Last February, I asked “Who’s the Boss in Utah’s Bears Ears Country?” The following six-part essay, which I am posting in installments, is an attempt to partially answer that question after a year of watching events unfold there. This is Part 4.
Part 1: Rule by resolution. Willie Grayeyes and Kenneth Maryboy took their oaths of office as commissioners a little over a year ago after what was described as a “historic” election. They immediately staked their claim to power by choosing to govern primarily through resolutions written by their longtime private attorney and approved without advice or informed consent of virtually anyone in the county.
Part 2: The power of environmental nonprofits. It’s hard to overestimate the influence of Utah Diné Bikéyah, the tribal-affiliated nonprofit founded and run by Grayeyes and Maryboy until they took office. They’ve succeeded as leaders in attempts to create Bears Ears National Monument in a way that took results of a presidential election and proclamation to derail.
Part 3: Open-records stonewalling. Numerous requests for public records filed under GRAMA were generated in 2019 due in part to the climate created by the new commissioners’ evasiveness and open hostility toward many constituents and those constituents’ forceful, if sometimes rowdy, responses. The county (Grayeyes and Maryboy) was ordered to produce records in three cases.
TODAY
Part 4: Gutter rhetoric. Unfiltered comments of public figures were part and parcel of 2019’s hard-edged politicking in San Juan County. It was on full display in the weeks and months leading up to November’s special election that asked voters whether they wanted to form a committee to study possible changes in county government.
Part 5: A defeat for good government. A full-court press of a campaign mounted by the San Juan County Democratic Party, its allies and prominent Navajo Nation politicians defeated an ostensibly non-partisan effort to change the way the county works. Results of November’s special election hinged on rhetoric of retribution and the politics of payback. An alternative story line — charting a path toward better democracy — was a non-starter.
Part 6: But can they fix the roads? To a certain extent the new commissioners’ relationship with officials of the Navajo Nation will determine their success in office. They’ve played an insider’s game of reservation politics for a long time, but so far they’ve been unable to leverage that experience into discernible benefits for county residents.
Part 4: Gutter rhetoric
By Bill Keshlear
Unfiltered comments of public figures were part and parcel of 2019’s hard-edged politicking in San Juan County. It was on full display in the weeks and months before November’s special election that asked voters whether they wanted to form a committee to study possible changes in county government.
Mark Maryboy, a prominent Democratic leader in the multiyear, multimillion-dollar campaign to create Bears Ears National Monument, fused a scheduled report on water rights with a kind of stump speech in August at the Mexican Water chapter of the Navajo Nation just south of the Utah state line in Arizona.
Trump is an “idiot,” he said. Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden would restore President Obama’s version of Bears Ears National Monument. Anti-monument Navajos are “tame Indians,” a slur used to smear Navajos who disagree with his politics. When applied to African Americans perceived as subservient to Anglos, the sentiment amounts to fighting words that resurrect “Uncle Tom.”
After a few minutes the board member of Utah Diné Bikéyah and environmental advocate Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance launched into an unprovoked and unsubstantiated broadside targeting a small group of Anglos and Navajos that came down from San Juan County.
His words left several critics shaken. They seemed unrehearsed, straight from the gut. Much of what he said was in Navajo, specifically tossing verbal barbs at fellow tribal members, including an Elder in her 90s.
Many of the people attending the meeting, including Mark Maryboy, spoke Navajo. The organizer of the event and president of the chapter, San Juan County Commission Chair Kenneth Maryboy, did not provide translation services for non-Navajo speakers in attendance even though discussions of county policy took center stage. And he did not try to rein in his brother’s remarks.
Maryboy said the initiative was being driven by “the white people – the white racist Mormons from Blanding and Monticello. Redneck Mormons is what they are.”
Joe B. Lyman, mayor of Blanding, was co-sponsor of the ballot question. He declined comment, preferring instead to let this formal response by Blanding and Monticello city councils dated August 28 speak for him.
“At a Town Hall meeting in Mexican Water, Utah, on August 22, 2019, Mr. Mark Maryboy made repeated disparaging comments toward some Navajo Nation residents and also the people of Blanding and Monticello.
“Mr. Mark Maryboy, in a stunning and repeated display of bigotry, disparaged residents of Blanding and Monticello as “white racist redneck Mormons who are members of the Ku Klux Klan.” This statement is patently false and without basis, evidence, or merit. Blanding and Monticello Cities strongly condemn the false and disparaging comments of Mr. Maryboy toward the residents of San Juan County, Monticello, and Blanding City.
