Female Leader Would Be First for Navajos

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Female Leader Would Be First for Navajos
Tradition May Work Against Candidate

By Felicia Fonseca
Associated Press
Tuesday, November 7, 2006; A03
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/06/AR2006110601033.html

[foto] Lynda Lovejoy has stressed jobs in her bid for election as Navajo
president. (Donovan Quintero - AP)

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz., Nov. 6 -- One candidate in Tuesday's Navajo Nation
presidential election promises accountability and staunch protection of
tribal land. The other vows to build on the reservation's economic
progress in the past four years.

But in the race between incumbent Joe Shirley Jr. and challenger Lynda
Lovejoy, the overriding issue is sex.

A win would make Lovejoy the first female leader on the largest Indian
reservation in the United States, which extends into New Mexico, Arizona
and Utah.

"She is a woman, and that is going to be an issue no matter what her
stance on policy," said Dale Mason, an associate professor of political
science at the University of New Mexico at Gallup. "She represents
something entirely new."

Lovejoy, a former New Mexico state lawmaker and current member of the
Public Regulation Commission, hopes to unseat Shirley, 58, a former
tribal council delegate who has been leading the tribe for four years.

"I can't control people making their decision to vote for me because I'm
a woman," she said. "I certainly appreciate and welcome that. Any vote
is important to winning this ticket on November 7."

Shirley, who has focused on economic development in his campaign for
reelection, acknowledges some people will vote based on sex, but he says
he is hopeful that most won't.

Some traditional Navajos believe that women and men have distinct roles
in society -- women as caretakers of the home and of children, and men
as providers and leaders, said Tommy Begay, a Navajo and University of
Arizona doctoral student who is studying the evolution of cultures.

Although Navajo is a matriarchal society, traditional Navajos will
probably stick to the belief that only men should serve as president,
Begay said.

"When you live your life in a very traditional way, the beliefs really
dictate your action," Begay said. "They become sort of the boundaries of
existence."

Less traditional Navajos either have not been taught those beliefs,
dismiss them, or have a hard time maintaining them because of the
dominant society's influence, Begay said.

Lovejoy has based her campaign on ensuring an open and accountable
government, creating jobs, protecting land and natural resources, and
cutting unnecessary spending.

Shirley often participates in sweat lodges, where he says he learns
songs about the tribe's religion and culture and also draws inspiration
from the elders as they talk about how to regain the tribe's economic
independence.

Many Navajos are poor, and unemployment hovers around 50 percent.

Shirley has been pushing projects that include the coal-fired Desert
Rock Power Plant and the construction of six casinos. The first could be
built next year, he said.

The president said those projects would bring in thousands of jobs and
provide tribal members with basic necessities -- a home, transportation
and income.

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Navajo woman vies for mayor

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Not since Don Hubbard filed for candidacy many races ago has a Navajo sought the city's highest political office. Anna Rondon changed that this week.

Rondon, who made her candidacy for mayor official along with six others at City Hall Tuesday, is the only Navajo in the race. She's also the only Navajo among all 18 people to file for the four city offices up for grabs this year.

It's a noteworthy distinction in a city that's one-third American Indian, primarily Navajo. But Rondon, who hales from Chichiltah, makes no mention of it. She sees herself, rather, as a single working mother raising two teenagers and taking care of her elderly mother. She knows there are many others in Gallup with the same or similar struggles, and it's them she's most interested in getting to the polls March 6.

"They have everyday survival issues that prevent them from getting involved," said Rondon, who knows what it's like.

She hopes her run, however, will inspire them to participate, just as she was inspired to run by the activism of Della John, whose son's shooting death by a Farmington police officer last summer many attribute to persistent racism in the Navajo reservation's border towns.

If elected mayor, Rondon knows exactly what she'll do first.

"My first order of business would be to establish a human rights commission," she said, "to ensure to some degree that hate crimes will not be tolerated and to provide an avenue for people who have been discriminated, and to let the people who discriminate know that they can't get away with it."

While everyone who's been here long enough to know says Gallup is not nearly as racist as it used to be, Rondon still sees it persist in subtler ways, from the store clerk who attends to a white customer first to the restaurant that seats certain minorities in one part of the room. She noted the city government's own brush with the U.S. Justice Department, which sued it in 2004 for not hiring enough of its American Indian job applicants. The city settled for $300,000.

The human rights commission would field complaints of all manner of alleged discrimination, Rondon said, not just racial, investigate those allegations, and pursue appropriate action.

As an employee of the Navajo Nation's Environmental Protection Agency and a planner for its Community Development Division, Rondon also looks warily ahead to 2020, when the tribe's population is predicted to hit 500,000.

"That's going to impact the City of Gallup and the chapters in the surrounding area in a big way," she said, and will demand more collaboration between them to address the challenges it will bring.

She'd like to establish an intergovernmental committee to start planning for that future, and not just to 2020.

"I would really like us to plan 50 years from now, to have some sort of plan in place," she said.

At the top of her to-do list for that committee would be continued pursuit of the Navajo-Gallup water supply project, the construction of more affordable housing, and the development of more renewable energy resources to help power the city.

Rondon also believes the movie industry could become a major engine of Gallup's economic future and would like the city to devote more money toward making it happen. The city currently has a liaison to the New Mexico Film commission, Lisa Rodriguez, working to attract film production here. She's also helped the University of New Mexico-Gallup start a film program to develop local talent.

Once upon a time, Rondon said, "this area was the Hollywood of New Mexico."

With a lot more work, and taking advantage of the area's natural beauty, she believes it could regain that reputation.

For a chance to make it all happen, Rondon must defeat a large field. Her opponents in the race for mayor include Mary Ann Armijo, Harry Mendoza, Jimmy Parish Sr., Ralph Rains, Ralph Richards and Larry Winn. They'll be drawing numbers to determine their ballot positions at City Hall this afternoon.

Incumbent Bob Rosebrough announced his decision not to seek a second term in August.