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"... only sagebrush, rabbit brush, snake weeds, and the endless variety of demure little blossoms produced by dry country grasses" — Tony Hillerman, Arizona Highways In the 38 years I knew Tony Hillerman, we didn't talk much about writing. We talked about a lot of other things — football, fishing, newspapers (he had been a reporter and an editor), baseball, poker, religion, politics, food, war, power (and his eternal enmity toward those who abused it at the expense of the powerless). We talked about everything under the sun, but we didn't talk much about writing. So I never was able...

Navajos, Late Author Hillerman Shared Affection Monday, October 27, 2008 10:02 PM FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- On the Navajo Nation where tribal members sometimes hesitate to open up to outsiders, they embraced Tony Hillerman as an honest and genuine man who wanted to learn about their culture and get the details right. Hillerman, who died Sunday of pulmonary failure at age 83, was author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels. His books in the Navajo series were characterized by vivid descriptions of Navajo rituals and of the vast reservation in the Four Corners region. But Hillerman's relationship with the...

PHOENIX -- Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes — Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee — died Sunday of pulmonary failure. He was 83. Hillerman's daughter, Anne Hillerman, said her father's health had been declining in the last couple years and that he was at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque when he died at about 3 p.m. Hillerman lived through two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer. He kept tapping at his keyboard even as his eyes began to dim, as...

4/1/2008 - NAVAJO, N.M. (AFPN) -- Air Force Academy cadets, civil engineering professors and family members performed volunteer work during the Academy's spring break March 24 to 28 on a Navajo reservation here. Organized by the Academy's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Southwest Indian Foundation, one of this year's spring break projects took the Academy volunteers to the home of Korean War veteran Hoskie Bitsilly, Sr. Mr. Bitsilly's wife, Grace, suffered a stroke recently and is now wheelchair-bound, but their home was not wheelchair-accessible. "The cadets are trying to renovate the deck, to extend out the deck...

DURANT, Okla. -- Not many Choctaw Indians can speak their ancient tongue anymore.As was the case in many tribes, the Choctaw elders wanted their children to speak the white man's language, while the U.S. government tried hard to eradicate it on its own."Choctaw was all I could talk until I was 9 years old," said Bertram Bobb, 83, one of the tribe's elders. "But I can't speak it fluently anymore. Not too many can."There was a time -- many years ago now -- when the Choctaw language not only served as a cultural touchstone but also saved lives.Although few people...

Tucson, AZ - The Navajo believe that dawn is the most sacred time of the day. But as daylight broke across the University of Arizona campus, tragedy struck one Navajo student. Mia Henderson, 18, a UA freshman from the Navajo Reservation, was killed in an apparent stabbing, police said. UA police arrested her roommate, Galareka Harrison, also 18 and from the Navajo Reservation, and said she would be jailed on suspicion of first-degree murder. Henderson's death shocked the tight-knit American Indian student population at the UA.

     The FReeper Canteen Presents National Navajo Code Talkers Day     Welcome to the FReeper Canteen! It's great to have you with all of us!! Thank you to all of our Troops, Veterans, and their families for allowing us to entertain you!        The Navajo Code Talkers received no recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968. In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14 "National Code Talkers Day."During World War II (1939-1945), the U.S. Marines trained Navajo soldiers as code talkers....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today met here with a group of Marine veterans who used their native Navajo language to baffle the Japanese during World War II. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left, meets with five Navajo Code Talkers and their family members at the Pentagon, Aug. 10, 2007. The Navajos served as U.S. Marines in World War II and helped develop a communications code based on their language. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Among the interesting people encountered by my wife and me, during some recent vacation travel, were a small group of adolescent boys from a Navajo reservation. They were being led on a bicycle tour by a couple of white men, one of whom was apparently their teacher on the reservation. The Navajo youngsters were bright and cheerful lads, so I was surprised when someone asked them in what state Pittsburgh was located and none of them knew. Then they were offered a clue that it was in the same state as Philadelphia but they didn't know...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) -- The newly re-elected president of the Navajo Nation said he hopes that the Democrats' takeover of Congress will help the nation's largest American Indian reservation, saying it was hard to win federal money from Republicans. In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, the day after the Navajo general election, Joe Shirley Jr.'s thoughts were partly on how the political shift in Washington will translate into federal action on his reservation, which is home to about 300,000 people in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. "We're going to have a lot more friends in Washington,"...