“San Juan County Commissioner Kenneth Maryboy was in attendance as a Commission member and sat at the helm of the meeting. We are dismayed that our County Commission Representative did not take action to stop Mark Maryboy’s defamatory comments or defend his constituents in San Juan County. Words expressed by public figures, such as those by Mr. Maryboy, in open public meetings, should not be allowed to cross the line of being indecent and vile.
“Blanding and Monticello contend that in order to improve the current difficult dynamic in San Juan County we must treat all citizens with respect and dignity, and we call for all public figures and public officials who speak on behalf of citizens to do the same. It is time for every group in our area to focus on our similarities and work toward the common good.
“We can have differences of opinion and still treat each other with courtesy. It is our sincere desire that the public discourse can return to one of civility and cooperation for the benefit of all County residents.
“Signed,
“Blanding City Council and Mayor
“Monticello City Council and Mayor”
Related essays published in the Canyon Country Zephyr
Rhetoric of retribution, the politics of payback (December 2019).
https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/12/01/the-rhetoric-of-retribution-the-politics-of-payback-by-bill-keshlear/
A take-no-prisoners style of politics in San Juan County (October 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/09/30/a-take-no-prisoners-style-of-politics-in-san-juan-county-by-bill-keshlear/
My excellent adventure into the heart of Gramaland (June 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/06/02/my-excellent-adventure-deep-into-the-heart-of-gramaland-by-bill-keshlear/
• A rough transfer of power (June 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/06/02/be-it-resolved-five-months-in-a-rough-transfer-of-power-for-san-juan-county-by-bill-keshlear/
• Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (February 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/02/03/meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss-the-san-juan-county-saga-continues-by-bill-keshlear/
• Whose county is this anyway (August 2018)? https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2018/08/01/whose-county-is-this-anyway-bears-ears-activist-wins-squeaker-for-sjco-commissioner-district-3-what-now-by-bill-keshlear/
 |
| A Gallup, New Mexico, newspaper's banner headline offers readers the perspectives of Davis Filfred, chair of Utah Diné Bikéyah, and Alastair Lee BitsóÃ, UDB communications director, on November's special election in San Juan County, Utah. Opponents of Proposition 10, which asked voters about studying a possible change of government, slung a bit of mud in their campaign. The paper offered no other perspectives. (Note: Despite what the first subhead says, final decisions would’ve been placed in the hands of voters, not a “self-appointed committee.” The ability of county residents to determine the kind of government they’d prefer to live under is a fundamental right. The election was chock-full of misinformation such as this.) |
Part 1: Rule by resolution. Willie Grayeyes and Kenneth Maryboy took their oaths of office as commissioners a little over a year ago after what was described as a “historic” election. They immediately staked their claim to power by choosing to govern primarily through resolutions written by their longtime private attorney and approved without advice or informed consent of virtually anyone in the county.
Part 2: The power of environmental nonprofits. It’s hard to overestimate the influence of Utah Diné Bikéyah, the tribal-affiliated nonprofit founded and run by Grayeyes and Maryboy until they took office. They’ve succeeded as leaders in attempts to create Bears Ears National Monument in a way that took results of a presidential election and proclamation to derail.
Part 3: Open-records stonewalling. Numerous requests for public records filed under GRAMA were generated in 2019 due in part to the climate created by the new commissioners’ evasiveness and open hostility toward many constituents and those constituents’ forceful, if sometimes rowdy, responses. The county (Grayeyes and Maryboy) was ordered to produce records in three cases.
TODAY
Part 4: Gutter rhetoric. Unfiltered comments of public figures were part and parcel of 2019’s hard-edged politicking in San Juan County. It was on full display in the weeks and months leading up to November’s special election that asked voters whether they wanted to form a committee to study possible changes in county government.
Part 5: A defeat for good government. A full-court press of a campaign mounted by the San Juan County Democratic Party, its allies and prominent Navajo Nation politicians defeated an ostensibly non-partisan effort to change the way the county works. Results of November’s special election hinged on rhetoric of retribution and the politics of payback. An alternative story line — charting a path toward better democracy — was a non-starter.
Part 6: But can they fix the roads? To a certain extent the new commissioners’ relationship with officials of the Navajo Nation will determine their success in office. They’ve played an insider’s game of reservation politics for a long time, but so far they’ve been unable to leverage that experience into discernible benefits for county residents.
____________
Part 4: Gutter rhetoric
By Bill Keshlear
Unfiltered comments of public figures were part and parcel of 2019’s hard-edged politicking in San Juan County. It was on full display in the weeks and months before November’s special election that asked voters whether they wanted to form a committee to study possible changes in county government.
