50 Years Ago: The mystery of the skeleton found in a Crownpoint cave

The Navajo Nation, as well as area law enforcement officials, say they still don’t know quite what to do about what was reported in 1964 at a school in Las Vegas.

A 13-year-old boy, identified by the Associated Press as Bobby Jackson, brought a skeleton to school during a “show and tell” at his seventh-grade class.

He said this was an archaeological discover he made when he was exploring in a cave in the Crownpoint area as part of a trip he took to the Navajo Reservation with his family the previous summer.

While it’s not unusual to find human remains in that area, Jackson’s discovery was different because shreds of black clothing could still be seen on the skeleton as well as large buttons and a small buckle.

The Associated Press article said it was impossible by just looking at the skeleton to determine when the person died, what he or she died from, or whether the skeleton was that of a Native American or not.

There were some questions raised as to whether the victim died a natural death or as a result of a homicide since Jackson said the skeleton was hidden in the back area of the cave.

He said as he explored the cave, which also was hard to find, he saw the skull sticking out of the floor. He said as he dug around the skull, he uncovered ribs, vertebrae, arms and legs. Only the lower jaw was missing.

He said that after finding the remains, he put it in a sack and when the vacation was over, he took it back home to Las Vegas and had forgotten about it until the teacher assigned members of the class to bring something to school that would be of interest to other class members.

The teacher called the police in Las Vegas who contacted the office of Navajo Tribal Chairman Raymond Nakai. Aides to Nakai said the tribe wanted nothing to do with it, saying the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office should handle it.

Calls to the BIA also resulted in little interest so the Las Vegas police then called Bill Bass, the McKinley County sheriff, who said he would investigate the matter.

However, he told the Las Vegas authorities, since the body was found on what is suspected to be Navajo land, he would have authority only if the remains are that of a non-Navajo.

Bass said back in 1964 he sent the skeleton to Albuquerque where state officials were to do an autopsy to determine sex, ethnicity and most important of all, cause of death.

He stressed, however, in 1964 that it will take months before the county expected to get the results back. Here it is now almost two years later and he said he was still waiting for the results of the autopsy.

Bass did say that since the matter was brought up again, he planned to talk to officials in Albuquerque to see what the holdup was.

Once a determination was made about when the death occurred, he said he and other law enforcement agencies in the area could start going through missing person reports to try and determine the identity of the body.

Did he ever get the results? If he did, it apparently was not told to the press because a search of the Navajo Times archives for the word skeleton in the 1960s found no further articles on the matter.

In other news, a U.S. senator has issued a statement strongly criticizing the Navajo Tribal Council for a resolution that council members approved during the summer session.

In April, the council passed a resolution 64-0 criticizing U.S. Sen. Clinton Anderson (D-N.M.) for proposing a reduction in the size of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project from $110,000 to 77,000.

Apparently Clinton had just received word of the resolution because he sent a letter back to the tribe saying that it wasn’t him or his office that made the suggestion to reduce the size of the project but Stewart Udall, the Secretary of the Interior.

Udall made the recommendation, he said, after a survey of the land showed that it was not financially feasible to irrigate some of the land that was put into the project’s area.

Clinton said he was pushing for the entire 110,000 acres and was confident that he would prevail.

In actuality, he was right although it’s uncertain whether he was the cause or the fact that the tribe realigned the boundaries so more land that could be irrigated would be included.

Construction of the project actually began in 1964 and water to the first 10,000 acres arrived in the mid-1970s. Originally expected to be completed in the late 1980s, the project has stalled over the years and currently still needs to bring water to about 30,000 acres so the idea of a 77,000 acre project doesn’t seem to far off at the present time.

And lastly, speaking of Nakai, he held his first campaign dinner in Gallup this week and had a lot of good things to say about the town and its officials.

Nakai said that he is in constant contact with city officials.

“There is a close interwoven relationship between the citizens of Gallup and the Navajo Reservation,” he said, adding that he has received a lot of support for his campaign both from city leaders and Navajos who live and work in the city.

He also made a big push in his speech for more vocational training for Navajo youth, pointing out that less than 10 percent of Navajos graduating from high school go on to college and most of them that go to college do not complete the entire four years.

By the way, in case you were interested, the banquet took place at the El Rancho Hotel/Motel and the cost to go was $5 a plate. More than 100 people showed up and Nakai probably made a grand total of about $250 for his campaign.

More importantly, however, was the fact that he received a positive article in the Gallup Independent, which probably made the speech worthwhile.

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