Eastern Navajo community
ready to mark 100 years

This is the section of Crownpoint where the old Crownpoint Boarding School was located. The activity is the meeting of local people pertaining to the Howard-Wheeler Act of the early 1930s involving the vote for the Constitiution. [Courtesy photo]

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

Brian Toline chops wood behind his home in Crownpoint, N.M. The Crownpoint community is turning one hundred years old continues to perpetuate a slower paced and reserved style of living. Toline says that it takes an eight hour day to go out and collect one load of wood and then chop to smaller pieces. Toline planned to give some of the wood to a friend. Born and raised in Crownpoint, Toline noted the quietness of the town and few worries about gangs as positive qualities in the community. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

CROWNPOINT — In March 1910 Samuel Stacher chose a site to start a school and an agency for Navajo, where he would serve as superintendent. Nearly a century later, the residents of Crownpoint are anticipating the 100th year of the existence of their town as a center of Eastern Agency activity.

While working on research for his doctoral degree, Leonard Perry discovered that the centennial anniversary of the establishment of Crownpoint is coming up in 2010, and he decided to get a group together to plan a way to mark the occasion.

The group, which has been recognized by chapter resolution, is coming together as the Crownpoint Historical Preservation Project committee. The project that the committee is working on includes a celebration and the gathering and sharing of information on the community’s history.

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Alice Benally said the preservation of the community’s history is important because people need to know how their community evolved.

“It’s important to know what our ancestors did to bring Crownpoint to what it is today and to give our general public a look into our past — to see where we come from and where we are going,” Benally said.

Perry enlisted the participation of Benally from the beginning. She became interested in the project after he said he wanted to see a celebration to commemorate and honor those who put Crownpoint together.

The committee is in the beginning stages of developing a nonprofit organization with short- and long-term goals to preserve the history of Crownpoint while promoting tourism and economic development.

“We can have a tourism center from here,” Perry said citing proximity to Dinétah and Chaco Canyon National Historical Park.

“It’s there. People are interested. It can be done,” Perry said.

The short-term goals include the planning of a Crownpoint Boarding School reunion and development of pictorial exhibits and biographies of influential people from the past and present. The long-term goals include holding the centennial celebration and the creation of a museum and cultural center.

“We want to do a centennial, do some activities that they used to do back then,” Perry said.

Some of the proposed activities include a rodeo, relay horse races, foot races, arts and crafts shows, and chicken pulls using items other than live chickens.

Taking its cue in teaching about the history of Crownpoint, the organizers want to include ceremonial native dances in honor of the Indian Ceremonial, which is said to have originated in Crownpoint in 1920-1921 by Stacher before being moved to Gallup.

Perry has already gathered many photographs which he wants to have enlarged and displayed. He said that the biography project is in the works.

The committee also envisions holding a symposium for community and family presentations of the past 100 years, with stories and exhibits.

One of the original ideas that Perry started off with was interviewing elders in the community to preserve their stories. During a meeting Tuesday evening, the committee discussed the possibility of engaging students from the Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint and other colleges and universities to do research and to get the stories on record.

The theme of the meeting was the collaborations that are possible for the projects that the committee has in mind, including various funding sources.

One of the unique partnerships that may be formed is with the Northwest Council of Governments to promote the Trail of the Ancients Byway. Crownpoint sits on the byway, which runs through northern New Mexico and is connected to the Trail of the Ancients Byways in Arizona and Utah. The New Mexico portion of the byway includes such significant sites as Shiprock, Chaco Canyon, Zuni Pueblo and the Aztec Ruins National Monument.

Efforts in all three states are under way to designate the entire byway as an All-American Road. While National Scenic Byways are recognized for archaeological, cultural, historic and/or scenic qualities, the most scenic of those roads receive All-American Road status. There are only about 27 such roads throughout the United States.
With the All-American Road status would come increased recognition, funding, marketing and other opportunities, Tom R. Kennedy from NCG said.

The NCG could use information regarding the cultural and historical significance of Crownpoint in its quest to obtain the status for the system of roads.

“I see that our intent and focus would intersect,” Kennedy said during his presentation. “All of this is a good sign for everything that you are talking about.”

Kennedy said that the CHPP committee could potentially serve as an advisory group to identify the community’s cultural resources and what can be shared with visitors.

Working with the NCG, the Crownpoint community would be able to take advantage of marketing opportunities and assistance with planning and fund raising.

“The byway initiative will help your initiative and your initiative will help our initiative,” Kennedy said.

Benally was pleased to hear the information provided by Kennedy.

“There’s a lot of opportunity that comes through here,” she said. “The highway (N.M. 371) is traveled a lot and we feel we will be able to see economic growth in our community.”

The committee selected Perry as its president and Rowena Becenti as vice president during its last meeting.