http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/49379.html

Ohkay Owingeh: Crash kills Tewa storyteller


Staff and wire reports
September 18, 2006

Woman struck while traveling home from national awards ceremony; alcohol suspected

Esther Martinez, a renowned Tewa storyteller and linguist, was killed in a traffic accident on her way home from accepting a National Heritage Fellowship in Washington, D.C., her grandson said Sunday.

No arrests have been made, but Española police say they suspect alcohol was a factor in the crash, and the suspect is in critical condition at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

Martinez of Ohkay Owingeh was traveling home from a National Endowment for the Arts celebration in Washington when the car she was in was hit Saturday night in Española, Matthew J. Martinez said. She was 94.

“She was a pillar in our community,” said Matthew Martinez, who accompanied her to Washington last week for an awards ceremony. “She embodied what it meant to be a Tewa person and lived it and practiced it and served as a role model.”

Esther Martinez died at the scene of the accident, Matthew Martinez said. Her daughter, Josephine Binford, was hospitalized with injuries but expected to go home soon, and another daughter, Marie Sanchez, was recovering at home from two broken ribs, he said.

The women’s Dodge Dakota pickup was struck head-on on South McCurdy Road about 10:30 p.m. Saturday by a Ford F-150 pickup that had crossed the center line after sideswiping a Toyota Camry, Española police Detective Christian Lopez said.

The suspect, a 44-year-old Mexican national who lives in Nambé, suffered severe facial injuries, Lopez said. He said police suspect alcohol was a factor because the Ford driver and his truck smelled of alcohol, and alcohol containers were in the truck. Test results on the suspect’s blood are expected today.

Esther Martinez was honored along with 11 other folk and traditional artists for being named a 2006 National Heritage Fellow, the nation’s highest honor for such artists, the NEA said in a news release. The fellowship includes a one-time award of $20,000.

She received a standing ovation in the nation’s capital for her stories and life’s work preserving her native Tewa language and traditions, the release said.

“To lose a national treasure as beloved as Esther Martinez in such a senseless manner is truly tragic,” NEA Chairman Dana Gioia said. “New Mexico and the entire country have lost an eloquent link to our past. We can find solace in remembering her lifelong commitment to keeping her culture alive and vibrant.”

Lynnwood Brown, a friend of Esther Martinez’s and a former Ohkay Owingeh tribal planner, helped her write her fellowship application. “She was really looking forward to this trip, although at her age and health, it was not an easy thing to do,” he said. “It was great that she got to make the trip.”

Her eyesight was failing, but until recently, she was working on translating old stories and old recordings of stories, Brown said. “Esther was so generous with her knowledge with other tribes,” he said. “There was nobody who knew the language, the different aspects of the language, like she did.”

Esther Martinez was born and raised on the Northern New Mexico pueblo, the NEA said in a biography.

Her American Indian name is P’oe Tswa, or Blue Water, but many knew her as Ko’oe Esther, or Aunt Esther.

She spent much of her childhood living with her grandparents and traveling back and forth in a covered wagon to visit her parents.

She was a major conservator of the Tewa language, teaching her native language from 1974 to 1989 at schools in Ohkay Owingeh, formerly known as San Juan Pueblo.

She also helped translate the New Testament of the Bible into Tewa and compiled Tewa dictionaries for pueblos that have distinct dialects of the language, the NEA said.

Since 1988, Esther Martinez told her stories in English to non-Tewa audiences through Storytelling International.

Matthew Martinez said his grandmother had remained active in recent years. She also was scheduled to be a guest speaker at a class he was teaching at Northern New Mexico Community College in Española next Saturday.

“She lived a full life, and it’s her time,” he said. “It’s going to be hard. I feel comfortable that I had that connection with her in life.”

A funeral service for Martinez will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday at San Juan Pueblo Parish at Ohkay Owingeh.