Legally buns as Arizona legislators address concerns of students

Posted by Navajo Times | Feb 25, 2016 | News |

By Christopher S. Pineo and Cindy Yurth
Navajo Times

CHINLE

Submitted
The Flagstaff Lady Eagles bow their heads in prayer before their game against Greenway, showing their traditional hair buns. Pauline Butler, the aunt of one of the players, said the team says a prayer in Navajo, Hebrew and English before each game.

High school basketball players in Arizona will be able to get their buns on the court, legally, thanks to a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Carlyle Begay (R-Dist. 7) that is expected to pass the state legislature this week.

The bill, SB1219, prohibits public schools or interscholastic athletic associations from banning “religious or cultural accessories or hairpieces” while students are participating in extracurricular activities such as sports.

Begay said the bill is a reaction to a recent incident in Flagstaff when a referee ordered the Flagstaff Lady Eagles basketball team to take down their hair and put it in ponytails after the whole team came onto the court in the traditional Navajo tsiyéél. The incident was picked up by news media as far away as London and caused a tsunami of backlash on social media.

The AIA ended up changing its rules to allow the hairstyle the day after the ruckus, but Begay said the new law will ensure Navajos and other ethnic groups have the freedom to adhere to religious and culturally appropriate hairstyles while playing sports.

SB1219 has passed the Senate Rules Committee and party caucus committee and is headed to the Committee of the Whole.

State Rep. Albert Albert Hale, D-St. Michaels, announced in January that he won’t run for reelection in November, but he intends to stay busy in his last year at the Arizona House of Representatives.

In an interview on Feb. 23, he highlighted the work he plans to do in his remaining time and spoke about his plans for the future.

He said his plan to finish up his time in the house comes from a traditional Navajo teaching he holds.

“In Navajo. there’s a teaching that says you shouldn’t be a leader for too long or take that position too long, then at some point you begin to act like you’re entitled to it and lose touch with your constituents,” Hale said. “I don’t want to be in that position.”

“It’s time to enjoy the fruit, or the benefits, of my labor.”

He said he will keep focusing on a goal from the beginning of his 12-year career with the Arizona legislature, when he became an Arizona state senator, which is the amendment of Transaction privilege tax (TPT) law in Arizona as applied to the Navajo Nation.

He said Arizona takes severance taxes off coal and other natural resources on the Navajo Nation, and TPT revenues drawn from non-Indians doing business on the Navajo Nation. He said the Navajo Nation contributes about $14 million a year to state coffers on the Arizona side of the nation with very little return to Diné citizens.