Letters: ‘No New Dawn, just more Dark Dusk’

Posted by Navajo Times | Dec 23, 2015 | Letters |

I was inspired by the letter from Irma Bluehouse and Milton Bluehouse Jr. on thoughtless statements by leaders on water rights. The Bluehouses are correct; there’s no “New Dawn,” just more “Dark Dusk.” It’s caused by Window Rock corruption and outsider control. These often work their way in and through the Navajo Nation Department of Justice, DOJ. There are also DOJ’s allies who spread across our government…like the arms of a deadly octopus.

The president’s legal counsel is a DOJ lawyer working for him for now. She’s his daughter (nepotism) and helps make DOJ felt everywhere. The chief legislative counsel was a DOJ lawyer. The acting director, for now, of the Division of Natural Resources came from DOJ. The boss of our water rights (ruling over a rubber stamp president, council, and other attorneys) is a DOJ lawyer. He turns the minds of Navajo professionals against our best interests. DOJ has complete access to all our leaders, and corrupt allies in key places, like the deceptive Department of Water Resources.

Arizona has a water rights motto that goes something like this: “We’re going to take as much water rights from as many sources as we possibly can, we’re going to use as much water rights as we possibly can, and we’re going to fight anyone who gets in our way.” Compare that to the wimpy policy below that DOJ has our weak leaders repeat like trained parrots.

Arizona has hijacked Navajo water rights for decades, with DOJ help. We’ve seen the recent press release proudly announcing the vice president asking Arizona’s governor “to be our champion” on Navajo water rights. What a pitiful giveaway of rights and sovereignty. All southwestern states declare that “water is blue gold,” and that to not maximize water rights is “economic suicide.”

What the vice president did, per DOJ’s training, was raise the white flag of our final surrender. This will place us in more economic slavery and further diminish sovereignty. The Bluehouses were right; asking the governor to champion our water rights was asking the fox to guard the hen house.

The vice president and speaker also asked the governor to help save our language and culture. Governor Ducey doesn’t know a Navajo from a Hualapai. What if he came to the Navajo Nation and asked us to champion Arizona’s water rights and save languages and cultures in in Phoenix. It would be as ridiculous as what the speaker and vice president did. These actions by our leaders are part of a final surrender of our rights and future, and also our responsibilities for ourselves. Our leaders are handing them over to someone having no idea who we are, and who works for a state that has, for decades, helped leech from us water rights that are worth billions of dollars.

We won’t survive such Navajo “leadership” treachery. Our Navajo Nation is sinking like the Titanic, and DOJ and our leaders are the ones drilling the holes into the ship’s bottom. This is not leadership. To tell the blunt truth, it’s treason and cowardice. We’re the largest Native nation in North America, but we’re being made weaker than the tiniest.

Wallace Hanley
Window Rock, Ariz.

Instead of planes, give Bennett Freeze residents the $20M

Has the tribe gone crazy, $20 million for three new planes to fly around? What about the people that have been recently visited by the president and vice president in the Bennett Freeze area to see the living conditions that they put up with every day. Give them the $20 million dollars so they can fix the bare necessities (example: roof, walls, roads, solar, electricity and plumbing), just to name the bare necessities.

Why would the tribe need three new planes? Tell me, what chapter house has a runway for the planes to land, so the administration can land and take care of business in that region (example: housing, roads, electricity, and plumbing)? Once again, just the bare necessities.

Back in the day when grandpa and grandma needed to make a long journey, they would plan ahead, not just jump on a plane and then take up resources (food, fuel cost, hotel, taxi, and tips) once on the ground.

Second, if you need to make a long distance journey, I need a job, give me a job as a chauffeur. Unfortunately unemployment on the reservation is statistically high (oh wait, you have a job).

Third, remember this is a tribal government, not a corporation. The money belongs to the people of the tribe, not the individuals who sit in office (with a job) who are supposed to represent the people who voted them into office.

Fourth, if the tribe needs a loan to purchase the planes, then I say don’t. If you can’t afford it, don’t ask for it. I can’t afford a new BMW so therefore I don’t ask for it. Live within the means of the tribal budget, if the Navajo Nation Council knows what that means. It’s not your money; it’s the people’s money.

Fifth, if planes are really necessary, then purchase some medical planes, once again for the people. And I recently read that the president and vice president of the Navajo Nation went to the rodeo finals in Las Vegas, Nev. Why?

Sixth, who paid for that trip? Hopefully not the people that voted them into office.

Seventh, if you were a client, I would fire you.

Patrick A. Benally
Flagstaff, Ariz.