Navajo Nation regains ancestral lands in Tuba

Members of the Navajo Nation Hospitality Enterprise Board (NNHEB) and the Navajo Nation Council, including representatives from the Economic Division, Speaker Edward T. Begay and numerous other dignitaries, gathered in Tuba City on January 5 to celebrate an historical event. After a long, complicated process, the Navajo Nation has acquired the Tuba City Quality Inn and R V Park, the Tuba City Trading Post and the Hogan Restaurant.

These properties were formerly owned by the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company. And although the Babbitts were unable to attend the ceremony, the family was definitely remembered. Lorenzo Maxx, Tuba City entrepreneur and chairman of the NNHE, recognized the Babbitt family in a welcoming message presented in the ceremony program.

“They [the Babbitts] came to the Tuba City area and opened a trading post back in the late 1800’s The Babbitts were good stewards of the land, which is appreciated by our people. Because we consider the land sacred.” The acquisition, he continued, will continue to provide economic benefits to Tuba City while returning ancestral land back to the Navajo, an area shared with the Hopi and Southern Paiute.

“As members of the Tuba City community, you have a stake in this business endeavor and we need to contribute to its growth because we are now the stewards of this property.”

Lawrence Platero, Council Delegate and member of the NNHEB, expressed his regret that members of the Babbitt family could not attend the festivities. It had been hoped that William Cordasco, the president of Babbitt Brothers Trading Company would be on hand, but Platero expressed that he understood Cordasco’s absence. It wasn’t easy, he explained, for Cordasco to let go of the historical landholding due to his attachment and fondness of the land and the people. “But he knew in his heart that this facility would always carry on,” Platero added.

Allen Naille, III, who is a member of the NNHEB and has served on numerous boards, including that of the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company, spoke on behalf of the Babbitt Family. “[The family] welcomes that this land now belongs to the Navajo people. They have run this operation for the last 80 years, and it has meant a lot to that family. Back in the 1800s there were five brothers, but as all families do, the Babbitt family spread out, with diverse interests and directions.” This fact diluted the intensity and direction of the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company, and family members realized that the company could not hold out into the future, Naille explained. The family began to look at selling their operations.

“As a board member of this operation, I thought this [the Tuba City inholdings] belong to the Navajo.” There were other competitors for the enterprises, Naille said, including interests from the Grand Canyon and even Yosemite. But Navajo was to win out, through the efforts of men like Raymond Maxx, who Naille recognized.

“It gives me a great deal of pleasure because the motel now belongs to the Navajo.” Through his involvement on various boards for different hospitality enterprises, including the Fred Harvey corporation, and his involvement with the Navajo Nation, Naille has held a mission-to promote tourism on Navajo Lands.

Visitors to the Navajo Nation cannot fail to notice the recognition afforded to veterans at public gatherings. Naille is no exception. “It is an honor for me to stand when veterans were asked to stand. I was a helicopter pilot, and this was the first time I was asked to stand as a veteran. I appreciate that.

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