Shiprock fair boards agree to partnership
By Erny Zah
Navajo Times
SHIPROCK, Sept. 30, 2010
As recently as Monday, the fate of the fair rested in the hands of the Navajo Nation's Department of Justice. DOJ officially recognized the newly formed Northern Navajo Nation Fair Board and was pushing the Shiprock Navajo Fair Inc., which has run the fair for over 20 years, to turn over financial data.
DOJ planned to pursue an injunction against SNFI to force it to turn over the reins to the other group, but the two sides came to a written agreement and divvied up management responsibility for the fair.
Both agreed to submit detailed financial information afterward, a sensitive point with SNFI critics.
The agreement calls for SNFI to be open with its financial information. It has been accused of stonewalling attempts by the community to determine how much money it collects.
Nobody knows if the agreement will hold for next year's fair, and another group of citizens feeling displaced by recent decisions have said they are going to seek to establish a third fair board.
However, questions about financial transparency from both boards remain just that - questions - as NNNFB Executive Director Donovan Begay declined to answer questions, and SNFI President Frank Yabeny has made past promises to open financial records but has yet to do so.
After meeting for four days, on Monday the two fair boards came to an agreement as to what parts of the fair will be controlled by which group.
NNNFB, comprised of the 19 Northern Agency chapter presidents, approved the agreement despite a DOJ plea to have the two parties enter into a contract instead.
According to the agreement, which was read into the record of a Government Services Committee meeting Tuesday, the Northern Navajo board will control the parade, parking, vendors around the Ye'ii Bi Chei ceremony, and the Indian Market. SNFI maintains control of the other events such as the rodeo, powwow, and all other activities within the 27.5-acre commercial area that constitute the fair grounds.
Before the agreement, the two boards were vying for complete control of the fair.
"I think we should work together, but the ultimate authority is with the Northern Navajo (Nation) Fair Board," Begay said Monday before the agreement was reached.
At the time, he said he was ready to oversee all fair activities if tribal attorneys were successful n filing for an injunction against SNFI.
Though the memorandum of agreement made headway into which board runs what event at this year's fair, a complete financial picture of what the fair generates won't be available until 45 days after the fair ended.
The document called SNFI to present the Northern Navajo board with all financial records relating to this year's fair.
According to sources who attended Monday's meeting, SNFI had about $29,000 in the bank as of Monday. Meanwhile, Northern Navajo, which has been accepting fees for parade entries, has made close to $20,000, according to estimates.
The lack of financial transparency about fair finances has been an issue for years. SNFI, which claims to be a nonprofit organization, has repeatedly refused to release financial data despite resolutions passed by the chapter, and also requests from the Navajo Times and other media outlets.
However the Northern Navajo representatives didn't open any doors to transparency after Tuesday's GSC meeting in Window Rock, either. Begay declined to comment about the agreement and about financial transparency after the meeting.
He also declined to answer any questions before the meeting.
Frank Yabeny wasn't available for comment after the meeting, though he did attend.
Though this year's fair has two fair boards working together to ensure a fair happens, the 100th fair may have three separate boards seeking control.
William Lee, Shiprock Chapter president, said he is working toward incorporating another fair board that may also be named Northern Navajo Nation Fair Board.
He said that he's been working since last year to put control of the fair back into the chapter's hands. All was going well, Lee said, until the newly reconstituted Northern Navajo board came under control of the Northern Navajo Agency Council. The board is now comprised of the presidents of all chapters in the Northern Navajo Agency.
"The new board is too political," he said, "The president's office got involved with local issues."
He said one of the reasons he wants to incorporate a new fair board is to give local control to a local fair.
The Northern Navajo board president is Stanley Hardy, chapter president of Two Grey Hills and Toadlena, communities that are about 40 miles south of Shiprock.
"We want the Shiprock Fair back to being a Shiprock Fair," Lee said.
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