50 Years Ago: Nakai discusses plans to mark Long Walk

Navajo Tribal Chairman Raymond Nakai even seemed to be happy as he met with news reporters to talk about the tribe’s plan to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Long Walk next year.

For one thing, Nakai didn’t meet very often with the press Ð only three times during his first three years in office and all during his first couple of months. And according to media reports at the time, he obviously was not at ease talking to reporters.

Of course, he attended the meeting with a representative of the Associated Press and the Albuquerque Journal (he still was not meeting with local reporters) wearing his signature sunglasses. His answers were short and it lasted less than 20 minutes.
But this meeting was different because his aides said Nakai was enjoying being chairman of the tribe during a time when he could host the biggest celebration the tribe has ever had.

The main plans, he said, called for a re-enactment of the Long Walk with members of the tribe who volunteered walking all or part of the way from the reservation to Fort Sumner in the eastern portion of New Mexico.

“We’re going to make the walk as authentic as possible,” he said.

He didn’t go into detail about what that meant but he did say that some of the people who went on the walk had indicated they would walk the entire way, a journey that was expected to take several days.
Arrangements were being made, he said, for housing for each of the nights.

Many of those who will be going will be children and grandchildren of those who made the original walk. Those who are elderly will be making the journey by automobile although they probably will walk a portion of the way if they are able.

He said there are two women who were just babies at the time of the years of captivity who have indicated that they would like to be part of the walk but Nakai said that will depend on their health at the time.

He said the tribe is also printing a history of the tribe from 1868 to 1968 and this will be available to be purchased.

When asked how much the tribe was planning to spend on the event, Nakai said this was still being discussed but he would not be surprised if the cost is as high as $50,000.

Speaking of Nakai, he announced this week that work has begun on a number of projects that will lead to increased employment on the reservation.

The tribe plans to fund these projects through a $4.4 million grant it recently received from the federal Economic Development Administration.

Part of the money is going to make improvements in the Shiprock area and he said would create so many jobs that he expected the population of Shiprock to greatly increase over the next two years.

A total of $1.8 million, he said, is being spent on a water system that will consist of the construction of a waterline from Farmington to Shiprock to benefit farmers. Another $163,000 is being set aside for the final work on the SHiprock Industrial Park, which will include site preparation for a building to house the Fairchild Semiconductor plant as well as access roads to the plant.

Some of the funds ($85,000) will be used for a Navajo forest management study and another $550,000 is going toward building a plant at the Navajo Forest Products Industries. That plant will employ an additional 86 people
Nakai said these and other projects now in the planning stages will hopefully create more than 500 desperately needed jobs.

And finally, the reservation’s problem with alcohol abuse took center stage at a meeting held in Santa Fe with state officials as well as tribal representatives who sat down to see if there was any solution to the problems being caused by tribal members who abuse alcohol.

Jimmy Francisco, head of the alcohol program operated by the Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity, said the problem affects almost every family on the reservation in one way or another.

He estimated that there are more than 3,000 chronic alcoholics on the reservation, affecting 20,000 families and some 40,000 children.

“We see people passed out drunk at the bars, juveniles drinking and adults buying liquor for juveniles,” he said.

If nothing is done, he said, those 40,000 children will grow up in a climate where drinking liquor will be seen as something that is part of their life and they may abuse alcohol when they become adults.

Tribal leaders don’t now the answers but something must be done and Francisco said his office will be making proposals to tribal leaders in the coming months to see if any new programs can be set up to address the problem.

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