Nellie Henio Coho dies at age 93

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — For most of her adult life, Nellie Henio Coho lived in the shadow of her husband, Chavez Coho, who was one of the most respected members of the Navajo Nation Council in the mid to late 1900s.

Nellie Coho died Tuesday at the age of 93 some 20 years after her husband had passed away, but for 30 years, she had lived the life as the wife of a council delegate without complaint.

Nellie Coho's children remember her as a person who realized the important role that a wife played in making sure her husband was able to do his job.

Beverly Coho, one of their daughters, remembers a lot of times as she was growing up in the Pinehill area waiting for her father to come home. In those days, she said, the roads to Pinehill were gravel, and when it snowed in the late 50s and early 60s, getting home was often a chore. But even if the snow was two or three feet deep, she said, her father somehow managed to make it, bringing food home for the family.

Nellie and Chavez were married in 1937 so they were getting ready to celebrate their 50th anniversary when Chavez died.

Ferociously loyal to Chavez and the family, Beverly Coho said it was a marriage that seemed to work from the very beginning, even though, like many other Navajo marriages in those days, it was arranged by the parents.

Her father, she said, was told one day by his parents to come with them to a ceremony but instead of going to it, his father drove to a ranch in the area.

"My father had no idea what was going on," Beverly Coho said.

When they got to the Henio house in Thoreau, the father went up to the head of the family and pointed to Nellie and said that was the one they wanted for their son. Within 24 hours, the marriage had been arranged and the two were wed in a traditional ceremony.

The Cohos lived for a while in Thoreau, but Beverly Coho said her father decided eventually to move them to Ramah where he had a large ranch where he could raise cattle and sheep.

The political bug grabbed him shortly after the war, and he ran for the tribal council in 1948 and won, staying in office until 1979, when he lost the election by four votes. During that time, however, Coho became one of the most influential members, serving on almost every council committee at one time or another.

"We had a lot of livestock and it fell to my mother to take care of the ranch and raise the children because Father was gone a lot of the time on council business," said Beverly Coho.

She said her mother never complained. "I never saw my parents fuss at each other or argue," she said.

"She was real gentle, real kind," Beverly Coho remembers, adding that in her later years, about the time her father became ill and died, both her mother and father became Christians and her mother was devoted to her church the rest of her life,

Nellie Coho had 12 brothers and sisters, outliving all of them.

The Cohos had five children - Betty Begay, Bessie Randolph, Bennie Coho (who is also a council delegate), Beverly and Gracie Plateau-Apachito - 16 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren and two great, great grandchildren.

"She was devoted to her grandchildren," said Beverly Coho, "to the point where she raised several of them herself."

The funeral was held Thursday at the San Mountain Church near Pinehill. Burial was at the family ranch, Cerro Alto.