Letters: What will it take to get Bluff Road fixed?

The Bluff Road in Shiprock, New Mexico continues to cause stress to people and damage to vehicles as it remains neglected and long overdue for maintenance of any type.

The Bluff Road (NR542) was ripped of any existing blacktop paving about three months ago, covered with some dirt, and graded. The two-mile stretch of road was decent only for a little while. Now the condition of the road is very bad; it looks like a washboard and it is a very bumpy ride. What will it take to get this road fixed permanently?

Recently, there were surveyors from the Farmington BIA Road Department, surveying the road, putting up wooden stakes with little plastic red flags marking something. Was that to give the farm residents some hope that something was going to be done?

Now many people who drive on this road are getting their vehicles torn up; tires getting destroyed; wheels getting misaligned; brakes wearing out; and not to mention, decreased vehicle value of their investments. It goes to reason many residents who use Bluff Road are beginning to require repairs just because of the need to travel this road to access the main highway (US Hwy 491).  This Bluff Road is our everyday route to doctor appointments; the grocery store; the post office; work; and for emergencies.

School buses from the Shiprock schools bounced around, up and down this road during the school year and for summer school. A new school year will begin soon and this will add to the bus wear and tear of tires, wheels, and brakes.

Clearly, Navajo Department of Transportation, the BIA Division of Transportation, and the Shiprock Chapter House are all negligent of their responsibilities towards the citizens who use Bluff Road. As for the chapter officials who are winding down their terms in office, they seem to not care as they don’t have to drive on Bluff Road.

Who will fix this road? Who has the authority to sign and give authorization for repairs? Does the Shiprock chapter president or the Navajo Nation president care about the people who have to use Bluff Road? How long will we farm road residents have to put up with driving on a terrible road?

Wilford R. Joe
Shiprock, New Mexico

Independents getting organized

Despite the well-oiled argument that independent voters are merely Democrats and Republicans in sheep’s clothing, independents are becoming more organized outside the confines of partisan politics. Many have been compelled to do so by the glaring shortcomings we have seen evolve out of the current two party system and the realization that this system will not reform itself. It will take a grassroots movement to transform it from party-centric to people-centric. Recently, on a Spokesperson Training call, independents in the IndependentVoting.org network were asked to answer the very basic question – in 60 seconds or less – why we became an independent.

I described that years ago I wrote a paper in college and in the process discovered I am primarily a “both/and”, not an “either / or” thinker. As a young voter, I registered as a Republican because I generally endorsed the “Party of Lincoln’s” values. It worked well for over 25 years. Eventually, the Republican Party rendered impossible a” both/and” orientation. Consequently, I became an Independent upon moving to Arizona. Political parties are now so violently “either/or” that they default on the major issues requiring our attention. That’s why I’m a vehemently independent American voter.

To be clear: “independent” describes a divorce from the rigid partisan constraints of political parties. Ironically, it also embodies belief in a powerful interdependence among Americans that the parties actively deny. Parties won’t go away. But their insistence that they are the only legitimate game in town is no longer acceptable because they leave too many people out and their system no longer works.

We Americans must be able to speak out forcefully about putting runaway partisanship in check. Independents are pushing essential structural reforms in every state, including Arizona, as we become more organized in building our movement.

Through our local organization, Independent Voters for Arizona, thousands of letters are being directed to state and party leaders, seeking equal voting rights as independents in primary elections! And, thanks to a recent Morrison Institute study, more is known about Arizona independents than in any other state. It is too late for 2016. It is just right for 2020.

Al Bell
Peoria, Arizona

Buried in bureaucracy in Chinle

I would like to address some concerns regarding Chinle Chapter Government.

I noticed you publish in the articles in the past on Chapter Government issues.  I would like to address an issue with the Chinle Chapter Government namely the Chapter Manager, Walton Yazzie.

On the day we were going to bury my late brother, Gabriel Davis at the Chinle Cementary, we were told to go to the chapter to get the padlock key from the chapter. After the mortuary had told us to get a paper documenting where we were to bury my brother signed by the Chinle Chapter Grazing Committee Mr. Eugene Tso.  Mr. Tso was not home during the weekend and when we found him he signed the form for the mortuary at which time he should have informed us he has no authority in the process of burials.

We stopped by the Chapter three days before the burial on a Friday and a rude clerk at the front desk told us to contact Eugene Tso since he is responsible for signing the form from the mortuary, she gave us his number and we called him and she never told us there was a 1” inch binder in the office about the process of burying someone.

Mr. Tso said he would meet with us the next morning but he was nowhere to be found for two more days until Sunday, at which time he signed the paper for the mortuary and never informed us of other procedures or processes.

We submitted the form back to the mortuary and then on Monday when we were to bury my brother, there was a padlock on the cemetery gate so we went to the Chinle Chapter at which time Mr. Yazzie informed us of the 1” binder in the office and he was very rude and inconsiderate of our families hardship and suffering of our loss, he wanted us to pay $300 to use the chapter backhoe and to pay for the burial plot as well. We informed him we had our own backhoe which we paid for in the amount of $150 and we had the backhoe at the cemetery waiting to be allowed into the cemetery.

