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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow a Utah county silenced Native American voters — and how Navajos are fighting back
A series of lawsuits could help counteract decades of racist practices.
Krista Langlois June 13, 2016
To understand why Wilfred Jones wanted an ambulance, you have to understand where he lives. San Juan County, in southeastern Utah, is nearly as big as New Jersey but is home to fewer than 15,000 people. The lower third is part of the Navajo Nation and is almost entirely Ute and Navajo. The upper two-thirds are white and predominantly Mormon.
Jones, a 61-year-old grandfather with jet-black hair and a diamond stud in each ear, lives in the lower third, five miles south of the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Montezuma Creek. Its rough, rocky country, where bullet holes riddle the road signs and lonely pumpjacks ply oil from the earth. The nearest services are in Blanding, some 40 miles north.
Sixteen years ago, when Jones joined the board of the Utah Navajo Health System, he realized his neighbors were dying because the closest ambulances the countys, in Blanding, and the tribes, in Kayenta, Arizona were an hour away on a good day. So Jones asked the county commission if one of San Juans ambulances could be housed in a garage in Montezuma Creek. From there, it would take half the time to rush an elder suffering a heart attack to medical care.
But the county wasnt interested. Over the next decade, Jones says, he and other health advocates repeatedly tried to get the commission to improve ambulance service on the reservation. But while the sole Navajo commissioner was supportive, the two white commissioners were usually not. ............
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)local Political's use intimation to silence the Native Communities while they exploit the bejebbers out of them. The Southeastern San Juan County kids ride up to four hours on their School Bus to get to school,know other area of our Country does this happen. And,this is one of the most picturesque places in the USA,yet it is the most impoverished thanks to Mormon Control County Government.
Omaha Steve
(99,618 posts)L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Quixote1818
(28,930 posts)Same ass holes that let Bundy in for a protest where they rode across sacred Ute Indian land because they wanted to ride there ATV's there instead of the thousands of miles already available to them. Hopefully Phil Lyman will go to jail :
Mendocino
(7,488 posts)the ATV in the still above, none other than Smashmouth, Ryan Bundy.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Too bad he wasn't sitting in a Utah jail.
Judge sentences Lyman to 10 days in jail, calls ATV protest and fallout a tragedy
Mendocino
(7,488 posts)a DU colony there, get a few hundred and flip this county. I'm willing.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)but we could change that too!
Mendocino
(7,488 posts)but the city itself, well...a tourist town mess. I like Bluff, stayed at the Recapture Lodge there. Grand County (Moab), Salt Lake County, Summit County and San Juan are the bluest in Utah.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)The protection will be good, but visitation will also rise. All of SE Utah is a great area. Seen so much of this region, and so much yet to see as they saw.
SOUTHWEST Anthropology and Archaeology
Mendocino
(7,488 posts)use a Navajo term to describe the area and mindset, Hoz'ho'. This means being part of and in balance with your natural surroundings.