Dine' Chronicle - Lake Powell Chronicle

The DinĂŠ Chronicle Standing for his Navajo heritage Marks making inroads at school and in his community

A publication of the Lake Powell Chronicle

Summer 2016 Volume 1, Issue 1

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The DinĂŠ Chronicle is produced four times a year by the staff of the Lake Powell Chronicle, P.O. BOX 1716, Page, AZ 86040.

Phone 928.645.8888 David Rupkalvis drupkalvis@lakepowellchronicle.com editor@lakepowellchronicle.com

Fax 928.645.2209

Contributors Jamie Brough Steven Law

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On the cover ...

Makaius Marks stands up for his Navajo heritage, works to make changes at school and in the community .... Page 7

Inside ...

Shawn Secody gets a glimpse of

Shawn Davis learns the value of

his ancestors during LDS mission

education, see his business career

to Alaska .... Page 5

grow .... Page 10

George Hardeen Larry Hendricks

Composing Marty Sisk marty@lakepowellchronicle.com Advertising Ed Pease epease@lakepowellchronicle.com Mary Ann Chilton mchilton@lakepowellchronicle.com

East side of the Grand Canyon, opening sacred land .... Page 11

Kimberly Clark kclark@lakepowellchronicle.com

Mike Nation

After transplant, Tommy Allen looks to make the most of his second chance at life .... Page 13

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Secody meets with his ancient ancestors

By Steven Law Diné Chronicle The LDS church has a longstanding history of sending its misand service, and Shawn Secody, a

Navajo from Shonto, Ariz., spent his mission in some areas even more remote than most. And had a very unexpected encounter while he was there.

Secody served in the Alaska, Anchorage Mission from December 2013 to December 2015.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I really enjoyed it. It was a pretty big change going there from the Rez.” was in the remote town of Delta Junction, Alaska, which lies two hours south of Fairbanks. Delta Junction has a sub-arctic climate with short, but warm summers and bitterly cold winters where, from mid-October to late March, the average high temperature stays below freezing.

Delta Junction exists as a military missile base as part of the United States’ missile defense shield. It has fewer than 1,000 non-native residents who are attached, in one way or another, to the missile base.

Delta Junction is also the jumpvillages around it, which are home to a population of Tanana Athabaskans who have lived there for

at least 10,000 years subsisting as While in Delta Junction, Secody’s mission president sent him and his companion to Tanacross, one of the tiny Athabaskan villages outside of Delta Junction, with a population of fewer than 150 residents.

Secody and his companion spent 25 days there, meeting its residents.

The majority of the village’s townspeople spoke only Athabaskan, and as Secody met with them, he was quite surprised to discover he could understand them. They were speaking Navajo. Or at least a more ancient version of it.

“It was then I remembered that Navajo and Athabaskan are in the same language class,” he said. “It wasn’t a direct communication, but the words were similar enough that we could communicate. Discovering that we could communicate with

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Shawn Secody, a Navajo from Shonto, spent two years in Alaska while serving a mission with the LDS church. During his trip, he got to experi-

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each other was a very cool experience.”

The residents of Tanacross found it quite novel, too.

Anthropologists classify the Navajo language as Na-Denè Southern Athabaskan, a sub-set of Athabaskan. Navajo and Apaches are believed to have migrated from eastern Alaska and northwestern Canada and entered the southwestern United States around 1400 CE. In the 25 days Secody and his companion spent in Tanacross, he discovered he had a lot in common with this group of people who were essentially his long lost ancestors.

“I looked just like them,” he said.

“We had the same build. The same facial structure. The same skin color.”

“Life in Tanacross was very similar to life in the deep Rez,” Secody said. “It reminded me of Chinle, except instead of being 110 degrees it was minus 20 degrees.”

And like Navajos, they played a lot of basketball.

“They’re crazy about basketball, too,” Secody said.

Both the Navajo and the Tanacross Athabaskans had inhabited a very remote, unwanted piece of the the land, a harsh region that didn’t have a lot of fat to spare.

The Athabaskans, who had subthousands of years, suddenly found themselves thrust into the modern, industrialized world during the Cold War, with the installation of the missile base in Delta Junction.

