Letters | Watch your Hardship money

I hereby place my Diné people on notice about the friendly notice being sent out to you by the local car dealers to buy a new vehicle or even a used one. Beware they are just after your Hardship money — every penny of it.

Be aware of your values and be mindful of spending your Hardship money wisely. It’s yours and no one else.

The recent national economic report released showed that new car prices were up and used cars nearly doubled. It’s not the time to buy a car.

Also, local traders selling sheep, the prices have skyrocketed to about $400 a head and the casinos are also twiddling their fingers for your hardship money. The hardship money is for you, not them.

And to those families with dependent children, please spend the money on your children or open a bank account for them. That way it’s safe. Show them money management and that way they learn to invest and become independent with their lives in the future.

That’s the best you can do for your children, the sooner the better.

In conclusion, I would like to say some of us need to restore our values and it’s not late to do so. The only way is to ask the superpower and he will deliver.

As always, thank you for affording me the opportunity to express my concerns.

Vern Charleston
Farmington, N.M.

Grazing is still a problem

Grazing on the Navajo Nation is still a problem. Despite several amendments by Navajo Nation officials over the last few years, grazing still poses a threat to vegetation, land recovery and to development. We need to change that.

Want better grazing? Enforce the law. Want better looking animals? Follow the range management plan. Want more development? Change the grazing laws. Want better opportunities? Elect leaders that will create more opportunities.

This is what we know. In 2014, there was an attempt by the Navajo Nation Council to reform the grazing system with the Rangeland Improvement Act. So far as I know, the legislation died due to lack of support for reform.

What I took away from all the rangeland improvement presentations is that Navajo Nation land is in poor condition, the land is filled with feral horses and there is still a genuine need for reform.

The most startling of the information is that according to a 2014 rangeland presentation, 4.1 percent of the enrolled Navajo Nation population control 10,296 grazing permits. That means 4.1 percent of Navajo Nation residents control 16 million acres of Navajo Nation land. To me, that is not fair!

Why should 4.1 percent of the population control 16 million acres and still not adhere to the laws? Why should the rest of the 95.9 percent of the Navajo Nation population accept the current state?

A portion of that 4.1 percent act in a manner to control residential and commercial development. They don’t pay for the leases. They don’t even pay for the land.

I would feel better with helping them if they paid for their leases and didn’t hinder necessary residential or commercial development, because right now, we need more housing and commercial development.

My thought is that they would take better care of the land if they paid for it or if they were able to sell the lease based on an appraisal of the land. There would be better control of feral horses, owners would produce better livestock, and they would most likely make more money.

Don’t get me wrong, I like horses just like the next person. I enjoy eating Navajo-raised mutton and I am proud of Navajo beef. I have family that are ranchers and farmers, but the grazing system needs to be reformed.

If 4.1 percent of 400K controls 16 million acres with no accountability, then we have a problem.

Change the grazing laws. Try it again. If it fails, then try again.

Keep going till we get something better than what we have now.

Jarvis Williams
Kayenta, Ariz.

Best Navajo Times page ever

I am an Indian elder two months shy of age 78. I began reading the Navajo Times as a third grader in 1952.

Page A7 of the Feb. 10, 2022, edition of the Navajo Times is by far the best page of the several hundreds of editions ever printed.

Two guest columns, “Wolves have walked with us for centuries…” and “Rise up, Indian Country” delivered outstanding messages in these times of non-Indians continuing to denigrate Indian culture, language, and history.

In the first article the term “science” was used five times; the second article boldly utilized the terms “God,” “God’s blessing,” “powerful man of God,” “Creator,” and “Mother Earth” (two times).

Now I need to tell my take on modern Indian history.

I grew up in a hogan for four years without running water and electricity as the oldest son of a Dineh medicine man who had 1.5 years of military-style BIA boarding school training after a year of “rehabilitation” of a severe head injury received during his first year as an orphan.

Further, I wish to speak as a Ph.D.-trained scientist (microbiology/cell biology/molecular biology/electron microscopy).

In addition, I wish to openly acknowledge my undergraduate training at a private, all-white Christian liberal arts undergraduate college with double majors in history and natural science. Finally, I am a published folklorist (1980).

Non-Indians must learn to write accurately knowing that highly-educated Indians will be critiquing not only their writing styles but the subject matter being discussed. There are no teachers as eloquent and galvanizing as culture and language.

One last comment about the sophisticated language I used to write the crucial nomenclature of my Ph.D. thesis.

The nomenclature in my manuscript used highly-scrutinized scientific German terms. I have taught German tourists on the Grand Canyon trails 272 times using scientific German terminology during some seven years (124 trips to the bottom of the canyon) of trekking to the Colorado River in the number one natural wonder of Mother Earth.

Tacheeni Scott
Flagstaff, Ariz.

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