The US is springing forward to daylight saving. For Navajo and Hopi tribes, it’s a time of confusion

TUBA CITY, Ariz. — Melissa Blackhair isn’t eager to jump to the front on Sunday.

‘I am afraid of it. I just don’t want to see how much we have to adjust,” Blackhair said as she sat in her home office in Tuba City on the Navajo Nation, the only area in Arizona that observes daylight saving time. While her husband works during the week. in Phoenix their clocks will vary.

“Everything in our house is set to daylight saving time. It’s just a little awkward because I have to remember which car is on daylight and which is on standard time,” she said. “My husband will not change our time in our apartment (in Phoenix).”

Those living in the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation — the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. — undergo mind-boggling calculations from March through November.

The Navajo Nation, which also extends to Utah and New Mexico, will reset its clock an hour later despite being between two areas that remain on standard time: the rest of Arizona and the neighboring Hopi reservation.

It makes for a particularly unique situation with the Hopi Reservation, which is landlocked within the Navajo Nation and uses standard time year-round. A stretch of US 160 in Tuba City forms the de facto border between the two reservations and two time zones.

Reva Hoover, longtime manager of the Bashas Supermarket along U.S. 160 on the Navajo side, says Sunday will inevitably be chaotic. Despite posting reminders in the locker room, employees who live on both reservations are likely to be late.

Tourists may not be aware of it. Guests of the Moenkopi Legacy Inn & Suites on the Hopi side across the street who enter the supermarket at what they think is 8:30 p.m. will have only 30 minutes to shop before it closes, Hoover said.

“In reality, it would probably be a lot easier for everyone if we all stayed at the same time. But I consider it unique,” ​​Hoover said. ‘Where else can you say that? “Oh, they’re across the street at a different time.”

Deannethea Long, the hotel’s general manager, agrees that this makes for an interesting topic of conversation with guests. The hotel, which operates on standard time, does little things like a wall clock by time zone in the lobby.

“We have notices in the room to let you know when stores are closing so we understand your time zones. We will also explain it at reception. It can be very confusing,” Long said.

Kimberly Humetewa lives on the Hopi side of Moenkopi, but her children attend school and other events on the Navajo side. The time change is difficult for them, she said. They have to get up earlier, and she has to stop and calculate the time for almost everything.

Most of the essentials—the post office, the grocery store, Tuba City’s only hospital—are on the other side of the highway, where everything will be on daylight saving time.

“Because everything is on this side, everyone changes time, unlike us on the Hopi reservation,” Humetewa said. “It’s a bit difficult, but sometimes we just manage to deal with it.”

The time change permeates Blackhair’s work and private life. The graphic artist often advises clients to indicate on announcements or invitations which time zone the event recognizes. She also has to make sure she isn’t late for medical appointments in Flagstaff, Arizona, which is not on either tribe’s reservation.

Once, she misjudged when to leave for her son’s soccer game on the Hopi reservation and arrived when the game was over. Her mother-in-law’s house is a mile away. So during the months when Blackhair is on daylight saving time, her family doesn’t visit her for long on school nights.

“Once we look at people’s clocks, we just think, ‘Okay, it’s 7 o’clock, but it’s really 8 o’clock at night in our house,’” Blackhair said, adding that the family is not moving forward. the Hopi side on school nights during daylight saving time.

The time warp has also led to lingering feelings of antisociality ever since Navajo and Hopi shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic. If an event organizer doesn’t make it clear in which time zone it will take place, Blackhair would rather not go.

“Since the pandemic, we’ve kind of stuck to ourselves,” Blackhair said. “It’s much easier to just stay at home.”

Arizona lawmakers passed legislation in 1968 that strengthened standard time after the federal government tried to make daylight saving time the standard nationwide. Arizona tried daylight saving time last year. Residents living in the sweltering summer heat complained about having to wait an extra hour of sunlight. Arizona and Hawaii don’t change the clock.

In contrast, the Navajo Tribal Council—now the Navajo Nation Council—issued a resolution in March of that year proclaiming that the reservation would follow the U.S. government’s lead. The original resolution notes that this would avoid confusion, even in areas in other states. Additionally, an additional hour of daylight in the summer “will be of great benefit to the Navajo people.”

Adding an extra layer to the alternating time zones is a pocket on the south side of the Hopi reservation, the Navajo Nation. Traveling more than 160 miles from Northern Arizona through Tuba City, and back and forth from Hopi to Navajo, residents and tourists were able to cross several time zones.

The configuration of the reservations is partly due to a decades-long land conflict between the tribes. At one point, the federal government imposed a fifty-year ban on construction on land that both tribes had claimed as their own.

The proximity of Navajo and Hopi makes it difficult for the two tribes to avoid association. Yet there is a constant feeling of David and Goliath between them. Although Navajo is the largest Native American reservation in the US – larger than ten US states – Hopi is small, with villages that are the oldest and continuously inhabited of all 574 federally recognized tribes.

Like supermarkets, one tribe can offer basic amenities to members of the other.

Hopi Telecommunications has 1,200 internet and telephone customers, including 200 to 300 Navajos. It can be frustrating for Navajo customers on daylight saving time to wait longer to report an outage because the provider isn’t open yet, said Carroll Onsae, president and general manager.

Over the next few months, business meetings always come down to “Hopi time” or “Navajo time.” But he takes it step by step.

“An hour difference is not that big of an inconvenience,” Onsae said.

However, he has Hopi friends who work on the Navajo Nation and are less than thrilled about the situation. For part of the year it almost seems as if they are forced to observe daylight saving time.

Residents like Blackhair would support the Navajo Nation by abolishing Daylight Savings Time. She says she heard rumors about that possibility a few years ago and was disappointed that nothing came of it.

“We really don’t feel like there’s any benefit in moving forward an hour,” Blackhair said. “It’s like switching from landlines to mobile phones. That progress had to happen. We live in an era where the transition from daylight saving time simply has to happen.”

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Tang reports on race and ethnicity issues, including Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, for The Associated Press. She is based in Phoenix and previously covered news from the Southwest.