And they found the abrupt transimake.

Poverty and alcoholism were the big problems they struggled with.

When Secody met the Athabaskans he immediately recognized the challenges they were struggling with. He’d seen all before on the reservation.

“Life in Tanacross is very similar to what life was like 50 years ago in

Courtesy photo

During his two-year mission to Alaska, Shawn Secody got to experience a vast change from his life in Arizona as the temperature reached 20 below zero in the winter. Despite the changes, Secody noticed a lot was similar, especially with the indigenous people who live in Alaska.

the far-out cities on the Rez,” Secody said.

Because he shared a common heritage and came from a similar background, he was able to become friends with the people of Tanacross in a very authentic, tangible way.

“Having a native background and especially being related, even if it was distantly, allowed me to really connect with them,” he said.

“We became very good friends. My background and culture put me in a unique position to connect with any indigenous person I met, whether it

was Athabaskans, Tlingits or Haida.

During his brief month in Tanacross, Secody got to visit with the town elders and was invited to go dogsledding.

little longer,” he said.

Secody will return to Alaska later this summer and reconnect with some of the people he became friends with during his mission and

“Whatever you do don’t let go or fall

Secody currently works as a river guide for Colorado River Discovery. Prior to going on his mission, he completed a year of school at Arizona State University, where he’ll return in the fall to continue his degree in political science. Secody says after he completes university he plans to go into politics.

going.”

Secody said his days in Tanacross meeting its people and learning their shared history and personal stories was one of the greatest experiences of his life.

“I just wish it could have lasted a

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Embracing his heritage leads to changes

Photo courtesy of Darrell Meeks

To honor his Navajo heritage, Makaius Marks wears traditional pieces every day. A head band, mocassins, turquoise necklaces and bow guards are part of his every day attire.

At the age of 15, Makaius Marks stands up for Navajo roots

By David Rupkalvis DinĂŠ Chronicle In many ways, Makaius Marks is a typical 15-year-old.

On a warm summer day, he wore shorts and T-shirt and talked about enjoying his summer vacation. That included some time playing vid-

eo games and hanging out with his family.

But this teen with strong ties to typical. Every day, he is a walking history lesson as he embraces his Navajo heritage and works to change the way others think about his people.

In addition to the shorts and Tshirt, Marks was adorned from head to toe in Navajo traditional clothing.

His feet were adorned with moccasins and his wrists covered in bow guards. He wore a two-strand necklace made of turquoise, a blue head band and his long hair was tied up the same way his grandparents tied

theirs generations before.

And because of his embrace of his culture, the Navajo tradition that means so much to him, Marks is hoping to change the world, or at least Northern Arizona.

While he has embraced his heritage his whole life and wore traditional Navajo clothing for many

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years, Marks journey began in earnest last May when he walked into High School.

Wearing his headband, moccasins and more, he proudly walked into class and found a surprise. he remembered. “As I walked in, some teachers glared at me because of my headband. The way they see it, it’s gang related.”

He said the teachers kept bringing up the school dress code as if they were speaking directly to him.

“The principal called me to his ofabout the headband. I told him the headband was to protect your thinking. He wanted to know more about it, so I gave him a list of names, my father and my grandmother.”

Later the same day, the principal called Marks out of class again, this time to tell him he and he alone was allowed to wear the headband because of the cultural ties.

For most high school freshmen that might have been enough, but Later that same day, he began talking to friends and family memcouraging them to wear headbands and other traditional clothing to class.

“I was just trying to ignite the Indian children who lost their native pride,” Marks said. “You’ve got to celebrate your heritage.”

And he himself looked for other ways to express his pride in his Navajo heritage.

“I started to incorporate more traditional clothing such as moccasins and turquoise,” he said.

He was called back to the princitime he explained why he was wearing the traditional clothing, and the school allowed it, even embracing it. a head during basketball season.

“As the year went by, there was a basketball game where it was Native

American night,” Marks said. “All the players put their hair up in a tlsilei. As soon as they got on the court, they got called out on it.”

The players were told to put their hair down or they could not play. Several chose to sit the game out. The next day, Marks was back in the prining the importance of the tlsilei to the Navajo, the principal called the ofagreed to allow them in the future.

