Hope was in the air along with the smoke on Sunday June 22 as firefighters all but put out the bulk of the Assayii Lake Fire on the Navajo Nation.
Although the fire had grown to 14,712 acres from 13,450, the number of personnel required to fight it dropped to 597, down from last week’s 867, according to InciWeb. And by Sunday June 22 the blaze was 60 percent contained.
“They’re going through and trying to identify any hot spots at all to the point where they’re digging and taking off their glove and feeling it to make sure it has cooled completely down,” fire information officer Patricia Bean told the Associated Press. “We’re definitely on the uphill end of this fire in terms of positive things.”
Just a few days earlier the fire, which started on June 13, had only been 20 percent contained. But as of Sunday residents of evacuated communities were slowly being let back in, and some roads were reopening. Navajo Nation officials, ranchers and residents headed into the Chuska Mountains, where the fire was located, over the weekend to round up livestock that had been trapped or had scattered when the blaze struck.
Though not huge by some standards—the 2011 Wallow fire, for example, scorched 469,000 acres, the largest in Arizona history—the Assayii Lake fire torched sheep camps and endangered grazing land in the sacred mountains.
Donovan Quintero/AP This June 17, 2014 handout photo provided by the Navajo Times shows the Asaayii Lake Fire raging out of control at the ridge of the Chuska Mountains, west of Naschitti, N.M. Tribal agriculture officials say depending on the fire’s intesity, it could be a while before sheepherders and cattle ranchers get to return to the hills outside of Naschitti and Sheep Springs.
The Navajo Nation has declared a state of emergency regarding the Assayii Lake fire, which has burgeoned to 13,250 acres and growing.
It is zero percent contained, according to InciWeb.
On June 16, the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management passed CEM 14-06-16, a resolution declaring a state of emergency for the Assayii Lake Fire, the Nation said in a statement. President Ben Shelly ordered tribal resources to assist with efforts to contain and extinguish the fire.
“I direct all Navajo divisions, departments and programs to commit resources to the Assayii Lake Fire. We need to do all we can to stop the fire from spreading further,” Shelly said in a statement.
As of Wednesday June 18, winds were still high at 18-22 mph and gusting at 32 mph throughout the day, according to InciWeb.
“With warming and drying, we anticipate another day of extreme fire behavior,” InciWeb said, adding that about 50 residences were threatened and an estimated four structures had been destroyed. “However, that is not a firm count. Personnel continue to assess the damages at this time.”
Hotshot crews from Arizona have joined the Navajo Scouts to battle the blaze, the Navajo Nation said.
The human-caused fire has been raging since Friday June 13.
By Alastair Lee Bitsoi and Terry Bowman, Navajo Times
After three days of charring approximately 1,000 acres, the Asááyi Lake Fire has reached the summit of the Chuska Mountains and the inferno is moving in a northeastern direction toward the communities of Naschitti and Sheep Springs, N.M.
The fire will be categorized as a Type II National and State Level Fire, according to the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.
“I got scared,” said Eleanor Largo, who had to evacuate her summer sheep camp near the area locals call Green Meadows.
Green Meadows, which is about 11 miles west of Naschitti, is on the part of the Chuska Mountains known as Biita’dah in Navajo. It’s a region of the mountain where locals have summer camps, and consists of canopies of pinion, juniper and pine trees.
Largo reported to the Navajo Times Sunday night that the fire was north of her summer residence, before she was told by fire officials to depart the mountain. She left her dog and cat behind and sought refuge at the command center and shelter in Naschitti.
“My daughter was crying,” she added, while wiping away tears from her face and having her vitals checked by a first responder.
“Sparks were going toward my house,” she added.
More than 250 firefighters from Bureau of Indian Affairs, including the Navajo Scouts and Navajo Hotshots are battling the blaze. They are being assisted by the Navajo Volunteer Fire Department and the Helitrack Crew.
Fire crews from all over the Navajo Nation and Southwest region of the U.S. are also helping manage the blaze.
According to the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, about close to 1,000 acres have been consumed by the fire that started Friday afternoon north of Asááyi Lake in Crystal, NM.
Dangerous high winds reaching to up to 60 mph in the Chuska Mountains have played a key role in keeping the fire alive.
In response to the growing fire, emergency management centers have been set up at Crystal and Naschitti Chapter Houses.
Once seeing the fire reach the summit and moving down from Biighaadi, the very top of the mountain, Gloria Dennison, of Naschitti, knew the fire was “very serious.”