Whether you're with the "long-ear planning group" or the "animal-that-ropes-with-his-nose planning group," this year's election will prove to be a little more aurally interesting than in the past. For the first time, spoken Navajo translations of the ballot will be available on voting machines that allow voters to select their choices on a screen. [snip] Other terms, such as Democratic Party and Republican Party, are easier - just describe the animals used to represent each party, as has been done for years, James said. But translate those Navajo words back into English, and the Democrats and their donkey become the...

6 armed people holed up at high school in northeastern Arizona Six armed people were holed up Wednesday at a high school in northeastern Arizona, authorities said. It was unclear whether the six were holding students hostage at Ganado High School or whether the six armed people were students. A male was armed with a gun, while five females had knives, said Jim Benally, police chief for Window Rock, a nearby community. Authorities said the incident began around mid-afternoon and that police sealed off the area around the school.

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan visited the Navajo Nation today to discuss issues the two groups have in common. A spokesman for Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley says Farrakhan had wanted to learn more about the tribe and the region and suggested the visit. Farrakhan had a series of meetings with Shirley and others and spoke before the tribal council. He touched on racial tensions that Navajos say have been brewing in the towns bordering the sprawling reservation. Farrakhan and Shirley also talked about American Indians’ struggle for sovereignty and self-determination and the need...

Former Chapel Hill author Nasdijj won national acclaim writing memoirs about his brutal childhood as a Navajo Indian in the Southwest and as a father to two adopted sons who died of AIDS and fetal alcohol syndrome. In truth, he was Timothy P. Barrus, a man of Scandinavian descent who grew up in a solidly middle-class neighborhood of Lansing, Mich., and had a career writing gay pornography, according to public records and several people who know Barrus. The likelihood that Barrus had fabricated his past -- and parlayed the fiction into three successful nonfiction books -- was first raised Wednesday...

In June of 1999 a writer calling himself Nasdijj emerged from obscurity to publish an ode to his adopted son in Esquire. “My son is dead,” he began. “I didn’t say my adopted son is dead. He was my son. My son was a Navajo. He lived six years. They were the best six years of my life.” The boy’s name was Tommy Nothing Fancy and Nasdijj wrote that he and his wife adopted Tommy as an infant and raised him in their home on the Navajo reservation. At first, Tommy seemed like a healthy baby, albeit one who consistently...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Sept. 2, 2005) -- During World War II, about 400 Native Americans enlisted as code talkers to aid the Marine Corps with a secret communication the enemy never broke. Pvt. Keylon W. Yazzie, Platoon 3097, Company I, plans to uphold the legacy of his Navajo ancestors by following the footsteps of a group of Marines who left a lasting mark on the Marine Corps - a mark of traditions, values, history and language. "My great grandfather Harding Yazzie Sr. and my great uncle George Kirk were code talkers and they inspired me to...

HADITHA, AL ANBAR, Iraq (June 29, 2005) -- In many past wars, Native Americans have made great contributions to keeping America safe. The Navajo Code talkers are among the most memorable. Now four members of the Navajo Nation from Arizona and New Mexico are writing a new chapter of war heroes for their people and the Marine Corps by fighting in the war on terrorism and remembering their ancestors. “I’m proud to be fighting for my country in the best fighting force we have to offer,” said Sgt. Leighton Redhouse, a squad leader with Weapons Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines....