“They didn’t want to sive to the Navajo people,” Marks said.

With some success at changing thinking at school, Marks took on a bigger target one Monday in October last year. On Columbus Day, Marks listened as teachers talked about the man given credit for discovering America.

While he listened, Marks knew another story to be true.

His people, the Navajo and other Native American tribes, were in America long before Columbus. He also heard from his culture how Columbus supported the genocide, slavery and colonization of Native Americans.

When the school day ended, Marks joined oth-

cil. Marks and the other speakers asked the council to replace Columbus Day with a new day, Indigenous Day. “When I came up, what I spoke about was the problems I have while walking down the street,” he said. “I t a l k e d a b o u t how I get profiled by the p o lice, how I get m a d e fun of for my heritage and how at school when I practice my culture, I get called out for it.”

At the meeting, the council decided to look into the possibility of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Day. Marks has been involved in ing almost every town hall meeting to discuss it.

Marks also began working to implement a program at school

Makaius Marks

called Project Soar. The goal of the tures in a way that improves educaheritages.

“We won’t have Indian children lost in their own worlds with either drugs, alcohol or dropping out of school early,” Marks said. “We’ve had representatives from New Zealand help construct this way of teaching. This is a system we’re goworld.

Darrell Marks has worked alongside his son as he attempts to change the thought process in Flagect Soar can help, he described his school experiences and one of his son’s.

When Darrell was at Page High School many years ago, he was required to dissect an animal in biology class even though dissection is offensive to the Navajo people. When the same issue came up last year at tested and the school agreed to a change. He would not have to dissect an animal but was given an alternative task, preparing a sheep for slaughter.

“It could work in biology, culinary and after school,” Makaius said. “We had half a sheep and we and they made mutton.”

The goal of Project Soar is to allow people to be who they are, whether it’s a Navajo or any other culture.

“It’s their choice to express how they want to,” Makaius said. “I express it by dressing, walking, talking and learning. The learning culso the indigenous student or Navajo student can be more open.” most high school sophomores, Makaius says he has no choice. His heritage demands more than usual, he said.

“I represent my ancestors,” he said. “What inspired me with my

é ancestors, from my maternal side, my ancestors took the long walk to Fort Sumner, and only my grandpa made it back.” brace his Navajo culture. But the work he is doing extends beyond the Navajo.

“It’s not only about Native Americans,” he said. “We need to embrace the world around us. As Navajo, you’re not the center, you’re not the sun. We’re on this one world.

We are stronger together if we work together. We’re all the same inside and out.”

Right now, Marks is continuing to work on three things — Project Soar, Indigenous Day and as a member of RSVP, which stands for respect, students, voice, participation. He works

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as the representative of the Navajo students.

“I was put on the leadership team,” he said. “The team is working through the summer. Recently, I went through a meeting about dress codes.”

Darrell Marks said watching his day the world is a source of great pride.

“It’s really humbling and encouraging as a father to see how much they’ve grown and how much I’ve grown from them,” he said. “When I see him walk and see him talk, I grandparents in him.”

That, ultimately, is Makaius’ goal.

Photo by David Rupkalvis

Makaius Marks, left, and his dad, Darrell, work together to embrace their Navajo heritage.

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Education helps Davis excel in business

By Larry Hendricks Special to the Diné Chronicle Shawn Davis was born and raised in the small community of Chinle, and he didn’t really have an idea of what he wanted to do with his life after he graduated from high school in 1994 and began attending NAU. “For me, it was too much at that time because I came from a small community,” Davis said.

He began attending Coconino Community College in 1995 to try his hand at the trades, like welding or automotive repair.

“I thought I’d do that instead,” Davis said. “I was just trying to see where I wanted to go. Time passed and I started to wake up.”

He remembered how much he enjoyed business statistics, calculus and working with his mind.

“I remembered, ‘Hey, I can do He received an associate’s degree from CCC in 1998 and returned to NAU to study computer information systems for a bachelor’s degree in 2000. He would eventually go on to get a master’s degree in information systems in 2008.

