Friday, March 29, 2024

50 Years Ago: Navajo deaths in border towns a low priority

In early August 1965, a couple of events happened that of themselves was not unusual but would lead a couple of years later to concerns by some members of the tribe that border town law enforcement agencies were not taking the deaths of Navajos and residents of the reservation in their jurisdiction as seriously as they should.

The first concerned the death of Sam Brown, 34, of Window Rock, whose body was found in the Rio Puerco in early August.

At first, his death was considered another drowning, but a preliminary autopsy showed that he died of a severe brain hemorrhage, indicating he may have been dead before he went into the Rio Puerco.

The body was sent to Albuquerque for an autopsy with the hopes that doctors there could determine if he fell or was pushed into the Puerco.

Also in early August, the badly decomposed body of a man was found a mile west of the McKinley County near Prewitt, N.M. No identification was ever made.

The Navajo Times would do a series of articles in the late 60s and early 70s about the growing number of tribal members who died in Farmington, Gallup, Holbrook, Winslow and Flagstaff. These articles would generally be motivated by a family member about someone who had died in the community and they would write a letter saying no one took their son’s or father’s death seriously.

In some cases, there would be a brief mention of a body being found in a local newspaper and a few would have indications that foul play was committed but very few would end up with someone being arrested.

In the case of the decomposed body that was found near Prewitt, sheriff deputies thought at first the body was that of Billy Joe Reed, a Texas man who had gone missing for a couple of weeks, but fingerprints proved this was not the case.

Later, evidence collected at the scene pointed to the strong possibility that the body was that of a Native American.

In a story that would seem to be a prelude to the 1993 discovery of hantavirus on and around the Navajo Reservation, national health officials began investigating reports in August 1965 of a bubonic plague outbreak on the reservation.

During that month, four Navajo boys were confirmed to have the plague and all had recovered or were recovering by the end of the month.

It wasn’t until the last day of the month that the first death was made public– Larry Ray Jim, 14, of Vanderwagen.

Almost all of the early victims were young Navajos, which made sense. These were the segment of the Navajo population that spent the most time in the fields around their homes, tending sheep or doing other kinds of work.

New Mexico state health officials as well as personnel for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta were monitoring the situation a number of times and anyone who had close contact with any of the victims was put under observation by one or more of the health agencies.

The situation was treated seriously and eventually, the health agencies went to the Navajo Tribal Council to get permission to spray and dust prairie dogs on the reservation to try and reduce the spread.

With the Navajo Tribal Fair coming up in just a few weeks, the agencies also received permission to dust the fairgrounds to make the area safe for people who wanted to attend the fair.

Gallup officials even got involved with the Gallup City Council by approving and spending $4,000, to make sure that the areas around Gallup were safe. Seven men were hired at a cost of $100 a day total for more than three weeks to clean up the city’s dog pound area.

The Navajo Times 50 years ago came up with a solution to the reservation’s alcohol abuse problem.

The editor of the paper, Leslie Goodluck, suggested that the federal government take all of the money it was spending on poverty programs throughout the United States and then give this money to companies that make wine and beer on the condition that they stop making their products.

“Give them all of the money to plow under the wine and the beer and we would not have a poverty program on the reservation,” the Times said in an editorial.

“The way it is now, the more we drink, the poorer we get. The poorer we get, the more we drink. You can’t win,” said the Times.

“Everyone knows that the average undernourished, despondent, out-of-a-job person is bound to get a lot bigger lit out of 50 cents spent on a pint of wine than he will out of the same 50 cents spent on some potatoes (at least at the present price of potatoes),” the editorial stated.

“Or maybe we could get Secretary Udall (Interior secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall) to endorse a plan to give all Indians started on Anti-buse pills. If we used Anti-buse pills, we wouldn’t need birth control pills. We would all stop drinking and eat our potatoes instead and live happily ever after,” Goodluck said.

A lot of people commented about that editorial, as can be seen by several letters that came into the paper. Was the editorial serious? Was it satire? Did Navajos understand satire? Was this the tribe’s position?

Goodluck did the wise thing and didn’t answer any of the questions.


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About The Author

Bill Donovan

Bill Donovan wrote about Navajo Nation government and its people since 1971. He joined Navajo Times in 1976, and retired from full-time reporting in 2018 to move to Torrance, Calif., to be near his kids. He continued to write for the Times until his passing in August 2022.

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