Letters | Casinos are ‘té’é’į́’

Casinos are ‘té’é’į́’

Editor,
As we were growing up, our mother, Jean Black Todachine, talked to us about casinos. She pointed out that casinos are no good for us, especially if you have to take care of sheep at home. Casinos are for those people who don’t have sheep to care for. It is for free loaders.

Casinos are for those people who don’t work at home. The type of people who are like the homeless. These types of people just go from beji to beji looking for free food. They are freebies craving for mutton like houseflies. Beji is the only place they can eat a decent hot meal.

Casinos are very addictive. They will surely ruin your life. Casinos are ugly and dangerous for you. That’s why you leave it alone. You have no business to be over there in the first place anyways. That’s where you lose money from your pocket. It will eat your money up in no time and you’ll realize your wallet will be empty.

It will also eventually take away your silver turquoise jewelry and even your other valuable items you have, including a saddle, bridle, saddle blankets, power tools, and electrical equipment. You could lose your living room furniture or your vehicles, pawning them off or selling your goods that you’ve worked so hard for over the years. You do this just to get money to gamble.

On top of this, people will be smoking cigarettes at casinos that give awful dangerous secondhand smoke. People drink all kinds of alcoholic beverages, as well as to get drunk. It’s not a place to be at. The bad smell can make you sick so stay away from it.

My mother told us casinos are “Té’é’į́ át’é”. You’ll get nothing out of it. Instead, you’ll lose everything…your rings, turquoise necklace, bracelets, watch bracelets, etc. It will definitely fly off from you just as if a whirlwind came upon you as it spins around you and will cause you to spin, too. All of the good stuff will pop off from you. The whirlwind will carry away your good things and you’ll notice they’re all gone from you. Then right after, when the wind flies off, you’ll think immediately, “Oops, what happened to my necklace, rings, and bracelets?” That’s what casinos will do to you.

So, from this information we received from our mother in our childhood age, I thought I would share with the people across Navajoland. This is the main reason why, to this day, I don’t go to any casinos around us. They’re there, but think about it, and have the strength and wisdom to leave it.

Dan Todachine
Mariano Lake, N.M.

Navajo needs to exercise sovereign right

Dear Editor,
Recently I was talking to family members about the recognition celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day.

Being Navajo, we discussed whether Navajo Nation recognizes Indigenous Peoples Day in its holiday calendar.

Having recently worked with the Navajo Nation, I informed my family with an adamant, “No. The Navajo Nation does not recognize Indigenous Peoples Day.”

So, imagine my surprise when I see on the Navajo Nation’s Legislative Branch web page, Legislation 0236-23. This resolution looks to show support to the U.S. Senate Bill 2970 and House Resolution 5822 which are being proposed to replace Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day on the federal holiday calendar. Navajo Nation’s resolution is an interesting resolution.

I say interesting because this resolution only looks to support the U.S. congressmen who are proposing their resolutions and that is it. The Navajo Nation Council is only providing support to the congressmen’s proposals. Why doesn’t this resolution look to do more?

For a little background, tribes and tribal organizations do not recognize Columbus Day as a holiday on their respective work calendars even though this is a federal holiday. Tribes have exercised their sovereignty and not recognized this holiday on their government calendars.

Thus, this movement at the federal level is big. However, the aforementioned Navajo Nation resolution is only providing written support of this federal movement. So, why doesn’t the Navajo Nation Council look to actually add Indigenous Peoples Day to its calendar of holidays. The city of Tempe recently changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. This was done by a Navajo woman, Ms. Doreen Garlid who sits on the Tempe City Council. So, why doesn’t the Navajo Nation provide action behind its words? I think a resolution that states that the Navajo Nation recognized Indigenous Peoples Day would carry more impact, than the current resolution.

Furthermore, such action would first show Navajo Nation’s sovereign right. But also, adding Indigenous Peoples Day to it government holiday calendar would show Navajo Nation is in full support of such a move at the federal level.

Now, it is interesting on the Navajo Nation. Who exactly has the authority to establish a holiday on the Navajo Nation government calendar is a little murky to me. In the past, I’ve seen the Navajo Nation Council be the primary body to add or remove holidays from the Navajo government calendar.

Back in 1985, the Navajo Nation Council established April 16th as Navajo Sovereignty Day. It was also the Navajo Nation Council who then moved Navajo Sovereignty Day around. Then on April 17, 2017, with Council resolution CAP-31-17, the Navajo Nation Council demoted the Navajo Nation Sovereignty Day from a paid holiday to an observed holiday.

Furthermore, the Navajo Nation Council also acted on resolution CAP-30-17 to demote the Navajo Code Talker Day to a day of observation. I’m sure there was some type of reason to reduce the number of holidays on the Navajo Nation government calendar. But why demote two holidays that are specifically Navajo Nation.

After reducing the calendar by two holidays, the same Council then added the Navajo Police Officer Day by resolution CJY-53-20. Then, Navajo Nation Council passed resolution CJY-65-18 to reestablish Navajo Code Talkers Day as a paid holiday. So, then Navajo Nation was back to the same number of holidays.

