Navajo Utah Commission honored
2 members recognized at good-natured roast

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Willie Grayeyes and Mark Maryboy rounded out their final terms Monday as members of the Navajo Utah Commission with a good-natured "roast" and a roast beef business luncheon at Quality Inn.

Clarence Rockwell, executive director, and commission member Delegate Kathryn Benally presented Grayeyes and Maryboy with embroidered Pendleton robes and plaques of appreciation for distinguished leadership and publicservice.

Maryboy said he first met Grayeyes in 1967 by Paiute Mesa. "At the time he was a fur trapper," he said.

"Coyote hunting," Grayeyes corrected.

Benally took a friendly jab. "I knew he was looking for his skin!" she said.

The two delegates have served 16 years each on the Navajo Nation Council: Grayeyes, from 1979 to 1987 and 1999 to 2007; Maryboy, from 1991 to 2007.

Grayeyes recalled that around 1969 he learned there was a program called the Utah Navajo Development Council.

When he came back from California, he said, he started working with the Navajo Mountain Chapter, got to know the system, and finally became one of the board members.

"Through those years I worked with a lot of people from all seven Utah chapters. Some of them have gone on ahead to their resting place," Grayeyes said. People like his Uncle Chester Black and Harry Jelly, who were "cornerstones" of the plan to establish the Navajo Utah Commission.

Later, Maryboy and staff members of the Utah Navajo Development Council came together and helped develop the Navajo Utah Commission, Grayeyes said.

He expressed his appreciation for all the gifts they have given him over the years.

"Gifts in terms of knowledge and how things work in the system, the state government and tribal government. I think those are the key learning points that I have acquired in terms of how I can serve my Navajo constituents, my people, my clans and relatives," he said.

He thanked the commission for giving him an "instrument to work with" and wished members a good relationship with the new council.

Rockwell saluted Grayeyes for his contributions toward formation of the Utah Navajo District Court and in bringing a road into Navajo Mountain. He also complemented Maryboy for being "quite a leader in getting the state of Utah to work with Navajo."

Maryboy recounted how his mom and dad trained him to be a leader. "My dad really pushed me to go to school, to the university. He told me to stay off the Navajo Reservation and learn how to work with white people.

"After I graduated from the university, I worked as a district manager for Wal-Mart. That's where I really learned to work in the white world. You have to be on time. Sometimes you have to be there five minutes before you start work, and stay there. I learned the ethics of working hard," he said.

Maryboy returned to the reservation around 1980. Grayeyes later hired him to be the division director for the Utah Navajo Development Council.

"Everybody has a goal and everybody has a milestone. I never wanted to be a lifer, as far as politics. I wanted to serve four terms. I believe ingiving other people a chance," he said.

Also, eventually all of the politicking "burns you out," Maryboy said. "It's time for me to start a new chapter in my life. But I'm still concerned about the issues."

He recommended the commission work on the 62-1/2 percent that comes to the Nation from the Utah chapters, as well as the sales tax and fuel excisetax, roads into Navajo Mountain and from Red Mesa to Sweetwater, and developing a visitors center in the Four Corners area.

"The other thing that I want to see is water lines and power lines. There are still some Navajos that don't have water and electricity," he said.

He urged commission members maintain their position on Navajo water rights.

"We should be harvesting our own alfalfa. We have been ruined by the BIA (and) welfare," he said.