NORTHRIDGE : Volunteers Visited by Navajo Leader

Delphina Yazzie’s latest job has taken her far from the forests and grazing lands of her home on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Since Feb. 1, she has been a Red Cross volunteer at a disaster center at Northridge Fashion Center, working 12 hours a day in a tent, filling out paperwork for earthquake victims.

The 19-year-old high school student is one of 27 Red Cross volunteers from the reservation in New Mexico.

On Thursday, the group received an unexpected recognition for their efforts: Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah flew in to observe their work and offer encouragement.

The visit pleased Corey Johnson, a Navajo Nation employee who works alongside Yazzie in the Red Cross tent.

“Usually, we just go and write reports and memos to him (Zah), and that’s all,” Johnson said.

“It’s a big excitement that he actually came and saw what we are doing.”

Zah, who heads the 200,000-member Navajo Nation, said he came to Los Angeles to praise tribal volunteers and also to extend a helping hand to an estimated 20 Navajo families who were displaced by the earthquake.

Los Angeles County is home to the largest Native American population living off reservations in the country, said Alma Rail, an official of the Southern California Indian Center, who accompanied Zah on his tour of the San Fernando Valley.

A large portion of this population are Navajos, and many were living in the Valley at the time of the quake, she said.

Zah said he spoke in Navajo to a small group of displaced tribal members shortly after his arrival early Thursday.

“I told them we were there to listen and that we feel for what has happened to them,” Zah said, adding that the Navajo Nation may consider sending additional aid to the earthquake victims.

For Yazzie and Johnson, Zah’s brief visit meant that for a moment they could step away from the folding chairs and lines of people, although Zah was barely out of the tent when they returned to their posts.

Zah “is a big deal where we come from,” Yazzie said.

“When he goes elsewhere, like here, he is not the biggest. But to us, he is still a big person.”