A wild land firefighter, right (in yellow), can be seen walking in the direction of the fire as a helicopter drops water onto the flames Friday evening on the Chuska Mountains near Asaayi Lake, which is east of Navajo Pine, N.M. Fire officials said they did not know what caused the fire. It is continuing to be investigated.
“Some people left their livestock up there,” she said.
She added that the way fire has shifted with the wind is scary.
“This is not going to stop because of the wind,” the former chapter president said.
Melvin Stevens, a community member and president of the Authorized Local Emergency Response Team in Naschitti, said that the fire is between Whiskey Lake and Sand Springs, N.M., an area where locals also have summer sheep camps.
There is “heavy smoke and flames,” Steven said, adding that the fire has also moved down from the summit, or Biighaadi, to the region of the mountain known as Biita’dah.
“We’re trying to get organized to get people off of the mountain and keep them away from where the fire is at,” Stevens said.
“You can see the flames on our side of the mountain,” Steven said, adding, “This is one of the largest fires we had and its pretty dry up there.”
Residents are advised to stay out of the Crystal/ Asááyi Lake area. Highway 31 from Crystal to Sheep Springs is closed, as well as Highway 30 going to Mexican Springs. Route 321 coming down from Crystal Chapter to Asááyi Lake is also closed.
People are asked by the SWA Incident Management Team to avoid these roads because the dangers of the fire and the unnecessary traffic for fire crews.
The cause of the fire is still unknown at this time, and authorities aren’t ruling out the possibility of it being human caused, said Regional Fire Management Officer Dale Glenmore, who added the fire is currently being investigated by Navajo Nation authorities.
Glenmore, who briefed fire crews at the SWA Incident Management Team command center at Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock Sunday afternoon, explained that fire crews from Zuni, Fort Apache, Black Mesa, Mount Taylor, Prescott, Morman Lake, Globe and Blue Ridge are fighting the blaze.
The Southwest Region Team 3 will take over control of fire operations Monday morning. The fire crews will began work at 6 a.m. according to a Bea Day, Instinct Commander of the Southwest Region Team 3.
For more info, call the Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Forestry and Wildland Fire Management (928)729-23007 or the Navajo Nation Police Department (928) 871-6111.
Air Force Master Sgt. Shenandoah Ellis-Ulmer, second from left, poses with other members of the Native American Women Warriors, an all-female color guard that support Native female veterans. (Photo courtesy Shenandoah Ellis-Ulmer)
Even with a family military background dating back to World War I, Shenandoah Ellis-Ulmer never considered while growing up that serving in the military might be the right choice for her, too.
But that changed in her sophomore year in college after she was placed on academic probation at the University of Minnesota — what she now says was a much-needed wakeup call to spur her to seek more purpose and direction.
Still unclear, though, was exactly what purpose she should pursue and what direction she should take.
Then she recalled overhearing two classmates in the National Guard talk about the opportunities that had opened up to them after enlisting.
And for Ellis-Ulmer, there was that purpose and direction.
Nearly 20 years later, Air Force Master Sgt. Shenandoah Ellis-Ulmer, now 40, is an intelligence analyst at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington.
She’s also a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota, the first woman in her family to serve in the military and just one of thousands of Native Americans who are serving or have served their country in uniform.
Ellis-Ulmer, who has served in South Korea and the Middle East in addition to her various stateside assignments, said serving in the Air Force “has given my children, my husband and myself a different outlook on the world.”
“I want to give my children a different perspective on life because life is not what the reservation is,” she said. “Life is what you make of it.”
A tradition of service
Army Lt. Col Tracey Clyde, a Navajo from Shiprock, New Mexico, during a deployment to Joint Base Balad in Iraq. (Photo courtesy Tracey Clyde)
The Defense Department reports a total of 27,186 American Indian and Alaska Native active-duty officers and reserves, and the Veterans Affairs Department reports more than 156,000 Native American veterans. They have served in every war in American history, and 25 have have received the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor.
At least 70 Native American and Alaska Natives have died during combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 513 others were wounded in those combat zones.
Native Americans traditionally have had a strong military presence because they have a strong sense of patriotism, said Clara Platte, executive director of the Navajo Nation Washington office.
“There’s a deep tie to the land and our people and our culture, and being able to serve in the military is a way to honor that heritage,” Platte said.
