Activists are urging Navajos out of their hogans and into the voting booths in an effort to unseat non-Indian San Juan County officials.
More than half the county's population is Navajo, three-quarters of whom don't have running water or electricity, officials told about 75 Navajos gathered on McCracken Mesa in southeastern Utah on Sunday.The activists say the people's needs are being ignored and have vowed a massive effort to register Navajos so their voices can be heard.
"They had better dang well listen to the Navajo people," said Commissioner Mark Maryboy, San Juan County's only Navajo elected official. "They will be the driving force. If a candidate is not listening, the Navajos can get rid of them," he said.
Speaking to about 75 tribal members gathered on McCracken Mesa Sunday, Jean Melton of the Utah Intertribal Coalition said actor Robert Redford, author Tony Hillerman and the AFL-CIO have pledged to support a Navajo voter registration drive.
Maryboy said more than 500 Navajos registered to vote in four days recently, prodded by university student volunteers who "went from hogan to hogan." He said another 2,000 will be the target of a voter registration drive in July.
The efforts follow a 1986 redistricting in the county, he said.
Ken Sleight, an environmentalist and outfitter from Moab who is running for the Utah House of Representatives, said the challenge by Navajos for county seats is "long past due."
Gary Soso, a non-Indian refrigeration contractor from Bluff and a fund-raiser for the Navajo Democrats, said he has witnessed widespread discrimination and segregation in San Juan County politics since moving to Bluff in 1978 from San Francisco.
Maryboy said his requests for services to the Navajos, who live in seven reservation chapters in the county, have been denied or blocked by county officials.
The county commissioner is seeking tribal support for the creation of a new county special service district which would be funded by taxes collected from oil and gas companies on the reservation.