Tears shed for Chaco
Former canyon residents recall legacy of forced removal

Mary Jane Harrison, 79, weeps and wipes away a tear while listening to Bauline Atencio talk about when her family was forced out of Chaco Canyon 100 years ago during the Centennial Commemoration outside of the Chaco Canyon National Park on Saturday afternoon. Mary Jane Harrison and her family were forced out of Chaco Canyon when she was 5 years old. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Natasha Kaye Johnson
Diné Bureau

CHACO CANYON — Emma Martinez, 82, flips through the pages of a book containing a picture of her grandfather, Agapito Atencio. Her search comes to a end when she locates the string of red yarn marking the page where an image of him standing amid the Navajo landscape of sagebrush and cactus can be seen.

She brushes her hand across his picture, and begins to explain in Navajo he was just a little older than a newborn when his parents made the walk back from Hweeldi and carried him home into the Chaco Canyon. It would be in the canyon they would rebuild their homestead and move past the pain and anguish they endured while being imprisoned at Fort Sumner.

The canyon would eventually become the place Martinez would call home. At least until she was 8 years old.

Though it was more than 70 years ago, she can recall the day her grandfather and grandmother, Tashniah, were told they were going to be evicted from the canyon. She can still remember the devastation it brought upon her grandfather.

“He tried to beg to stay,” Martinez said through a Navajo translator.

His pleas got them nowhere, and they had to leave the canyon which sheltered their brick house, a hogan, and a water well. Their removal led them to unknown nearby lands where they had to haul water in buckets by wagon. They could no longer enjoy the easily accessible water the canyon harbored.

The story of Agapito Atencio’s unheard pleas cannot be read in any history book, nor in an educational pamphlet found at the Chaco Culture National Historical Park just miles from the community. But it is a somber side of history the community of Chaco Canyon understands as the true history surrounding the park.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the park, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill to make the 1000-year-old ruins a park in 1907. While the park staff is in the midst of getting a celebration prepared, it certainly is not a time for the community to rejoice.

Saturday afternoon, the community gathered underneath the shade of a blue-and-white tent and recalled the history of their kin years ago. Recollecting the history raised raw feelings and caused many to express hostility toward the park. Today, many people insist the park has oppressed them from obtaining a higher quality of life for years.

Dispute about paving a road
In 1995, San Juan County granted nearly $1 million to chip seal County Road 7950, which runs from U.S. Highway 550 to the park. It took years to secure the federal funding, but after the county began paving about five miles of the road, there was objection by environmentalists and park employees who demanded an environmental impact assessment.

That was more than 12 years ago, and the assessment is still taking place today.

“We need the road for any kind of emergency,” Mary Jane Harrison, 79, said. “We need the road, the water, and the electricity.”

The protest by the park continues to baffle county officials.

“We’re not doing major pavements,” said Ervin Chavez, San Juan County commissioner, who is originally from Chaco Canyon. “Its putting gravel on existing roads (that have) been there for over 100 years.”

Russ Bodnar, chief of interpretation at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, said debate surrounding the paved road goes back as far as the 1950s.

“It pops up in some of the reports,” he said.

But Bodnar maintains that as a national park they don’t oppose the road; however, he did acknowledge there are individuals at the park who feel getting the road paved will have negative effects. For instance, a paved road for the park would mean increased visitation by tourists they don’t have the infrastructure for.

The paved road would also change the atmosphere of the park. One of the unique things about the park, Bodnar said, is visitors have a lot of freedom to have a one-on-one connection with the past, and their experience could change if the road is paved.

“If there is an increase, that might have to change,” he said. “It might be that the park management decides we have to be a bit more restrictive.”

But for Chavez, the quality of life far for Chaco Canyon residents far outweighs the park’s need to accommodate tourists. He said the county will continue to push for the paved road.

“We’re in support of the community,” Chavez said.

Residents want the road paved
While some residents carry hostile feelings toward the park, others just want to see the road finally paved.

“I don’t have anything against the park,” said Rae Werito, 64. “I’m concerned with the road. Some people broke three axles in the winter. The mud is bad. It gets too rough.”

“The park’s been getting what they want,” said her husband, Cecil Werito, Sr. who worked as a preservation specialist at the park for more than 30 years. “It’s not fair. The roads need to be improved.”

Werito raised concerns about children who have difficulties getting to school because school buses gets stuck during the winter.

The situation has become almost null for some community members.

“If it doesn’t get there, it’s fine,” Leonard Dempsey, 38, of Chaco Canyon said. Dempsey pointed to the fact that there are no businesses or industries, besides the park, in or near the community, which have remained the same since he was a child.

“Today when people say Chaco Canyon, they think of the park, not the community,” Ramona Begay, a resident of Chaco Canyon said. “They want these improvements like any American citizen.”

An unclear history
The number of Navajo families removed and the events surrounding their removal are still unclear today.

“We’re in the midst of piling an administrative history of how the park was managed for the last 100 years,” Brad Shattuck, natural resources program manager for Chaco Culture National Historical Park, said. Officials did confirm that the removals occurred from 1907 to 1947.

Shattuck said it is indisputable the history is clouded with emotion, and the park would like to clarify the history.

But while the numbers and history is unknown and hazy for park officials, it remains vivid and clear to Chaco Canyon residents who lived it.

At 79 years old, Mary Jean Harrison remembers, even as a 5-year-old girl, how heavy her heart was the day her family had to be removed from their home in the canyon.

“They said they’re going to load up the wagon, and we can’t take everything,” she recalled.

What she remembers most clearly is how saddened her mother was when she explained to her and her siblings that they had to leave the canyon. She recalled the coolness the canyon provided from a sweltering days heat, the easy access to water, the yucca plants, the wild “chish chil”, and medicines her grandfather and brother once gathered. After they left the canyon, she said they could no longer gather medicinal herbs for ceremonies. The memory brought tears to Harrison’s eyes, and she wiped them away.

“It was a good place,” she said, shaking her head.