A little more than 20 years later, Davis is the chief information ofTuba City Regional Health Care Corporation. Even though he’s reached a pinnacle of success in the industry, Davis added that he continues to attend CCC to keep current on his skills and to acquire new ones.

Davis joined the workforce in 2000 working for the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, and it soon became apparent that he should return to CCC for CISCO networking classes. He drove from Window Rock on the weekends during the summer months to attend the classes at CCC’s Fourth Street Campus.

He completed all four semesters of

Photo courtesy of Larry Hendricks

Shawn Davis has become a big believer in education. After earning degrees from Coconinio Community College and Northern Arizona University, he has seen his business career improve greatly.

course work that summer.

From there, he went to work for the hospital in Tuba City. In the last 13 years, he has moved up through the ranks from IT specialist, to IT operations manager, to IT director for the hospital.

Throughout that time, he has returned to CCC to stay current on his computer skills in program, server infrastructure and more. His last classes were in 2009.

Davis said he credits CCC for allowing him the freedom to explore his options.

“It was smaller, down-to-earth,”

Davis said. “It’s a friendlier atmosphere. The teachers, everybody knew you. You got to know more people there. It was a good opportunity to transition to college life.”

He said he went to CCC to explore the trades and found his calling in computers. He added that he appreciated the hands-on approach ings were relevant and up-to-date with what he wanted to achieve professionally.

Davis has a sister and two brothers who also have degrees and have gone on to successful careers. He added that his parents and grand-

parents stressed an education.

“It was driven into us when we were younger,” Davis said.

When his cousins tell him they are considering pursuing higher education, Davis said, “I tell them to start out at the community college. to do with your life.”

Davis has a wife and three children now. He is in the process of building his own home for his family and plans on taking some electrical classes at CCC in the construction trades department.

“I don’t want to burn the house down,” he said and laughed.

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A new way to view the Grand Canyon Navajo-owned tours to Grand Canyon’s east rim

By Steven Law Diné Chronicle A new tour company guiding tourists to the east rim of the Grand Canyon opened up in Page last month. The company, called Sacred Edge Tours, is owned and operated by the Martins, a Navajo family that lives on the western edge of the Navajo Reservation. Their family property extends to the Grand Canyon’s east rim, where it overlooks the Colorado River and Marble Canyon.

“We’ve been thinking about doing this for a while,” said Franklin Martin.

The Grand Canyon’s east rim is on the Navajo Reservation which, Navajos. Very few people have seen the Grand Canyon from this unique perspective.

The east rim of the Grand Canyon is undeveloped. There are no hotels, no restaurants, not even paved roads. And no other companies conduct tours there, so tourists in the small tour group have the place to themselves. A trip to the east rim of the Grand Canyon will take you into a remote land that for the last been used only as antelope hunting grounds and sheep grazing by the Navajos.

The land is still inhabited by elk herds, eagles, coyotes and many other animals, said Franklin. “It’s quiet and peaceful out there. It’s a great place to experience peace and beauty. You can feel the wind and hear

Courtesy photo

The east rim of the Grand Canyon includes scenery rarely seen by non Navajo. This view shows a look similar to Horseshoe Bend.

beneath you,” he said.

In keeping with that spirit of intimacy, the Martins plan to keep their tour group sizes small. Right now, the tour is mostly a driving tour with stops at the area’s most scenic locales, with the tourists being escorted by their guides inside two GMC Yukons. and full-day trips. The half-day trip visits two sites and the full-day visits four sites. One of the sites they’ll visit, The Boardwalk, is a place similar to Horseshoe Bend, but inverted. Instead of looking onto the point that the river wraps around, visitors will be standing on the point that the river wraps around, with the river

bending 270 degrees around them.

The half-day trip takes about six hours round trip, and the full-day trip takes about eight hours. Both trips leave from Page. The maximum trip size is 14.

The east rim of the Grand Canyon from Lees Ferry to the Little Colorado River holds a special place in the hearts of many Navajos, said Franklin.

“In 1864, when the Army rounded up the Navajos and marched them to Fort Sumner a lot of them hid out from them in that part of the canyon. That’s one of the reasons it’s sacred to us,” he said.

There are other reasons why the Navajo regard the land as sacred.

