‘It took a lot of hard work’: Tonalea Chapter’s new building takes shape

TÓNEHELĮ́Į́H, Ariz.

The late Colbert Dayzie would have been proud of the new chapter house, said community residents.

For years Dayzie was the spearhead for the Tonalea Chapter replacement building project. He had dreamed of a new chapter house for his people and the future.

Leaders and members of the Tonalea-Red Lake community celebrated on March 11 the new building Dayzie didn’t get to see. They also paid tribute to the man they gave credit to for his work on the $3.3 million project.

Dayzie died on Dec. 30, 2020. He was 64.

“I know he’s here in spirit with us,” Dá’deestł’in Hótsaa Delegate Paul Begay said. “The dream has come true.”

A new generation

After the demolition of the old building erected in 1959, Albuquerque-based Dyron Murphy Architects started building the 6,844-square-foot replacement building in January 2021. DMA completed the project on Feb. 17, 2022.

The design of the chapter house centers on sustainable objectives, cultural identity and economic development.

DMA explored ways to build sustainable features into the design of the new chapter house, such as an outdoor garden center to promote conservation, erosion control, rainwater percolation, and plant germination.

There aren’t many windows on the west side of the building not only because of the shape of the façade but also to achieve maximum rationality. The DMA team also installed skylights and low-flow toilets that reduce water consumption per flush.

The forms, colors and materials used in the design of the building compose traditional Diné principles. The main lobby is shaped like a hogan, and the entrance faces east.

Ts’aa’, wedding basket, patterns are engineered into the large courtyard in front of the building. And the plaza – with walking paths and a lattice covering – toward the back is designed for community events.

DMA suggested its design for the chapter house reinforces the Navajo Nation’s commitment to local economic development and further connects it to the community.

The building also has a space for potential businesses to rent to help with operations and maintenance costs.

“Biyi’dóó nahat’á yá’át’ééh dooleeł,” Begay said. “Biyi’dóó ntsáhákees yá’át’ééh dooleeł. Yá’át’éehgo ałch’į yááłti’ dooleeł.”

Chapter officials said the building has some energy-efficient features and voltage converters/transformers to convert electricity. And the building has electrical and networking wiring for a prospective computer lab.

Leslie Dele, Tonalea Chapter vice president, said local military veterans and six late Navajo Code Talkers – Dennis Cattlechaser, Harold Attakai, Keith Little, Floyd June, King Fowler and Edward Freeman – would be honored in the building.

“We’re also going to put up a memorial for all the local people who died of COVID-19,” Dele said. “There won’t be any names, just a memorial.”

Dilapidated structure

The old chapter house was a 2,600-square-foot building. It was the hub of the community until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Environmental Health Services recommended on Oct. 15, 2012, to close the building because of structural problems and a shifting foundation.

Chapter officials said the building may have contained lead paint and asbestos materials because the building was built before 1980. The building was extended in the 1970s.

The chapter administration then moved into a warehouse on the compound, where day-to-day business operations were conducted for more than three years.

Secretary-Treasurer Marlinda Whiterock, the administrative assistant at the time, said she remembers having to look out for spiders, lizards, snakes, rodents and beetles after moving the chapter’s vehicles for regular meetings.

Dayzie told the Navajo Times in November 2015 that it wasn’t fair to the chapter staff that they had to go through another winter inside a warehouse with HVAC and plumbing problems.

“They (staff) have to exit the building and cross the muddy, snowy parking lot to use the bathrooms (during the winter),” Dayzie said at that time. “It’s horrible.”

The Navajo Department of Health posted a closure order outside the building on Dec. 8, 2015. DOH condemned the warehouse as a health hazard and then gave the chapter staff four days to vacate the building.

The staff moved chapter business 24.5 miles southwest to the Administrative Service Center in Tónaneesdizí because there are no office spaces in the Tonalea-Red Lake area.

Over the decade, the chapter administration moved around, operating inside the Tonalea Senior Center at one time.

“So many people have worked on this project from the beginning,” Begay said, t’áá Dinék’ehjígo during a grand opening celebration for the Tonalea Chapter Replacement Building, “including former delegates Duane S. Tsingine and Tauchoney Slim Jr.”

Tsingine and Slim attended the celebration outside the new building March 11. Both men, including Lena Dayzie, Colbert’s widowed wife, and a list of people who helped with the project, received Pendleton blankets.

Joe Dayzie, Colbert’s father who was at the celebration, said he tried to secure a new building for the chapter when he served as a Council delegate from 1975 to 1995 and then again from 2000 to 2002.

However, members of the community never gave up hope and consistently prayed for a new chapter house. Their prayers were answered when the Council approved a resolution on Nov. 1, 2019.

Speaker Seth Damon signed the legislation (No. 0262-19), allocating $3 million from the Sih Hásin Fund for the project.

The Tonalea-Red Lake Chapter provided $263,203 in matching funds.

Teamwork with Colbert

Begay said when he became a Council delegate on Jan. 15, 2019, his first order of business was completing this project.

“I said, ‘This needs to be completed now,’” Begay explained. “I asked the legislative services office where the chapter replacement building legislation went. Nothing – people tried looking for it. Then someone said, ‘It’s probably in the archives.’”

Begay said Tonalea-Red Lake Chapter has one of the highest numbers of voters in Western Navajo, but there was no chapter to prove it.

“Colbert would call me almost daily to ask where we are with the project,” Begay said. “We’d meet up at the Quality Inn in Window Rock. When I first met him, he presented a thick document on the project and said, ‘This explains everything you need to know about the chapter.’

“He’d call me his father and I called him my son. That was our relationship,” he added. “He was the only person to call me shiTaa’. That’s how I knew him. I feel obligated to do something for him.”

Whiterock said her cheii, Colbert, intensely worked on this project since 2012, and to make it happen was his No. 1 goal.

“I remember Colbert saying, ‘We’re going to strategize. One and foremost, we have to get the chapter certified. We have to become an LGA (Local Governance Act)-certified chapter,’” Whiterock said.

“And guess what happened a year later?” she said. “We became an LGA-certified chapter on Dec. 2, 2014.

“It took a lot of hard work,” she added. “It takes a lot of work; it’s not just one person. But I can tell you, my cheii, Colbert Dayzie, was the spearhead of the project, and I wish he could be here to witness all of this.”

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