Borrego Pass, New Mexico

Borrego Pass is an unincorporated community consisting of two Navajo communities[1] and a trading post in the Navajo lands of McKinley County, in northwestern New Mexico, United States. In Navajo its name is Dibé Yázhí Habitiin,[2] meaning "Upward Path of the Lamb."

Borrego Pass is located on Navajo Route 48, twelve air miles and fifteen miles by road southeast of Crownpoint.[3]

History

The community formed around the Borrego Pass Trading Post which was opened in 1927 and was first operated by Ben and Anna Harvey,[4] and then starting in 1935 by Bill and Jean Cousins.[5] It was sold in 1939 to Don and Fern Smouse who operated it for over forty years. The trading post was named after the nearby Borrego Pass[6] an ancient water gap, across the Continental Divide,[7] that cuts into the Dutton Plateau.[8]

Education

There is a Navajo school at Borrego Pass, the Borrego Pass School (Dibé Yázhí Habitiin Óltaʼ) which was established in the early 1950s.[1] In 1972, it became one of the first contract schools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (B.I.A.). It is now affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).[9]

It is in Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools.[10] It is zoned to Crownpoint Elementary School, Crownpoint Middle School, and Crownpoint High School.[11]

Notes
  1. Iverson, Peter (1983) The Navajo Nation University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, volume 2, pages 144–145, ISBN 0-8263-0652-7
  2. Bright, William (2004) Native American placenames of the United States University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, page 71 ISBN 0-8061-3576-X
  3. Eddington, Patrick and Makov, Susan (1995) Trading post guidebook: where to find the trading posts, galleries, auctions, artists, and museums of the Four Corners region Northland Publishing, Flagstaff, Arizona, pages 133-134, ISBN 0-87358-612-3
  4. "Trading post listed as 'historic place'" Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine KRQE News 25 October 2010
  5. Cousins, Jean; Cousins, Bill and Engels, Mary Tate (1996) Tales from Wide Ruins: Jean and Bill Cousins, traders Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas, pages 77–85, ISBN 0-89672-368-2
  6. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Borrego Pass, New Mexico
  7. Julyan, Robert (1998) "Borrego Pass" The Place Names of New Mexico (revised edition) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 46, ISBN 0-8263-1689-1
  8. Lekson, Stephen H. (1999) The Chaco meridian: centers of political power in the ancient Southwest Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California, page 119, ISBN 0-7619-9180-8
  9. "Dibe Yazhi Habitiin Olta, Inc (Borrego Pass)". Bureau of Indian Education. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  10. "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: McKinley County, NM" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  11. "GMCS Address Lookup". Gallup-McKinley County Schools. Retrieved January 15, 2022. - KML files: High boundaries and locations.

35°34′23″N 108°00′18″W

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