[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 99 (Thursday, June 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S3471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING JOHN PINTO

  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to New Mexico 
Senator John Pinto--the longest serving member in the New Mexico 
Senate, who passed away May 24 of this year at the age of 94.
  John Pinto was born December 15, 1924, in Lupton, AZ, near the New 
Mexico border, on the Navajo Nation reservation to a family of 
sheepherders. He was Black Sheep born for the Red Running into the 
Water Clan. He was the oldest of seven children and had a tough 
upbringing. He was raised by relatives in Lupton until he was 12 years 
old, when his parents took him to their home in Gallup, NM. They lived 
in a small wooden shack. They sometimes went hungry. To eat, at times 
John hunted rabbits with a sharp stick.
  At that time, the Bureau of Indian Affairs picked him up and sent him 
to boarding school at Fort Defiance, AZ. Fort Defiance was the first 
boarding school on the Navajo reservation. John entered school at age 
12. He spoke no English. They placed him in the beginner class, made up 
of 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds. A person of small stature, he would joke 
that was the last time he was the biggest one in the room.
  John joined the Marines in 1941 and was trained as a Navajo code 
talker. It was intense training. Approximately 400 Navajos trained as 
code talkers during the war. Famously, their code, based on the 
unwritten Navajo or Dine language, was never broken by the Japanese. 
John was ready for deployment when the war ended. He received the 
Congressional Silver Medal in 2001 for his service as a code talker. He 
was one of the last remaining surviving code talkers.
  After discharge from the service, he met the love of his life, Joann 
Dennison Pinto, to whom he was married for 65 years until her death in 
2017. Together they had two daughters, Flora and Karen, and two sons, 
Cecil and Galen.
  After the war, he held odd jobs and then, on the advice of a BIA 
worker, he moved to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico. 
He failed the English exam twice and was in tears that he wouldn't 
graduate and would be sent home. He hired a tutor, studied for 10 
weeks, and passed. He was 39 when he received his college degree. He 
went on to earn a master's degree in elementary education and spent his 
career in the Gallup-McKinley County school system.
  Senator Pinto was first elected to the Senate in 1976, representing 
District 3, comprised of parts of San Juan and McKinley Counties in 
northwest New Mexico. The Navajo Nation makes up much of the district.
  In order to get to the State legislature, in January 1997, he took a 
bus from Gallup to Albuquerque and then began hitchhiking to the State 
capitol in Santa Fe. As he waited on a snowy street corner, up pulled 
another State senator, Manny Aragon, in his old Cadillac. Senator 
Aragon assumed the hitchhiker was a transient and picked him up. 
Senator Aragon asked his passenger why he was going to Santa Fe, and 
the hitchhiker replied, ``I'm a state senator.'' And off they went to 
the beginning of the legislative session together.
  During his 42 years in office, Senator Pinto worked tirelessly for 
the people of New Mexico and his district. He went into politics 
because he saw the overwhelming needs of his people and wanted to make 
a difference. He was instrumental in establishing the New Mexico 
Department of Indian Affairs and setting up a Tribal infrastructure 
fund for much needed projects for Tribes. Over the years, he pushed for 
dozens of projects for roads, power lines, water systems, and public 
buildings. He was responsible for widening U.S. Highway 491 from two to 
four lanes to increase public safety and commerce. During his last 
session in the senate, this year, he was successful in securing a $1 
million appropriation to begin a Navajo code talkers' museum. He had 
fought for this project for years to honor this group of brave and 
skillful men who were so instrumental to U.S. success in World War II.
  Senator Pinto was a beloved and respected figure in the State senate. 
He loved to sing, and every year he sang the ``Potato Song'' to the 
chamber in his Native language--a song about planting, growing, and 
harvest potatoes on the reservation.
  He is not only the longest serving Native American in the New Mexico 
Senate, he is one of the longest serving Native legislators in the 
county.
  On May 17 of this year, Senator Pinto was awarded the first honorary 
doctorate of public service to be issued by Navajo Technical University 
in Crownpoint, NM. He was immensely proud of that honor.
  I have traveled all over the Navajo Nation with Senator Pinto. He 
would call me often to talk about ways to help. He cared deeply for his 
people and, in return, was loved by them.
  Senator Pinto said, ``My philosophy is to be happy, to meet people, 
to love people, all the races . . . they all need good water to drink, 
good food to eat, a good warm place to stay, and they need good jobs--
that's the basic needs.'' Senator Pinto understood what it is like not 
to have the basics in life, and he worked decades to make sure his 
people and all New Mexicans had those basics.
  Senator John Pinto: educator, statesman, Navajo code talker, brave 
Dine warrior, loving husband and father. He is a New Mexico legend and 
an American hero. I am proud to have known him and to have called him 
my friend.

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