At which time, Mr. Yazzie went to inform us that he was not going to have the padlocked unlocked until we paid the amount and if we became disruptive with him he was going to call the Navajo Nation Police and get us arrested which I am sure Navajo Police would not have showed up right away, they don’t even respond to emergencies and our was a non-emergency. So, with what little money we had we paid the amount since the funeral was going to begin at the Catholic Church within 15 minutes. I asked to talk with Mr. Yazzie’s supervisor and he informed me he had no supervisor and that he was his own boss. Another person at the chapter informed us his boss is Andy Ayze, Chapter President or Leonard Pete, Council Delegate or Carl Smith from Navajo Nation Division of Community Development.

I called all the individuals mentioned and Mr. Smith from Navajo Nation Division of Community Development was the only you responded to my phone call and he informed me that he would talk to Mr. Yazzie and will contact me back.  It has been approximately three months since we buried my brother and till this day I have not heard from Mr. Smith nor Mr. Ayze and even Mr. Pete. What is going on with the chapters? Why are they so greedy about things? What happened to the Casino Revenue, Junk Food Tax, Fuel Taxation, Tobacco Tax and all other taxes from the reservation?

Where is that all going?

Now, our local chapter government decided through I guess a group of community voters which is usually around 20 people speaking for the majority to allow the chapter to become a monopoly in grave digging and not allow families to get their own backhoe services and not even allow families to bury their love ones on their own family plots.

I don’t go to the reservation that often but I have served as Chapter Coordinator in the past for the same chapter under Mr. Ayze and Mr. Pete, which I questioned their leadership even then, I noticed they were not leadership material back then and I can only imagine what they are like now a days along with the grazing committee member Mr. Eugene Tso, Chinle Chapter residents please I urge you to vote for the right people to become the community leaders don’t make it a popularity contest, I would one day like to move back to the reservation, when my house gets gravel road to it, a mailbox by my house with a house address, trash disposal service at least a trash bin for our community, all roads paved to local schools, business development and job development for our children these are the things I pay taxes for while living off the reservation what our the Navajo people paying for on the reservation? Are they paying greedy politicians and corrupt government entities?

Carol Uentillie
Chinle, Arizona

Brain injuries a root of alcholism

I would like to thank David Conejo and Kevin Foley for giving me the opportunity to conduct brain injury awareness groups at the RMCHCS Treatment Center and Na’nizhoozhi Center (NCI).  These groups have given the ability to see something that I believe is the underlying issue with our alcohol problem here – brain injuries and other types of trauma that causes people to “self-medicate”.

After awhile self-medication becomes chronic because the underlying issues of brain injuries and trauma aren’t identified and treated.

These problems are compounded by the stress and anxiety these folks on the streets are going through that triggers the fight of flight response in the limbic system and until all of these issues are dealt with Gallup will continue to be known as “Drunk Town USA”.

In my brain injury awareness groups over the last couple of months the majority of individuals in these groups have shared their stories about getting hit upside the head with baseball bats and 2X4s, falling down and being knocked out after their head hits the sidewalk or pavement, being kicked in the head after being assaulted, being in domestic violence relationships and growing up in domestic violent families, surviving car wrecks and not knowing what happened afterwards, family history of alcohol abuse, playground accidents when they were kids, playing football in high school where they had their “bell rung” several times and many people had several concussions and don’t remember what happened to them after the woke up.

There is a critical need for people with brain injuries to learn about the role the Sympathetic Nervous System (mid-brain and limbic system) plays in triggering the “fight or flight” response under stress. This information is critical for professionals treating people with brain injuries and other types of trauma to understand because unless people with brain injuries/trauma control stress and anxiety they will always be influenced by the consequences of the fight or flight response.

These issues are biologic and not ethnic!  If you have two arms, two legs and a head you are influenced by the limbic system fight or flight response.  It doesn’t matter what skin color you have!

When fight or flight kicks in all people (especially people with brain injuries) are in a reactionary mode which affects everything the person does – processing information, problem solving, decision making, planning, memory, etc.

Too often the medical profession only treats the symptoms and what I am talking about is solving the problems that cause the symptoms and believe we can solve these problems by giving people on the streets useful information they need to change their lives.  It’s not that they are losers or not trying hard enough.  Many have undiagnosed brain injuries or other types of trauma that they don’t understand and consequently are abusing alcohol to

Mindfulness-based stress reduction, Yoga, Tia Chi, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) tapping, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and other tools – like a good support group – can help these people stay calm and relaxed so the fight or flight response is controlled so their memory, decision making and problem solving abilities are less impaired.

Before people on the streets of Gallup with alcohol problems can be resolved they need understand what is going on between their ear that’s causing them to self-medicate i.e. brain injuries and trauma.  They need to take ownership of their recovery process and play a more pro-active role by participating in treatment offered at the RMCHCS Treatment Center and NCI.

I believe this is possible and with a consolidated effort in our community to address the underlying issues of brain injuries and trauma – Drunk Town USA – will be no more!

Thank you for your time and consideration of this information.

Ken Collins
Gamerco, New Mexico

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