Letters: Leaders should hustle for the people

First off I want to thank Nez and Lizer for ending the bond agreement on Navajo Technical Energy Company. It was a scam.

To use our tribe’s money to line the pockets of the non-Diné people … and our own people are doing it us. Like the scouts, they worked for Kit Carson. They are in our government — Kit Carson scouts.

When I was 17 or 18, my delegate back then told me to my face I didn’t know anything and he didn’t care if Peabody used our water free because he got paid. I had asked him not to let Peabody use the water from the aquifer to slurry their coal and they should charge Peabody for the water and charge Navajo Generating Station for the Diné water they use for free.

Forward to today, I’m in my 50s. Peabody is gone and NGS is finally going, too, but the damage they did to the water aquifers and the land destruction will take years to heal.

Our tribe got only 20 cents a ton for the coal. That is some of the weakest hustle ever by our so-called leaders. Current coal price is $47 a ton and our tribe gets 20 cents for every ton. It takes five tons for our people to get $1 and Peabody pockets the rest. This is some really bad hustle by our leaders back then.

Fast forward to today. NTEC wants our tribe’s money to give more money to the non-Diné. Makes no sense at all. Coal is dead.

Why doesn’t the tribe invest in their own people? Why not give business loans to tribal members so they can become self-sufficient and have and start a business on the rez in their hometown?

I just wanted to say thanks to Nez and Lizer for what they did. NTEC is a Ponzi scam where our tribe puts up all our money and gets taken out of it. That was a good call.

Our leaders need to learn how to hustle for their people for the people. If I was your prez I would hustle for my people and every registered voter would get a piece of the hustle. I would share the hustle.

Thanks Nez and Lizer for looking out for our grandkids. After we are gone and growing worms, our grandkids will have to deal with whatever decisions are made today.

Leaders and delegates, please up your hustle and don’t, please don’t be a Kit Carson scout.

Richard Anderson
Gallup, N.M.

Veterans thank Monument Valley, race director

The Oljato Veterans Organization acknowledges the Monument Valley Tribal Park Marathon and the veterans appreciation program for honoring the veterans in the surrounding area of the Navajo Nation and various states.

There were over 200-plus runners with a kids marathon and four-mile trail run.

Mr. Tom Riggenbach was the race director and we appreciate him very much.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park has been putting on this event each year for all of our veterans and their families, community members and the runners.

The Oljato Veterans Organization acknowledges all the veterans/active military and all our people that have shown up for supporting the event in honoring our veterans.
Ahee’hee for your service to our country.

Wesley Simpson Sr.
Oljato, Utah

4 road departments, zero action

In my last letter to the editor, dated Oct. 14, 2019, I expressed a question to the local chapter president, a leader of our community.

My question was whether he would pick up the phone and call any of the available road departments to fix the Bluff Road.

Now the end of the year 2019 is fast approaching and the Bluff Road is not improved in shape or form.

The school buses and personal vehicles are still bouncing back and forth on that road, as are delivery trucks like propane, furniture and even a mobile home.

Some have comments of how all the dirt roads leading to homes in Shiprock are very, very rough. Why is there an ongoing immoral situation — the lack of road maintenance, repair, and/or road construction of the Bluff Road?

Again, I declare the existence of at least four road departments — Navajo Department of Transportation, BIA roads, New Mexico Department of Transportation, and Navajo Engineering Construction Authority — in the community of Shiprock.

Who will fix the Bluff Road or any of the access roads in Shiprock?

Wilford R. Joe
Shiprock, N.M.

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