Navajo Hour on the Radio...KCLS Flagstaff

In the early morning hours, somewhere near Grand Falls mils North
Winslow, Arizona, in Kaibeto, Gray Mountain, and Lechee on the Navajo
Rez, an old Sanii (grandmother) would turn on the Phlco radio and find
KCLS in the wind.

Borden Milk he would say, turn the can around and cut out the coupon
on the back, they were worth a penny a piece. Be sure and save them,
Borden Milk, the best canned milk in Navajoland; they used to pay for
the hour slot. Some people sound good on the radio, their voice
carries far, and when they speak you can listen to them all day, they
have a voice that lifts you up. He spoke English well and Navajo even
better, he could switch back and forth with ease, it was the voice
from a Navajo college student at Arizona State College by the name of
Daniel Deschinney. He would come on the air and say, Yahtehee Binaa
(Good Morning) Time for Mary Salt to get up, someone needs to go to
the Shonto Trading Post and wake her up, go ahead and bang on the
door, she might yell around, but tell her her boy friend, Chee Wilson
from Leupp said, Get Up Lazy Bones and he would laugh. His voice had a
special quality. He would talk about the immunizations for children,
the news from the Navajo Tribal Council at Window Rock, the news on
the Navajo Hopi land dispute and he would mention the Hualapais from
near the Grand Canyon, the folks down in Parker from the Colorado
River Tribe, the news from Second Mesa and translate the state and
local news into Navajo to let those old Saniis what was going on
beyond the horizon. There would be a few Navajo jokes. He was young,
with a new wife back then.


There were two tall Navajo boys by the name of Jackson, attending the
Flag Bordertown dorm, they played first string, one of them Leonard
was high scorer in the state basketball tournament playing the monster
sized school Phoenix Union, he said they were from Cow Springs, some
called it Red Lake, though there was never any water there all year
long, just when it rained, it is on the northside of the road halfway
between Tuba City and Kayenta, he would say. He would talk about the
scores from Tuba City and how the games turned out. He would mention
the song requests for different people, saying this is for Pearl going
to school at the Flagstaff Beauty College from Sharlene at Cameron
store, near Gray Mountain on Highway 89, playing a little Waylon
Jennings. He spun tales and talked about little things, like the road
conditions on the back road between Tuba and Kaibeto, that the sand
had covered the road so the road had moved west a little bit.


Navajo Hour was the voice of Navajoland back in those days. He would
speak about the upcoming ceremonies and squaw dance notices way out
there by Dilcon, you follow the gravel road to Selba Delkai to the
second dip then turn East two miles then turn right at the house with
the red roof, Kee Mikes bighan, his place that is where it is at. Then
he would talk about the Navajo School Clothing program, about who in
each community a person had to see.
Then he would talk about the tourists, that over by Skeleton Mesa
there was wagon seen with four white horses with New Mexico plates,
the wagon had rubber wheels and one of the girls was seen at the
armory at the Flag Pow Wow grounds, dancing to Buck Owens, when you
see the horse drawn wagon be sure to say hello to Shirleta.
Yeeeeeee!!!, he would say.


In 1968 when the snow came and it was four to six feet high and people
and live stock were trapped way out in the middle of nowhere he was
their lifeline, telling them the National Gaurd was flying in food and
hay by helicopters, telling them to lay blankets outside their hogans
on the snow and food would be dropped to them. During the heavy rains
when the roads would be washed out he told families to check on each
other, and that people in the area would be there to help them. He was
the calm voice who like to laugh speaking through the small Philco.


Yes, way out in the boon docks, out by Sand Springs, Shonto, and Cedar
Ridge, the coffee brewed, the potatoes were peeled, biscuits made,
corn meal mush boiled and people chopped wood and hauled water to the
sound of Daniel Deschinney and his Navajo Hour. It is morning, the sky
is still dark but on the East there is a band of light, and I can hear
his voice calling out....Yahtehee Bina...Good Morning...


rustywire