But that doesn’t mean the cultural transition from “Indian Country” to military base is always easy.
Army Lt. Col. Tracey Clyde, 47, a member of the Navajo tribe, spent most of his childhood with his grandparents herding sheep near the Sweetwater Chapter on the Navajo Nation reservation in New Mexico.
In high school, Clyde decided to set his sights on attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
But once there, he soon realized that adapting to the social norms might be a challenge — even in simple things like the slang cadets might use to greet each other.
“One of the things that I had to keep from getting mad at was when they talk to each other and sometimes say, ‘Hey chief,’ ” Clyde said. “That’s one thing I got mad at my roommate for, but then I noticed other cadets my age were saying the same thing to each other.”
Clyde quickly figured out the greeting wasn’t meant to be derogatory and found his footing as an Army officer. Then while he was stationed in Seoul, South Korea, his Native American culture found him again.
A fellow officer who was also Navajo told him that her baby had just laughed for the first time. Navajos traditionally celebrate a baby’s first laugh, so Clyde and other Native Americans on their base held a ceremony, asking for the baby to be blessed by generosity and kindness.
“All Native Americans — whether they were Navajo or not — met in her apartment and we had our ‘first laugh’ party,” said Clyde, now assigned to the Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky. “Even though we were far away from our homelands, we still took the opportunity to continue our culture regardless of where we were stationed.”
Throughout his 25 years in uniform, Clyde has taken every opportunity to help other Native Americans adjust to life in the military, so “they’re not so culturally shocked with all the stuff they’re thrown into.”
An honorable life
Ellis-Ulmer, who has deployed 15 times to the Middle East, said that for her, and for most Native Americans, serving in the military is considered an honorable life.
A survivor of childhood sex abuse and domestic violence as an adult, Ellis-Ulmer does her part to help other Native American women who have lived that life.
As a member of the Native American Women Warriors, an all-women color guard that supports Native American female veterans dealing with homelessness, sexual assault trauma and the transition back to civilian life, Ellis-Ulmer regularly speaks at powwows and community events to raise awareness of veteran issues.
“I don’t think I’ve come across one Native woman who has said that they were not abused, whether it was by their husbands, their partners or their family members,” Ellis-Ulmer said. “Dealing with all these violent acts against Native women is my motivation because I don’t want this mentality of abuse to perpetuate.”
As a way to show her appreciation for what the Air Force has done for her, Ellis-Ulmer speaks about military life as part of the We Are All Recruiters program, which allows active-duty members to recruit for the Air Force in their own communities.
Recently the Santee Sioux tribe honored her for her military service with a golden eagle tail feather.
“They told me to wear it turned down,” she explained, “Because now I’m a warrior to them.”
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) – The race to become president on the nation’s largest American Indian reservation has drawn a crowded field of seasoned politicians, a woman, political newcomers and the incumbent.
Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly will be challenged by 16 others in his bid for a second term. Among them are former President Joe Shirley Jr., tribal lawmakers Kenneth Maryboy and Russell Begaye, Carrie Lynn Martin and the third-place finisher in the 2010 primary, Donald Benally.
Navajos will choose two candidates on Aug. 26 to move on to November’s general election. They will also narrow down the list of those seeking a seat on the 24-member Navajo Nation Council. One lawmaker, Jonathan Nez, is running unopposed while other legislative races feature up to nine candidates.
At stake is management of a vast reservation that covers 27,000 square miles and representation of about 300,000 tribal members, not all of whom live on the Navajo Nation. Presidential candidates often focus their platforms on education, services for veterans, ensuring Navajos have a voice in their government and economic development in an area where half the workforce is unemployed.
Nine of the presidential candidates are from the Arizona portion of the reservation, seven are from New Mexico and one is from Utah.
Some of the candidates share hometowns. Shirley and Myron McLaughlin are from Chinle; Chris Deschene and Dale Tsosie are from LeChee; and Begaye, Donald Benally, Duane” Chili” Yazzie and Dan Smith are from Shiprock, New Mexico.
The other candidates are tribal elections director Edison Wauneka, former lawmaker Kee Yazzie Mann, Hank Whitethorne, Edison “Chip” Begay, Moroni Benally and businessman Cal Nez.
Turning on the lights or opening the fridge are things many of us take for granted. But if you’ve never had electricity, they might seem like luxuries. Now, for dozens of families on the Navajo Nation, those luxuries are becoming a reality. As Arizona Public Radio’s Aaron Granillo reports, more than 60 families will soon have electricity for the first time in their lives.
