to have confidence in our pitcher and in the defense to back him up.
He's (Ramirez) young and the team's young. But I have confidence in him. When I went to the mound, I told him and the team to relax and let the defense work for you."

The Pirates were coming off a disappointing 7-6 district-opening road loss to Hot Springs last Thursday. The Pirates had a 6-3 lead going to the bottom of the seventh but let the Tigers rally for four runs for the win.

"We needed this win badly," Sarracino said. "I was happy with the win. We needed it. It's nice knowing that they were able to come back after being down 8-0 in the first and not lay it down. Maybe this is the spark we needed."

The Spartans (1-1 in district with an opening win over Cobre) jumped all over Ramirez and the Pirates in the top of the first.

Bernalillo marched 13 batters to the plate, scoring eight runs on six hits with the help of three walks and two errors.

DH Sherwin Valencia stroked a two-run single down the third base line on the first pitch from Ramirez and leftfielder Jacob Price followed with an RBI-single to right also on the first offering. Shortstop Johnny Tenario rapped out a two-run triple that gave the Spartans a quick 8-0 cushion.

But Grants stormed back in its half of the first, getting to Spartan starting and losing pitcher Efren Garcia for six runs.

Rightfielder Jesse Gamboa, who was 3-for-4 with a pair of singles, a double and four RBI, drilled a double to the gap in right center with the bases loaded and no outs for two runs. Centerfielder George Vigil, who was 4-for-5 with three singles, one triple and three RBI, drove in another run with an infield single. Third baseman Joe Michael, who was 3-for-4 with three singles and one RBI, later followed with an RBI-single. Shortstop Boudy Melonas, who had a pair of singles, drove in the final run with a sacrifice fly.

The Spartans added a single run in the second on a one-out double by Garcia and a sacrifice fly by Greg Doss.

Bernalillo made it a 10-6 ballgame in the fourth with another run on a Doss RBI-single.

The Pirates cut the Spartan lead to 10-7 in their half of the fourth on back-to-back singles by Gamboa and Vigil along with an error at shortstop.

Then Grants rallied in the bottom of the sixth for six runs to steal the lead away for the first time at 13-10. The key hits were a two-run single by Gamboa and an RBI-triple by Vigil.

The Spartans threatened in the top of the sixth when Price was safe on an error at third with two outs and Ramirez then issued walks to Garcia and Doss to load the bases. Ramirez ran the count to 2-2 to centerfielder Aaron Boudagher before getting the crucial third called strike to put out the fire.

Grants pushed its lead to 14-10 in the bottom of the sixth with a single tally on singles by Melonas, Ramirez, who had a pair of singles and one RBI, and an RBI-infield single by Vigil.

The Spartans mounted another rally in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded and one out.

Ramirez was one pitch away from forcing in a run with a 3-1 count to Sherwin Valencia. Valencia hit a line drive to rightfielder Gamboa who missed the catch allowing one run to score. But Gamboa recovered nicely and threw Justin Smira out at home also trying to score on the play. Ramirez then put the Spartans away as he got Price to go down swinging to end the game.

Ramirez allowed 11 runs on 13 hits. Ramirez struck out six and walked six.

Bernalillo's Garcia lasted four plus innings and gave up 12 runs on 10 hits. Garcia fanned four and walked four. Mike Chavez finished the game and gave up two runs on five hits. Chavez struck out two and walked one.

Bernalillo had Johnny Tenario going 3-for-5 with two singles, a triple and two RBI; Mike Chavez 2-for-5 with a pair of singles; Sherwin Valenica 2-for-5 with a pair of singles and two RBI; Efren Garcia 2-for-3 with a single and a double and Greg Doss 1-for-2 with a single, a sacrifice fly and two RBI.

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