Ceremonial date revised, rodeo axed for 2006

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Change, it seems, is not always good. Sometimes, things are better left as they are.

That's the lesson the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial's board of directors took away from two years of unsuccessfully experimenting with different dates. According to board President Louis Bonaguidi, it voted to revive a bit of Ceremonial history recently by returning the annual event to the second week of August, the same place it's occupied on the city's calendar for most of its 85 years. At the same time, it's done away with a bit of the past by deciding not to host an All Indian Rodeo in 2007, something it's done for nearly half those years.

Moving the Ceremonial from its mid-August spot seemed like a reasonable idea a few years ago. Just one week ahead of the more popular Santa Fe Market, the thinking went, the Ceremonial might attract more artists and buyers by moving its dates up one week. The extra time, some judges suggested, would give the artists a chance to prepare more work exclusively for the Ceremonial.

But that, the city's Lodgers Tax Committee pointed out, placed the event awfully close to the first of the month. Because shoppers already come to town at about that time to spend their government checks, the Ceremonial was no longer creating the amount of new business it used to. The committee, then, newly committed to saving its largest appropriations for off-peak events, suggested the Ceremonial move even further ahead in 2006 to late July.

This year's Ceremonial, consequently, ran from July 26-30.

But if the changing dates were an exercise in trial and error, Bonaguidi said, it was an exercise that had clearly erred. Over the course of just a few years, artist and dealer participation fell some 40 percent.

"We didn't get nearly as much art as we wanted, but it was the buying that really affected us," Bonaguidi said.

As it turned out, the usual dealers were more likely to attend the Ceremonial when they could combine their trip with the Santa Fe Market. If forced to chose between the two now several weeks apart many chose Santa Fe.

"It's important to have the artists, sure," Bonaguidi said, "but it's more important to have the buyers."

Restoring the Ceremonial to mid-August, he hopes, will bring them back.

If what Herb Mosher has heard is any guide, it should. The Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce director said that the few local artists and established merchants he's spoken with preferred going to Santa Fe.

"My only concern is, let's make the decision early and let's not change it, because it confuses the people who prepare for this," Mosher said.

But it's the spectators who may wind up confused next year, when they show up only to find that there's no more All Indian Rodeo.

The decision to do away with the Ceremonial mainstay was a financial one, Bonaguidi said. Since its introduction in the early 1970s, it's brought in its fair share of spectators.

"For many years, it was a good fund-raiser for the Ceremonial," he said.

But starting three to four years ago, attendance started to fall, and with the spectators went the revenues. According to Bonaguidi, the nine or so events no longer turn a profit. And for an organization still more than $100,000 in debt, that's not good news.

But the board's decision to ax the rodeo also follows a particularly controversial year. Gloria Grant, the woman Bonaguidi appointed to run this year's rodeo events, started a petition accusing the Ceremonial Association of mistreating and abusing this year's contestants.

According to the petition, contestants were provided only restricted access to the rodeo grounds and assigned to camp sites far from any available water or toilets. One visitor reported a run-in with an overzealous parking attendant who jumped on her truck to collect the $5 fee. Bonaguidi said the attendant had gotten her elbow caught in the truck.

Bonaguidi wouldn't say that Grant and her petition sealed the rodeo's fate. But when it came time to vote on the rodeo's future, he said, the accusations "definitely didn't help matters."

Grant could not be reached for comment.

On the bright side of things, Bonaguidi said, the rodeo's absence may leave room for other events the traditional Navajo song and dance performances, for example to take on a bigger role at the Ceremonial.