Hard choice to make: stay or go?

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 25, 2006 by Dennis Romboy Deseret Morning News

MONUMENT VALLEY -- An American flag and two American Indian banners flap in the breeze atop a wooden shelter where Denise and Chris Tsosie sell handmade jewelry.

A sweeping rainstorm momentarily took the edge off the searing afternoon sun illuminating the stunning buttes and delicate pinnacles that dominate this sliver of the Navajo Nation. The two youngest of the Tsosies' five children play in the red dirt next to the roadside stand.

German tourists browse at the hematite bracelets and necklaces adorned with turquoise and other stones. They leave without buying.

"Some days are good," Denise Tsosie says. "Some days are bad."

"Some days you don't get anything," Chris Tsosie adds.

The stand is one of several south of Mexican Hat on U.S. 163. Not all Navajos in southeastern Utah scratch out a living this way. But many do. Job opportunities are scarce.

On Tuesdays, a group of young men in their late teens and early 20s gathers just off U.S. 163, where a Wayne County farmer parks his semitrailer truck piled with hay. For a few dollars, they load area residents' pickup trucks as they converge to buy feed for their animals.

A pair of gaunt wild horses also show up to munch scraps that fall to the ground, their protruding ribs a further sign of lean times.

Young American Indians living on reservations often reach a crossroads in their late teens: stay or go. Some choose to attend college or maybe join the armed forces. Or they move to a city to look for jobs. Others decide to live on the reservation to take whatever work is available.

"It's really about personal choice," said Nino Reyos, a Ute from the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in eastern Utah. He now lives in Rose Park.

The Tsosies make jewelry out of necessity. Catering to tourists is one of the few things they can do in Monument Valley to feed their families.

A heavy equipment operator by trade, Chris worked mostly in Arizona and Colorado while his family remained in Monument Valley. He injured his spinal cord in a car accident five years ago. He just recently shed a cane. His left arm and leg remain weak. He helps his wife string beads as therapy.

Denise Tsosie, who attended Layton High School before returning to the reservation, wants her children to go to college and get jobs elsewhere.

"I don't think there's anything to do around here," she said.

Seventeen-year-old Chasitty Yazzie intends to follow that path.

The Monument Valley High School senior already has credits at the College of Eastern Utah through concurrent enrollment. It inspired her to continue her education.

"I want to be the first in my family to go into nursing. I want to be the first in my family to go to college," she said.

Yazzie, who serves as student body president, wants to go to college far away from home at Georgia State University. Not that she wants to distance herself from the tribe, but she sees no career opportunities in Monument Valley.

For the past couple of summers she has gone to Phoenix to work because there's "practically nothing" near home.

Michelle Yazzie, a Monument Valley High junior, sees college in her future. She wants to be a dentist. But she doesn't see herself working on the reservation because "they make more money out there."

Like her classmate, Michelle Yazzie, 16, wants to move away someday, though not too far away. Her mother's side of the family holds to traditional Navajo ceremonies, dances and language. She speaks a little Navajo but says she really hasn't figured out the role her heritage will play in her life.

"I'm not really sure how important it is, but I do attend (a traditional event) if it is for my family," she said.

Michelle Yazzie and Chasitty Yazzie would be the first members of their families to attend college. They realize they have a difficult road ahead, and the odds are against them.

"It isn't going to be easy," Michelle Yazzie said. "It's going to be tough for a while because my mom says life is tough."

Nino Reyos knows about tough. He struggled in school and battled drug and alcohol addiction in his younger days.

After a stint in the Marines, he decided to sober up and go to college. He doesn't really know why. "I just felt like I wanted to try it," he said.

Starting with remedial classes, Reyos, 46, stuck with it for six years, earning a bachelor's degree in sociology and master's in social work from the University of Utah. The youngest of 11 children growing up on the Ute reservation in eastern Utah, he is the only one in his family with a college education.

Reyos, who works at a Salt Lake methadone clinic, never has returned to the reservation to live, but 13 years ago he went back in spirit to embrace his culture. He received a flute as part of his initiation as tribal dancer. He taught himself to play and has recorded three CDs. He recently was named a Grammy voter. He is in demand as a teacher of American Indian crafts, dance and music.

"It's my calling," he said.

Living on or off the reservation, he said, comes down to choice. Some tribal members are comfortable with the lifestyle and stay because that is where their roots are. Others leave because opportunities are limited. But Reyos said it's important to "not forget their identity and Indianness."