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Sunday, January 29, 2006

Navajos Choose Ariz. For Casino

By Leslie Linthicum
Of the Journal
    NATIVE INTELLIGENCE: Former Chrysler boss Lee Iacocca— you've seen him on TV commercials lately playing golf with Snoop Dogg— paid a visit to Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr.'s office in Window Rock, Ariz., last week.
    The business icon made the quick three-hours-on-the-ground trip to introduce his gaming development company, Full House Resorts, which is working with the Navajo Shiprock community to launch a casino there.
    But on Monday— less than a week after Iacocca's visit— Shirley announced the location of the Navajo Nation's first casino, and it wasn't in Shiprock or anywhere else in New Mexico.
    The tribe's first gaming license will go to Nahata Dziil, a Navajo community west of Gallup just over the Arizona border.
    Duane "Chili" Yazzie, Shiprock chapter president, said there were no hard feelings because he expects Shiprock to get the second casino nod— and soon.
    Shirley's spokesman, George Hardeen, wouldn't tip Shirley's hand, but he said the president has said in the past that Nahata Dziil and Shiprock appeared to be the most prepared for gambling. He also said Shirley wants to move quickly on more casino sites.
    With Iacocca, the former CEO and chairman of the board of Chrysler Corp., on board, Yazzie said he's anticipating a first-rate operation.
    "He's a great person," Yazzie said.
    And Iacocca has another interest in Indian country.
    His Iacocca Foundation is devoted to finding a cure for diabetes, a major menace on the reservation.
    Full House also has signed a contract to develop Nambé Pueblo's planned casino.
   
New museum director
    New director Cynthia Chavez comes with plenty of good credentials to run the museum inside the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
    First, she's got a master's degree from UCLA and a Ph.D from UNM in American Indian Studies.
    Second, she comes from the National Museum of the American Indian, the new Smithsonian Institution installation on the U.S. Capitol Mall.
    Third, she's got San Felipe Pueblo, Hopi and Navajo bloodlines.
    Chavez is the first pueblo member to head the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center museum in its 30-year history.
   
Gov. Garcia Day
    Tuesday is Indian Day at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe and, amid the dances, color guards and students on field trips, Gov. Bill Richardson will proclaim "Governor Joe Garcia Day."
    Garcia, the appointed head of Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo), also is the newly elected president of the National Congress of American Indians.
   
Also in the Roundhouse
    A bill being considered in the Legislature would give the Department of Indian Affairs $250,000 to film part of a documentary about the Navajo Code Talkers, the Marine linguists who used their native Navajo tongue to transmit battle plans in code.
    The bill is sponsored by Joe Carraro, an Albuquerque Republican.

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