50 Years Ago

I think it was about this time I heard rumors that something was going on in the personal life of Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald. This was kept hush hush by tribal officials who didn’t want it appearing in the newspaper.

A lengthy article in this month’s New Mexico Business reveals, for the first time, just how bad the unemployment problem is on the Navajo Reservation and why it is going to be difficult to make any great changes.

This is an anniversary of sorts. Ten years ago, in April of 1962, the producers of “Death Valley Days” and some 50 crew members and actors spent several days north of Gallup filming an episode of the program that was aired in 1963.

Navajo leaders met with Hopi traditionalists this week in an effort to get support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the Navajo solution to the century-old land dispute.

Sometimes there are stories that fester for a long time behind the scenes. They don’t make the newspapers until they reach a boiling point.