Gallup Sun

It’s time for another column featuring the highlights among new Blu-ray and DVD releases. Looks like it’s a very busy week with plenty to choose from. As always, be sure to click on any links to read detailed reviews. So, if you can’t make it out to the movies this week, be sure and give one of these titles a try!

Big New Releases!

Any Day - A boxer gets into an argument at a party and beats a man to death in this brooding drama. After being released from prison, he attempts to rebuild his life and meets a potential partner. However, even greater struggles arise for the lead after another personal crisis. The press didn’t care for this effort. They suggested that it...

The 94th Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial is sure to please everyone this year, with events such as the: Queen Luncheon, Amphitheater Performances, INFR Tour Rodeo Performances, Parades, Native Film Series, and the Gourd Dance & Contest Pow Wow.

Kicking off Aug. 5, the Ceremonial draws people from all over the world and this year is no exception. A big highlight of the Ceremonial is the Gourd Dance & Contest Pow Wow. This year’s pow wow is set for August 7 - 8, in the Red Rock West Arena, at Red Rock state park.

Mike Salabiye, coordinator, for this year’s event, says, “We hope to beat last year’s attendance of 300 dancers to over 400 dancers.”

Salabiye, who is no...

Each year, as the Ceremonial time rolls around, young ladies apply to be the next Miss Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial. This year is the first year for organizer Virginia Ballenger.

The first queen was crowned in 1978, and that was Teri Frazier.

While the contest is open to all unmarried young women ages 18 to 25, with no children and at least half Indian heritage, according to Ballenger, the contest only has two candidates at this time. Ballenger hopes that there will be at least five competing by the time the Ceremonial begins.

“I’ve got several phone calls from potential young women who are still trying,” Ballenger said.

The crowning will be held on Aug. 8 at 7:30 pm...

Part II of III

In spite of the rough-and-tumble early existence of mining and the railroad, Gallup has mostly always been an artful community.  It took a few years, of course, to replace the male-dominated life with the gentler wants and needs of the distaff side who seemed to appear from everywhere and succeeded, as well as they could, in calming and taming the hardy, rough-hewn pioneers that dug and scraped and built this area with their sweat and muscles.

Even the construction of houses became an art form. Some women were not willing to accept four plain walls and a dirt floor, and the best of them insisted on a finer quality than men would have needed. As the town grew into a...