Diné Artist honors grandmother through craft

Life on the Navajo reservation helped shape 39-year-old Diné artisan Philander Begay. Begay is a Navajo artist who has won numerous awards for his jewelry at the Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial, Santa Fe shows, and the Heard Museum.

Begay remembers hanging on the skirt tails of his grandmother in Round Rock, Ariz., as she would teach him things about the Diné culture. They would walk together as his grandmother pointed out certain things about the land. One of the things he learned about was the horned toad.

“My grandma would find one, pick it up, and pray for it as well as bless it. She would talk to it and say it would give me...

The strong Navajo support for District Attorney Karl Gillson

To understand what motivated McKinley County’s former district attorney, Karl Raymond Gillson, who died on Jan. 24 at the age of 58 after a long illness, all one would have to do would be to look at his record as a Gallup state magistrate in the 1990s.

He had been accused of being too hard on the people who came before him for sentencing. He said he knew that people who had multiple DWI convictions would try their best to get their cases heard by any other magistrate.

“I can see why the other magistrates give lighter sentences. Its better for their political careers,” he said, adding that he could see how people...

Three main topics came up for discussion at the Feb. 16 McKinley County Commission meeting.

Approval of Fiscal Year 2022 funding for the county’s DWI program was addressed first.

Program Manager Maura Schanefelt requested an estimated amount of $819,172, an amount she told the Gallup Sun isn’t guaranteed.

The program’s mission is to help people overcome the challenges associated with alcohol abuse to create a safer community.

The DWI program will use the grant to address six areas: screening, prevention, coordination, treatment, alternative sentencing, and compliance monitoring. If the program receives more money, it will be directed toward a seventh aspect of the program...

ASSAULT WITH TWEEZERS

Gallup, Jan. 27

A man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after police allege he tried to stab a security guard at a Safeway store with a pair of tweezers.

Officer Victor Madrid was dispatched at 4:58 pm to the Safeway at U.S. Highway 491 in reference to a weapon call. The caller stated a man wearing a dark jacket and white shoes threatened him with something sharp and then he left, walking toward the Big Lots store south of the Safeway.

Madrid arrived and discovered a man matching that description walking in that direction. He put Ryan Roy Chee, 38, address unknown, in the back of his police car and drove to the Safeway, where the security guard...