Trump mum on Native issues

Posted by Navajo Times | May 26, 2016 | Politics |

Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
U.S. Presidential Republican candidate Donald Trump grins as thousands of supporters cheer for him Tuesday night. The New Mexico Primary will be held June.

ALBUQUERQUE

Edmund Yazzie traveled to Albuquerque Tuesday to get a chance to hear Donald Trump’s message in person.

The Navajo Nation Council delegate, who represents Church Rock, Iyanbito, Mariano Lake, Pinedale, Smith Lake and Thoreau, said he was not there as a Trump supporter.

“I am here just to observe,” he said.

What he saw, however, was nothing like an ordinary campaign speech of a U.S. presidential candidate. It was more like those evangelical tent meetings that crop up all over the reservation in the summer, but on a much larger scale. Between 6,000 and 8,000 people hung on to every word Trump said and crying out “USA!” whenever someone was ejected for heckling “The Donald.”

While this was going on at the Albuquerque Convention Center, there were several hundred anti-Trump protestors outside the convention center yelling profanities and anti-Trump slogans.

The Albuquerque police was out in force, both inside and outside the center. Several people were ejected inside and police on horses tried to keep the rowdy crowd outside under control.

Brittany Tsosie, one of the protestors outside, said she and her friends “were just minding our business when cops began closing in.”