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Health & Fitness

My year on the Navajo Reservation

My year on the Navajo Reservation in NM as an AmeriCorp Volunteer

                                                MY
YEAR ON THE NAVAJO RESERVATION

As an unemployed 50 year old, I began to realize the stories
I had been hearing were true – it’s very hard to find a job at 50 years old.
Plus with the addition of a terrible economy it only made it worse.  Even with 25 years of banking experience and a
college degree it didn’t seem to make much difference to potential employers.
My daughter (who had recently returned from two years with the Peace Corp in
Africa) suggested that I look into AmeriCorps. She said it’s basically a
volunteer job but you can at least maybe help some people. I followed her
advice, looked into the program, and took a one year assignment on the Navajo
Reservation in Pine Hill, New Mexico.

 Even though I was
born in Chicago and raised in Oak Park, I went to college at New Mexico State
University and had lived in NM for several years after graduation. So, I
figured I had a good idea what to expect when I got to Pine Hill. I was wrong.

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Overview

Pine Hill is about 120 miles southwest of Albuquerque.
Depending how you calculate the area radius there about 1,800 residents.
Elevation is 7,200 feet. I was in for a big surprise how cold it would get.  The “Campus” area consists mainly of the
school, administrative buildings, medical clinic, staff housing and some
resident housing. This area is basically the main Hub.

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The school area has two main buildings where students K-12
attend. The classrooms are outdated and lack an adequate supply of modern
computers. They have a basketball team that plays in an old gym, and they have
a cross-country team. There is no football, baseball, gymnastics, swimming,
soccer teams, etc. There is a “fitness center” if that’s what you want to call
it. It is in a mobile home style building and has some weight machines, two
treadmills and a few stationary bikes. 
There is a sparsely maintained field where the football team had played
on until that program was ended several years ago.  Construction had started for a new small
school building but that stopped due to mainly financial reasons.

Most of the buildings on “Campus” are mobile/modular style
old buildings in need of repair or renovation. The building I worked out of had
one phone line and one phone (no voice mail). Fortunately, it was a cordless
phone so you could you could just bring it over to the person. The furniture
and desks were old and worn and in some cases broken. There is internet access
but a lot of times it would go down. The heating system, a 20 year old forced
air furnace, broke down several times.

There was “Housing” for low income families. This “Housing”
was built sometime in the 1970s and from what I could see has never been
adequately maintained. The exteriors were all in poor condition. Many roofs had
holes and almost all of them needed to be replaced. The exterior walls have
severe cracking. There are boarded up windows. The wood around any part of the
house was rotted and had holes.  The few
homes I went into were very clean and maintained as best as possible. It seemed
to me that the tenants did what they could to maintain the interior of the
homes but had no money to maintain the major items. The people in these homes
are the ones that I believe have the least hope.  At least the Navajos with land can still
raise cattle and sheep and can survive. 
Although many of those people have no water on their land and have to
constantly haul water to even keep their livestock alive. But the residents in
the housing have very few options or opportunities. As these homes eventually
fall apart it seem like there is any money to fix them. I was able to work with
some of the young adults that live in these homes and there is a good outcome
for some of them as described below.

Even the “staff housing” were I stayed were in need of
repair.  Rotted wood along the trim,
cracked walls and the insulation inside is very poor. As the wind blew on the
10 to -10 degree nights I could feel the cold wind coming thru the gaps in the
windows. I’m sure it was much worse for the people in the Housing.   

The closest towns to Pine Hill are Gallup or Grants, both 60
miles one way. Pine Hill has only a small convenient store with some gas pumps
(I would describe as a glorified 7-11) and a laundry mat. However, the laundry
mat was closed several times during my year due to no water because there were
constant problems with the Well and plumbing supply lines.

Food prices, other than fruit and vegetables, were about
twice as much as Wal-mart. The food delivery trucks for the store came on
Monday so when they ran out of fruits and vegetables (or anything else) by
Friday you were out of luck till Monday. 
Yet, I never heard one person complain. The bananas were almost always
either real green or over ripe. The entire fruit/vegetable counter was maybe 10
feet long. What is the size of the average Jewel’s fruit and vegetable area?
1,000 square feet?

 So, the nearest super
market, clothing store, shoe store, Jiffy Lube, fast food restaurant , movie
theater, Wal-mart, etc is a 120 mile round trip. Many of the Navajos do not
even own cars so you see a lot of car/truck pooling and hitch hiking. And if
one was fortunate enough to own an old car or truck what happens when it
breaks?  Can you imagine if a woman from
Hinsdale had to drive more than 10 minutes to buy a pair of the latest style of
$500.00 shoes she will only wear twice?  Or if her husband had to drive more than 6
miles to nearest golf course? Ha!!