Some of their sacred spirits and gods reside in the canyon beneath the rim, and on the rim are places where Navajo medicine men do a lot of their ceremonies, said Franklin.

“There’s a sense of holiness there,” he said. “To us it’s a temple.”

In the future, the Martins hope to add hiking and horseback tours ing the Colorado River, and a larger variety of destinations including stops at Anasazi ruins, petroglyph panels, fossils and dinosaur tracks.

The area where the Martins conduct their tours of the East Rim isn’t far from the spot where the megadevelopment, the Grand Canyon Escalade, wanted to install their tram,

é restaurants, gift shops and other buildings.

Franklin says he’s not opposed to the idea of developing businesses in the area but thinks it should be done on a smaller scale, and the businesses should be Navajo-owned and operated.

He believes the Escalade would be too large and bring in too many people.

“To overdevelop it then ruins the very thing that makes it special,” he said.

Franklin said he is also opposed the Escalade because most of the revenue the development would generate would go back to the developer in Scottsdale, and he believed most of the high-paying jobs the development would bring would go to non-Navajo workers.

If in the future the area does get developed, the engineering and the construction should be done by Nagift shops should be owned by NaNavajo workers, said Franklin.

In the future, the Martins would like to add a vending site with restaurants, galleries featuring local photography, art, Navajo blankets, baskets and jewelry.

“We want the Navajo community to provide the services,” said Franklin.

When tourists book a tour with Sacred Edge Tours to see the Colorado River from the east rim they’ll do secluded, intimate connection with the land, Franklin says.

“You can go anywhere and see a resort, but this is a unique Courtesy photo view of one of the sevSacred Edge Tours, run by Franklin and Anna Martin, below, will take outsiders to the en wonders of the east rim of the Grand Canyon, an area considered sacred by many Navajo. world,” said Franklin.

“It’s worth seeing, but not so much we destroy it.”

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Allen gets a second chance at life Recalls life-saving gift, overcomes hardships to maintain health for self, family

By George Hardeen Special to the Diné Chronicle LeCHEE, Ariz. – Tommy Allen believed he was going to die. He expected it, was ready for it, made peace with it.

Despite a lifetime of disciplined exercise, including earning a Tae Kwon Do black belt in three years followed by 20 years teaching martial arts, a rare hereditary kidney disorder that he shared with a sister he reached his 40s.

“The doctor told me that both of my kidneys had failed,” he said. “It’s really devastating to hear news like alone. By then I’d decided I’m a single person, I’d lived a good life.”

But a remark to a co-worker he eventual meeting of the woman who would become his wife, changed his mind, his outlook and his fate.

Today, 13 years after the gift of a kidney, Allen is an operations & maintenance IV supervisor at the huge 2,250- megawatt Navajo Generating Station in LeChee, where he’s worked for 22 years.

In September 2013, he was promoted to his current job as a toplevel NGS maintenance supervisor.

He began with Salt River Project 37 years ago as a trades helper.

The trim, athletic Allen regularly puts in 12-hour shifts, walks six or seven miles a day and has not used an elevator at work in more than 11

Photo courtesy of Lorraine Allen

Tommy Allen, his wife Lorraine and 6-year-old daughter have climbed all four sacred mountains of the Navajo people, including Mount Hesperus in Colorado.

years. For fun, he climbs mountains with his family.

“I believe I am healthier today, even with my illnesses, my setbacks, with the prescription I’m on, than I was when I was in my early 40s

when I still could run a six-and-ahalf-minute mile, when I could run across the Grand Canyon,” he said.

“Back then I was in good shape, but I was not eating right all the time.”

Allen met his Salt River Project

colleague Mikki Gaines more than 25 years ago when they both worked at the Coronado Generating Station in St. Johns. He transferred to NGS in 1991 and Gaines arrived there in 1994.

é In the spring of 2000, Allen pushed Gaines to work harder as they jogged one day. That’s when he dropped a bomb.

“Mikki, you need to step up a little bit more,” he told her. “You need to run faster. You need to eat right.

I’m not going to be around any longer.”

Gaines stopped and asked, “What are you telling me?”

“I told her I’m dying,” Allen said.

