Navajo president apologizes for cartoon alluding to flood victims
Story-Date: 02:17 p.m. PST Saturday , August 23, 1997

Navajo president apologizes for cartoon alluding to flood victims

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) -- The head of the Navajo Nation has apologized for
a cartoon in the tribal newspaper that apparently alludes to the deaths of
11 hikers caught by a flash flood in a narrow canyon.

The cartoon in Thursday's issue of the weekly Navajo Times shows a person
identified as a foreign tourist caught by a flood and saying: ``Oh ...
shucks ... I didn't even make it to the Navajo Nation.''

Navajo President Albert Hale called the cartoon a ``gross and demeaning
insult'' to the families of the hikers killed in the Aug. 12 flood at
Antelope Canyon, near Page on the edge of the Navajo reservation.

Seven victims were from France, two from the United States and one each
from Sweden and England. The sole survivor was a tour guide. Nine bodies
had been recovered as of Saturday.

The cartoon goes against ``Navajo teaching and decency to laugh at the
mistakes of 11 victims,'' Hale said Friday. ``Even in death, they are due
the respect we have always shown guests and strangers.''

Tom Arviso, the paper's editor, said the cartoon wasn't intended to
make light of the tragedy but rather to point out that outsiders visiting
the reservation don't listen to Navajos and frequently violate traditional
laws.

Arviso said a Navajo concessionaire at the canyon had warned the group of
the flood danger. He said he will issue his own apology for the cartoon in
this week's edition.

Relations between Hale and Arviso have been strained for the past 18 months
because of articles about Hale's marital problems and about allegations
that he abused his tribal credit card. Hale has called the articles unfair
and one-sided.

There was no comment Saturday from the cartoonist, Jack Ahasteen. He has an
unpublished phone number and a woman who answered calls to the newspaper
said he wouldn't be available until Monday.



------------------------------------------------------------