Youth dancers give special meaning to ‘place of the strong people’

“The elderly of my tribe told me to not withhold the knowledge of my past ancestors within, but to share that knowledge so that it will continue to live on forever,” 23-year-old Ashkia Trujillo of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo said.

The words of the elders have inspired Trujillo to keep his tribe alive and pass along its traditions.

Located 75 miles north of Albuquerque, Ohkay Owingeh, founded around 1200 A.D., is one of the 19 pueblos in New Mexico. Formerly known as San Juan Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh returned to its pre-Spanish name in November 2005. The Tewa name means “place of the strong people.”

One could say Trujillo embodies the meaning of his pueblo’s name.

Family Ties

At the age of two, Trujillo began to learn about his culture from his late father, Randy Trujillo, who introduced his son to the pueblo kiva. A kiva is a square-walled, underground room used by Puebloans for religious rituals and political meetings. Trujillo’s father took him into the kiva to learn the sacred ways of his people.

Inspired by his people’s songs and their meanings, Trujillo decided to share them with other youth in his pueblo. Back in January 2010, when Trujillo was 15 years old, he noticed that the kiva dance groups consisted entirely of older men, so Trujillo decided to form a group made up of young people.

When Trujillo’s group was founded, the four dancers were under the age of 18. Today, the roster consists of 25 dancers, ranging from ages 8 to 21 years old.

“We wanted to differentiate and be our own group with different songs and regalia, which was not done in over 50 years,” Trujillo said. “My grandfather, Joseph V. Trujillo, was the last one to do it in the pueblo.”

Trujillo’s group was named the Serpent Trail Dancers after a story of how his pueblo came to be.

“In our creation stories, the serpent helped us get to the top of the land,” Trujillo said. “We rode on his back and got to get where we live now. I thought a lot about it, and wanted to give remembrance, so I guess you can say the serpent helped my people, and if it wasn’t for the serpent, we wouldn’t be here.”

The Serpent Trail Dancers have traveled throughout and beyond the state, performing at the Summer Nightly Indian Dances, the Gathering of Nations and the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in 2013 and 2014.

The group performs many dances that hold unique stories about their tribe, sush as

the Deer Dance; Buffalo dances with four different styles and consist of One-horn Buffalo, Group Buffalo, Winter Buffalo and Summer Buffalo; the Eagle Dance; the Butterfly Dance; Comanche Dance; and the Peace Pipe Dance.

Trujillo says the Buffalo Dance is done by clans who give thanks to the buffalo, and is performed on June 23 and 24, the San Juan Feast Day, named after John the Baptist.

“The Group Buffalo Dance is done by the whole community, which is done either on Mothers’ Day or Easter,” Trujillo said. “The One-horn Buffalo is a very old dance that not many of the members can do it; I was introduced to this by Robert Aguino, who told me to think and pray as the songs will come to me.”

Trujillo said the Butterfly Dance is done for veterans, service members and warriors, and in it, a male and female dancer participate.

According to Trujillo, the male represents a warrior heading off to war, while the female “represents a butterfly following the male, creating peace and positive creation. She gives good thoughts, good vibes on earth, so when the warrior comes back with all that negativity inside his mind, he can be healed. Because when they experience all the wrongs, they can be healed and live in peace.”

The Comanche Dance, Trujillo said, represents a difficult time for the Pueblo, when they went through the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. After the revolt, the Spanish returned to the Pueblo and introduced St. John the Baptist. According to Trujillo, the ancestors of that time did not want to accept this, since the Spanish requested a song in return. Trujillo said this knowledge was passed down to him.

“Back then, my people said, ‘Why should we have to give them our most sacred dance after what they have done to us?’ In the dance, the song describes what happened in the Pueblo Revolt, like how we fought; we didn’t want to honor somebody’s god after what they did to us,” Trujillo said. “We survived, and we are still here today.”

The Serpent Trail Dancers perform to both educate their own people, along with those that come to see them dance. According to Trujillo, if you die with all you have been taught, nobody will know about it if you don’t share the songs, prayers and dances. He said this philosophy correlates with strong family ties, which relations can call upon for help.

“A lot of my inspiration and motivation comes from my father when I was 2 years old, when I was in the Turtle Dance,” Trujillo said. “It’s my life, and it’s who I am. Giving all credit to my father, I thank all my elders and especially my father, [without] whom none of this would have been possible. To keep up with my cultural, language and traditions.”