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. vetoed a same-sex marriage ban passed by the Navajo Nation Council. However, the veto could face an override in the council and the gay marriage ban could still become law. While Shirley said gay marriage is not an issue on the Navajo Nation because currently gays are not requesting marriage licenses, the Navajo gay community, concerned with freedom of future choices, disagreed. Shirley said the law would generate feelings of disharmony and disunity among Navajos and violates a central Navajo belief in goodwill. "The legislation veiled a discriminatory aspect in the...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - The president of the Navajo Nation vetoed a measure Sunday that would have banned same-sex marriage on the Indian reservation. The Tribal Council voted unanimously last month to pass legislation that restricts a recognized union to a relationship between a man and a woman, and prohibits plural marriages as well as marriages between close relatives. Supporters said the goal was to promote Navajo family values and preserve the sanctity of marriage. President Joe Shirley Jr. said in a statement released Sunday that he strongly supports family stability but the proposed measure said nothing about domestic violence,...

The Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation, has backed a bill to ban gay marriage, although the tribal president is still deciding whether to oppose the measure, his spokesman said on Monday. George Hardeen, spokesman for Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., said the tribal council backed the measure 63-0 last week despite Shirley's past opposition to such a ban. "It appears to be government intrusion in personal lives," Hardeen said in relaying Shirley's view on homosexual marriage. "It was a strong vote, and for all I know he might speak to his advisors and just sign it." In March,...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - The Navajo Nation on Friday outlawed same-sex marriages on its reservation. The Tribal Council voted unanimously in favor of legislation that restricts a recognized union to that between a man and a woman, and prohibits plural marriages as well as marriages between close relatives. "Men and women have been created in a sacred manner. We need to honor this," said Del. Harriet Becenti. Critics have said the measure's sponsor, Del. Larry Anderson, was attempting to rewrite cultural history to parallel the clash across the United States between conservative Christians and gay rights activists. But Del. Lorenzo...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - The Navajo Nation has outlawed uranium mining and processing on its reservation, which sprawls across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and contains one of the world's largest deposits of uranium ore. Tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. must give the bill final approval. His spokesman said Thursday that Shirley "strongly" supports it. Mining companies began blasting holes on the reservation, which covers 27,000 square miles, in the 1940s and continued for nearly 40 years until decreased demand closed the operations. By then, the Navajos were left with radiation sickness, contaminated tailings and abandoned mines....

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - On American Indian reservations, some tribes are debating whether they should embrace gay marriage or shun such unions as an affront to family values. The controversy in these often-ignored sovereign territories within the United States comes as Americans in general are divided, often bitterly, over same-sex weddings. The controversy made headlines again this week as a judge ruled that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. "What goes on in Indian nations now is a microcosm of what is going on across the country," said David Cornsilk, a Cherokee representing two lesbians in the most prominent...

EXCERPT: "FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) - San Juan County Clerk Fran Hanhardt says a Navajo woman reports that she was offered $50 to vote for Kerry. But a spokesman for the New Mexico Kerry-Edwards campaign says there may be some confusion. Ruben Pulido says the campaign is hiring people for $50 to canvass neighborhoods and drive voters to the polls Election Day...."

Navajo maidens lining up for the annual beauty pageant, the sheriff of the local Apache County signing up deputies for the fight against drugs and a doom-laden white preacher handing out free Gideon bibles. At first glance, the annual Navajo rodeo looks much as it has done for decades. High up in the mountains of Arizona, this is the largest annual gathering of American Indians, or Native Americans as they are now known. And it is a rare chance to get a whiff of the old West. Ten-gallon hats, cowboy boots and a swagger remain de rigeur for the Navajo...

Forests, mountains, streams and valleys - 325 miles of them: this is the Polish-Ukrainian border. "It's easy to cross illegally without being watched. And if someone crosses it, the EU is open to them," says Jerzy Ostrowski, a group leader for the Polish border police. Help, however, in rooting out potential illegal immigrants - or, indeed, would-be terrorists - has arrived in the incongruous form of Indian scouts. Last week, three American-Indian trackers from the Navajo and Tohono O'odham tribes joined a 26-strong group of Polish customs officers around the small town of Huwniki, which lies about 250 miles southeast...