Margie Tso has a beautiful view from her family ranch on the Navajo Nation, just southeast of Page.
“I have been living out here since 1952,” said Tso.
The view from the Tso’s ranch of LeChee Rock, a sacred mountain to the Navajo people.
Credit Aaron Granillo
From her front yard, you can see miles and miles of red and orange sandstone. And LeChee Rock, a sacred mountain to the Navajo people. But from the backyard, there’s a clear view of the Navajo Generating Station, which has been supplying electricity all over the southwest since 1976. But not to Tso’s house.
“At times we kind of grumbled about it, but what could we do? I was brought up in the same matter that I learned to deal with,” said Tso. “Building a fire out of wood, using the charcoal for everything. Making bread, cooking meat, making stew, and such and such.”
But all of that has changed because of a nearly $5 million joint project that’s bringing electricity to certain areas of the Navajo Nation, including Tso’s ranch.
“It’s sort of a miracle for people to live like that,” said Tso. “Flip on a light. Get your remote. Your pleasure’s right there before you.”
Smoke stacks at the Navajo Generating Station can be seen from the Tso’s ranch.
Credit Aaron Granillo
Although the Navajo Generating Station has been producing electricity for decades, it’s not legally allowed to provide power to the Navajo Nation. That ownership and sovereignty belongs to the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. But according to officials, they’ve never had enough money to build power poles in remote parts of the reservation. That is until now.
“The Navajo Generating Station and SRP donated about $2 million. NTUA donated some,” said Paul Begay, a business information technician with NGS.
Additional funding came from the Navajo Nation Abandoned Mine Lands program and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. By 2015, the project will bring electricity to 63 families.
“The first thing people mention is refrigerator. ‘Oh good, I’m not going to buy any more ice,'” Begay said.
Using ice to keep food fresh is what Pearl Begay did for decades. She lives just up the road from Tso’s ranch. Pearl only speaks native Navajo, so her daughter, Daisy, translates.
“She said she like her electric. The lights mostly, and her refrigerator.” said Daisy.
According to Daisy and Pearl, they should have had power a long time ago. They claim they were promised electricity nearly 40 years ago, while the Navajo Generating Station was being built.
“They built the plant right there, and they forget them,” said Daisy.
Their neighbor, Margie Tso, feels the same way.
“They started giving us hope, giving us hope,” said Tso. “And then they say, ‘It’s going to cost too much.’ And so then I just lost hope. I thought, ‘Well, whatever. I guess I won’t have electricity at the ranch.’”
But now that she does, life has become much easier.
“(It will) be quicker to do things than trying to hook up this and that, or run out of gas and run to town to get more gas,” said Tso. “A miracle happened that it came through.”
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — Prosecutors investigating the use of discretionary funds on the Navajo Nation are seeking to try a handful of defendants together.
In a request Wednesday to tribal Judge Carol Perry, prosecutors said consolidating the trials would save tens of thousands of dollars in court expenses, jury fees and prosecution.
Perry has not ruled on the request.
Jury trials aren’t common in Navajo courts. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report on tribal courts, eight were held on the Navajo Nation between 2007 and 2011 among 51,000 civil and criminal cases. At the time, none of the tribe’s 10 district courts had set aside funds for jurors in their budgets.
Prosecutors are seeking to combine trials for two current and three former tribal lawmakers who are facing bribery charges.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – Facing a high prevalence of diabetes, many American Indian tribes are returning to their roots with community and home gardens, cooking classes that incorporate traditional foods, and running programs to encourage healthy lifestyles.
The latest effort on the Navajo Nation, the country’s largest reservation, is to use the tax system to spur people to ditch junk food.
A proposed 2 percent sales tax on chips, cookies and sodas failed Tuesday in a Tribal Council vote. But the measure still has widespread support, and advocates plan to revive it, with the hope of making the tribe one of the first governments to enact a junk-food tax.
Elected officials across the U.S. have taken aim at sugary drinks with proposed bans, size limits, tax hikes and warning labels, though their efforts have not gained widespread traction. In Mexico, lawmakers approved a junk food tax and a tax on soft drinks last year as part of that government’s campaign to fight obesity.