For more information on the Serpent Trail Dancers, contact Serpent Trail Dance Group via: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

By Dee Velasco
For the Sun

Ashley Reine Claw hails from Chinle

American flags flapped in a corner of Red Rock State Park Aug. 10 as people awaited the coronation of the 2018-19 Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Queen.

Contestants, singers, dancers and media milled around the bucking chutes on the east end of the arena before the start of the grand entry.

Dark clouds threatening precipitation did not deter the large number of people on hand for the Friday night performance of Indian dancers and singers from across the country.

The Ceremonial Queen pageantry kicked off the night performance and a familiar Gallup voice guided the evening festivities.

Emcee Sammy Chioda of Millennium Media said 1922 was the year the Ceremonial was born and that “many years have gone by and many drums have spoken.”

“We will begin our program by having our Ceremonial Queen contest. I would like to thank all of the folks involved with this committee,” he said.

The three contestants vying for the crown were all age 20 and members of the Navajo Nation. Kiana Boyd, Ashley Reine Claw and Sierra Vail competed for Ceremonial Queen.

Zunneh-Bah Martin, 2017-2018 Ceremonial Queen, led the contestants into the main arena. She drew a large cheer from the audience when her name was announced.

Throughout the week, contestants competed in traditional and contemporary events downtown.

Dudley Byerley, Ceremonial Director, said, “There are several events we want the Ceremonial Queen to be at to represent the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, such as the state legislature and other events to promote our town and the Ceremonial.”

Byerley said he enjoyed all of the Ceremonial festivities because it continues to bring people together as it has for generations.

“Anytime you see that many people come together and have a good time at any of the venues, it chokes me up,” he said.

Before the new queen was revealed, Chioda shared the winners of the competitions throughout the week.

Miss Photogenic went to Vail and Miss Congeniality was awarded to Claw. Chioda named Boyd first runner up and said the designation was important.

“If our Miss Ceremonial cannot fulfill her duties, Kiana Boyd will move from first runner up to finish up the year as Miss Ceremonial. Congratulations,” he said.

“And now our 2018-2019 Miss Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Ashley Rain Claw,” he said to a loud cheering audience that applauded the new queen.

Amid cheers and drumbeats, Claw was bestowed with a blanket and the crown as Miss Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Queen 2018-2019, continuing a legacy that began during the Great Depression.

This year’s edition of the Bengal Ladies’ Basketball Team is doing what is expected of them by coach Kamau Turner and the fans that follow them everywhere. Girls’ basketball in New Mexico has been growing in popularity, especially in the Four Corners area, where Gallup, Shiprock, Kirtland, Ramah and others within this geographic region have brought home the coveted Championship titles in almost all of the last 20-30 years. And the faithful fans follow the teams.

Dan Salzwedel, the former head of the NMAA, once remarked to this reporter that if he had a wish it would be that every state basketball tournament, boys and girls, be populated as much as possible by all high schools of every size from the Four Corners. His reasoning was simple; the fans could and did fill the Pit for the games, even if their particular school was not playing.

Since Gallup High was and almost still is the largest and oldest school in this area, their fans are even more fan-atical than normal. The Bengal Ladies have even packed away games, causing one Farmington coach to remark, “We played in our gym, but it felt like we were the visitors.”

At 18-0 this year (through Feb. 1) the Gallup team is having one of their better seasons. The team has scored 1,326 points in those games (an average of 73.66) while holding their opponents to a mere 943 (average 52.39). Individual player stats will not be available until the end of the season. Coach Kamau Turner does not want his players concerned about details like that.

“We continue to not worry about our record,” said the seventh year coach. “We must continue to defend, play hard, and get the last win of the season (the championship game). We need to continue to do a good job on the court and find ways to win.”

Turner has been there before, twice. He’s got a state championship win and a loss. He is not interested in being a runner-up again.

“One thing I found out last year,” Turner explained, “is that losing in the championship game does not feel any better than losing in the quarter finals.”

Gallup will lose six players to graduation this year, which is about normal for high school varsity teams. Those seniors are, alphabetically: Brittany Bahe, Shenoah Begay, Camille Etsitty, Cori Gordon, Ni’Asia McIntosh, and Deerae Torrez. Four juniors help to fill some of the slots: Paige Juan, Kalisha Kinsel, SaraAnne Shirley, and Rhiannon Singer, while two sophomores, Journey Gilson and Leona Smith, and freshman Ashley Antone complete the 2015-16 Bengal varsity package.

