Letters: Our superheroes in disguise

One day during the afternoon in the month of August 2016, a hero in disguise was formed in an instant. The day was normal and sunny, but soon became cool. A breeze developed that would change a person’s life, perchance more than one life.

A small child’s life was placed in the hands of an older sibling to extent the love, care, and support that a parent should hold. The parent was taken away for DUI by law enforcement to easily be allowed the release of parental responsibilities. Alcohol and drug addiction is all too real with our Native people and habitual offenders should be required mandated rehabilitation and parents to parent training.

I look in amazement and wonder how parents can be this selfish, so unconcerned for their children’s care, their lives, and not realize what they do affects their child’s future. Children so young without any choice of their own are placed in strange surroundings, new homes, new faces. These faces are their new caretakers, our superheroes in disguise who now take on the role of Mommy and Daddy.

My parents have always taught us to love, respect, and take care of each other; regardless of what life holds, you work hard for your family — for your children. The teaching of my parents I have continued to preach to my kids, they work hard to support the best they can for their children.

Our superhero in disguise is our daughter Kellilyn Benally, who took the hand of her 2-year-old little brother in August 2016 because no one else could. With fall upon us and the holidays approaching, Kelly will ensure her little brother’s happiness and that support is continued for as long as she has him.

We are very proud of you and everyone else out there, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and relatives who have taken on this huge responsibility regardless why, all without reservations.

A.J. Beyal
Tohatchi, N.M.

Haven’t veterans sacrificed enough?

Each year we hear funds have once again been set aside for veterans. And each year veterans are asking, Where are the millions of dollars appropriated going to? What happened to the pledge, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans?”

It has been 10 months since the Navajo Nation Veterans Act was passed by the 23^rd Navajo Nation Council and to date there has been little change out in the fields. Scathing questions are raised as to how some could sleep well when they knowingly or unknowingly are making a mockery of our veterans’ unspeakable sacrifices. How else could anyone justify and engage in such inexcusable acts today, to rub into the lives of veterans and their families’ further pain and brutality?

Many veterans are asking why is it that while at certain times we memorialize veterans for great acts of bravery, we at other times revert to engage in great acts of infamy. To put it mildly, it is truly sad to listen to many veterans and their families at our monthly veterans meetings asking, virtually begging and sometimes in great frustration and anger, for veteran funds appropriations and disbursements. While some veterans may appear they have readjusted, let me emphasize appear, let’s not forget their voices are but the tip of the iceberg as they continue to cope in their own way with their horrid experiences and memories. Let us not forget those who continue to escape their depth-most disorganizing experience in the streets of cities or still live in bunkers in the outskirts of towns or are homeless in our very own homeland. If this isn’t bad enough, we still have local chapters who apparently have been given once again the authority for disbursement of veteran’s funds. Some veterans have in great anger raised legitimate points at our meetings on why the local chapters are involved at all in veteran funds disbursement requiring up to 11 or more different documents that has little to do with claims for assistance.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on the other hand, while not perfect by any means, does require forms that are lengthy, yes, but they are very specific to claims for assistance. But more importantly, they do not have local city councils charged with additional oversight responsibility for the needs of veterans and funds disbursement. Veterans have had enough of this local politicized “red tape,” a huge unnecessary layer of political bureaucracy that needs to be removed from the Navajo Nation veterans’ funds administration. The simple message from veterans: Put the funds set aside for “specific needs of Navajo veterans” under a separate Navajo Nation Veterans Office, staffed by highly qualified veterans, by honest, ethical staff with advanced credentials and fluent in our heritage language.

Otherwise, as we are seeing now for many veterans out in the fields, the Navajo Nation Veterans Act will continue to remain stagnant amidst political red tape. The collective message from our veterans is simply, Haven’t our veterans sacrificed enough? Haven’t veterans and their families paid unspeakable sacrifices already?

As veterans work amongst themselves, many are asking why our own people within our Four Sacred Mountains, in our homeland, are treating veterans with the same grim sacraments of unspeakable pain and loss as many experienced in some far away foreign lands, horrid deadening experience and pain to be blunt, which many try to continue to shove into their past.

According to the American Legion, suicides account for 20 percent of U.S. military deaths each year. One of every 10 living veterans today was seriously injured at some point while serving in the military. Veterans make up one-fifth of the country’s homeless population. These statistics are just, again, the tip of the iceberg. Let’s all collectively help support, thank, and work with our veterans now, today. Let’s get the funds into the hands of veterans where the funds are needed, a direct funding of veterans so that they may with the guidance of our Holy People/Deities re-establish their lives. Let’s give more credit to veterans’ self-healing. Let’s join the unheralded countless others who each in their own way thank veterans and their families now, today, for the sacrifices they made for our nation’s call to arms.

Harold G. Begay
Tuba City, Ariz.

Teen drunk driving down in SJC

As the holidays approach, let’s take a quick look at a couple of statistics on teen drinking and driving. The news is good!

Traffic crashes that involved alcohol impaired teens (15-19 years of age) have decreased from 26 in 2004 to 12 in 2014 (the most recent data available). Nine out of 10 of our high school students in San Juan County, New Mexico, don’t drink and drive (2015 Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey). Statistics also show that 0.3 percent of underage drinkers bought their alcohol in a restaurant or bar.

This information clearly demonstrates that we are doing something right in San Juan County. It also shows the positive effect that our law enforcement agencies have in enforcing DWI laws and conducting alcohol sales compliance checks in restaurants and bars.

The holidays will soon be here and we would like to thank our local law enforcement agencies for the work that they do to keep us all safe. Evidence shows that clear rules and consistent enforcement reduce underage drinking.

Let’s all support our police officers and sheriff’s deputies as they work for us throughout the holiday season.

