Letters: No rules applied at butchering contest

The day of the sheep butchering opened as Pax Harvey cited the unique butchering contest that puts the contestants at the top, a unique part of the Miss Navajo pageant.

Elders, parents and youth crowded in to witness the infamous butchering event. They waited patiently to see the contestants show their skills. Four judges paced slowly back and forth.

After the butchering began, the front-runners finished in the top (Nez/Gorman). The second (Yazzie/Jake) finished 30 minutes later. The third place finisher (Littleben/Martinez) suddenly dropped the carcass on the ground, which should have been an automatic disqualification. The woman next to me is yelling at the contestant.

The last team (Rockbridge/Begay) ran out of time, and all three contestants ended up with bandages on their hands. They should have been all disqualified due to open wounds.

Where were the judges? What were they judging? People were stunned when the second place finisher ended with “best butcher.”

Absolutely no rules applied at this event. Bandages and dropped carcasses? Come on now!

Next, a gentleman asked each contestant a question. Even I, as a fluent speaker, didn’t understand what he was asking until the two ladies sitting next to me whispered, “It’s stirring sticks,” a women’s traditional tool.

How do you teach a young person who beat everyone at the hardest task given to reach the top but find out they came in last? And the last place contestant tearfully said, “I worked hard for this!”

Butchering is a test of knowledge, skill, practice, understanding, capability and connecting with animals that sustain us. When you finally are allowed to butcher by your family, it is a test of maturity and understanding of balance in life as a young individual.

The decision of living in harmony is by learning the importance of self-sufficiency. Understanding the foundation of Diné teaching, it gives meaning and value to everyday life. It is an appreciation of who you are and what your beliefs are.

As a judge in sheep butchering, you look for precision, agility, strength, mentality, decision-making, connection and respect. This decision determines family structure and lifestyle preparedness and survival in daily living.

Mr. Harvey and former Miss Navajo Jannalee Atcitty continuously told jokes about nothing throughout the event. They should focus on how traditional food is important in fighting diabetes, climate changes and health issues. Wellness is an integral part of re-establishing cultural connection. Increase levels of health knowledge, leadership and how community engagement brings positive decisions in living a balanced life.

The panel of judges for the traditional and contemporary skills was family members who selected one another. The mistreatment among the pageant directors still exists when the same bunch coordinates butchering events year after year.

I am neither a family member nor friend of the contestants but a community member who represents youth who shared their talent, gave it their all and still believed that they are winners. I can’t wait for next year’s drama.

Grace Tracy
Fort Defiance, Ariz.

Don’t kill the ewes; vote no

I will be voting an emphatic no for the upcoming referendum measure regarding the proposed expenditure of a portion of the Navajo Nation Permanent Trust Fund principal balance to support the Navajo Nation Council-inspired Transportation Stimulus Plan.

This referendum will be voted on by Navajo citizens on Oct. 24.

Why am I voting no? I will vote no because it is best to listen to Grandma.

My grandma, bless her soul, passed on many years ago at the age of 100-plus years and I remember her saying that in order for our herd of sheep to increase we must not kill and butcher the female sheep. Why? It is because the female sheep will bring more sheep to the herd when lambing season comes around.

She was a very intelligent and prudent investor. Her long-term decision-making skills allowed us to always have enough fat sheep to consume when we became hungry for mutton, and, if we needed funds, then we had enough fat sheep to take to market.

Unfortunately, some of our leaders are not good and thoughtful investors. They are not thinking of the future. They are not thinking of the grandchildren. They are not thinking like Grandma.

These leaders want us to partially kill and butcher the principal (female sheep) of the Navajo Nation Permanent Trust Fund (herd) in the amount of approximately $216 million rather than using the interest (lambs).
As the 2018 election looms large, they want to use this money for a mere 20 miles of non-paved road improvements in each of the 24 regions that each Council delegate represents for bridge and gravel development. If these gravel roads are built, then at the next hard rain storm, the roads will inevitably wash away.

Is this good investment? Grandma would say this is a terrible investment idea.

Grandma would be upset if she heard that the female sheep (principal) of our herd (Permanent Trust Fund) was going to be partially killed and butchered before it became fat. She would say this was a morally inept and sacrilegious decision. She would question the motives of those making the decision to prematurely gut the most important part of the herd (principal) and therefore jeopardize the future of the family.

We will be committing the unthinkable if we vote yes on this referendum. If you are not registered to vote, please do so before Sept. 25. Then let us all vote no and send a message to our leaders that we will not endanger our future Navajo generations.

I say leave the Navajo Nation Permanent Trust principal (female sheep) alone, let it get fat, and only use the interest (lambs). This is Grandma’s way of investing for the future. This is the Navajo way of feeding our family with the produce of our own holding.

The Navajo Nation Permanent Trust Fund was established by thoughtful, honest, and loving leaders in the 1980s. They were thinking of our future. They were thinking of our grandchildren. They were making a morally competent and reverent decision when they created the Permanent Trust Fund because they want our children and their children to be well cared for in the future.

We must make sure that our children and grandchildren are taken care of by voting no in October.

We must listen to grandma, and not our imprudent leaders.

Manley A. Begay Jr.
Flagstaff, Ariz.

Praise for Officer Thinn

This is a letter of commendation for outstanding service by Police Officer Fabian Thinn.