I watched in amazement as our Navao Nation Council delegates exercised their sovereign ability to change the Navajo government holiday calendar.

Now, scroll forward to 2022. The Navajo Nation now recognizes Juneteenth. Yet, there is no Navajo Nation Council action establishing this new holiday. So, who holds the power to add and subtract holidays from the Navajo Nation government calendar, Council or Department of Personnel.

Sorry, I digress only because it still burns me that the Navajo Nation Council demoted two holidays that are specific Navajo Nation holidays. As a former director of the Office of the Navajo Tax Commission, I know the importance of Navajo Sovereignty Day.

Navajo Sovereignty Day was established after the Navajo Nation won tax court hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court. So, to demote this important day still burns within me six years later. But not only did that Council remove Navajo Sovereignty Day but it also then demoted Navajo Code Talkers Day. Navajo Code Talkers Day!

This should be a big day of celebration. Not just a day of observation. Of course, that action was then corrected. If the Navajo Nation Council wanted fewer holiday, why attack two holidays that are specific Navajo Nation? Are we that colonized that we change ourselves first before looking at other non-Navajo, non-Indian holidays?

Navajo Nation Council should just be bold and a leader in Indian Country and establish the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day. By our action, the Navajo Nation can now show support for other government jurisdictions to make this change.

So, to my leaders who sit within the Council Chambers in Window Rock, I ask that you develop a resolution to establish the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day. Show Congress that the Navajo Nation fully supports the establishment of the Indigenous Peoples Day with or without Congress’s approval. Just my two cents on this topic.

Mark C. Graham
Gilbert, Ariz.

Bringing home ‘Native Warrior’ to Four Corners

Editor,
Attention, all Native Americans across the Nation – Indians, Native Alaskans, and Native Hawaiians who served in the Vietnam War. Have been “disremember and unrecognizable” at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Located in Constitution Gardens on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

First, introduce myself. I am Mr. Floyd Dawson a member of a Navajo tribe Nav-uh-hoh, also spelled Navaho, are the largest Indian tribes in the United States. The Navajo Indian reservation which is the biggest reservation.
My elder brother was killed in Vietnam on June 8, 1967, by North Vietnamese. In 1985 I had come to the black granite Wall to pay tribute to my brother on Memorial Day. I am a member of a Gold Star Organization of people who lost a brother in Vietnam.

In 1989, I discovered their secret. Near the entrance to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial site is the lifelike statue called Three Servicemen. The 7-foot-high (2-m) bronze statue placement almost directly across from the black granite wall. Three Servicemen were dedicated on November 11, 1984. I had been disappointed that Native American Servicemen were left out of the statue figures at Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. That is when I first thought about a National Native Americans Veterans Memorial to be built on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

On June 6, 1989, I initiated to be the first one to start to provide for a National Native Americans Veterans Memorial. A concurrent resolution requesting the Congress and the President of the United States to establish a new memorial honoring Native Americans across the Nation-Indians, Native Alaskans, and Native Hawaiians. The people of the states of Arizona view with concern that none of the statue or memorials honoring Native American Veterans in Washington, D.C., show any Native American.

In January 1990, I, Floyd Dawson, lobbied on Capitol Hill to try to influence Congress, the national law-making body of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives with members from every state.

Before the memorial could be made, the U.S. Congress had to pass a bill giving permission for a memorial to be built in Washington, D.C. Both houses of Congress – the House of Representatives and Senate – passed the bill unanimously, meaning everyone agreed that the memorial should be built.

On February 3rd (Legislative day, January 5), 1993 in the Senate of the United Sates 103D Congress the late Sen. John McCain, the former Senate armed forces introduced Senate bill S.293.

On October 22, 1994, President William Bill Clinton signed the bill into law. It said that the National Native American Memorial would be built on the Mall in Washington, D.C. I was thrilled that the memorial would be built on the Mall.

The law said a memorial could be built. It did not say what the memorial would look like. That decision was left to the National Congress of American Indians, in consultation with the museum to hold a competitive to select the design of the memorial, architects and sculptors from throughout the country were especially interested. Competitors in early 2018 by the contest, 120 designs were submitted. The jury selected Harvey Pratt’s design which he titled Warrior Circle of Honors.

I, Floyd Dawson, successfully lobbied for the passage of Public Law 103-384 of 103d Congress; Titled: National Native American Veterans Memorial Establishment Act of 1994 20 USC 89q-5. Even though I have never been a politician who is experienced in politics, and I had never had any experience in this kind of work in my lifetime.

In 1989, I commissioned a sculpture titled “Native Warrior” by sculptor Karl Kendall which was not selected during the competition contest. However, the effort has not been diminished, only the venue had changed, and the focus is to bring the memorial home to the Four Corners Monument within the Navajo Nation Tribal Park, where four states meet. Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. To be a rightful place for the monument memorial statue to honor all Native Americans across the nations who served in the Vietnam War.

Floyd Dawson, founder/representative for National Native American Veterans Memorial
Tonalea, Ariz.

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