Reaching for the crown

Tohatchi Cougar Brennen Yonnie (33) moves past a Thoreau Hawk on
his way to the basket Friday at Thoreau High School in Thoreau, NM Tohatchi defeated Thoreau 59-58.

Photo by Douglas Tesner/Independent

Did Navajo grandma toss stone through DOJ window?

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

WINDOW ROCK — Conflicting stories have come out of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice where some sources say a woman de scribed as a “Navajo grandma” was involved in breaking tribal water rights lawyer Stanley Pollack’s office window,

Some employees within the justice building — an old, rectangular shaped structure on the south side of the Council Chambers — said a woman described as an elderly Diné asked a janitor Thursday afternoon where Pollack’s office was, located it, then may have worked with someone from the outside who tossed a rock through Pollack’s window. Pollack wasn’t inside at the time but he did mention the episode while attending a marathon “shared water shortages” meeting Friday at Navajo Agricultural Products Industry headquarters near Farmington.

Acting tribal Division of Public Safety Director Leonard Butler and Navajo Police Chief Dorothy Fulton confirmed Friday that an incident did occur that involved someone breaking Pollack’s window. There still is no police report on the matter, Fulton said, because the short-handed Window Rock Police District only had two on-duty officers at about 5 p.m. Thursday when one of them responded to DOJ’s call. At the time, there was blowing snow in the area that was making traffic calls a prior ity.

Fulton said there was no description to police of the person or persons involved in the rock throwing. She could not say whether it involved a woman described as a “Navajo grandma.” Fulton said the rock was thrown into Pollack’s office from outside the building, rather than someone breaking the windows from within.

“There’s nobody volunteering any information,” Fulton said.

Tribal DOJ’s official position on the incident is that no “grandma” pulled off an inside window-breaking job.

“I don’t know who’s saying that a grandma kicked it out (Pollack’s window), but that’s simply not the case,” said DOJ attorney Britt Clapham III, who soon will be leaving the Justice Department. Attorney General-nominee Louis Denetsosie was on travel and unavailable for comment.

Pollack is highly unpopular with Diné grassroots groups who have criticized him for not pursuing a major mainstream Colorado River claim, at least until recently. He has been referred to by such groups as the Diné Sovereignty Defense Association as “Osama bin Pollack,” and the non-Navajo tribal lawyer version of John Collier — the controversial BIA official whose stock reduction policy of the 1930s forced the deaths of up to one million sheep.

This week, Pollack was said by some council delegates to have been behind a move to exclude the media from a secretive “work session” Monday and Tuesday, which brought together the Navajo Nation Council with the also much-criticized yet fledgling tribal Water Rights Commission to discuss Diné water rights issues. Navajo grassroots members have said repeatedly that they have a right to know what’s going on with their water rights. About two of every five Navajo families are forced to haul their water, while some much smaller tribes in Arizona have long had access to running water in their homes via the Colorado River.

“I’ve got to find that “grandma,”shake her hand and give her an award on behalf of the Navajo people,” said Chris Begay, a member of the Diné Bidziil (Navajo Strength) coalition.

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DNA on bullet belonged to slain cop

Andrea Egger
Staff Writer

GALLUP — State analysts determined DNA found on a .45-caliber bullet belongs to slain Gallup Police Cpl. Larry Brian Mitchell.

Also on the same bullet was clothing fiber similar to clothes worn by Mitchell on May 30, 2001, when he was killed while part of a SWAT team storming the home of Robert Kiro, then 34, of 680 Murray Drive in Red Hills Mobile Home Park.

The only person with a .45-caliber handgun was Kiro, according to Kiro’s statement and that of police officers.

Who shot Brian Mitchell has been a question in the case after experts determined that Special Weapons and Tactical Team team member Michael Mitchell was shot in the back with a 9 mm bullet, which was found in his ballistics vest. That it was a 9 mm bullet means police must have shot him.

Defense attorneys have argued in court that all bullets in the case — at least 300 bullets and fragments — had to be tested in order to determine what type of gun fired the bullet that went through Brian Mitchell’s body. The shot went in one shoulder, through his lungs and part of his heart before exiting under the other arm.

The bullet maneuvered completely around the bulletproof vest, never damaging it.

Deputy District Attorney Joseph Arite disclosed the information about the DNA and clothing fragment on the bullet after a hearing updating the case Friday morning in District Court.

“It’s no surprise to us,” Kathy Mitchell, the mother of Brian Mitchell, said a few hours after the hearing. The Mitchells were out of town and didn’t attend Friday’s hearing.

