ALBUQUERQUE – On an unseasonably warm fall morning, a crowd of more than 500 people gathered outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building Nov. 15.

A diverse group, they assembled with a unified purpose: To protest the Dakota Access Pipeline as part of a nationwide display of solidarity for the people of Standing Rock, S.D.

The protest, which was organized by 350 New Mexico, drew support from numerous other local organizations including The Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch and Power Through Peace.

Since Sept. 9, members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and sympathizers to their cause have camped on the site of the proposed DAPL, halting its progress. Energy Transfer Partners plans to tunnel under Lake Oahe, a water source for the Standing Rock reservation and reservoir of the Missouri River, to lay an oil pipeline.

To do that, however, they require an easement from the Army Corps. The ongoing DAPL protests in Standing Rock have become a major rallying point for environmentalists and those concerned for tribal sovereignty and the safety of the region’s water supply.

One of the organizers for the Albuquerque protest, Eleanor Bravo, a senior organizer for Food & Water Watch, gave a passion-filled statement to protestors.

“This is climate sacrifice,” she said. “It’s not right. We will not stand for it any longer.”

Bravo had recently returned from Standing Rock and spent some of her speaking time describing the conditions of the protest camps, where hundreds of arrests have been made and protestors have endured rubber bullets, pepper spray and other aggressive tactics from a militarized police force.

But she also made it clear that this issue was larger than Standing Rock itself.

“This pipeline fight has become the icon for all pipeline fights for this country and throughout the world,” Bravo said.

WATER IS LIFE

A major theme running through the protest was concern for the safety of the water supply, which many claim could become contaminated by the pipeline, leading to a water crisis like that currently going on in Flint, Mich. or the 2015 mine spill in the Animas River of Farmington, NM.

Hand-made signs bearing slogans like “People Over Pipelines” and “Water is Life” set the tone for the gathering, which included chanting, prayer, drumming, song, speeches,  and a symbolic march.

A former Tiwa language instructor, Narpuff Abeita of Isleta Pueblo, led the chant “Pah Wah Wem – Water Is Life.”

The 69-year-old said that she was here for the safety of the water throughout the country, which she fears will be compromised by oil drilling and fracking.

“This is so important for me, because I am a great grandmother,” she said. “I have 18 grandchildren, six great grandchildren, and water is life.”

Petitions circulated through the crowd to take action against fracking in New Mexico, including Greater Chaco and Rio Rancho.

Elaine Cimino, organizer for the grassroots group “Stop Fracking the Rio Grande Valley,” explained that the massive number of oil drilling operations throughout New Mexico could have a severe impact on the environment for generations.

“We really need to rethink the idea of fracking in New Mexico,” she said, urging concerned citizens to stand together and take action.

These sentiments were echoed by many of the activists gathered at the protest. Marlon Shorty, a Gallup resident with relatives currently in Standing Rock, expressed concerns for the future of Chaco Canyon.

“Whatever starts there, will end up here too,” he said, in reference to oil development in the Dakotas. “This snake has a long tail, a big head, no heart and no soul.”

TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY THREATENED?

In addition to water safety and ecological concerns, many protestors also came to stand for tribal sovereignty. The DAPL would cut through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, just as many oil wells throughout New Mexico are on or near tribal lands. Signs reading “Honor Our Treaties” were held alongside American flags.

Reports of police brutality and excessive force in Standing Rock have fueled passion for the cause among many. However, in spite of the hundreds of arrests made in South Dakota, a prevailing message of the Nov. 15 gathering was a need for peaceful, nonviolent opposition to the pipeline.

In Albuquerque, the protest was overseen by both Albuquerque Police Department officers and the Department of Homeland Security. One officer, who declined to identify himself for the press, remarked that this was “the most peaceful protest [he] had seen in a long time.”

The nationwide day of protest followed on the heels of a Nov. 14 announcement that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would delay their decision to grant an easement to Energy Transfer Partners, delaying progress on the pipeline.

Protestors hope that by placing continued pressure on the Army Corps to deny easement to ETP, the DAPL project can be rerouted or halted entirely. In total, more than 36,000 people joined in protests across the country at Army Corps buildings and outside of banks that provide financial support to ETP.

Protest organizers urge concerned citizens to call the White House at (202) 456-1111 to demand President Obama to take action to shut down the DAPL decisively, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Story and photos by Tiana Gibbs
Sun Editor

The Gallup City Council approved a security measure Nov. 9 related to the installation of metal detectors at the taxpayer-funded City Hall. The measure isn’t designed to make the two-story Aztec Avenue building a fortress, but to put into place a system to thwart potential danger.

Assistant City Manager John DeYoung introduced the matter to council members who must now wait on the return of more information. That should come by the end of the year, DeYoung said.

“We presented general information on metal detectors,” he said “We will come back at a later council meeting and give additional information.”

At a June city council meeting, the idea of a metal detector was initially brought up by City Councilor Allan Landavazo strictly for informational purposes.

City Manager Maryann Ustick brought some information back to council at a subsequent meeting. The idea now is to ascertain specific information on the cost of which kinds of metal detectors would best serve City Hall.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the idea talked about was to place at least one detector at the front of the entrance to City Hall so that members of the public could be screened for potential weapons like guns, knives or “shanks.”

“This is to ensure the safety of the public and meeting participants at city council meetings,” DeYoung said. “That’s what this is essentially.”

