50 Years Ago: Shiprock community mourns loss of welfare advocate

The Navajo Times 50 years ago this week reported on the tragic death of Donald E. Cunningham who died in a fire in his rented attic apartment near the Shiprock Hotel on April 10.

The front-page story in the Times praised Cunningham, 33, for the work he had been doing as county director for the area’s welfare program for the previous two and a half years.

What was he doing when he died was one of the questions posed in the article.

“He was painting walking canes that he fashioned out of broom handles for elderly and blind Navajo people,” the article stated, adding that somehow the combustible fumes from a gallon paint can that he was holding ignited and exploded.

“The ensuing flames engulfed him while he was unconscious and destroyed most of his apartment before his landlord, Justin Yazzie, and his family who live don the first floor, were made aware of the fatal accident,” the paper stated.

By the time they smelled the smoke and made it up to his apartment, it was too late to save him or most of their own possessions in the apartment below.

The Times said Cunningham’s passing was hard on a lot of people in the Shiprock area who knew and respected him for the work he was doing to help the Navajo people.

“We admired his charitable and unassuming manner,” the article stated.

Besides helping Navajos with state welfare assistance, Cunningham “gave them many of his personal items. In fact, he was willing to give anything he owned to anyone.”

His understanding of Navajo culture helped him understand the problems his welfare clients were having and so he became a fierce advocate for their rights.

“Whenever he felt that certain regulations would impede welfare progress, he would fight like a tiger in the administrative jungle of red tape to see that they were overcome,” said the Times.

“He loved the Navajo people and they will all miss him. And we will miss him, both as a dynamic social worker and a warm, vibrant friend,” the paper said.

In other news this week came reports of a group being formed by members of the tribe to deal with the problems that exist between Navajo Tribal Chairman Raymond Nakai and the members of the “Old Guard” on the Navajo Tribal Council that continue to oppose any change he wants to make.

Calling themselves the Navajo Rights Association, the group says it is planning to take an active role in the coming months to try and resolve the stalemate that exists within the tribal government.

One of the main things the groups wants is the approval of a tribal constitution that would spell out the duties of the tribal chairman and the council. But members of the “Old Guard” contend that Nakai’s hand can be seen in creating the agenda for the association because he is hoping that any constitution would limit the power of the council while at the same time giving most of it to the tribal chairman.

Nakai has supported the idea of calling a constitutional convention, saying that there needs to be an end to the constant bickering between the council and his office because nothing is being done.

But he admits that getting a constitution approved by the Navajo people will be a hard sell because the power in the government is still held by Navajo ranchers who feel that a tribal constitution would lead to another fight on livestock reduction and no one wants to see what happened in the 1930s happen again on the reservation.

But there is even more of a controversial proposal being promoted by the new group – a tribal law that would block members of the Old Guard from running again.

One council delegate, who asked not to be named, said this proposal has no chance of being accepted by members of the tribal council – “No one is going to vote himself out of office,” the delegate said.

But, according tot he Navajo Times, the issues being brought forth by the association is getting a lot of support among the chapters on the reservation, many of whom have passed resolutions demanding that something be done to stop the infighting within the tribal government.

One thing that has been made evident in the last coupe of weeks as the association has been trying to gain support from the chapters is that most of the top officials of the group are from Shiprock and there is an anti-Shiprock bias that some say may destroy anything that the association tries to do, according to the Times.

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