How about 60 miles, one way, to the nearest fully staffed
and equipped hospital?  Pine Hill does
have a Clinic staffed with very capable Physician Assistants. But it’s not 24
hours and there is only so much they can provide – as I found out the hard way.
 On one of the -5 degree nights we were
chopping firewood and 5/6 of the end of my index cut completely cut off. I was told
by the Clinic they couldn’t help me so I had to drive 60 miles at 8:00pm to
Gallup where an emergency room doctor was able to take care of me. And my
injury was really no big deal. What if someone there has a real emergency? And
I know other people live a long way to the nearest hospital but the vast
majority of them have the MEANS to get there. Some even have helicopter
insurance.  

The “Convenient” store would close at 9:00PM so if you
needed gas you had to wait till the morning when they reopened. The pumps did
not a debit/credit card device. You had to pay in the store and crank down the
handle to start the pump.

I was also under the impression that the Reservation was one
continuous piece of land, but it is more like a checker board. During the “Assimilation”
period (bout 1890-1930) the U.S. government took back several of the sections
of land that were given to the Navajos and replaced those sections with far
less quality pieces. The new land given to the Navajos had a high degree of
volcanic ash underneath the dirt surface which makes it difficult to grow crops
or provide vegetation for sheep and cattle to eat.  I had plenty of time to drive around and see
the area and the lands – and there is no doubt what was done.

The only time I felt uncomfortable was when a 99 year old
Navajo woman was telling a group of school kids about her childhood and when
the U.S government would come onto the Reservation and take the young school
kids out of the Navajo schools and off the Reservation and put them in the
white schools. She said that they would hide and would be beat by the
government people for resisting to go. This was a main focus of the “Assimilation”
period.

Many of the Navajos I have talked to believe the “Assimilation”
period did more to destroy their culture than any bullets did.

 Some of the current record
economic statistics on the Navajo Reservation include an unemployment rate of
50%; 50% high school dropout rate; poverty rate of 57% but 68% among children;
90% of the roads are unpaved; 30% of the homes lack running water and indoor
plumbing; 75% of all people living without electricity in the United States
reside on the Navajo Reservation; the highest rate in the country for diabetes
and other health issues.   You would
think I was describing a third world country. 
Unfortunately, I am describing part of the United States.

Those that have vehicles (mainly old pick-up trucks) have
these large plastic drums (300 gallon) in the pick-up beds and they fill it
with water from one of the two community wells.  They bring the water back to their small piece
of land and store it in some type of drums or tanks.

Also, although there is propane tanks at most homes, due to
the high cost of propane gas they heat their homes with firewood. The homes
(including the place I stayed at) have cast iron free standing fire places.
Most of the wood used was Pine, Juniper or Cedar.

Programs I worked on. 

I started in Pine Hill on April 15, 2012. Although I was
involved in other projects these were the primary projects.

“Youth Build”. We were able to tie into the “Youth Build”
program in Gallup to allow young men and women (ages 17-24) from Pine Hill, who
had dropped out of high school, to have the opportunity to get their GED along
with training in construction. This was my first opportunity to work with these
young men and women. Overall, they were some of the nicest and most grateful
people I’ve ever worked with. Their reasons for dropping out of high school
varied, but all the circumstances were depressing. However, three of the
students obtained a GED thru this program and four others received various
construction certifications. I was able to establish a very good relationship
with several of the students, and will continue to stay in touch with them.  I was fortunate enough to even be a Mentor to
two of them.

“GED at Pine Hill”. We worked with adults (25 and older) on
working to get their GEDs. I would help tutor them in Math two days a week, but
be available any time.  Two of the adults
passed their GEDs.

“Job Training”. Although the opportunities are limited in
Pine Hill, I was fortunate enough to work with several individuals trying to
get their Class”B” driver’s license (mainly to be school bus drivers). I worked
with the students on studying for the written portion of the exam.  As of the date I left, four had passed both
the written and drivers test and had received their Class “B” license. Two of
them have already obtained jobs with the State of New Mexico.

“Financial Literacy”. Because of my finance and banking
background I was able to provide some financial literacy education. Hopefully
this information can be used in the future to prevent being taken advantage of.

“Community garden”.  I
had the opportunity to work some great Navajo people and put in a Community
garden. We had a rain barrel system and even dug a trench for the water coming
off the roof off a Hogan to water the fields. We grew mainly tomatoes, corn and
yellow squash. The yellow squash grew like weeds and produced hundreds of
squash. All the produce was given to the community for free.

“Recycling program” We started a plastic and aluminum can
recycling program which grew each month.

“Free Income Tax service” (and yes Native Americans pay
Federal Income taxes!)  For many years
the Navajos in the Pine Hill and Ramah area have had to drive to Gallup and
have their tax returns completed. Because many do not have the financial education,
they have been taken advantage of by these services with not only high fees for
the tax preparation but also “Refund Loans” at 50-75% interest.  We were able to partner up with the United
Way and Tax Help of New Mexico to provide a free tax service in Pine Hill. I
went to the IRS course training and obtained my IRS Certification and prepared
over 250 tax returns (Federal and State) for free. The cost savings to the
community is estimated at $30,000.00 and the refunds (sent directly to the
Navajos within 7 days) totaled over $225,000. And you would think a person just
won the lottery when I would tell them they were getting a refund of $500.
Their gratitude was incredible.

