Tom Udall: “today I wish to pay tribute to New Mexico Senator John Pinto--the longest serving member in the New Mexico Senate, who…”

“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.…”