The Nome Nugget

P. O. Department Rewards Navajo Who
Conquered Fear of Superstition, Death

INDIAN WELLS, Ariz., (A) The postmaster of this tiny Navajo reservation community will be honored Friday by the Post Office Department for defying a superstition as old as man himself.

The postmaster is Herbert S. Hukriede, 50, and behind the award he is to receive is a story of death, fear and friendship that goes back to the hot afternoon of July 15.

That day, Harry Joe, a 17-year-old Navajo, was struck and killed by lightning while tending a flock of sheep near his family's hogan.

His elderly parents found his body lying under an abandoned wagon. Joe had been struck dead by the evil spirit of lightning, they believed, and an ancient Navajo superstition came back to haunt them. They refused to go near their son's body.

Indian police also refused to touch the corpse.

"They built a fire about 50 yards from the body that night," Hukriede recalled Sunday, "but they wouldn't go near it. Next day they asked me to help."

Hukriede transported the body to the mission.

"They wanted a Christian burial for the boy," he said, "but the missionary, Glen Davis, wasn't due back until the next day. It was pretty hot, so I sent a couple of the boy's relatives over to Holbrook to get some block ice so I could cool the body."

On July 17, Davis conducted the services at an Indian burial ground beside the mission. Hukriede dropped young Joe's saddle, his lariat, a few pieces of cheap jewelry and an empty suitcase into the grave.

From a hillside a quarter mile away the dead boy's family watched the ceremony. Superstition prevented them from going any closer.

"They think they'll go blind or something if they touch anything that has been hit by lightning," Hukriede explained. "They won't even touch a stone or stick that's been struck."

Hukriede's award for public service above and beyond the call of duty will be presented by Assistant Postmaster-General Eugene Lyons in a ceremony at Indian Wells.