50 Years Ago: DNA director sets up office in Gallup hotel

Posted by Bill Donovan | Aug 23, 2018 | 50 Years Ago |

Formal negotiations got underway 50 years ago in an effort to resolve the Ted Mitchell situation, the Navajo Times reported.

El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, N.M. (Image courtesy of Richie Diesterheft from Chicago, IL, USA, via Wikimedia Commons.)

Mitchell, who was banned from the reservation after he laughed in the Navajo Tribal Council chambers during a speech by Delegate Annie Wauneka, is directing the DNA attorneys from an office he established at the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup. But federal Legal Aid Services officials met with Mitchell this week and told him that having an attorney banned from working on an Indian reservation was not acceptable and the situation must be corrected as soon as possible, even if the matter has to be taken to court.

Federal officials were questioning the right of the tribe’s Advisory Committee to throw Mitchell off the reservation just because he laughed and, in the eyes of committee members, showed disrespect to Wauneka and the committee.

The tribe is allowed to ban non-Indians from the reservation under a provision of the Treaty of 1868 but only if that person is judged to be a danger to the community. In the committee’s resolution banning Mitchell, members called him a danger to the community but federal officials questioned whether someone laughing at the wrong time could actually be considered dangerous. Mitchell himself pointed out that he had apologized to Wauneka and the committee several times saying he was sorry if he offended them and claimed he was laughing at a joke told by one of his associates and not at Wauneka.

In the meantime, DNA purchased a trailer, which it plans to set up in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, less than a quarter mile from the reservation line to make it easier for Mitchell’s clients to meet with him. The federal agency also hired outside attorneys to meet with tribal leaders to see if they can come to some kind of solution that does not include actions in either state or federal court.

The Navajo Times also announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for the first time in its history, was setting up 34 kindergartens on Indian reservations with 17 on the Navajo Reservation. Up until this year, all BIA schools started with the first grade. William Benham, director of education for the Navajo Area BIA, made the announcement, calling it the most significant development in the history of Navajo education. To counter complaints that may arise from parents who object to putting their children in boarding school at the age of five, he said that all of the kindergartens will only be for day students and the students will be transported by bus daily to and from their homes. Another change was that with the creation of the new kindergartens, the BIA is encouraging the child’s parents and especially the mother to help their children adapt to the school environment.

Parents are being encouraged to ride on the bus with their child and to participate in the class as well. The parent is not expected to do this every day but BIA educators are saying that it would be good if they could do it once every week or two. This isn’t the first time that Navajo children will be going to school, however. The Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity has been operating 97 preschools on the reservation for two years now and Benham said the BIA will work with ONEO to make sure there is no overlap. The kindergarten program is not being made available to all Navajo parents – at least not at first.

Those living in remote areas of the reservation on dirt roads that cannot be traveled on by a school bus will not be part of the program. So why are they doing it? It appears that a study was done which urged that formal schooling of Indian children be done as soon as possible to allow them the best chance of getting a good education.

And finally, the newspaper in El Paso, Texas, has taken note of the fact that the Navajo Times has hired its first full-time reporter. “Have you ever read Abraham Lincoln’s byline? Well, you have if you ever read the Navajo Times,” the paper said in its reader’s column. “The weekly is published by the Navajo Tribe and the un-emancipated Mr. Lincoln is their ace reporter,” the article added. The Times took note of the compliment but pointed out to its readers that their reporter was, in fact, emancipated.