Diné Christmas trees to be sent off tonight

If your family has ever picked out a Christmas tree, you know what a stressful decision it can be. Now multiply that by 17, and imagine you had all the trees in the Navajo Nation to choose from, and you can appreciate the pressure Roland Catron and Curtis Billie were under the past few weeks.

The two Navajo Nation forestry technicians were tasked with picking out 17 perfect piñon pines to grace the U.S. Department of the Interior this holiday season.

The trees will be among 75 "companion trees" to decorate federal offices sent along with the 85-foot blue spruce cut in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest that will be this year's Capitol Christmas Tree.

For the first time since the U.S. Capitol started displaying a Christmas tree in 1964, Arizona was selected to provide the tree. The 75 companion trees come from around the state, with both the Navajo and Apache tribes supplying some of the evergreens.

"It's been exciting to be involved in this event, which makes history not only for Arizona but the Navajo Nation," said Navajo Nation Forest Manager Alexious C. Becenti.

Catron and Billie were as excited as Santa's elves Tuesday, as they led Navajo Nation Forestry Department employees with chainsaws along faint dirt tracks to each of the 17 piñons they'd picked out.

The men had marked the location of each pine with a global positioning satellite device, but they didn't need it. They remembered every tree.

With all the trees in the forest to choose from, you might think it was easy picking 17 really pretty ones. You'd be wrong.

"Sometimes we'd see one that had a really nice shape from the truck," Billie recalled. "We'd get close to it and find out it was flat on one side."

The men also discovered piñons are prone to twin trunks, and if you slice one of the trunks out it leaves a bad bald spot.

They chose this high plateau northwest of Navajo, N.M. (but just across the border in Arizona) because the trees grow far apart here.

"If a tree grows close to another tree, it gets a bare spot," explained Catron.

The trees, mostly 6- to 8-footers and one 14-footer to go in the Interior building's lobby, were loaded on flatbed trailers and taken to Veterans Memorial Park in Window Rock, where they will be displayed until this afternoon.

They will be presented to Arizona Capitol Christmas Coordinator Rick Davalos tonight during a ceremony to send off the entire coterie of trees, including the main one that will go on the lawn of the nation's Capitol building. It is due to arrive in Window Rock in a semi-trailer about 3 p.m.

The ceremony, which starts at 5 p.m. at the Navajo Nation fairgrounds, is open to the public and will include remarks by Vice President Ben Shelly, Miss Navajo Tashina C. Nelson, Davalos and Becenti. Entertainment will be provided by the students of Tséhootsooí Diné bi Olta, the Navajo Nation Band, the Cross Canyon Echoes and the Callin' Eagle Singers.

Refreshments will be provided by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. Other sponsors include the tribe's Parks & Recreation Department and Division of Human Resources.

The Capitol Christmas Tree program is run entirely on donations and sales of promotional souvenir items, which will be on sale at the ceremony.

From Window Rock the trees will set off on a farewell tour with stops in Amarillo, Texas; Tulsa, Okla.; Branson, Mo.; Nashville, Tenn.; Roanoke, Va.; and Chevy Chase, Md., before being presented in D.C. Nov. 30.

The trees will be adorned with 5,000 ornaments made by Arizona children, including about 50 by Navajo and Hopi kids. As part of the presentation ceremony at the Capitol, the Apache Crown Dancers will perform to represent Arizona's Native Americans.

The switch for the tree's 10,000 lights will be flipped by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, with Arizona's congressional delegation and Gov. Jan Brewer standing by.

At the request of the Diné Hataalii Association, the Navajo trees will be returned to Dinétah when the holidays are over.

By the way, if you'd like a Navajo Christmas tree of your own, the Forestry Department will be selling about 20 of them after Thanksgiving weekend at its office in Fort Defiance adjacent to the NTUA complex. First-come first-served.

Starting Monday, Nov. 23, you can also purchase a permit to cut your own: $5 for trees 7 feet tall and under, with an additional dollar for every additional foot of height.

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