Speaking of packages, one arrived for Turner during the practice Feb 2. It was the Hall of Fame banner from NMAA to hang on the wall of the Bengal gym for Justina Prairie Chief, who coincidentally came to play for Gallup the first year Turner was the girls’ coach.

“Wait for the eighth-graders and freshmen coming up in the JV and C-team ranks,” Turner said. Anthony Sanchez coaches the JV and Alicia Smith the C-team and both are doing very well. “I’ll get my Master’s degree in April from Grand Canyon University and I want to move into administration, but would have to give up coaching in this district. Maybe I could get an administrative position in Window Rock or somewhere close and still be able to get back for practice every evening.”

The first sentence makes some fans want to see these younger girls play, and the district rules don’t make a lot of sense when they penalize smart, capable people from doing a better job in education. Bureaucracies are often that way.

Another district regulation are the travel restrictions that hurt our GMCS team’s exposure and schedule strength. Although the Gallup girls’ are listed at number one on MaxPrep for the state, they are only ranked 97^th nationally because of that restriction. Meanwhile, Grants and Kirtland both sent teams to California over the Winter Break, while the Bengal ladies had to content themselves with sitting home, reading about those games, and wondering how they would have fared against that competition.

Rating: «« out of ««««

Running Time: 104 minutes

It’s probably not the best of signs when a critic begins a review stating sometimes the best of intentions can go wrong. Miss Bala is an attempt at a gritty crime thriller and boasts an unusual role for its star, best known for her work on a comedy/drama TV series.

This tale is actually a remake of a well-regarded 2011 Mexican film about a beauty pageant contestant turned hardened criminal. But like most Hollywood redos, this effort softens out all the rough edges and adds a shiny gleam to proceedings. In the process, it appears to have lost whatever might have made it distinctive.

Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) is a sweet-natured, Los Angeles-based make-up artist who agrees to head south of the border and help childhood friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) compete in the Miss Baja beauty contest.

After going to a club in the hopes of impressing a judge, the two find themselves in the middle of a violent shootout. Suzu disappears and Gloria finds herself under the control of drug cartel boss Lino (Ismael Cruz Córdova). He forces her into acting as a mule, promising he will help her find her friend if she completes certain tasks for him.

Also pressured by DEA agents to help them take down Lino, Gloria struggles to find her pal and a way out of the organization.

Rodriguez is a likable heroine and one could easily see her as the lead in more films, but the script provided doesn’t give her much to showcase.

Gloria is more or less terrorized by Lino and gang members for a great deal of the running time. She spends most scenes placating them and waiting for the villains to turn away so she can give a disturbed and disapproving expression.

The cliches and one-note supporting characters pile high very quickly... the villain even has a henchman who is suspicious that Gloria may be trying to undermine them. There’s nothing here viewers won’t have seen before, and as a result, it gets old very quickly.

Another error in adapting this tale may have been changing the lead character and making her an American. Once she arrives in Mexico, Gloria encounters nothing but corrupt policemen, criminal thugs and morally questionable DEA agents, along with gunfights and explosions.

After seeing Gloria work as a make-up artist in LA, the consuquences of this change are that it unintentionally ends up presenting Tijuana as a veritable hive filled with nothing but nefarious characters. One thinks the city’s tourism board will be less than impressed with this title.

Even the action leaves something to be desired. Confrontations are covered in a shakey, hand-held style and aren’t particularly dynamic or threatening.

Those hoping for Gloria to kick butt will also be disappointed and essentially left waiting until the climax.

Of course, it’s an extraordinarily difficult task to create a gritty crime thriller while maintaining a PG-13 rating. Truthfully, the makers would have been better off to either get uglier and embrace an R rating, or go for an exaggerated tone and turn its star from a timid woman into an unstoppable force of nature.

There’s a lot of talent and effort visible here (along with a likable lead), but it just doesn’t come together.

In recent years, we’ve seen movies like Sicario tackle similar themes and really deliver chills as well as thought-provoking analysis of the situation. In comparison, Miss Bala plays like a B-movie, and one that still ends up shying away from even delivering pulpy thrills. This flick just doesn’t make an impact.

Visit: www.CinemaStance.com

By Glenn Kay
For the Sun