50 years ago: DNA lawyer in hot water again

WINDOW ROCK

DNA-Peoples Legal Services is in hot water again – or at least one of its attorneys is – because of the way the Chinle School District treats its students.

The attorney is Harlan Crossman who says all he did was give concerned Chinle parents some advice on how to complain to school officials about the way their children are treated.

A lot of parents are upset on a number of issues.

The most serious seems to center around the recent graduation where the school district gave some graduating eighth grade students invoices or bills instead of diplomas, which some parents said caused their children a lot of humiliation.

The parents also said they brought up their concerns to the district’s superintendent, Joseph Mathews, who ignored them.

Among their complaints is that lunch in the student cafeteria was five to seven days old, some sections of the seventh grade had no books and the school’s wood shop had no wood.

One parent said he was told that students who did not have enough money to pay for a meal at lunchtime were still required to sit in the cafeteria and watch the other students eat.

Crossmam advised the parents that they needed to recall two members of the school board – Guy Gorman and Ben Gibson – so a petition drive was held and 73 people, 42 of whom were Navajo, signed it.

Crossman has come under a lot of criticism from school officials for getting involved in something that is none of his business nor of concern to DNA.

He said he does not plan to back down and will keep advising Chinle parents as long as they needed him. He added that he thought a recall election, which is now scheduled to be held before school starts up in August, will be successful and should help parents get someone who will listen to their concerns.

Speaking of people who are upset, members of the Navajo Tribal Council have been asked to do something about traffic problems on the reservation and the number of people who are walking along roads hitchhiking.

It seems that the number of hitchhikers has gone up in recent years and they are becoming a nuisance to drivers. Some become so desperate for a ride that they get in front of drivers when they are stopped for lights or to make a turn.

There seem to be no laws that deal with this behavior and people are worried that someone will get hurt if nothing is done about it.

There is also a movement afoot to get the Council to take action against people who throw garbage out along the road or in ditches because this is creating problems in many communities.

What people seem to want is trash pickups but Council members said that would cost too much. The problem would be solved, they said, if people would be more careful about what they do with their trash.

To many reservation residents, that doesn’t make a lot of sense since there is no place where one can depose of trash. So what a lot of people do is take it with them when they go to a border town to shop.

Once they find a dumpster they deposit the trash but many report that if they are caught, they get yelled at.

Another concern deals with people who walk alongside roads at night. There have been reports of a number of people being struck because they were wearing dark clothes and drivers could not see them.

Aides to Navajo Tribal Chairman Raymond Nakai said he thinks that is a problem in many areas of the reservation and suggested that someone start an education campaign urging people who plan on walking at night to wear bright clothes so they can be seen by drivers.

Another concern was brought up at a recent chapter meeting in Fort Defiance having to do with children being put in the beds of pickups and then being driven.

This doesn’t seem safe especially when you have six or seven kids in the back of a pickup and they can be seen moving around as the pickup is driving over bumpy roads.

Other proposals scheduled to come up before the Council at its summer session in July include requests to set up regulations for barber and beauty salons on the reservation – which some find strange since only a handful exist.

There has also been a push by some chapters to get members of the Council to discuss the growing problem of stray dogs.

Almost every community has a pack of dogs roaming the area looking for food. Major communities like Shiprock, Tuba City and Chinle may have a dozen packs or more.

There are no laws that deal with dog ownership on the reservation and some chapters have asked for them but the question is who would enforce them.

Currently tribal rangers seem to be the ones who are called upon to deal with dog problems but rangers say they have no place to take the stray dogs if they catch them. The only ones they deal with are those who seem to be a danger to children in the communities.

---