Landavazo asked what type of things will a detector monitor, and DeYoung replied that metal objects and keys would be surveilled. City Councilor Fran Palochak cautioned against slowing the whole entry process to City Hall.

“How much would that detain people?” Palochak asked. “I’m concerned that things would get backed up,” a reference to airport-like lines which people wait to go through.

Preliminarily, DeYoung said city staffers obtained price ranges on metal detectors certified by the Transportation Security Administration and similar to the devices used at airports around the United States. He said the metals detectors researched are battery-operated and portable.

DeYoung said the cost for the detector is $4,427 plus an additional $14.20 per hour for the added security guard during city council meetings. The price quote came from Protective Technologies International of Lehi, Utah.

The metal detectors didn’t have many council detractors, but Gallup Police Chief Phillip Hart advised that more information definitely should be gathered. Hart said there are things to consider like timeliness, human surgical matters, machine malfunctions and assuring that employees thoroughly understand the technology.

“There are a lot of policies and procedures associated with this,” Hart said. “I think we have to know what the policies are and how far will they go?”

Mayor Jackie McKinney echoed the comments by Hart.

“There are probably quite a few policies that have to be looked at,” he said.

DeYoung explained that search wands will be used by a posted security officer once a metal detector is set off.

“Staff conferred with the city’s current security provider as to the operation of this enhanced security system for city council meetings,” he said.

The city’s security services, Blackstone Security, provides unarmed guards.

“However, at some of their contract locations around the state they do provide metal detection services,” he said. “Blackstone … would be willing to staff the metal detector for city council meetings at no increased cost to the current services provided.”

DeYoung said he’ll be calling various municipalities around New Mexico to see how they handle security at city council meetings.

While there have been no real gun or knife dangers at City Hall recently, there have been public domestic disputes and an instance where someone defecated inside the building. There have also been instances where some members of the general public have barged uninvited into the mayor’s and city manager’s offices.

By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent

Details still fuzzy on former coach’s dismissal

Wilbert Nez is the new head girls basketball coach at Gallup High School, officials confirmed. Nez started the job Nov. 1.

The hiring, which was finalized Oct. 28, brings closure to a tumultuous situation that saw the Lady Bengals’ previous head coach, Kamau Turner, terminated from the job by Gallup-McKinley County Schools Superintendent Frank Chiapetti in July.

Nez teaches Navajo language and culture at Gallup High School.

“We have hired a new girls coach for the basketball team,” Dominick Romero, principal at Gallup High, said. “He is someone who has worked at Gallup High the past several years.”

Romero said Nez was chosen from a candidate pool of six.

He said the candidates who applied for the job were Michael Hawley, John Lamasne, Jr., Patricia Billy, Alicia Smith,  and Larry Smiley.

Smith was a “C” team (freshmen) coach under Turner last year and Billy was most recently an assistant basketball coach at cross-town rival Miyamura High School. Nez was an assistant basketball coach under Turner for the past six years, Romero said.

The Lady Bengals went 28-1 in 2015 and were ranked in the Top 50 in the U.S.

Nez, who was interviewed for the job by a few members of the Lady Bengals’ team and other school personnel, said at a girls basketball tryout session this week that he’ll bring the same run-and-gun style he used last year with the Navajo Pine High School boys basketball team. That style catapulted District-1 2A Pine from a “nobody” team to a team that put fear into bigger teams like Tohatchi High School and Navajo Preparatory School.

Under Nez, senior guard Francis Nez of Navajo Pine became a household name and a player who opposing teams geared their defenses around. Nez torched opponents several times last year for 30 or more points in games. Wilbert Nez downplayed the motivator role.

“I knew we had very good and very smart athletes on that team,” he said. “We were a microcosm of that.”

THE BACKDROP

Turner was let go because of his connections to the Full Court Prestige Club. The club is not and has never been recognized by the Gallup-McKinley County Schools as a booster organization.

“You have admitted to depositing money into the bank account held by [Full Court Prestige Club] with funds that were solicited from the public in multiple ways for the purpose of supporting the Gallup High School basketball team,” Chiapetti wrote in a July 25, 2016, termination letter to Turner.

GMSD officials have said that the district recognizes just one “booster” club — a club that generates money for a specific team through things like fundraisers, i.e, bake sales, etc. — and that is a club from Miyamura High School.

Full Court Prestige folks have said Chiapetti is out of bounds in administering discipline to a private organization.

By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent

By Bernie Dotson

Sun Correspondent

A drug overdose is apparently what killed a Gallup man found unresponsive Oct. 29 in an open field near Indian Hills, according to a police report.

Officer Ryan Blackgoat of the Gallup Police Department recorded in a police report that Erick Lee, 34, was lying face down when he arrived at an area in Indian Hills near Zia Drive.

“I could see that he was not breathing,” Blackgoat recorded. “I see the male subject laying there feet facing north, head facing south on the dirt ground.”

Blackgoat wrote that a female friend of Lee’s said the two were released from Gallup Detox earlier that day. Gruber said the two shot up “strips” of heroin and shared a bottle of Captain Morgan. The two left Lee’s residence and walked up a hill where they were arguing, the friend told Blackgoat.

After relieving himself, Lee fell to the ground, at which point the friend noticed that Lee wasn’t breathing. Lee was transported to Gallup Indian Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Blackgoat was dispatched to the Indian Hills location on a domestic dispute call, according to the police report.