We also made sure that low income working families (which is
pretty much all of them) would get the Earned Income Tax Credit. I would go
directly to senior citizens homes and do their returns.  Although they only received social security
and would not get a federal refund, the State of New Mexico gives a resident
credit of about $120.00. Again, the gratitude for the free service from these
Navajo senior citizens (many of them Veterans) was incredible. I even had the
great honor to meet a Navajo Code Talker!!

Of the all the tax returns I did maybe 6 or 7 people made
more than $25,000.

The Navajos

I didn’t know what to expect from the Navajo people when I
first arrived. Although many were quite, none of them treated me poorly. As
time went on, and I started working on the various projects, we got to know
each other better and I was more welcomed than I ever thought I would be.

I was able to attend various custom and tradition
ceremonies. One of the most enjoyable traditions was watching how they would
shear a sheep, then wash the wool, then use their traditional tools to stretch
the wool into short fine pieces. They would then use another traditional tool
to wind it together and make wool yarn. Meanwhile, some of the older Navajo
woman would be in the fields picking various types of plants to dye the wool
naturally. They would boil the plants, put the wool in the water and dye it
various colors. After the wool yarn would dry they would begin making blankets
and clothing. It was great! The whole process was maybe three hours.

Many of the Navajos that I had the honor to get to know
would hunt for a large portion of their family food. Among other animals they
hunt elk and deer. They still use ALL parts of the animals they kill for some
purpose.  One of the Navajos who I became
good friends with (Nickson) would give me pieces of elk. I had elk for Easter!
Ha! It was really good!

Twice the water lines providing water to the entire “Campus”
area broke. We had no water other than the water brought on trucks from the
wells. And you would have to fill up your own gallon jugs. Both times it took
over a week to fix so they brought in Portables (outhouses) and set them up
around the area. There were no problems with the Navajos the entire time. They
simply adjusted. And so did I, but with not nearly the ease that they did.

I would go to the shooting range with some of the Navajos.
It was basically the side of a hill and you would set up your own targets. You
had the open field, trees behind you and the blue skies above. Many of them
welcomed me into all aspects of their lives.

In the early morning I would walk thru the woods and look up
thru the Ponderosa Pines at the clearest, bluest skies you will see anywhere.

At night there are thousands of stars in the sky. I would
sit out back and just stare up at them and watch an occasional meteor fly
by.  And unless the NMSU Aggies were on I
really didn’t even watch TV.

Almost every night you would hear dogs fighting with
coyotes. Or dogs/coyotes barking and chasing elk/deer or something thru the
woods. Ha!

During my entire time there, I never heard any talk about
Wall Street, or the stock market, or even the budget. Most of the Navajos have
little to nothing so they really have no reason to talk about it. They don’t
own any stocks and they know their programs will be cut first. So they will
adjust.  And it was actually a really nice
perk not hear about the sleaze ball people on Wall Street on a daily basis like
you hear in Chicago.

 

Many of the Navajo women make jewelry and I would buy some
from them and send it home. I know most women think diamonds, gold and silver
are the best jewelry to wear but I think the Navajo jewelry is beautiful. In
fact, when my daughter wears the Navajo jewelry I gave to her she constantly
gets compliments.

Toward the end of my year I was telling a Navajo about my
financial problems (which now seem so petty) and how angry I was about things
when I left Chicago to come to Pine Hill. He said to me if God thought money
and material possessions were truly important then he would make sure everyone
had them. Instead, he gave everyone compassion, kindness, love, and the
ability/talents to help others but so many people just ignore these gifts.  I think at that moment everything came
together.

To conclude, my experience on the Navajo Reservation (April
15, 2012 to April 19, 2013) was not only the most rewarding and educational
experience of my life, but the Navajo people helped me just as much as I helped
them. They helped me to appreciate the blessings I have even more and to enjoy
the truly beautiful things God put here. They are a proud people and the worst
thing that could ever happen to them is if they lose their language, traditions
and customs. Those things provided for them long before we came and tried to
take them away. In my opinion, when you look at what they have and continue to
endure, they are some of the best people in this country.

Please! Don’t tell me send a comment on how the” Indians
have it made” because you’ve been to a casino in Wisconsin and you KNOW things.
 Go to a Reservation in Arizona, New
Mexico, Oklahoma or the Dakotas for at least a few months then make your
comment. And don’t tell me how they have a drinking problem – yes they do – but
almost every ethnic group in this country has a HUGE alcoholism problem and
they are all getting worse. To point our fingers at just Native Americans is a
joke.

 

 Sincerely,

 

Mike Enright

 AmeriCorps*VISTA

 

 

 

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