“I told her I’ve been diagnosed. I’ve got about three months to live.”

Without hesitation, Gaines offered to donate a kidney. Although Allen wasn’t quite ready to accept the kindness, he now marvels that a non-Navajo woman would make Gaines, now a foreman with the SRP Underground Fault department in Phoenix, said she did not considcause she had been through her own surgeries.

“I was a cancer survivor, she said.

“I thought, well, maybe they won’t take my kidney. But I was thrilled to She remains humble about her generosity.

“People get this idea that there’s some kind of a lifelong debt that you owe someone,” Gaines said. “That’s not the case at all. I just want him to live a happy, healthy, normal life.”

Soon after their discussion, Allen met his wife-to-be, Lorraine. He now had every reason to live.

Gaines turned out to be a compatible donor match so in June 2000 he had his kidney transplant operation.

It was not smooth sailing from there, however. As his doctor predicted, two years later he developed rejection medication.

“That was tough to deal with,” Allen said. “I had a hard time dealing with my diabetes. I had overcome one illness and now was looking head-on into another one.”

Allen approached his new prob-

Photo courtesy of Israel Perez

Tommy Allen, O&M IV maintenance supervisor at Navajo Generating Station, is alive today because of a lifesaving kidney transplant made possible by his co-worker Mikki Gaines.

lem the way he’s dealt with other challenges – methodically, by becoming a model patient.

“Since I got diabetes I have really made some major changes in my life,” he said. “Eating right is number one. By eating right I mean that you’ve got to count sugar content. If it says four grams, it means there’s one teaspoon of sugar in it. A can of soda can have 10 teaspoons in it.”

He weighs himself daily. He

checks his blood levels several times a day.

He says attitude is everything; be positive, never feel sorry for yourself, eliminate the word “can’t” from your vocabulary.

Next, he says, is exercise with a standard 10,000 steps a day. He burns out pedometers he wears on his boot tops.

His family, too, has adopted a healthy regime of eating and exer-

cise. This year he, Lorraine and their 6-year-old daughter Tai climbed all four sacred mountains to the Navajo people.

NGS Maintenance Manager Shayne Jones, Allen’s boss, says this systematic, goal-oriented approach is Allen’s style of problem solving.

“One of the things that Tommy has always presented is the desire to to try to push things to the next lev-

é el, to try to do things with his crew that other crews couldn’t do,” Jones said.

As a child, Allen went to live with his aunt and uncle in Rocky Ridge when his mother became ill.

He stayed and attended boarding school there and in Tuba City.

Like countless others, he was hogan, tended sheep and cattle, spoke only Navajo and moved with the seasons.

When he returned to his family in house with a white fence and decided that someday he, too, wanted a home with running water and electricity.

He realized then, he said, that effort and education was the way to make such dreams come true.

Allen says he is grateful to the woman who donated a kidney so he could live and to a job that provided him with a life he imagined as a boy.

“But my dream’s not done because I believe that I’ve still got a lot of living to do yet and there’s a lot of mountains out there. It’s going to take a lot of years to climb them,” he said. “We’ve already talked about what we’re going to do. We’re going to climb mountains.”

Photo courtesy of George Hardeen

Tommy Allen is diligent about managing his diabetes through healthy eating and exercise. Typically, he walks six to seven miles a day at work and has not used an elevator in 11 years.

An Essential factor The Navajo Generating Station is one of the big success stories on the Navajo Nation. Located on the LeChee Chapter near Page, the Navajo Generating Station is the largest employer in the Page area with close to 500 employees. Since the power plant is located on the Navajo Nation, the Navajo people are always given preference when jobs are available.

Currently, close to 91 percent of the employees are Navajo, providing stable, good-paying jobs to hundreds of Navajo people.

Construction on the Navajo Generating Station began in 1969 and SRP and produces electricity for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, SRP, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Arizona Public Service, NV Energy and Tucson Electric Power. It serves customers in Arizona, Nevada and California. The plant produces 90 percent of the power needed to pump water through the Central Arizona Project, which provides water from the Colorado River to Phoenix, Tucson and other municipalities in Arizona.

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“Celebrating the Navajo people, their traditions and culture.”

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