Navajo President Ben Shelly earlier this year vetoed measures to establish a junk-food tax and eliminate the tax on fresh fruit and vegetables. At Tuesday’s meeting, tribal lawmakers overturned the veto on the tax cut, but a vote to secure the junk-food tax fell short. Lawmakers voted 13-7 in favor of it, but the tax needed 16 votes to pass.
The Dine Community Advocacy Alliance, which led the effort, said it plans to revise the proposal and bring it before lawmakers again during the summer legislative session.
“We’re going to keep moving on it,’’ group member Gloria Begay said. “It’s not so much the tax money – it’s the message. The message being, ‘Let’s look at our health and make healthier choices.’ We have to go out and do more education awareness.’’
Shelly said he supports the proposal’s intent but questioned how the higher tax on snacks high in fat, sugar and salt would be enacted and regulated. Supporters say the tax is another tool in their fight for the health of the people.
“If we can encourage our people to make healthier choices and work on the prevention side, we increase the life span of our children, we improve their quality of life,’’ said professional golfer Notah Begay III, who is among supporters.
American Indians and Alaska Natives as a whole have the highest age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes among U.S. racial and ethnic groups, according to the American Diabetes Association. They are more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to have the disease that was the fourth leading cause of death in the Navajo area from 2003 to 2005, according to the Indian Health Service.
Native children ages 10 to 19 are nine times as likely to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the IHS said.
The proposed Navajo Nation tax wouldn’t have added significantly to the price of junk food, but buying food on the reservation presents obstacles that don’t exist in most of urban America. The reservation is a vast 27,000 square miles with few grocery stores and a population with an unemployment rate of around 50 percent. Thousands of people live without electricity and have no way of storing perishable food items for too long.
“They have a tendency to purchase what’s available, and it’s not always the best food,’’ said Leslie Wheelock, director of tribal relations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Wheelock said the diabetes issue in tribal communities is one that has been overlooked in the past or not taken as seriously as it could be. It has roots in the federal government taking over American Indian lands and introducing food that tribal members weren’t used to, she said.
To help remedy that, the USDA runs a program that distributes nutritional food to 276 tribes. Grants from the agency have gone toward gardening lessons for children within the Seneca Nation of Indians in New York, culturally relevant exercise programs for the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota and food demonstrations using fresh fruit and vegetables on the Zuni reservations in New Mexico.
The Dine Community Advocacy Alliance estimated a junk-food tax would result in at least $1 million a year in revenue that could go toward wellness centers, community parks, walking trails and picnic grounds in Navajo communities in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. It would have expired at the end of 2018.
No other sales tax on the Navajo Nation specifically targets the spending habits of consumers. Alcohol is sold in a few places on the reservation but isn’t taxed. Retailers and distributors pay a tobacco tax.
Opponents of the junk food tax argued it would burden customers and drive revenue off the reservation. Mike Gardner, executive director of the Arizona Beverage Association, said the lack of specifics in the legislation as to what exactly would be taxed could mean fruit juice and nutritional shakes could be lumped in the same category as sodas.
“I don’t think they mean that, but that’s what will happen,’’ Gardner said. “It’s a little loose, a little vague. It’s going to create problems for retailers and … it doesn’t solve the problem.’’
Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, D-Cameron, wants to add designations to four northern Arizona highways honoring Native American veterans. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Arianna Grainey)
As a member of the Navajo Nation and an Army veteran, a state representative says Arizona needs to do more to honor Native Americans who have served and sacrificed for their country.
Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, D-Cameron, said one way to start would be adopting new names honoring Native American veterans for portions of highways that pass through Navajo and Hopi land in northeastern Arizona. They are U.S. 89, U.S. 160, State Route 264 and Interstate 40.
She said the designations would help connect tribes and the rest of the state.
“It really creates a live, real awareness of people that travel those roads when they’re there immediately,” she said. “It’s not just in a textbook, it’s just not a number, 89, 160, 264. It’s not just a number, it becomes a real life place. It becomes what it is, which is Native American country.”
She introduced four memorials this year that would urge the Arizona Department of Transportation to make these changes: for U.S. 89, Native American Veterans Highway; for U.S. 160, Native American Women Veterans Highway; for State Route 264, Native American Code Talker Highway; and for I-40, Navajo Code Talker Trail.
While the measures weren’t heard in committee, Peshlakai said she will urge U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff, to work in Congress to have I-40 between the New Mexico state line and Flagstaff designated as Navajo Code Talker Trail.
