PNM commemorates its collaboration with tribe to bring water to Diné
Navajo Times | Kianna Joe
The Navajo-Gallup Water pipeline project is named after World War II Navajo Code Talker Frank Chee Willetto to acknowledge his efforts to get water to his community because of his personal experiences of having no running water at the commemoration event of PNM working with the Navajo Nation, City of Gallup, Bureau of Reclamation, and state on June 9.
ALBUQUERQUE
It was a revelation she won’t forget.
When Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton asked Dine’ fourth graders to draw a picture of where water comes from, she saw trucks with water tanks.
Touton said she was introduced to the importance of water as a natural resources staffer.
Navajo Times | Kianna Joe
The family of Frank Chee Willetto attended the commemoration event of PNM working with the Navajo Nation, City of Gallup, Bureau of Reclamation, and state on June 9, as the organizations decided to dedicate the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.
Speaking at the commemoration ceremony Friday to transfer ownership of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project from San Juan Generating Station to the Bureau of Reclamation, Touton told a story of how in 2008 she asked a Navajo fourth grade class to draw where water comes from.
To them, water came from trucks.
“When you think about every pipe that is going into the ground, when you think about all of the steps, including the acquisition today, those aren’t just steps. You are building a future,” said Touton.
Read the full story in the June 15 edition of the Navajo Times.
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