Crisis on the horizon
Ceremonial in financial trouble

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Inter-Tribal Ceremonial Act the New Mexico Legislature passed last week isn't quite what the organizers of the annual event were hoping for.

It answered some of their queries, but not the most important part. So they're now trying to arrange a meeting with the governor in hopes that he can fill in the missing $400,000 before the Ceremonial arrives in mid-August.

Though it's the fifth-largest tourist draw in the state, the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial held every year at Red Rock Park has had trouble making its financial ends meet ever since breaking with the state in 1996. The Act, said Ceremonial board of directors chair Louis Bonaguidi, was an attempt to restore the event's relationship with the state, and the access to state funds it came with.

It worked, but only partly.

The bill the Legislature passed sponsored by Gallup's Rep. Irvin Harrison and Sen. Lidio Rainaldi established an office for the Ceremonial within the New Mexico Department of Tourism, and an exclusive fund for the event in the state treasury to accept any "appropriations, gifts, grants, donations, bequests and devises."

The problem for the Ceremonial Association is that the Legislature decided not to put anything into that fund.

As introduced by Harrison and Rainaldi, the bill called for a $400,000 appropriation from the state's general fund. By the time it passed the House 66-0 and the Senate 39-1, however, the appropriation was gone, removed by a 18-0 vote of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

An office at the Tourist Department is nice, but it's the appropriation the association was really counting on.

"But without that appropriation, I don't see the department supporting us," Bonaguidi said. "For them, it's like saying, 'Here's another kid that you have to take care of'," and not providing you the support to do it.

Although Bonaguidi hasn't spoken with Gov. Bill Richardson about the particular act, he said the governor has expressed his desire to support the Ceremonial and see it succeed. If he and the rest of the Ceremonial Association can meet with the governor, Bonaguidi is hopeful he'll back his support with some appropriation, now that the event is officially under the state's wing again with its own fund.

Between 1939 and 1996, as a state entity, the Ceremonial had little to worry about financially. But when that ended, raising the $600,000 to $700,000 it takes to put on the event, Bonaguidi said, became an annual struggle.

The $400,000 the Ceremonial Act asked for, he said, was to provide some security and help the event expand.

With such a tight budget, he said, "what breaks our backs now is we get blind-sided by every little thing," where even the weather wields the power to send the Ceremonial Association's finances spiraling into the red.

Ceremonial Director Joe Athens even offered up his salary recently to help the Association cut corners.

And to keep the tourists coming year after year and in greater numbers over time the event needs to keep growing and adding features, he said, as it's done with the Powwow. But that, of course, takes money.

If no significant state appropriations arrive this year, Bonaguidi has said that the Ceremonial Association would consider shortening the event from its usual five days to three.

He's hopeful the governor will save them from having to do that.