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A MEMORIAL

HONORING THIRTY YEARS OF SERVICE BY STATE SENATOR JOHN PINTO

AND DECLARING FEBRUARY 28, 2007 "SENATOR JOHN PINTO DAY" AT

THE SENATE.

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto was born in 1924 to a family

of Navajo sheepherders and was raised in Lupton, Arizona, and

Gallup, New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto attended a Bureau of Indian

Affairs boarding school in Fort Defiance, Arizona, and after

many unsuccessful attempts to run away, he finally graduated;

and

WHEREAS, he received his bachelor's degree at the age of

thirty-nine and a master's degree in elementary education

from the University of New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto served in the United States

Marine Corps as a Navajo code talker and, in 2001, received a

Congressional Silver Medal of Honor for his service as a code

talker; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto worked for twenty-eight

years in the Gallup-McKinley County school system and has

served as the legislative liaison for the Navajo Nation

Department of Transportation since October 1988; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto served as president of the

Gallup Indian Community Center from 1950 through 1970, during

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which time he helped to feed the homeless and the less

fortunate families of Gallup; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto served as president of the

Breadsprings Chapter of the Navajo Nation from 1950 to 1954;

and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto served as

secretary-treasurer for the Red Rock Chapter of the Navajo

Nation from 1954 to 1960; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto served as a member of the

Eastern Navajo Tribal Council from 1950 to 1960; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto was elected in 1972 to the

McKinley County Board of Commissioners, where he served for

four years as a commissioner; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto has served with distinction

in the New Mexico Senate since his arrival in 1977, when, as

a hitchhiker, he was picked up in a snowstorm in Albuquerque

by former fellow freshman Senator Manny Aragon; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto has been a member of the

interim legislative Indian Affairs Committee since it was

first created in 1989 and has been the chair of the Senate

Indian and Cultural Affairs Committee since its creation in

1987; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto has been instrumental in the

passage of numerous legislative initiatives, including the

designation, in 1987, of "American Indian Day" in New Mexico;

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the creation, in 2004, of the first state-cabinet-level

Indian Affairs Department; and the improvement of State

Highway 491 between Gallup and Shiprock; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto has worked tirelessly for

the improvement of State Highway 491 between Gallup and

Shiprock, which the legislature suggested, in 2003, be

renamed "Senator John Pinto Highway"; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto annually entertains his

colleagues in the senate with his rendition, in Navajo, of

the "potato song"; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto is second only to President

Pro Tempore Ben D. Altamirano in seniority in the senate; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto is a mentor, gentleman and

wise leader whose kind demeanor has earned him the full

respect of the senate; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Pinto is known nationwide and in

many foreign countries for his involvement in national

legislative organizations;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE

STATE OF NEW MEXICO that it extend its congratulations to

Senator John Pinto on his thirty years of service in the

New Mexico senate, where he has furthered the causes of his

constituents, the Navajo Nation and the people of New Mexico;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that February 28, 2007 be

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declared "Senator John Pinto Day" at the senate; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be

transmitted to Senator John Pinto.