“I just can’t believe we had to go through this when the evidence was so cut and dried,” Kathy Mitchell said.

The brief hearing determined that the New Mexico Department of Public Safety’s Crime Laboratory has finished analyzing several guns — Kiro’s and those of various police officers involved in the situation.

The shooting occurred following a nine-hour stand-off with police after Kiro’s girlfriend, Julie Montoya, and their teen-age daughter, Tasha, told police that Kiro pointed the same gun at them while arguing with Montoya on May 29. Kiro was in toxicated at the time and later told New Mexico State Police that he had been using cocaine.

Tasha Kiro called 911, which led officers to the home to investigate the domestic violence situation. Kiro told police in his statement that he shot at the first officers who arrived at his home when they tried to enter the trailer with a key Montoya gave them.

Arite said the 2,000-page report on the testing of the guns has not yet been turned over to attorneys but is expected to be turned over after another lab analyst checks the first analysts’work....

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Chinle students suspected of killing cat
Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

CHINLE — An alleged incident of severe animal cruelty at Chinle High School is pitting the Navajo Nation Veterinary Program director in Window Rock against the school principal as to what really happened.

The incident, involving “kicking a cat to death” according to veterinary employees within the tribe, was alleged to have occurred Feb. 10 in a high school hallway. Dr. Glenda Davis, Navajo veterinary director, is concerned that the school is not acknowledging that the incident occurred. Such animal cruelty — if true — can be a warning signal of future psychopathic behavior, she said.

The incident allegedly involved a boy and a girl, who were suspended. Principal Chuck Foster confirmed that two students were suspended for the maximum 10 days, but did not say if the suspensions earlier this month were related to animal torture.
Other sources within the school said that Assistant Principal Susan Clement conducted the investigation on Feb. 10 after the two students — who had allegedly “kicked the cat to death,” then learned the bloody carcass was disposed of outside by a school janitor — brought it back into the school and threw it down the same hallway where they killed it.

Clement was reported to have wanted the full 10-day suspension, which started on or about Feb. 11, and the students to be ordered to undergo psychological evaluations. Foster, sources said, lifted the suspension after about five days following complaints from the two students’ parents that 10-day suspensions were “too harsh.” Foster, however, told the Independent that two students were suspended for 10 full days without saying what brought about the punishment.

Sources said Clement and Foster clashed over the psychological evaluation issue, with his assistant refusing to “sign off” on bringing the students back without analysis. They said their disagreement be came hostile enough that Foster “asked for her resignation.” Clement told the Independent she had “no comment”...

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Drafthorses: A different kind of “driving school”

Jack Utter
Special to the Independent

When I told my teenage son last summer I was going to a driving school for a week, he immediately said, “Wow! Are you going Bob Bondurant’s School of High Per formance Driving in Phoenix?” I had to answer, “No, I’m going to Bob Olson’s Draft Horse Driving School in Colorado.” He just said, “Oh, have a good time.” I did.

Bob and Julie Olson live in Black Forest, Colo., less than 20 miles east of Colorado Springs. They have a carriage and harness business on their draft horse ranch, and they also operate a driving school for people who want to learn or relearn how to drive draft horses.

What is a draft horse anyway? The word “draft” comes from the Old English term “draught,” which, when applied to animals, means the act of moving loads by drawing or pulling. Thus, horses that are routinely used to draw or pull loads, equipment, or farm implements are referred to as “draft horses.”

The four major draft horse breeds are Clydesdales (aka the “Budweiser horses,”) Belgians (which have a blonde or near-sorrel color), Percherons (black or gray), and Shires (black and white). The Oslon’s generally prefer Percherons, but they have worked with and trained all major breeds of draft horses.

There is no official weight limit for a horse to be called a draft horse. But, generally speaking, “light horses,” which are those that rough ly weigh from 800 to 1,200 pounds or so are often referred to as “saddle horses.” However, “heavy horses,” such as the draft horse breeds mentioned above, generally weigh from 1,600 to 2,400 pounds. The largest draft horse on record was a Shire in Great Britain that weighed 3,200 pounds. He lived during the early part of the 20th century.

The Belgian and Percheron horses that the Olson’s had on their place last summer weighed in at between 1,800 and almost 2,200 pounds.

Bob and Julie are originally from Wisconsin. Bob grew up on his grandparents’ farm, and worked with horses and other farm animals all the time. But he particularly liked the horses. In fact, he has liked learning about and working with them so much that, over the years, in addition to using his own horses, he has borrowed or exchanged draft horses so that he could continue to expand his experience with various temperaments and breeds of work horses....

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