Respected tribal leader guided Nation through turbulent period
Leonard Haskie in the Navajo Nation Council Chambers.
WINDOW ROCK
When members of the Navajo Tribal Council were looking for someone to bring credibility back to the tribal government after the fall of then chairman Peter MacDonald, they decided to go to the council delegate from Sanostee.
Leonard Haskie at the time was one of the most well-liked members of the council, someone who was known for helping to bring factions together in finding solutions to Navajo problems.
Haskie died Sunday night after a long battle with cancer. He was 71.
He was named interim chairman in 1989 after MacDonald was put on leave by the tribal council over corruption charges dealing with the 1987 purchase of the Big Boquillas Ranch.
Haskie would later say that the worst day of his political career was July 20, 1989, the day supporters for MacDonald took over the administrative building in Window Rock and confronted Navajo tribal police when they tried to get them to leave.
Two people, both supporters of MacDonald, died on that day.
“It was a nightmare,” Haskie would say of those days.
On the day of the riot, Haskie was in the Navajo Education Center when he heard that MacDonald supporters were marching to the administrative building with plans to take over the tribal financial offices.
Fearing for Haskie’s safety, several tribal police officers escorted him to the airport in Window Rock, where he was put on a plane and flown to Winslow to stay with relatives.
He later said that he was “shocked” to hear of the human suffering that occurred on that day.
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