The value in elk derives primarily from the velvet antlers, according to Clint Balok, DVM. Photo by David Cournoyer

CROWNPOINT, N.M. — The veterinarian student slides open a metal door, allowing the young elk to move into the padded holding shoot. With a green curtain acting as blinder, the animal moves forward cautiously. Within just a few seconds, another student has carefully tagged the elk’s ear, and she is released back to the growing herd.

“It’s pretty neat,” said Donna Damon, a Navajo student. Damon, 29, and fellow tribal member Octavia Bennett, 20, are both first-year veterinarian technology students at Crownpoint Institute of Technology (CIT) in Crownpoint, N.M. “These animals are so valuable that no rancher normally would let students get close to them,” said Clint Balok, DVM, a CIT instructor. “Our students are getting experience they can’t anywhere else.”

Veterinarian technology is one of several training areas CIT provides to Navajo students. Founded by the Navajo Tribe in 1979 on the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation, Crownpoint offers vocational-oriented education designed to provide job skills on a reservation where the unemployment rate is 57 percent. CIT’s one-year certificate programs have focused on areas such as computer and office technology, nursing assistant, electrical and building trades, and culinary arts. CIT offers two-year degrees in computer science, administrative assistant, law advocate, and environmental and veterinarian technology.

CIT graduates have consistently had a job placement rate of 85 percent, according to CIT President James Tutt. He credits the college’s work-like atmosphere. “Our education is different. I would say that 95 percent is hands-on learning. It’s just like being on the job.”

CIT’s elk herd is part of a unique alternative livestock program called the “Kellogg Navajo Initiative.” Launched with a four-year, $550,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 1997, the initiative is helping to build a tribal economy while also providing students unique experiences. The arid reservation land does not have enough carrying capacity to allow Navajo people to survive, according to Tutt. “So we have to look elsewhere.”

Cattle and sheep are common on the huge, 25,000-square mile reservation, but college officials want to introduce elk to foster economic development. The CIT elk herd lives near the Continental Divide in the Zuni Mountains. “This is probably the fastest-growing alternative livestock option that exists in the United States today,” said Balok, a veterinarian who directs CIT’s livestock program.

The value in elk derives primarily from the antlers, according to Balok. “The biggest market for years has been the Orient, and we hope to build a big North American market.” Harvested before they turn to bone, the “velvet antlers” are ground into powder, which is used as a natural, anti-inflammatory supplement. In the exploding herbal remedy market, velvet antler is already being sold in capsule form to fight arthritis and other ailments. With the cost of each capsule retailing for 50 cents or more, a pound of velvet antler can bring between $40 and $120 per pound. Breeding elk are sold for as much as $3,000 to $5,000 per animal, which makes elk about 10 times as valuable as cattle.

Antlers grow back year after year, making them a profitable, renewable resource. “That’s the whole purpose behind this alternative livestock program,” said Balok, “to come up with some different ways to generate some income off of the land.”

Eldon Gruber, 10, goes home with a new llama. Photo by David Cournoyer

Preserving land and traditions

The Kellogg Navajo Initiative also is using llamas and horses to teach responsibility and other skills to tribal children. CIT is distributing several dozen llamas to youngsters who sign a contract promising to raise and take care of the animals, with a goal of showing them at a fair in the fall.

In early March, 10-year-old Eldon Gruber tightened a bridle around his new llama, before cautiously leading it around CIT’s corral. “Remember,” someone yelled to the boy, “you’re the boss.” Known for stubbornness as much as its usefulness as a pack animal, llamas also can serve as watchdogs for the sheep raised by many Navajo families. Llamas have been known to attack coyotes and other predators. CIT’s future plans call for expanding its alternative livestock program with bison.

About 100 students have graduated from CIT’s “vet tech” program. Graduates get jobs as wildlife rangers, animal control officers, and veterinarian assistants. Others transfer for four-year degrees. Classes focus upon experience, not theory. “It’s all real cases and real clients,” said Tess Langham, DVM, a vet instructor.

The vet program was originally designed with students like Alvin Allen in mind. A third-generation Navajo rancher who lives 80 miles from Crownpoint, Allen started the program in order to learn basic skills to help him on his remote ranch. “I realized that I needed to know a little bit more about livestock,” he said. “I could only go so far with Dad’s teaching and Grandpa’s teaching.”

With new knowledge about vaccination, de-worming, and pregnancy tests, Allen already saw improvements in his cattle, sheep, and goats even before he graduated. In May, CIT awarded him the first two-year vet associate’s degree. “We are proud of him,” said Christine Allen, his mother. “We really appreciate what he’s learning over there.” Neighbors ask Allen’s advice about sick animals, and he serves on the Navajo Tribe’s grazing committee.

Allen is also knowledgeable in Navajo traditions and beliefs. “If there’s a case that I’m treating and modern medicine doesn’t work, I’ll turn to herbs and other techniques that grandfather left us,” he said. “It works, so we kind of mix both methods.” Not only do animals have traditional medicines that can work, but they also have special prayers and songs, he said. Tribal members perform these at special times. “Our culture is important,” said the father of five boys. “I’m here to take over and do the best I can taking care of the range, the mountain, and the farm.”

To start the vet program, students and instructors built a makeshift clinic and classroom out of a tin shack loaned by a local uranium mine. Despite these constraints, the program has won a national award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We’re showing the rest of the world that you don’t have to have a billion-dollar facility to do sound, innovative work,” said Balok, the program director.

Last summer, the program moved into a brand-new veterinary hospital–complete with state-of-the-art x-ray and ultrasound machines and exam and surgery rooms. It is part of a major, $8.64 million campus expansion project designed by David N. Sloan and Associates of Albuquerque, according to Jay de Groat, CIT Development Director. The construction was funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, Navajo Nation, state of New Mexico, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium Cultural Learning Center Project, the American Indian College Fund, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. CIT built a new construction technology facility, business and technology building, and child care facility. The college was constructing student housing over the summer, and an expanded library is planned.

Alvin Allen (left), a third-generation Navajo rancher, is the first graduate of the CIT vet tech program. He is shown with his son, Marshall. Photo by David Cournoyer

On-line elk management

With elk ranches sprouting up all over the country, tiny Crownpoint hopes to become a national leader in elk management. Despite an enrollment of about 400 students, CIT is partnering with Iowa State University to develop the country’s first on-line management course. And there appear to be jobs aplenty in the growing industry for graduates with the kind of hands-on elk experience they receive at CIT. “All of a sudden, Crownpoint–this little school out in the middle of nowhere–is quantum leaps ahead of the big state universities,” said Balok. “None of this, of course, could have been possible without the faith the Kellogg Foundation had in us.”

At Crownpoint, the future focus continues to be on how to deliver technology and modern skills to help ensure the survival of Navajo people and culture. “[The elk ranch] is a sacred place where our elders want to be. It’s a holy place. I feel that,” said Tutt, CIT’s president. “We’re taking a giant step, for our tribe and people to see something that’s innovative,” Tutt said. “We believe the Kellogg Navajo Initiative is just the start of something that will sustain itself.”

David Cournoyer is director of external relations for the American Indian College Fund.  A Rosebud Sioux tribal member, Cournoyer’s great-great-great grandfather was Sinte Gleska (Spotted Tail), the chief for whom his tribe’s college is named.