Navajo Nation ignores N.M. act By Jim Snyder/The Daily Times Mar 16, 2004, 09:23 am FARMINGTON — The Navajo Nation Council and the Diné Division of Education has ignored the New Mexico Legislature’s Indian Education Act of 2003 meant to help Navajo students. Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, admitted the Navajo Nation has not done anything one year after Gov. Bill Richardson signed his bill signed into law. “It’s still in its infancy,” Begaye said Monday. The act permits the Navajo Nation to certify its own Navajo language teachers to be placed in state public schools thereby increasing bilingual education....

Attorney secures medal, benefits for Navajo WWII vet SAN ANTONIO -- Fifty-nine years after he narrowly survived the Battle of Iwo Jima, Navajo code talker Teddy Draper Sr. finally has been awarded the Purple Heart by the U.S. Marine Corps. The 80-year-old Arizonan also has won long-overdue veterans benefits for the hearing loss, temporary blindness and other injuries he sustained from a mortar blast in the 1945 battle in Japan. And he credits both recent developments to his pro bono attorney, George P. Parker Jr., of the San Antonio law office of Houston-based Bracewell & Patterson. Their chance encounter in...

A coalition of environmentalists, ranchers and tribal groups filed suit yesterday to block the Bureau of Land Management's plan to authorize almost 10,000 new oil and gas wells in the San Juan Basin, which straddles the New Mexico-Colorado border and already produces 7 percent of the nation's natural gas supply. Plaintiffs, represented by the Western Resource Advocates attorney Mike Chiropolos, contend that BLM's decision to step up production would adversely affect the local ranching economy, air quality and American Indian cultural sites. Thus, they are asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to halt the BLM plan...

Campaign 2004: Kucinich urges spiritual reclamation for America Posted: January 24, 2004 - 11:55am EST by: Brenda Norrell / Correspondent / Indian Country Today FARMINGTON, N.M. - Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich received a personal blessing from an esteemed Navajo medicine man, after another leading Navajo medicine man sang the Blessing Way chant, at the "Healing the Uranium Legacy" convention organized by grassroots Navajo. Deeply moved, Ohio Rep. Kucinich said he felt the connection to the land and universe as was shared in the Blessing Way chant and the philosophy of living a life of beauty, in harmony with...

From Farmington Daily Times Headlines Kucinich slams Bush By Jim Snyder/The Daily Times Jan 18, 2004, 12:39 am FARMINGTON — U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, called for the United States to leave Iraq and for the USA PATRIOT Act to be repealed, during a visit Saturday morning at the Farmington Civic Center. Ben Chrisman/The Daily Times Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich, of Ohio, speaks at the Diné Bidziil Navajo grass roots coalition conference at the Farmington Civic Center, Saturday. Kucinich, running for the democratic presidential nomination, made a brief stopover to the Four Corners community, a republican stronghold, while...

2003 Top ten stories 1. Lori Piestewa becomes the first female and first Native American to be killed in the Iraq war, which generates recognition of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe, women in general, especially mothers, in the armed forces and debate again about the word "squaw" leading to the renaming of Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak. Overall, however, all of Indian Country joined the United States in mourning. When war erupted in Iraq, the sons and daughters of the Navajo Nation answer the call. Similar to the Navajo Nation response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,...

Code Talkers' Families Honored On Their Behalf Records Confirm Identities Of 9 Code Talkers POSTED: 9:01 a.m. MST November 12, 2003 WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- The families of nine Navajo Code Talkers in World War II received Congressional Silver Medals on behalf of their loved ones Tuesday. None of the nine men, recently confirmed by records as Code Talkers, is still alive. Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, of Arizona, presented the medals during a Veterans Day ceremony in Window Rock. The Code Talkers were U.S. Marines who helped defeat the Japanese in World War II by using an unbreakable radio...

Task force: Let fund grow to $1 billion By Bill Donovan Special to the Times WINDOW ROCK - A task force created by the Navajo Nation Council to come up with a plan on how to spend money from the Permanent Trust Fund wants the council and the Navajo people to be patient. Instead of spending the money when it becomes available in 2007, the task force is urging the council to reinvest the money for another five years or until the fund reaches a level of $1 billion. "It's like seeing your corn grow," one Navajo elder said...

