Navajo Times

Two Tribal
Navajos
See
Changing
Era
Parks Are
By
Berniece Batterton
in
the
Establishe

Town Hall Meeting

A meeting of Navajo District Five in the handsome new chapter house in Tolani Lake, Saturday, had all the elements of a town hall meeting in the early American tradition.

Tribal members, district delegates to Navajo Tribal Council and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials discussed the matter of most serious import to the Navajos--the urgent necessity to develop industry.

The population has outgrown the range available for sheep and cattle raising, Ned Hatathli, Tribal Council resources chairman, told more than 200 tribal members who crowded the chapter house.

Frank W. Bradley, council delegate of Tuba City, and a member of the budget and finance committee, said the $8 million spent on public works to provide jobs in recent years is not the answer.

Unsatisfactory roads have been built over sand dunes, he said, and dams have gone out.

"I haven't seen a place where the money has been spent wisely," he said.

The answer must be training for employment, he said. Another $1 million has been approved this year, Bradley added, but "people who get just 10 days of work at a time are not getting benefits expectedsa".

"There is a great majority-- those in between the owners of livestock and the young people who are being educated for vocations-- who are without education and without livestock, Bradley said.

Want Gymnasium

The need for a vocational high school on the western end of the reservation and the need for a gymnasium in Winslow Dormitory was discussed by several.

Jefferson Begay of Seba Dalkai, a junior in Winslow High School and a resident in the dormitory, (Continued on Page 3)

NAVAJO LEADERS--At the District 5 meeting in Tolani Lake chapter house March 17, are left to right, Floyd Williams, district president; Frank Bradley, Council delegate of Tuba City; Ned Hatathli, Window Rock, Tribal Council resources division chairman; Eugene Price, Council delegate of Tolani Lake and Bert Kelly, Leupp, who presided as chairman.--Mailfoto by B. Batterton.
Navajos See Change
(Continued from Page 1)

made the student address and was warmly commended.

Seventy-five percent of Navajo students who graduate from high school qualify for higher education, he said, listing Winslow Dormitory graduates who are in various colleges and training institutions.

Young Navajos, he said, are learning to compete in off-reservation society, and absorbing non-Indian culture without relinquishing their own cultural heritage.

Before the meeting, luncheon was served to visitors by women and girls of Tolani Lake. Food was donated by Eugene Price, Tribal Council member, and Floyd Williams, Chapter Five president.

Price opened the meeting and Henry Tsosi, community director of Tuba City, sub-agency BIA, was interpreter. Bert Kelly, of Leupp was discussion chairman.

Winslow Group

Clyde Ivey, boys' counselor at Winslow, drove the Winslow group to Tolani Lake; it also included Ben Thompson, Grace Paddock, Sylvia Attakai and the Winslow Mail reporter.

Price said three months of bad weather this winter made the need for a gymnasium in Winslow Dormitory more acute.

Without a surfaced playground, snow and mud kept the students indoors without adequate exercise, all winter, he pointed out.

Wade Head, Gallup area director of Bureau of Indian Affairs, said the request has been made since the dormitory opened in 1954.

"If you keep it up long enough, you may get it," he said, pointing out that Winslow Dormitory, one of 11 in the dormitory system, opened in temporary 'shacks' and is now one of the best in the system.