Official: Skinwalkers halted construction on Navajo facility

Heavy equipment sits unused Friday at the construction site for the new casino along Hwy 118 near Churchrock, NM. [photo by Jeff Jones / Independent]

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

CHURCHROCK — Soil from an archaeological site within Churchrock Chapter has inadvertently been used for fill at the site for the Navajo Nation’s first casino, and the Resources Committee says proper clearances were not obtained.

“My understanding is that the casino is going to come to a halt probably this week as far as the activities over there,” Resources Chairman George Arthur told the committee Thursday.

“They don’t have a clearance — they have nothing that Resources Committee approved. I guess what they are going by is what Churchrock Chapter approved.”

However, one chapter official says the delay might be because of witchcraft.

Council Delegate Ernest Yazzie, who represents Churchrock Chapter, said, “ I don’t see why as Navajos we can’t progress with any big project that we start making. We always just work against one another and we don’t get nothing done.”

Yazzie believes the current obstacle has something to do with Navajo witchcraft. “Since the very first day they’ve been doing that to us, to this day. Every time everything runs smooth, here they come again; and it’s going to be like that until that thing is built and people are walking in there and putting in their money.

“I won’t let any skinwalkers, witchcraft, Godless people try to stop what we are doing,” he said.

On June 17, the chapter voted 30-0-11 to allow the use of dirt from a site within the chapter because it had identified several areas for housing and business development which required land preparation. It was a win-win situation. The chapter needed dirt removed — an expensive proposition — and casino developers needed dirt.

Ray Etcitty, chief legislative counsel for the Navajo Gaming Enterprise, said that when the construction company wanted dirt, they notified chapter officials who said they would be the ones to handle it.

“They identified us a site, they passed a chapter resolution, and we thought everything was fine — at which point Navajo Land Department showed up” and asked to see their paperwork.

“We said, ‘Well it should be with the chapter. The chapter didn’t have anything,” he said. “When we found out that the chapter did not process the right permits, we stopped all activities and ordered all our trucks away.”

Arthur said he was driving by the borrow site about a month ago, “and I just thought to myself, ‘I’m wondering who authorized this,’ because I know it didn’t come from this committee.”

Stephen B. Etsitty of Navajo Environmental Protection Agency said his staff have been making periodic visits to the area since early June when actual earth work began.

Later in June, Patrick Antonio of EPA’s Water Quality Program was headed to a meeting in Farmington and just happened to take New Mexico Highway 566 from Churchrock.

While driving, Etcitty said, Antonio saw earthmoving equipment “at a location that didn’t seem to jibe, that seemed out of place,” so they started checking into it.

“What we understand to be the situation is that the developers of the casino project have deviated from the Storm Water Prevention Plan and have gone to another location that we were never notified of, and have incorporated this process of getting fill material and trucking it down to the site, which is not something that was in their notice of intent.”

Though the issue has been raised that the soil might possibly have some uranium contamination, Etsitty said it was not taken from an area that has been identified as a problem for potentially containing uranium-contaminated material.

EPA’s Etsitty said though it appears they have deviated from the storm water plan, he doesn’t see it as a project stopper.

“This can be dealt with by alerting them that they’re out of compliance. We can ding them. We can write them a letter saying, ‘This should not have happened and we’ll hold you responsible for it,’ but it’s a situation that can be dealt with administratively.”

Rita Whitehorse-Larson of EPA’s Office of Environmental Review said another concern is what type of soil it is and was it tested to see whether it met its intended purpose.
Charlene Begay-Platero, industrial development specialist for Navajo Economic Development, said the problem with the borrow pit from which the dirt was removed was discovered by Navajo Archaeology, “so that stopped the work to get a permit there. The issues now are mostly with the sand and gravel permitting.”

Platero said they are doing the permitting process and are preparing a package for Resources’ consideration later this month.

Though there is some argument about the business site lease, Platero said the Gaming Enterprise has all the proper clearances. “I would not have taken a lease to the committee if it had not been cleared. That was done almost a year ago,” she said, for the industrial park.

Attorney Etcitty said that since stopping work on the borrow pit, they are now talking with the proper Navajo authorities about reclaiming and re-seeding the site. “We stopped all activities and we had Parks double checking, we’re going to be reclaiming it, we’re going to be fencing it off, and getting everything back to normal.”