Special Delivery

Below the red rock walls of the majestic Grand Canyon lies a Native American village so isolated that impoverished residents sometimes throw away broken refrigerators because repairmen won’t make the 16-mile round-trip hike or mule ride.

Even a reindeer-driven sleigh would have trouble navigating it.

So a crew of Marines from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station used a pair of CH-46 helicopters Thursday to escort Santa and Mrs. Claus and hundreds of toys to the 173 youths who live on the canyon floor.

“There’s Santa!” shrieked 4-year-old Heidi Jones as the familiar figure in red strode through the community center door with a hearty “Ho, Ho, Ho!” In moments, Santa was fending off a crowd of shiny-eyed youngsters babbling in English and native Havasupai and serenading him with a screeching version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”

Santa, flanked by Arizona Marines in dress blues, got right to work. Most of the children wriggled about, unable to sit quietly. The first child called forward, 18-month-old Maylene Marshall, took one look at the guy in red and began howling.

Later in the afternoon, village teacher Maria Hamill of Fountain Valley smiled widely at it all, listening attentively as her first-grade students showed off their gifts--stuffed toy animals, books, dolls and games.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful this all is,” said Hamill, who came here in the summer for what was supposed to be a six-week teaching stint but fell in love with the village and decided to stay for at least another year. “For some of these kids, these will be the only Christmas presents they’ll get.”

Tribal leaders cannot deny their children are caught between two worlds: one that observes ancestral holidays; the other that is beamed to satellite dishes atop even ramshackle homes in what many believe to be the nation’s most remote Native American village.

The decision was made to go ahead with a holiday celebration melding both cultures, tribal leaders said. After the gift-giving, for example, Santa and Supai men dressed in face paint and traditional headdress held hands, chanted and danced about the room.

“The feeling is: The children are young and no one wants to deny them,” said Tommy Siyuja, tribal vice chairman. “They’ll know the truth when they grow up.

Supais called the Marine Corps League in northern Arizona two weeks ago, wondering if their “Toys for Tots” campaign had a few gifts to spare for the children in the village whose economy has suffered for the past several years, in part because of a devastating flood washed away livestock and farmland.

“I said, ‘A few gifts? Heck, we’ll throw you a whole party with Santa, a tree, and of course, Mrs. Claus,’ ” said Hal Jensen, a former Marine and local “Toys for Tots” coordinator.

But how to get there, Jensen wondered. Santa and Mrs. Claus were willing to hike or hitch a ride on a burro. But what about the nearly 600 gifts parceled out three to a bag? The tree? The music, the cookies and sodas? The clown who makes bunnies out of balloons?

The closest military base with two available 45-foot helicopters was El Toro and Squadron HMM-764, said Staff Sgt. Tim Dougherty.

The 11-member crew spent Thursday making several trips ferrying Santa, more than a dozen Corps members and others between one of the Grand Canyon airports and the reservation.

The Marines said the trip was gratifying and a bit sentimental. It comes as military operations at the retiring El Toro base wind down and the helicopter units prepare to move to Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.

Maj. Larry Raschtschenia and fellow Marines said the trip put them in the Christmas spirit, even though the Orange County troops were unable to mingle with the children because of their helicopter duties.

“So often we are training for war, for combat,” said Raschtschenia, an Irvine resident who helped pilot one of the two aircraft. “This is an opportunity for us to do something constructive and positive to pay back the community for their support.”

“This is what Christmas is all about,” said Cpl. Jose Garcia of Tustin. “Giving to people, helping people is what we should do every day, not just Christmas.”

Maj. Monte Dunard of Rancho Santa Margarita said delivering Santa made up for the long flying hours. “We know we are contributing in a small way to make this happen, and that’s enough for me,” he said.

Started in Los Angeles 49 years ago, the “Toys for Tots” program run by the Marine Corps Reserve collected 8.1 million toys last year for 4.2 million children.

Toys stay in the community where they are collected and are typically delivered by local Marine units, said Jensen, who collected the toys for the Havasupai from across northern Arizona. The unusual location of Thursday’s toy drop required the help of the El Toro squadron, he said.

Life in Supai is harsh. Temperatures are extreme in the canyon, and excursions out of it are rare. It takes residents three hours to hike or ride a mule out of the canyon, or $50 for a round-trip helicopter ride.

Residents farm and hunt and a small grocery store carries a few essentials. Home phones are uncommon. And when appliances and other conveniences break down--such as a toilet--they often go unfixed, said Carletta Tilousi, a former tribal spokeswoman.

Unemployment is high. The main source of income is the more than 500 tourists who come daily during warm months to see the spectacular turquoise-blue creek and waterfalls.

But interaction with the outside world doesn’t always benefit the Havasupai. They recently lost a fight to ban uranium mining on the rim of the canyon, which they say threatens their water supply. They fear new federal guidelines for tourist flights over the canyon will direct traffic over their reservation.

Tourists often ignore posted rules and leave trash the Havasupai are ill-equipped to dispose.

But for one brief moment Thursday, the Havasupai set aside their wariness about the military and “haygus”--Supai for whites--so youngsters could have an early Christmas.

As the party wound down, 9-year-old Riley Manakaja chattered about how much fun she had had and her conversation with Santa, which, by her retelling, consisted of Santa saying, “Have a happy Christmas” and Riley responding, “Thank you.”

But she admitted being a bit disappointed.

“I wanted to see the reindeer,” she said. “I wanted to ride them around. Next year.”

However, 10-year-old Austin Paya had no complaints.

“This is great, getting presents,” he said, looking over his loot. “Nobody’s ever done this for us before.”