Pamela Drake
Executive Director
San Juan County Partnership
Farmington, N.M.

An invitation to all Flagstaff Natives

Yá’át’ééh. On Wednesday, Nov. 16, there will be an Indigenous Community Forum in Flagstaff, on youth and education. The purpose is to tell the city council what it’s like for Native kids who live and go to school here. We especially want the city to learn about the challenges our indigenous children face, and also, our ideas for what the city can do to better support Native children and families.

We are Indigenous Circle of Flagstaff, a diverse volunteer group of indigenous people and supporters. I am Chris Jocks and I am part of this group. I am Mohawk and I teach at Northern Arizona University. This process began last year. There was support for the City of Flagstaff to declare Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the second Monday in October, but we imagined and then lobbied for a process that would really mean something.

The Flagstaff City Council passed a resolution last March to support this process, which will include a second forum on homelessness, on Nov. 30, followed by at least three more forums in 2017. Other forum topics will include elderly and health care, economic development, and social justice, which includes police and justice issues.

After the completion of these forums the city has agreed to develop a plan based on what they have heard, to translate the testimony and ideas into action that will strengthen support for indigenous people. This will be an opportunity for the city to make a real commitment that could lead to a meaningful declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October 2017.

So the invitation is out for Diné as well as indigenous people of other nations, who live, work, visit, or travel through Flagstaff, to add your voice. The first forum will be Nov. 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Flagstaff High in the Common Area. You can also submit comments online, or look for comment boxes at libraries, City Hall, NACA, and other locations in Flagstaff. For more information, go to www.indigenouscircle.org.

Chris Jocks
Flagstaff, Ariz.

Escalade Project may be dark cloud rather than ‘new dawn’

I reside in and vote in Sawmill Chapter and am compelled to express my strong opposition to the Grand Canyon Escalade Project since my Council Delegate, Ben Bennett, from Sawmill/Fort Defiance Chapter, is the sponsor of this legislation and is in response to his letter dated Nov. 1, 2016. I further respectfully request that the Resource and Development Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, and Naa’bik’iyati (NABI) Committee, and the Navajo Nation Council to also oppose and disapprove the Grand Canyon Escalade Project (Legislation No. 0296-416) as the Law and Order Committee has done based on the following:

1. The proposed project is a violation of our Diné Fundamental Law, title 1 N.N.C 205 5 wherein it violates our Navajo Diné traditional beliefs and practitioners right to worship. We still utilize the Confluence site where the female river (Little Colorado River) and the male river (Colorado River) join and to give our most sacred offerings and ceremonies. This practice has been ongoing since time immemorial, used during our Treaty of 1868 negotiations, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam, and Middle East wars. I have personally witnessed some of these sacred ceremonies by our veterans of World War II who were my grandfathers and uncles and I can attest to them. Many other sacred healing ceremonies are also performed at this sacred Confluence site. To allow the development of the Escalade Project will, without a doubt, violate our human, cultural and spiritual rights. It also denies us of a free, prior, and informal consent and freedom of religion contained in our Navajo Bill of Rights, U.S. Bill of Rights, and the United Nations International Indigenous Rights Accord.
2. There are no appropriate consents from the affected land users (grazing permittees and homesite lease holders). While there may be a chapter resolution authorizing the withdrawal of 420-plus acres, the documents undermine and invalidate the established Navajo Nation Law regarding land withdrawals and land use consents. Sixty-three Navajo grazing lease permittees and homesite lease permittees that reside and have livestock within the proposed site oppose the Escalade Project. There are no grazing permit and land use consent approvals in violation of Navajo law. Usually when a project is initially proposed the consents are obtained first from the grazing permit holders and homesite leaseholders. This will be readily challenged in the courts.
3. Financing of the proposed project is very questionable and deemed a high-risk project. Adequate due diligence of the proposed project is absent and should be conducted first. Where will the initial $65 million come from and how will it be re-paid and who is ultimately responsible for re-payment, liabilities, etc. I would offer an alternative to the Navajo Nation Council to not fund the Escalade Project, but instead appropriate the $65 million to the 110 chapters for roads/infrastructure project at the local level. If you divide $65 million to each of the 110 chapters, they would get approximately $590,909 apiece.
4. Upon careful review of Exhibit F-1, I agree that many questions still remain unanswered by the proposed project developers regarding the Master Agreement (Packet No. 2368). I also agree with the Navajo Nation Department of Justice that “Document Review Packet+ No. 2368 is deemed legally insufficient” as it is the underlying and major substance of Proposed Legislation 0293-16. There are too many questions that deserve an adequate explanation and answer.
5. In the legal review of the Grand Canyon Escalade Project, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice letter dated Aug. 24, 2016 by the deputy attorney general states “I hereby waive the attorney-client privilege to allow for publication of the DOJ Memorandum dated Dec. 18, 2014, marked as exhibit F-1 because I find the legal concerns still remain in the Master Agreement. The committees and the Navajo Nation Council ought to be fully aware of the concerns raised by DOJ in that Memorandum when considering this proposed legislation.” Legal questions still remain unanswered in Proposed Legislation No. 0293-16 and deemed legally insufficient.
6. Our elders and their families in the affected area have and are still enduring enough suffering due to the Bennett Freeze and will cause them more insurmountable physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering/impact.
7. There are over 66,291 statements and petitions submitted on record to oppose the Grand Canyon Escalade Project.
8. All meetings regarding the Escalade Project should be held openly and be transparent. Not doing so will put a dark cloud upon Window Rock rather than a new dawn.

In closing, I trust that our legislators will use their good judgment in voting down Proposed Legislation 0293-16.

Larry M. Foster
Window Rock, Ariz.

 

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