All the families are here

Not-so-sheepish To Haltsooí commandeers vendor village for flea market

SHEEP SPRINGS, N.M.

For five years, the attractive vendor village and information center built here by the Navajo Nation Department of Tourism has languished, surrounded by a chain link fence with a locked gate.

Meanwhile, the chapter’s bustling flea market crammed both sides of the frontage road along U.S. Highway 491, causing Chapter President Brian Yazzie to hold his breath every Sunday as he watched children dart back and forth across the road while drivers triple-parked or cruised the kiosks from their cars with their heads hanging out the window.

Finally, a little over three months ago, Yazzie and Community Land Use Planning Committee Chairman Kevin Begay had had enough. They enlisted the help of the Shiprock Rural Business Development Office to take over the vendor village for the flea market.

It’s made more work for Yazzie, Begay, and other chapter officials who wake before dawn every Sunday to open the gate, collect the fees and welcome vendors — some of whom camp out overnight to get the best spots — to the market.

But it’s much safer, with cars parked outside the gates and only vendors and pedestrians allowed inside.

“It’s good this way,” said Damon Hobson of Bisti, New Mexico, who on Sunday was selling all colors of corn, herbs and handmade wooden plaques. “When we were set up over there, it was kind of not safe. I kept thinking, ‘Why don’t they open this area?'”

The reason it wasn’t done sooner, said Begay, is because there is more red tape than you would think transferring a property from one tribal entity to another.

It’s still a work in progress. The water and power aren’t turned on, and the chapter doesn’t have keys to the welcome center or the back doors of the booths, so most people still just set up under canopies they bring themselves.

Yazzie and Begay say they don’t know why Tourism never really got the place going. A call to Tourism during business hours Monday turned up a recording saying, “The cellular customer you are calling can’t take your call now.”

At any rate, it’s hopping now.

Begay said a typical Sunday attracts 60 to 100 vendors, some from as far away as Chinle and Kayenta, and maybe ten times that many customers.

“It’s a drug-free, alcohol-free, profanity-free zone,” added Yazzie proudly. “You can see all the families here.”

Some customers miss the wild days of cruising the market in their chidis, dodging pedestrians.

This Sunday, Begay and Yazzie had to talk down a woman who drove into the market instead of parking outside. When she unleashed a string of cuss words, Begay calmly informed her, “You’re not welcome here no more.”

But Zack Neal, a young To Haltsooí resident, said he enjoys strolling the relocated market on foot.

“I like the social scene,” he said. “People are out here hustling to make a few bucks. I’m broke as usual, but I love to look around and see the beautiful things people are selling.”

Begay and Yazzie say if you like the market now, just wait. The vendor fees ($5 for food, $10 for other items) are being collected to re-invest in the market — which hopefully means the lights and water will be turned on soon, and the real bathrooms will be open in place of the port-a-potties.

“We’d like to eventually hire someone to facilitate this place,” Begay said.

“We have big plans for our community,” confirmed Yazzie. “Not just here. This is only the beginning.”

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