Mark Maryboy, a prominent Democratic leader in the multiyear, multimillion-dollar campaign to create Bears Ears National Monument, fused a scheduled report on water rights with a kind of stump speech in August at the Mexican Water chapter of the Navajo Nation just south of the Utah state line in Arizona.
 |
| Mary Maryboy, a prominent Democrat and board member of Utah Diné Bikéyah and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, spoke at a chapter meeting on the Navajo reservation in August. (KUER) |
Trump is an “idiot,” he said. Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden would restore President Obama’s version of Bears Ears National Monument. Anti-monument Navajos are “tame Indians,” a slur used to smear Navajos who disagree with his politics. When applied to African Americans perceived as subservient to Anglos, the sentiment amounts to fighting words that resurrect “Uncle Tom.”
After a few minutes the board member of Utah Diné Bikéyah and environmental advocate Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance launched into an unprovoked and unsubstantiated broadside targeting a small group of Anglos and Navajos that came down from San Juan County.
His words left several critics shaken. They seemed unrehearsed, straight from the gut. Much of what he said was in Navajo, specifically tossing verbal barbs at fellow tribal members, including an Elder in her 90s.
- Maryboy’s comments were recorded by San Juan County resident Wendy Black.
- A complete transcript, including a translation from Navajo to English, was published in the October/November edition of the Canyon Country Zephyr.
Many of the people attending the meeting, including Mark Maryboy, spoke Navajo. The organizer of the event and president of the chapter, San Juan County Commission Chair Kenneth Maryboy, did not provide translation services for non-Navajo speakers in attendance even though discussions of county policy took center stage. And he did not try to rein in his brother’s remarks.
Maryboy said the initiative was being driven by “the white people – the white racist Mormons from Blanding and Monticello. Redneck Mormons is what they are.”
Joe B. Lyman, mayor of Blanding, was co-sponsor of the ballot question. He declined comment, preferring instead to let this formal response by Blanding and Monticello city councils dated August 28 speak for him.
“At a Town Hall meeting in Mexican Water, Utah, on August 22, 2019, Mr. Mark Maryboy made repeated disparaging comments toward some Navajo Nation residents and also the people of Blanding and Monticello.
“Mr. Mark Maryboy, in a stunning and repeated display of bigotry, disparaged residents of Blanding and Monticello as “white racist redneck Mormons who are members of the Ku Klux Klan.” This statement is patently false and without basis, evidence, or merit. Blanding and Monticello Cities strongly condemn the false and disparaging comments of Mr. Maryboy toward the residents of San Juan County, Monticello, and Blanding City.
“San Juan County Commissioner Kenneth Maryboy was in attendance as a Commission member and sat at the helm of the meeting. We are dismayed that our County Commission Representative did not take action to stop Mark Maryboy’s defamatory comments or defend his constituents in San Juan County. Words expressed by public figures, such as those by Mr. Maryboy, in open public meetings, should not be allowed to cross the line of being indecent and vile.
“Blanding and Monticello contend that in order to improve the current difficult dynamic in San Juan County we must treat all citizens with respect and dignity, and we call for all public figures and public officials who speak on behalf of citizens to do the same. It is time for every group in our area to focus on our similarities and work toward the common good.
“We can have differences of opinion and still treat each other with courtesy. It is our sincere desire that the public discourse can return to one of civility and cooperation for the benefit of all County residents.
“Signed,
“Blanding City Council and Mayor
“Monticello City Council and Mayor”
____________
Related essays published in the Canyon Country Zephyr
Rhetoric of retribution, the politics of payback (December 2019).
https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/12/01/the-rhetoric-of-retribution-the-politics-of-payback-by-bill-keshlear/
A take-no-prisoners style of politics in San Juan County (October 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/09/30/a-take-no-prisoners-style-of-politics-in-san-juan-county-by-bill-keshlear/
My excellent adventure into the heart of Gramaland (June 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/06/02/my-excellent-adventure-deep-into-the-heart-of-gramaland-by-bill-keshlear/
• A rough transfer of power (June 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/06/02/be-it-resolved-five-months-in-a-rough-transfer-of-power-for-san-juan-county-by-bill-keshlear/
• Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (February 2019). https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2019/02/03/meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss-the-san-juan-county-saga-continues-by-bill-keshlear/
• Whose county is this anyway (August 2018)? https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2018/08/01/whose-county-is-this-anyway-bears-ears-activist-wins-squeaker-for-sjco-commissioner-district-3-what-now-by-bill-keshlear/