Navajo officials want highway named for Pinto
Code Talker, longtime legislator died in May
FARMINGTON — Some Navajo Nation officials want New Mexico to name a U.S. highway after one of the longest-serving Native American lawmakers in U.S. history.
A Navajo Nation legislative committee is requesting that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham name U.S. 491 in honor of the late state Sen. John Pinto, the Farmington Daily Times reports.
Pinto, who died in May at age 94, had long sought to turn the deadly U.S. 666 into a fourlane highway and to change its name to U.S. 491.
The road was nicknamed the Devil’s Highway because of the significance the number 666 has for many Christian evangelicals and because of the number of people killed in traffic crashes. The highway is featured in the movies “Natural Born Killers” and “Repo Man.”
The highway was named one of the 20 most dangerous in the country in 1997.
Pinto was among the state legislators and Navajo leaders who lobbied for the name change. Now, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Mark Freeland is sponsoring a bill to honor Pinto and memorialize his legacy by adding Pinto’s name to signs.
“It’ll be an ultimate tribute to him,” he said. “I hope the state gives it some consideration.”
U.S. 491 stretches about 195 miles from Gallup through Colorado to Monticello, Utah.
Pinto was a Navajo Code Talker during World War II and served over four decades in the Legislature. The tribe celebrated the hundreds of Navajos who served as radiomen in the war during an annual event Wednesday that included a parade, speech and a gourd dance.
Lujan Grisham’s office stopped short of endorsing the proposal for the highway last week but signaled that the governor would be open to the discussion.
“The governor certainly recognizes the need to appropriately honor a singular public servant and statesman like Sen. Pinto and will always be open to exploring ways to do that,” spokesman Tripp Stelnicki said.
Any renaming of the highway would involve a formal proposal written by the New Mexico Department of Transportation, said Marisa Maez, a spokeswoman for the department. It would then have to be presented to a state commission and approved by the Navajo Nation Council.