Jennifer Johnson, communications director for Kirkpatrick, said that while she couldn’t comment on Peshlakai’s proposal to the state Legislature the congresswoman supports efforts to honor Native American veterans.
“Native Americans have served our country in a higher proportion than any other group. So there’s more Native Americans, percentage-wise, than any other group or subset that you could slice out,” Johnson said.
In 2003, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed legislation to designate I-40 through Arizona as Purple Heart Trail. Peshlakai said doesn’t intend to appear disrespectful to that designation by taking the issue to Kirkpatrick.
“It might just be a small strip between Winslow and Flagstaff, but I just don’t know. I would have to really talk with her,” Peshlakai said.
Terry Hill, a retired Army command sergeant major who serves as committeeman for the Show Low-based White Mountain Area Veterans of Foreign Wars, said that while he would love to see Native American veterans honored he wouldn’t want the designation Purple Heart Trail removed from any stretch of I-40.
“Somebody would have to really talk to me and give me a good argument for the VFW to support it,” he said.
Hill said designating part of the road as both Navajo Code Talker Trail and Purple Heart Trail might be acceptable.
In a statement shared by a spokesman, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly noted that New Mexico’s Route 264 is already called Navajo Code Talker Highway.
“I do support all veterans, men and women because I have veterans in my family,” he said.
Rick Abasta, the Navajo Nation’s communications director, said he believes Shelly would support renaming part of I-40.
“He’s definitely a major supporter and stands behind the Navajo Code Talkers,” Abasta said. “Anything that would honor them in that way would certainly be a blessing.”
Proposed:
• Navajo Code Talker Trail: Interstate 40 New Mexico and Flagstaff.
• Native American Veterans Highway: U.S. 89 between Utah and Flagstaff.
• Native American Women Veterans Highway: U.S. 160 between New Mexico and U.S. 89.
• Native American Code Talker Highway: State Route 264 between Tuba City and Window Rock.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation president has vetoed a proposal to impose an additional tax on chips, cookies and sweetened beverages on the country’s largest reservation, but the legislation could be resurrected later.
President Ben Shelly supports the idea of a junk food tax as a way to combat high rates of diabetes and obesity among tribal members and encourage healthy lifestyles, his adviser Deswood Tome said Wednesday. But Shelly said the legislation isn’t clear on how the tax on snacks high in fat, sugar and salt would be enforced and regulated, according to Tome.
“There are a lot of supporters out there for the tax, and again, the president wants a plan that works,” Tome said. “He’s asking the (Tribal) Council to take back this initiative and redo it so that the burden is not on the government to implement a law that is going to create hardship, especially in the collection of taxes.”
The Dine Community Advocacy Alliance and tribal lawmakers had been positioning the Navajo Nation to become the leader in Indian Country when it comes to using the tax system to press tribal members to make healthier choices.
School districts across the country have banned junk food from vending machines. Cities and states have used taxes and other financial incentives to encourage healthy choices, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, but not all the efforts have been met with overwhelming support.
The legislation in the Navajo Nation Council did not have a smooth ride either.
Denisa Livingston of the Dine Community Advocacy Alliance said the group worked for two years to get tribal lawmakers to pass the legislation. Dine is the Navajo word for “the people.”
Livingston said American Indians are more likely to suffer from diabetes and other chronic health problems than the average American.
She estimated that imposing an additional 2 percent tax on junk food sold on the Navajo reservation would result in at least $1 million a year in revenue that could go toward wellness centers, community parks, walking trails and picnic grounds in tribal communities. The tax would have expired at the end of 2018.
“Every one of our Navajo families has someone who is suffering from chronic disease,” she said. “This is the initiative we wanted to take because we see our families suffering.”
About 14 percent of the people in the area of the Navajo Nation have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the federal Indian Health Service.
American Indian and Alaska Native adults are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as non-Hispanic whites, and Native children ages 10 to 19 are nine times as likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the agency said.
Opponents of the tax in Navajo communities in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah argued it would burden consumers and drive revenue off the reservation.
Shelly also vetoed a companion bill to eliminate the tribe’s 5 percent sales tax on nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables. Tome said Shelly would like lawmakers to revise the legislation to address his concerns.
The Tribal Council can override Shelly’s vetoes with a two-thirds vote of its 24 members. Livingston said she would pursue that option with lawmakers.
Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2014/02/12/2981159/navajo-nation-president-blocks.html#storylink=cpy