Navajos debate duty and death penalty 02:23 PM MST on Sunday, October 5, 2003 The Associated Press FORT DEFIANCE -- Talking things out has always been the traditional Navajo method of resolving disputes and addressing crime. But a different and more violent caliber of crime has come to the Navajo reservation, sparking a new debate about the death penalty. The nation's largest Indian tribe is considering allowing capital punishment for first-degree murders committed on their reservations. The debate among Navajos has taken the form of public hearings across the reservation over the past two weeks. Navajo Nation President Joe...

Samuel J. Smith, Sr., left, and William Toledo are honored during Wednesday's dedication of the Key Management Infrastructure Building on Fort Huachuca. The two former Marines were Navajo Code Talkers and used their native language to transmit messages making it impossible for the enemy to decipher. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) FORT HUACHUCA -- William Toledo, his voice still strong for a 79-year-old, sang a song every Marine knows, the one that starts with the words "from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli." Toledo sang the Marine Hymn in English and then in Navajo. It was Navajo, his native tongue,...

<p>Robert Yazzie displays his Congressional Silver Medal for Distinguished Service, which he received yesterday for his role as a Navajo ''code talker'' during World War II.</p> <p>BILLY KINGSLEY Jay Drescher of Franklin performs a Native American dance at the Whitland Avenue Fourth of July celebration in honor of Navajo ''code talker'' Robert Yazzie.</p>

PAGE, Ariz. - For the life of them, the Kidmans cannot figure out how they could have kept most of their Navajo employees working in their family's burger stand if they had not enforced an English-only policy. It saved their business, the Kidmans say. But their ban on use of the Navajo language also has triggered the first-ever English-only discrimination lawsuit on behalf of Native Americans by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on Sept. 27, has drawn national attention because it may shape the rights of all U.S. workers to speak languages...

<p>MESSAGES: 'Gini,' the Navajo word for chicken hawk, meant dive bomber.</p> <p>Shortly into World War II, breaking the American military code was like solving a daily crossword puzzle for Japanese cryptographers.</p> <p>That was when the U.S. Marine Corps turned to the Navajo Nation to recruit fluent young Navajo speakers to devise a code to stump the Japanese enemy in the Pacific.</p>

Navajo lawsuit targets English-only work rule Feds back tribe in 'historic' act A small, family-owned burger grill in Page, a border town to the Navajo Nation, has become the first business to be sued by the federal government for not allowing Native Americans to speak their own language at work. The suit, announced Monday, is the first time the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed an English-only lawsuit based on a Native American language rather than Spanish, said Mary Jo O'Neill, acting regional attorney for the agency's Phoenix office. "It's historic," O'Neill said. "Obviously, Navajo was spoken in this area...

Don't be fooled by the ads for director John Woo's new World War II movie, "Windtalkers." The star of the movie isn't Nicolas Cage or Christian Slater. Or the multi-million-dollar special effects employed for dramatic battle scenes. Or even the flag-waving, feel-good patriotism so coveted by post-9/11 American moviegoers. No, the star of "Windtalkers," which opens Friday, is an ancient language - gorgeously complex, maddeningly impenetrable to non-native speakers - without which America might not have won the war. It's Navajo. The language of the Navajo Indians was used during World War II by a select group of top-secret communications...

<p>Navajo Code Talkers meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell.</p> <p>FORT WINGATE, N.M. — "Yah-teh-hey!" The Navajo greeting rings out like a small celebration. Two leathery hands meet and shake. The air here on the western fringe of New Mexico would be at home in a furnace, but the two men sit coolly side by side, speaking in the tripping tonal cadence of their native tongue. At 81 and after six decades of friendship, theirs is an easy rapport. They could be two farmers jawing but for red military-issue baseball caps stitched with three words: Navajo Code Talkers.</p>