My wife Lois, my sister Marilyn Harlow of Florida, and I were en route to Page for a raft trip in the canyon when we were involved in an auto accident on July 31, 2017, near Tuba City.

We were in an area with no cell signal whatsoever and so we couldn’t even call 911 for help. Within about five minutes, Office Thinn saw us off the road and he immediately stopped to offer his help.

We feel that Officer Thinn went above and beyond the call of duty that day. Our Jeep was not drivable and since we had no cell service, he offered to make several calls for us to cancel our raft trip, notify our insurance company, and arrange for a tow truck.

This may be standard and expected service by your department, but, for us, it was outstanding service because he was so nice to us in a very trying situation.

Please extend our sincere thanks to Officer Thinn and to his dispatcher who also assisted with calls and arrangements for the tow truck to get our Jeep to Flagstaff.

Their help was invaluable to us and we are extremely grateful for his professionalism and help.

Wayne and Lois Adams
Kansas City, Mo.

Confluence Partners using pseudo-science

Kindly permit me to put into scientific terms what I observed in two letters to the editor (Sept. 7, 2017): 1. Confluence Partner letter = hypothesis; 2. My anti-Confluence Project letter statement = null hypothesis.

The following is an explanation of what was published even though I was not aware of a “to-be-timely” publication of a “We propose to do this and that” letter by a member of the Confluence Partners.

As an aside, there was an editorial correction, which should not have been made: I had stated, “mother dearth” at the end of my letter. Dearth means “lack of.” Mother Earth is full of life; “Mother” dearth is a d(ead) earth.

A hypothesis is a statement about what a scientist — or a trio of starry-eyed Confluence pseudo-scientific-minded financial forecasters — propose(s) to do; a null hypothesis is simply a statement with a no/not placed in front of any hypothesis.

As my letter can be viewed as a null hypothesis, all I was stating was the Confluence Partners should do nothing because my null hypothesis is simply stating that I absolutely doubt that all their efforts will result in anything because they do not have $65 million in the bank before they start desecrating the beautiful environment.

My evaluation of all their fancy numbers (3,500 jobs? Annual revenues of up to $63 million?) — even surmising that the Confluence will out-compete (percentagewise) the Grand Canyon National Park in drawing power — is that “talk is cheap” and action (via photosynthesis) with positive results is how Mother Earth supports us all.

The only action is begging the people of the Dineh Nation to fork over $65 million.

So, my null hypothesis concludes: What total nonsense! As my Tuba City High School students in the 1960s used to say, “No use, Mr. Scott.” Today, we say “ineptness” in rational thought is pseudoscience.

As a PhD-trained scientist I am fully aware of the “numbers game” that dreamy-eyed scientists play. It is called probability. It was used in the O.J. Simpson trial of the century. It is hard to question because the numbers they often state are seemingly outrageous because they — at present — cannot be tested scientifically. The Confluence Partners are probability-minded financial prognosticators.

All human product-oriented projects have non-intentional byproducts — real science states: byproduct = waste. Potential Confluence project byproducts clearly will be increased alcohol/marijuana/meth drug use, increased credit card use/debt, more violence, and more suicides in the currently most-isolated part of our beautiful Dineh rez. Oh, Mr. Hale is not a western Dineh.

O. Tacheeni Scott
Flagstaff, Ariz.

Embrace change; vote for job creators

“Embrace Change and Make a Difference” is the theme of the Western Agency Fair, Oct. 12-15. The Western Dine’ Alliance wholeheartedly endorses that theme 100 percent.

The Western Dine’ Alliance is a group of progressive thinking Navajos that have joined together to “Make a Difference” by providing strong support for creating jobs and economic opportunity on the Navajo Reservation. To do this will require not just “Embracing Change,” but insisting that change actually does happen.

The Alliance’s first efforts will be to support candidates for tribal council and president that actually have a written strategized plan for jobs and business creation. In the coming months we will be asking the president and the council delegates to tell us what they have done to bring jobs to the nation, and what they plan on doing to earn support from Navajo voters. We will also invite candidates to tell us what their plans are. We intend to publish all the responses on our website (westerndinealliance.org), and email them to Alliance members and supporters. We also intend to hold candidate forums and invite the progressive-minded public to participate; the status quo is not working and will never work.

To preserve our families and safeguard our kinship, we really honestly do need jobs and opportunities. Our elected leaders need to know that we have their backs. They need to support creating 3,500 jobs and approve Grand Canyon Escalade.

Don’t be tricked by the Grand Canyon Trust’s paid coyotes, Save the Confluence’s Larry Foster and Renae Yellowhorse, among others. They have absolutely no plan to help our struggling Navajo families. They don’t even have an alternative plan to further our great people to move forward.

Let’s invest in our great people and our future generations. Our people are one of the most resilient people in the country who are talented, skillful, experienced, demonstrate knowledge in every field and they have a keen interest in improving life on the reservation. We believe in our people’s endless capabilities. Together we can capitalize on this ever-growing interest.

Yes, we do believe in our people in the concept of “Embrace Change and Make a Difference.”

At the moment, Navajo families need jobs now, not talk. Talk is cheap. Vote for jobs and opportunities.

We invite you in joining us to “embrace change” for a better tomorrow. Set politics aside, together we really can “make a difference” and “change” the future for our Navajo families.

Larry Hanks
Bodaway/Gap, Ariz.

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