Eastern Navajo Fair celebrates youth, elders at fair

CROWNPOINT

The Eastern Navajo Fair has seen an influx of backers to help fund this year’s fair, which opened on Monday with a benefit golf tournament.

“This year, we have a surprising amount of sponsors who are providing financial assistance and support,” said Douglas Capitan, the Eastern Navajo Fair’s acting communication director. “We have not received any government funding except for in-kind donations, so we’re fortunate that we are able to get all of that funding together.

“To my surprise, I wasn’t expecting that much support because of the way the economy is going,” he added, “but we’re able to pull this together quite nicely.”

Some of the in-kind sponsors include donations from the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, the Diné Development Corporation, Navajo Housing Authority and Vice President Richelle Montoya, who is from Eastern Navajo.

The fair is in its 47th year and the organizers came up with “Legends Inspire Youth” as its theme. Capitan says the Office of Diné Youth has events happening every day of the fair which bodes well with fair committee.

“Though it’s not direct financial support, ODY has really stepped up,” Capitan said. “We wanted them to be engaged with us because a lot of people in previous years were saying there wasn’t enough events for the youth. We were primarily focusing on the elders, but I think that’s kind of the way we approach a lot of things culturally.”

The events geared to the youth include a fashion show, a movie night, a youth dance and a jujitsu, wrestling and kickboxing presentation from Tohatchi teenager Hunter Mitchell on Friday.

Capitan says DALTCS, the Division of Aging and Long-Term Care Support, provided all the services for the Elderfest, which took place Friday at the fairgrounds.

Capitan, who wears many hats, was the coordinator for Saturday’s parade. The parade route started from Crownpoint High School and ended at the Crownpoint Chapter House.

To help facilitate the event, Navajo Technical University students with the NTU Business Club helped with the parade.

“As an instructor at NTU, I volunteered my students for the parade and they’re getting hands-on experience with finding sponsors,” he said. Capitan is an assistant professor of business administration and the public administration program coordinator at NTU.

The parade’s grand marshals were Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord and Alice Belone. Alford is a former Crownpoint resident and a Crownpoint High alumna. She graduated from the University of New Mexico before she attended Stanford Medical School where she became the first board-certified Diné woman surgeon.

“We’re very proud of her and she’s been very connected with our community even though she currently lives in Washington state,” Capitan said. “During the pandemic she gathered PPE supplies and canned food. She personally flew to Crownpoint and delivered to the chapter houses for distribution.

“She’s a legend because of her book, ‘The Scalpel and the Silver Bear,’ which is often used in college textbooks,” he added. “That book inspired a lot of Navajo students to go to college.”

As for the youth grand marshal, Capitan said the fair team leaned on ODY for its recommendation and went with Belone.

“Alice is a graduate of Crownpoint High School, too,” Capitan said. “We hope that Alice takes a similar pathway to what Lori has taken. She’s already begun that process by volunteering, being a public servant. She volunteers for a soup kitchen in Gallup. She also a scholar in her own right.

“We look forward to seeing her progress and hopefully she inspires kids who look up to her in the same way we all looked up to Lori,” he added.

Capitan says the fair committee looked at the local community to help with prizes being awarded to this year’s rodeo. The event winners of the rodeo will be awarded buckles while the men’s and women’s all-round champions will be given a trophy saddles, which were donated by the Peshlakai Angel vs. Drunk Driving and Arviso Construction Company.

The 4-H judging was held on Friday at the fairgrounds. The 4-H committee was headed by longtime 4-H advocate Marjorie Lantana.

“We’ll have at least 38 4-H members who are going to show,” Lantana said. “There is going to be 78 species on the ground and that includes beef, beef, lamb, swine, poultry and rabbits.”

The judges for the Jr. Livestock Show are Chloe Kaiser of Aztec (poultry), James Conyers of Farmington (rabbits) and Matt Denetclaw of Shiprock (livestock).

In addition to the 4-H showing, the participants also took part in an archery contest on Thursday afternoon.

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