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Sloppy mud brings things to a standstill in the rain, causing grandmas to tiptoe carefully in risk of falling while trying to cross from one side to another.
When it's warm and dry, as is most often the case, swirling dust sometimes leaves grit in a visitor's teeth, or it causes vendors to tie down and cover their wares.
During the most popular events when the crowd is largest, spectators at the rodeo, customers in the market area and thrill-seekers under the flashing lights must hold their excitement when it comes time to visit a restroom. Chances are, the wait will be long and the smell distracting when they finally find access to what is often a filthy toilet hard to find.
Then, when the crowds are gone and all is quiet again, mountains of trash litter the grounds and spill into the streets. That's because there are no trash cans to be found.
Nevertheless, people flock to the Shiprock Navajo Fair every October, just as they have for nearly a century.
And they spend, spend, spend their money, getting socked with expensive entry fees to participate in the parade or to enter the fairgrounds during the fair.
They spend to the tune of at least $750,000 a year, but some say the figure is as high as $5 million a year.
Yet, the fairgrounds are unpaved, the trash cans are few, the toilets are fewer, and a century of success in fun, pride and tradition has resulted in a miserable failure of leadership and stagnation.
It is time the Shiprock fair board
It is time that new and public accountability be put into place to reveal for all to see how every dollar the fair makes, every year, is used.
It is time someone show real and ethical leadership in the Navajo tribe to resolve this matter, whether it is the Shiprock chapter, the Navajo council in Window Rock, or perhaps a new grassroots effort wanting total transparency.
The opportunity for positive change is now, while the problem is exposed.
Will anyone arise to the challenge?
***
The Navajo tribe has a rich heritage, and whether you are a proud Navajo or an intrigued visitor, the Shiprock Fair is always one of the more exciting and colorful events to attend in this area every year.
The Navajo people therefore want to know why such backward conditions continue to exist, year after year, at the Shiprock fairgrounds when by all accounts the fair is repeatedly a financial success.
Only the fair board can say where the money goes, and they aren't saying.
Call after call and visit after visit was made by this newspaper to try and get access to records of any kind to show where the money goes for the Shiprock Fair. Obviously, the money is not being returned to the fair itself in way of noticeable improvements.
That's a lot of money to go without accountability. Only these people claim it as their business to know:
The board claims to be a nonprofit.
It sure seems to be a profit for somebody.
But who?
Not the Internal Revenue Service, apparently, which tells us the fair board may be a nonprofit, but it is not registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit.
Folks, that is a big deal, because guess what?
That suggests someone is guilty of tax evasion, because also according to the IRS during our investigation, despite earning hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, every year: No one is paying any taxes on this annual venture.
No one has paid taxes for the fair for at least the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, the years we requested records from the IRS.
Tax evasion, by the way, is punishable by time in prison, if convicted.
So, either the fair board needs to register as a tax-exempt nonprofit and therefore be obligated to publicly share its records with all the details of where the money goes, or, pay taxes.
Surely if no one else does, the IRS will get involved in this.
How sad is it that we actually invite the IRS to something?
***
Keeping secrets with public money is an ethical crime, if nothing else, and of that, the board already stands convicted in the court of public opinion.
The board has done nothing to come forward and defend itself, other than vice president Joe sharing, with few details, the goal of saving money for development of a new fairgrounds location.
If on the other hand the board hides behind its existence as an independent, incorporated entity, not only should the IRS, the state, tribe and federal governments become involved in investigating it, but the people of Shiprock and all the northern Navajo Nation should demand a change to retake control of the Nation's oldest fair.
Oh, and let's not forget, $9,000 of taxpayer money from San Juan County went into this mysterious coffer, supposedly to help foot the bill for housing additional law enforcement officers working the fair.
The county wants to be supportive of this great event, but how can county leaders defend themselves to voters if they cannot verify this money was put to good use? Or that it was needed, given that one Navajo official bragged of the fair making millions?
Yet another victim is exposed: The San Juan County taxpayer. Not another dime should go to this fair until there is a proven need, and that proof must come in complete transparency and accountability from whoever is in charge of this thing.
Right now, patrons of the Shiprock fair, including me as a big fan of it, might as well be giving the money to a vendor from New York instead of operators in New Mexico, because the money sure isn't going anywhere that can be seen here.
If there are indeed plans for new fairgrounds, why haven't those plans been advertised and promoted, and why the secrecy in explaining the bank account?
There needs to be a change in ownership, right now while the iron is hot.
The Navajo people as a whole should own this fair, not a handful of self-appointed shareholders meeting in secrecy.
***
Probably the final straw of public opinion for this fair board came when the fair parade organizers completely ignored one of the Navajo's most iconic images: the Code Talkers.
That was more than embarrassing.
It was a downright disgrace.
Although the job of organizing the parade is an assigned task, and no doubt a tough one, it was made clear in the early going when questions were asked that only the fair board could grant exemptions to the normal $250 to $500 parade entry fee, and that the board had granted no such exemption to the Code Talkers.
In fairness, the Code Talkers never requested it, nor did they approach the board first about other options for getting into the parade.
But geeze, the Code Talkers are quickly becoming ancient legends, with only a handful still alive. They need help just walking down the street, let alone getting themselves invited to ride in a parade.
And how sad is that, for a Code Talker to be treated like a movie star in other parts of the world, but to have to go out and ask to be honored in his homeland's oldest traditional fair or, as was the case, be forgotten.
The fair board should feel shamed for this oversight. Although a last-day, grass-roots effort by hundreds of angry newspaper readers, when they read about it, led to the Code Talkers getting included, the fair board should have had them front and center from the get-go.
Yes, it is time for a change.
It's time this century-old fair in Shiprock return to the people.
Past time.
Now, with the problem exposed, is the chance to do something about it.
Troy Turner is the editor of The Daily Times. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 450, Farmington, N.M. 87401; or at tturner@daily-times.com.
