Ex-representative Sylvia Laughter honored at surprise lunch Tuesday

By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

Sylvia Laughter

WINDOW ROCK — Sylvia Laughter needed almost all her large family to help carry all the gifts showered upon her at a surprise honors lunch Tuesday.

She received a Navajo blanket resembling the Arizona flag, a Ganado Red Navajo rug, a chief's blanket, an armful of plaques of appreciation, several necklaces, a picture with the Navajo Nation Vice President, a bracelet and a prayer by Navajo Nation Council Delegate Ken Maryboy "for a very special individual."

Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan sponsored the lunch to honor the former Second District Arizona State Representative for her six years of hard work in the Legislature in Phoenix, especially for state funds to construct new or renovated senior citizens centers on Navajo and Hopi lands, supporting state capital improvement money for the Diné College system and getting a Navajo Nation state license plate.

The Republican-leaning Democrat converted to an Independent in her last two-year term and lost her re-election bid to a Flagstaff Democrat, cutting the tiny Diné delegation from three to two. Only a few years ago there had been four Native Americans among the state's 90 lawmakers, including Debora Norris from the Tohono O'odham Reservation in the south.

A parade of presenters praised Laughter in front of her mother, Mae Mitchell Big, and sister, Council Delegate Katherine Benally (Dennehotso Chapter) at the lunch in the Navajo Nation Quality Inn.

Laughter now works for the State Treasurer's Office with Arizona's 21 tribes.

She said she ran after not being able to find a job when she returned to Navajoland after finishing her bachelor's degree. Several presenters noted their times together in earlier decades at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. And she ran because she had lunch with her sister Katherine at the Navajo Nation Inn to discuss the possibilities of running. Before they finished and before she had made a decision she said her sister was introducing her as a candidate.

"I couldn't do it without my family and their support," she explained, adding that the Macdonalds know this well.

Speaking for the "lady delegates," Hope Macdonald-Lonetree praised Laughter "for being a model to young Navajo women." There are nine "lady delegates" among the 88 lawmakers of the 20th Council. In addition to the daughter of former Chairman Peter Macdonald and Laughter's sister, they are Evelyn Acothley, Harriet Becenti, Alice Benally, Orlanda Smith-Hodge, Ida Nelson, LaVern Wagner and Alice White.

Representing Vice President Frank Dayish Jr., staff member Maxine Etter said that in addition to their years together in the 1980s at BYU, their children are about the same age. "It's good to see her achieving the goals she set for herself."

Smith-Hodge said about three years ago Laughter brought her the idea of state money to build a new senior citizens center in the Klagetoh Chapter. (It is one of four chapters she represents.) Next month groundbreaking will be held for the new building.

Laughter began her long list of thank you's by expressing her appreciation for the privilege of representing the people of the district for six years.

Last year, she said, she tried another way to get more money for senior citizen center construction. But it didn't work as well as the first time when busloads of elders from the reservations loaded the galleries. "The Democrats and Republicans couldn't vote against the centers when they saw the gallery full of all the seniors," she said.

Later, she told the Independent, because of that outpouring of support by the elders, "We had no problem conveying our needs to the House and Senate. So now leaders in Arizona have a better understanding of us."

She urged everyone to keep in close contact with Navajo Sen. Albert Hale, Diné Representative Albert Tom and Flagstaff Representative Ann Kirkpatrick. Laughter said she hoped the three would continue to work on the same projects.

By a vote of the people Arizona, rural lawmakers (those outside Maricopa County) receive a $25,000 a year salary, plus mileage and per diem.

— To contact reporter Jim Maniaci, telephone (505) 371-5443.