Navajo Families Receive Electricity For the First Time.

[Stuart G]

Yahoo News, AP


http://news.yahoo.com/navajo-families-receive-electricity-first-111219547.html


FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Life has become a little easier for Margie and Alvin Tso.

The couple who raised eight children in the LeChee area of the Navajo Nation did so without a power line running to their home. For Margie Tso, that meant laundering clothes in a tub with a washboard and cooking food on a wood stove. The children did homework under the light of a kerosene or gas lamp and did not have television.

At night, the lights from a nearby power plant illuminated their ranch, but decades would pass before a power line was extended to their home. When Margie Tso heard of a project to connect her home and dozens of others to the power grid, she watched as each power pole came closer and closer. On Monday, the Tsos had electricity for the first time.

Their children "grew up a little bit on the rough side, and so did we along with them," Margie Tso told The Associated Press. "But we made it through, and now we're going to enjoy these lights."

Electricity is a basic necessity in most people's lives but one that is considered a luxury on portions of the Navajo Nation. Across the 27,000 square-mile reservation that extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, an estimated 15,000 homes do not have electricity, said Deenise Becenti, a spokeswoman for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

[bananas]

1. Wow - 1,054 comments, and they're good. nt

[Stuart G]

2. 15,000 homes do not have electricity, today, is unblieveable ..

What hell do we put some of our people through....."considered a luxury on portions of the Navajo Nation. "

I thought that this was completely eliminated in the late 50s.

[cstanleytech]

3. Umm some of them "choose" that hell according to the article.

I mean ya sure if its possible to run the power to peoples homes it should of course be done but on the other hand you cant force someone to have electricity in their home if they dont want it.

[WhiteTara]

4. They could benefit from solar and wind technology.nt

[central scrutinizer]

5. I went eight years without electricity

wood cook stove and wood heat, kerosene lamps, water from a nearby creek, outhouse. Would life have been simpler with electricity? Probably, but you get used to it. Just like you get used to electricity.

[AnneD]

6. I took my very young daughter....

to Mesa Verde and the Anasazi Ruins. As we were driving across the Navajo Reservation. I was pointing out the hogans, and we waited while they were bringing up the sheep up from their winter grazing grounds. As we were sitting there I asked my daughter if she noticed that something was missing. She started looking and finally gave up. I told here there were no electricity power lines because many areas had know electricity. Many years ago President Clinton gave away a computer to a student in a competition. The girl that won it was Navajo and folks were stunned that she had no electricity in her house.

On the near the 'rez' where Grandpa lives, they didn't get power until 1968. They all kept their kerosene lamps because they didn't trust the electrical power to stay on :lol: