Letters: Our leaders have strange detachment from reality

“Navajo Sovereignty Day” was taken to Albuquerque, where a press conference was held April 24, 2018, to “celebrate” the 150th year of the signing of the Treaty of 1868.

How inappropriate for the Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye and Vice President Jonathan Nez to take this important event over 150 miles away from Window Rock, our Navajo Nation’s capital. The Navajo Nation Council, complicit in this charade, obviously took the initiative to raid the tribal coffers and repeat the usual Las Vegas, Nevada, rodeo holiday.

My question is: “Did the OPVP or the NNC take the time to inquire into the gruesome murders of our Navajo relatives (Kee Thompson, Allison Gorman and most recently, Ronnie Ross) while they were in Albuquerque?” Their out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitudes were obviously more focused on their lavish high-rolling spending of limited tribal funds to their benefit.

For all the suffering and anguish our ancestors went through prior to and during the Long Walk and the years of confinement at America’s first concentration camp, our Navajo “leadership” has insulted “Navajo Sovereignty” with a strange detachment from reality. On the fourth Monday in April each year, the Navajo Nation government celebrates the purported “independence” we were given as “domestic dependents” under the guise of “trust responsibility” and “Navajo Sovereignty Day.”

In America, our Native religious practices were illegal until 1978. Before then, they had to be done in secret. Our medicine people were beaten, jailed, put in asylums, or killed outright.

The history of the brutal round-ups of our Navajo people through the overwhelming fire power of well-armed U.S. military storm troopers (led by Col. Christopher “Kit” Carson), the destruction of our crops and orchards and the forced surrender by starvation, the merciless killings of our young and old, and the series of 53 forced marches to “Hweeldi” (Bosque Redondo) underscore the attempt to dilute this time of terror with impunity.

The legally binding agreements between the “sovereign” nations of every tribe who are signatories to treaties, federally recognized or not, are not worth the paper they were written on as long as people like Donald Trump and the arrogant “anti-Indian” Republican (GOP) Party and cohorts dictate our delicate futures as indigenous peoples.

I chose to remember and honor our brave and heroic ancestors who withstood the vicious onslaught of a failed U.S. government and military attempt at the genocide of our Navajo people with the burning of cedar and solemn reflection of their courage. Our present Navajo “leadership” should follow their example, especially when the Trump White House has recently challenged tribal sovereignty by intending to make all treaty provisions (promises) null and void under the lie that American tribes are a race, not separate governments.

“Navajo Sovereignty Day”? I think not. Until the heavy chains of the U.S. federal government are broken and the token pennies it throws at us are rejected, a media circus faraway from our motherland is meaningless.

Another question: “Did the clowns show up?”

Mervyn Tilden
Church Rock, N.M.

Malpractice at Gallup Indian Medical Center Dental

At the front desk at Gallup Indian Medical Center dental, the first in line are the first to be seen for walk-ins, as others who have appointments are filing in.

All too often there are at most two dentists covering all the walk-in patients (and usually only one dentist), who are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of human beings present for treatment.

Here is where the single most critical mistake is made — at least one of which is potentially life threatening. Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served system, and while this seems fair, what if the first several patients only have a chipped tooth or cracked filling and the last in line has an acute infection, which has progressed beyond the tooth and into the surrounding tissues?

Just as in the ER, patients need to be triaged with a determination to be made as to whether this is a true emergency or not. True emergencies must be seen as soon as possible with all else put on hold, irrespective as to who was the first in line.

Why is this issue a critical mistake? All too often the dental office is too busy with non-emergency walk-ins, and the true emergency patient is told to return another day.

While at Tohatchi dental, several times I saw patients who just the day before had been turned away for true emergencies from GIMC dental. If it is too late in the day to be treated, at least let me quickly evaluate their condition then possibly prescribe an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic, or even send them to the ER, yet official GIMC policy says to turn away these patients.

When I first began at THC I immediately reversed this abusive policy of malpractice, yet as soon as another dentist was made acting director she changed it back. Why?

One patient that had been turned away the previous afternoon, whom I saw the next day, had developed a cellulitis, whereas the infection had spread beyond the tooth and bone, and into the soft tissues of the jaw and neck. I immediately sent the patient to the ER, asking the patient be put on a Vancomycin drip (a super-strong antibiotic administered by IV). Why?

Cellulitis is an extremely dangerous life-threatening infection that must be addressed immediately, yet this same patient with this same infection had been turned away the previous afternoon, because GIMC dental was too busy to even take a quick look at the patient. This is blatant medical malpractice.

David McGuire
Gallup, N.M.

Thanks, and here is a correction

Thank you for publishing Krista Allen’s article regarding the new Civil Air Patrol’s Code Talker Bahe Ketchum Composite Squadron 211 in Shonto, Arizona, on Thursday, April 19 (“Shonto sports Civil Air Patrol’s newest escadrille in Ariz.”).

Several members of the squadron went on their first orientation flights as Civil Air Patrol cadets on April 7. I am writing to correct a factual error in the article.

Though the squadron commander is a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, the Civil Air Patrol is the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. CAP cadets are taught four core values based on those of the Air Force: integrity, volunteer service, excellence in all we do, and respect. In addition to enhancing their leadership skills, CAP cadets learn about aerospace principles, self-discipline, character, and physical fitness. I hope we will have the opportunity to share more about the squadron with your readers as the cadets progress through their training.

Capt. Margot Myers,
CAP Public Affairs Officer
Arizona Wing Civil Air Patrol

Lt. Col. Luis Camus,
CAP Sector Commander,
Northern Arizona Arizona Wing Civil Air Patrol

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