Anti-tobacco activists hope second time's the charm

The Southwest Navajo Tobacco Education Prevention Project is making a new effort to ban commercial tobacco on the Navajo Reservation.

The group's last try to get the Commercial Tobacco Free Act on the books in 2008 passed the Navajo Nation Council but was vetoed by President Joe Shirley Jr. at the urging of gaming czar Robert Winter.

The council was unable to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override Shirley's veto.

This time proponents of a tobacco ban are hoping that a more concerted promotion effort before the fall council session will get more delegates on their side.

But so far delegates, and even the Fort Defiance Hospital Health Board, are still reluctant to ban smoking in Navajo casinos.

The fear, voiced by Shirley as well, is that such a ban would hurt casino revenue by causing smokers to go to competing casinos that allow smoking.

Patricia Nez Henderson, an advisor and advocate for SNTEPP, said her group has taken the draft legislation to five standing committees so far. Four have supported it, but three of the four added an amendment that would exempt Navajo casinos from the proposed ban.

On Aug. 13, Nez Henderson also sought endorsement by the Fort Defiance Hospital Health Board, which also recommended an amendment to exempt gaming facilities.

In an e-mail after the meeting, Nez Henderson said she was "totally perplexed" by the board's position.

"(The board members) are supposed to look after the health of our people," she wrote.

"I'm not sure who the council delegates are expressing their voice for," Nez Henderson said in a phone interview. "They have the special task to be the messenger of their communities but I don't see that right now in the standing committees."

Delegates Thomas Walker (Birdsprings/Leupp/Tolani Lake) and Evelyn Acothley (Bodaway-Gap/Cameron/Coppermine) are cosponsors of the legislation.

Another concern from Shirley and delegates opposing the ban was its possible effect on the ceremonial use of tobacco. In a statement at the time Shirley questioned whether the legislation would infringe on Navajos' right to use tobacco, commercial or otherwise, in ceremonies.

The proposed bill stated that ceremonial use would be protected, but opponents thought the language was unclear.

In the run-up to the 2008 summer session vote, Bob Winters, chief executive officer of the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, said Fire Rock Navajo Casino would suffer a 20 percent loss in gross revenue and a 40 percent loss in jobs if it went smoke free.

Nez Henderson disputes those numbers, saying they are trumped up by the tobacco industry to mislead the public. The tobacco industry is after more smokers, and getting more people into smoking environments, such as casinos, is one way to do that, she added.

"As Team Navajo sees it, we're the voice of the people who can't speak out for themselves, particularly casino workers who are exposed to smoke daily," Nez Henderson said.

SNTEPP recently enlisted Nathan Moose, a worker at the Nez Perce Tribe's Itse'-Ye-Ye Casino in northern Idaho, to tell his story before the Navajo Gaming Commission in hopes that his testimony will convince it to support the legislation.

Out of 12 people who work on the casino floor, eight have cancer, he said.

Moose, who is 50 and a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation of South Dakota, said his own health took a turn for the worse when he started working there in 1998. He began to have problems with his throat and lungs. Over the years he had to take more and more time off from work because he was getting sick all the time.

In 2004 Moose developed colon cancer, which he blames on exposure to secondhand smoke in the casino. He added that he used to officiate at high school basketball games, but had to quit because of bad health. He now has diabetes and gets winded from walking a short distance.

"I was pretty naïve about secondhand smoke," Moose said in a phone interview. "Because I'm a nonsmoker, I'm not educated on what it can do to you. It affects your whole family when you're in the emergency room, or when someone has to fill in for you at work because you're sick."

Moose added that the Itse'-Ye-Ye Casino has a ventilation system, which was supposed to be the best technology had to offer in 1998, but it did nothing to help his symptoms.

Fire Rock is equipped with a ventilation system that was also considered state-of-the-art when it was installed last year.

Moose is still employed by the casino and is currently on sick leave, but believes his "days at the casino are numbered."

Why didn't he quit earlier? There aren't many jobs to be had in Kamiah, Idaho, with the timber industry suffering, and the casino job paid well, he said.

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