White House Aide Upbraids Navajo for Lecturing President

An elderly Navajo woman honored today by President Reagan for her volunteer work was reprimanded by a White House aide after the woman pleaded publicly with the President to keep economic benefits such as Social Security at their present level, a Navajo spokesman said.

The White House aide, Ann Kelly, privately rebuked the woman, saying, “My head’s on the block now. . . . You weren’t supposed to do that,” then refused to accept on Reagan’s behalf a woven rug and basket, the Navajo spokesman said.

It was the second time in eight days that Reagan received a public lecture from a guest at the White House. Last week, Holocaust historian Elie Wiesel urged Reagan to cancel his visit next month to a German cemetery that includes the graves of SS soldiers.

Rescued 10 Children

Today, Reagan honored 150 senior volunteers from all 50 states, in particular Mae Chee Castillo who, with her grandson Willie, was cited for rescuing 10 children from a burning school bus she was driving.

Castillo, 72, from the Navajo reservation in Pueblo Pintado, N.M., was dressed in native garb. Speaking Navajo through an interpreter, she made her plea in the Rose Garden before presenting Reagan with a colorful blanket emblazoned “Chief Volunteer.”

After reciting the social services such as schools, hospitals and senior citizen facilities that operate on reservations, Castillo told the President:

“We need to continue the current level of economic benefits such as Social Security since many, many Native American elderly depend on this support for their only source of income.

‘I Ask Your Support’

“We need funds for these services that I have mentioned because in Indian country, there is little or no private sector. I ask for your support, Mr. President.

“We have no roads. The roads where I live are not paved. In your position, please help us.”

Reagan replied, “Most of those things that you were talking about here, those problems come under what we have called the safety net and which we intend to continue, and even in regard to our battles to lower the deficit, these things will not be done away with or reduced.”

Navajo spokesman Dan Lewis said that after the ceremony White House aide Kelly told Castillo that “she was supposed to say something very appreciative, not what she did. (Castillo) also wanted to give the President a woven basket and a woven rug but the aide refused. She said, ‘I don’t want it.’ ”

Kelly, who works for the Office of Private Sector Initiative, was not immediately available for comment.

Aide Called ‘Very Rude’

“She was very, very rude,” Lewis said. “She ushered us right out very quickly, hustled us out. Mae Chee only speaks Navajo. First she was told she had four minutes to respond to the President, then two minutes, then 20 seconds.”

Castillo’s response came after remarks by Reagan and by television actor Harry Morgan, honorary chairman of the senior volunteer effort.

Both told stories, and Lewis said, “That’s what they wanted, something delightful.”

“When you’re talking about roads, as she did, and the future of our children and transportation, they don’t want to hear that. The President . . . talked about the safety net, but the safety net doesn’t catch those people and the net result is people are hurting. . . .

“People like Mae Chee Castillo, they come many miles for this ceremony, and do this to express their feelings in an honest, open way. We were ushered into (Kelly’s) office and told to get our things and she had to leave. She said, ‘My head’s on the block now . . . . You weren’t supposed to do that.’ ”