Muddy roads in Navajo Nation often means missed school
days
By Amy Joi O'Donoghue , Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, Dec. 16 2015 5:40 p.m. MST
NAVAJO MOUNTAIN, San Juan
County — At a time when traditional
Utah schoolchildren are anxiously
awaiting a holiday break from school,
their Navajo counterparts in San
Juan County would just like passable
roads to get to classes.
Alex Bitsinnie is well aware of the
perils of trying to get his daughter
and niece to Navajo Mountain High
School every day, slipping in the
mush of the dirt road, having to stop
to move boulders out of the way and traveling down an 11-degree grade with no guardrail.
Weather often makes the dirt roads in the Utah section of the Navajo Nation
impassable, keeping children from getting to school. Funding is in short supply, and the
maintenance and upgrades to thousands of unpaved roads on the nation in three states
was left out of a transportation package recently approved by Congress. (Jeff Tomhave ,
Tomhave Group)
"If there is mud or snow we encounter hardship," said Bitsinnie, who is president of the Navajo
Nation's Navajo Mountain Chapter.
Bitsinnie said there is a gravel pit and crusher standing by to grade County Road 435 and to take it
from dirt to gravel, but no money available.
"We are just looking for funding," he said.
San Juan County is part of a tri-state
coalition that is partnering with the
Navajo Nation to urge the federal
government to restore funding to the
Indian School Bus Routes
Maintenance Program.
In San Juan County, there are 258
miles of school bus routes in the
Navajo Nation, 87 miles of which
remain unpaved. Across the entire
nation, 77 percent of the roads are
dirt.
The effort has the support of Utah
Gov. Gary Herbert and Arizona Gov.
Doug Doucey, as well as
congressional representatives like
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Arizona,
who wrote an op-ed piece saying it is
more than a transportation issue, it is
an issue of civil rights.
Weather often makes the dirt roads in the Utah section of the Navajo Nation
impassable, keeping children from getting to school. Funding is in short supply, and
"Navajo students deserve the same
the maintenance and upgrades to thousands of unpaved roads on the nation in three
states was left out of a transportation package recently approved by Congress. (Jeff
access to education as any other
Tomhave, Tomhave Group)
student in Arizona, New Mexico or
Utah," she wrote in the Navajo-Hopi Observer.
Supporters of improving the Navajo school bus routes requested $4.5 million as part of the five-year,
$305 billion transportation bill approved by Congress earlier this month. They were shot down.
San Juan County's Chief
Administrative Officer Kelly Pehrson
said proponents are now seeking
stand-alone legislation in January to
pay for maintenance and
improvement of Navajo school bus
routes.
Weather often makes the dirt roads in the Utah section of the Navajo Nation
impassable, keeping children from getting to school. Funding is in short supply, and the
maintenance and upgrades to thousands of unpaved roads on the nation in three states
was left out of a transportation package recently approved by Congress. (Jeff Tomhave,
Tomhave Group)
Pehrson said the county used to get
about $500,000 a year for help on
maintenance of Navajo school bus
routes, but the program was not
reauthorized.
Last year, he said a late winter storm
dropped 18 inches of snow in Monument Valley and students were out of school for 10 days.
"The school buses cannot drive on these roads and a lot of these citizens live in very rural and remote
areas and just can't get to school," he said.
"Our goal as a county is to improve the roads to gravel roads and make them more passable when the
storms hit. But it is very hard," Pehrson said.
The county's own road maintenance
budget was in the hole $1 million
last year, and upgrading the school
routes from dirt to gravel would cost
about $18 million.
Still, since 2005, the county has
spent $11 million out of its own
budget to fix Navajo school routes.
"They are citizens of our county and
we are going to serve them as much
as we can," Pehrson said.
Weather often makes the dirt roads in the Utah section of the Navajo Nation
impassable, keeping children from getting to school. Funding is in short supply, and the
maintenance and upgrades to thousands of unpaved roads on the nation in three states
was left out of a transportation package recently approved by Congress. (Jeff Tomhave ,
Tomhave Group)
The Navajo Department of
Transportation has tried to step in where it can, but with the Utah segment of the nation the farthest
geographically from its capital of Window Rock, Arizona, sometimes money trickles there at the
slowest rate.
Brandy Tomhave from the Tomhave Group is a lobbyist hired by San Juan County and other
proponents to push for federal money to fix the Navajo school bus routes.
She said before the maintenance program was repealed, the three states where the Navajo Nation
divides its topography received about $500,000. San Juan County, since it is the only county in the
state with a Navajo Nation footprint, used that money to help maintain routes.
Since 2010, however, San Juan County has been paying
for nearly all the costs in a transportation arrangement
that stretches back even farther.
"San Juan County is unique in the nation in that it is
contracted to step into the boots of the federal
government to perform the transportation services that
the Bureau of Indian Affairs otherwise would. That is
an arrangement over 20 years old," she said.
Weather often makes the dirt roads in the Utah section of
the Navajo Nation impassable, keeping children from getting
to school. Funding is in short supply, and the maintenance
and upgrades to thousands of unpaved roads on the nation
in three states was left out of a transportation package
recently approved by Congress. (Jeff Tomhave, Tomhave
Group)
"San Juan County recognized that the roads on the
reservation were terrible and the BIA, with its
headquarters in Gallop, New Mexico, recognized it did
not have the reach to service Utah Navajo like it
should," Tomhave added.
She said the funding for Navajo school routes was not part of the huge transportation spending
package recently approved because it was viewed as an earmark.
"An earmark is special funding that only benefits one congressional
district," Tomhave said. "This involves multiple districts, 11 counties and
three states. … It is a regional allocation."
Arguments that it was just like paying for Appalachian Native American
infrastructure fell flat, she said. "The Navajo Nation is far away from
(Washington) D.C. and poorly understood."
Tomhave said she found it ironic the federal transportation spending
package that cut out money for the Navajo school bus routes included a
grants program for urban bike paths.
"I think they are lovely to have, but they're not essential — they certainly are
not as essential as a bus route that is the only way for Navajo children to
access education."
Navajo roads in Utah by the
numbers
Story by Amy Joi (Joseph
Tolman, San Juan
County/Navajo Nation)
The lack of money for Navajo bus routes, Tomhave said, is difficult to
understand, impacting 85,000 K-12 students.
"There is no federal responsibility to pay for bicycle routes in urban and city
areas but there is a responsibility to fund these roads. These are roads on
federal lands for federal trustees to get to federal schools on federal school
buses. It is a total abdication of responsibility," she said.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: amyjoi16
Copyright 2015, Deseret News Publishing Company
Navajo roads in Utah by the
numbers
Story by Amy Joi (Joseph
Tolman, San Juan
County/Navajo Nation)