50 years ago: Nakai-Billison conflict escalates

The political battle between Navajo Tribal Chairman Raymond Nakai and his challenger, Sam Billison, had entered a new realm of violence.

It was being called the squabble in Wide Ruins and it resulted in the Bureau of Indian Affairs asking the two campaigns to “restrain their supporters.”

Now there are a couple of versions of what happened on Oct. 12, 1966 at the Raymond Nakai rally but the official version is as follows.

Perry Allen, the director of public relations for the Navajo Tribe said that some members of the Old Guard who supported Billison “were extremely intoxicated . . . and kept interfering with the meeting.”

He said some Nakai supporters tried to get the individuals to be quiet but they continue to heckle Nakai as he tried to deliver his speech making some Nakai supporters get angrier and angrier.

“Supporters of Nakai finally got disgusted,” said Allen. “From what we can gather, at least two of them (referring to the hecklers) incited a riot.”

Just how many people were involved in the “scuffle” or riot varied depending on whom you ask.

Navajo police said it appeared that the four hecklers found themselves facing a crowd estimated as being anywhere from 12 to 20 members. Some of the Nakai supporters may have been carrying clubs, but where they managed to secure them on such short notice was never explained.

Annie Wauneka, the councilwoman from Klagetoh and Wide Ruins and a bitter enemy of Nakai, told the Navajo Times that the riot was started by Nakai supporters, something that Nakai denied repeatedly.

He said he had a good seat to see what was going on and he had no trouble seeing that the fight was started by two of the hecklers who started swinging at people in their area and calling them and Nakai names.

Wauneka, on the other hand, laid the blame on Nakai supporters, saying she watched as they attacked one of the hecklers who was only trying to ask Nakai a question.

“I didn’t see anyone who was drunk,” she said, “but it seemed to me that some were high on peyote.”

When the fighting stopped — and  one witness said it seemed to go on for almost 10 minutes — four people, two from each side,  had to be transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of their injuries, which ranged from bite marks on the arm to skull fractures.

All told, three were out that night but  one spent a week at the hospital for blows he received on and around the head area.

Some Nakai supporters said this whole thing was planned by Billison and they pointed out that no tribal police were present during the rally, which was unusual because there were usually a couple who were assigned to these type of events mainly to control people who got rowdy or intoxicated.

And just who was the tribe’s police chief at that time? Billison, who would claim later that no police protection was provided because no one asked for any.

He pointed out that when police protection is supplied, the group sponsoring the event usually comes up with $40 or $50 for each off-duty officer as a token of their appreciation for keeping order at the rally.

“Maybe they (meaning Nakai) were being cheap because they are running out of campaign funds,” said Billison.

He also pointed out that the police department can’t deploy off-duty officers if they don’t know where the event is being held.

“Nakai’s meetings are always secret,” he said.

Two days after the scuffle at Wide Ruins, the BIA area director, Graham Holmes, issued a request asking each campaign to restrain their supporters in the remaining days of the campaign.

“The Navajo people have an enviable record of fairness and non-violence,” Holmes said. “They have always been willing to let both sides be heard in a controversy.

“I hope that the Navajo people will allow their political differences be settled in the democratic way — at the ballot box,” he said.

He also issued an order that on-duty police officers would be assigned to any future rally or political event.

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