Tribal College Hopes to Build Navajo Economy with Elk

American Indian College Fund
Monday, 27 March 2000

With Kellogg Navajo Initiative, Crownpoint Institute of Technology provides job skills and builds a tribal economy with alternative livestock

CROWNPOINT, N.M. (March 27, 2000)-The veterinarian student slides open a metal door, allowing the young elk to move into the padded holding shoot. With a green curtain acting as blinder, the animal moves forward cautiously. There, the process takes just a few seconds. Another student carefully tags the elk's ear, and the animal is released back to the growing herd.

"It's pretty neat," said Donna Damon, a Navajo student. "It's a lot of experience." Damon, 29, and fellow tribal member Octavia Bennett, 20, are both first-year veterinarian technology students at Crownpoint Institute of Technology (CIT) in Crownpoint, New Mexico. "These animals are so valuable that no rancher normally would let students get close to them," said Clint Balok, DVM, a CIT instructor. "Our students are getting experience they can't anywhere else." Veterinarian technology is one of several areas of training CIT provides Navajo students. Founded as a tribally-chartered college on the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation, Crownpoint offers vocational-oriented education designed to provide job skills on a reservation where the unemployment rate is 57 percent.

CIT has broadened its vet program by starting an elk herd--part of a unique alternative livestock program it calls the "Kellogg Navajo Initiative." Launched with a four-year, $550,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 1997, the Initiative is helping build a tribal economy while also providing students one-of-a-kind experience.

"The reservation's land is really not sufficient to carry the capacity to allow our people to survive," said Jim Tutt, Crownpoint Institute of Technology's president. "So we have to look elsewhere."

CIT is building its elk herd near the Continental Divide in the Zuni Mountains. Cattle and sheep are common on the huge, 25,000-square mile reservation, but college officials want to introduce elk as a way to foster economic development.

"This is probably the fastest-growing alternative livestock option that exists in the United States today," said Balok, a veterinarian who directs CIT's livestock program. "The biggest market for years has been the Orient, and we hope to build a big North American market."

The value in elk is primarily in the antlers, according to Balok. Harvested before they turn to bone, the "velvet antler" is ground into powder that is used as a natural, anti-inflammatory supplement. In the exploding herbal remedy market, velvet antler is already being sold in capsule form to fight arthritis and other ailments.

With the cost of each capsule retailing for 50 cents or more, a pound of velvet antler can bring between $40 and $120 per pound. Breeding elk are sold for as much as $3,000 to $5,000 per animal-which makes elk about 10 times as valuable as cattle. What's ideal, says Balok, is that antlers grow back year after year, making them a profitable, renewable resource.

"That's the whole purpose behind this alternative livestock program," said Balok, "to come up with some different ways to generate some income off of the land."

With contracts with a processor and distributor, CIT'S first antler harvest from its elk herd is scheduled later this spring.

Preserving land and traditions for future generations

The Kellogg Navajo Initiative also is using llamas and horses to teach responsibility and other skills to tribal children. CIT is distributing several dozen llamas to youngsters who sign a contract promising to raise and take care of the animals, with a goal of showing them at a fair in the fall.

In early March, 10-year-old Eldon Gruber tightened a bridle around his new llama, before cautiously leading it around CIT's corral.

"Remember," someone yelled to the boy, "you're the boss."

Known for stubbornness as much as its usefulness as a pack animal, llamas also can serve as watchdogs for the sheep raised by many Navajo families. Llamas have been known to attack coyotes and other predators.

CIT's future plans call for expanding its alternative livestock program with bison.

The Navajo Tribe established Crownpoint in 1979. With its emphasis on employment, CIT programs have focused on one-year certificate programs in areas such as computer and office technology, nursing assistant, electrical and building trades and culinary arts. CIT offers two-year degrees in computer science, administrative assistant, law advocate and environmental and veterinarian technology.

CIT graduates have consistently had a job placement rate of 85 percent, according to CIT President Tutt. He credits the college's work-like atmosphere.

"Our customer is the student," he said. "Our education is different. In terms of curriculum, I would say that 95 percent is hands-on learning. It's just like being on the job."

About 100 students have graduated from CIT's successful "vet tech" program. Graduates get jobs as wildlife rangers, animal control officers and veterinarian assistants. Other transfer for four-year degrees.

"All the things that students do are not hypothetical," said Tess Langham, DVM, a vet instructor. "It's all real cases, real clients and a tremendous amount of hands-on experience."

The vet program was originally designed with students like Alvin Allen in mind. A third-generation Navajo rancher who lives 80 miles from Crownpoint, Allen started the program in order to learn basic skills to help him on his remote ranch.

"I realized that I needed to know a little bit more about livestock," he said. "I could only go so far with Dad's teaching and Grandpa's teaching."

With new knowledge about vaccination, de-worming and pregnancy tests, Allen already has seen improvements in his cattle, sheep and goats-and he hasn't even graduated yet. This spring, he will be the first student at CIT to earn a two-year vet associate's degree.

"We are proud of him," said Christine Allen, his mother. "We really appreciate what he's learning over there."

Neighbors, too, already ask Alvin's advice about sick animals. He also serves on the Navajo Tribe's grazing committee.

"If there's a case that I'm treating and modern medicine doesn't work, I'll turn to herbs and other techniques that grandfather left us," he said. "It works, so we kind of mix both methods."

Alvin is also knowledgeable in Navajo traditions and beliefs. Not only do animals have traditional medicines that can work, but he says they also have special prayers and songs. Tribal members perform these at special times.

"Our culture is important," said the father of five boys. "I'm here to take over and do the best I can taking care of the range, the mountain and the farm."

Testimony to progress

If the Kellogg Navajo Initiative is a sign that CIT's veterinarian technology program is growing, the program's home for the past several years is testimony to progress. Students and instructors built a makeshift clinic and classroom out of what is basically a tin shack-a metal building on loan from a local uranium mine. Despite these constraints, the program has won a national award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Now, the program is moving into a brand-new facility--complete with state-of-the-art x-ray and ultrasound machines, and exam and surgery rooms.

"We're showing the rest of the world that you don't have to have a billion-dollar facility to do sound, innovative work," said Balok, the program director.

Meanwhile, with elk ranches sprouting up all over the country, tiny Crownpoint hopes to become a national leader in elk management. Despite an enrollment no larger than 400 students, CIT is partnering with Iowa State University to develop the country's first on-line management course. And there appear to be jobs aplenty in the growing industry for graduates with the kind of hands-on experience with elk they receive at CIT.

"All of a sudden, Crownpoint--this little school out in the middle of nowhere--is quantum leaps ahead of the big state universities," said Balok. "None of this, of course, could have been possible without the faith the Kellogg Foundation had in us."

At Crownpoint, the future focus continues to be on how to deliver technology and modern skills to help ensure the survival of Navajo people and culture.

"[The elk ranch] is a sacred place where our elders want to be," said Tutt, CIT's president. "It's a holy place. I feel that." Tutt credits Kellogg support for helping fulfill a college's dream. "We're taking a giant step, for our tribe and people to see something that's innovative," Tutt said. "We believe the Kellogg Navajo Initiative is just the start of something that will sustain itself."

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