‘Spring forward’ a confusing patchwork for Navajo, Hopi
TUBA CITY, Ariz. — Melissa Blackhair is not eager to spring forward Sunday.
“I’m dreading it. I just don’t want to see how much we have to adjust,” Blackhair said while sitting in her home office in Tuba City on the Navajo Nation, the only area in Arizona that follows daylight saving time. With her husband working during the week in Phoenix, their clocks will vary.
“Everything in our house is set to daylight saving time. It just kind of is an inconvenience because I am having to remember which car is on daylight and which is on standard time,” she said. “My husband will not change our time in our apartment (in Phoenix).”
Those who live on the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation — the largest Native American reservation in the United States — endure mind-bending calculations every March through November.
The Navajo Nation, which also stretches into Utah and
New Mexico, will reset clocks one hour later despite being situated between two territories that remain on standard time: the rest of Arizona and the neighboring Hopi reservation.
It has made for an especially unique situation with the Hopi reservation, which is enclosed within the
Navajo Nation and goes by standard time year-round. A stretch of U.S. 160 in Tuba City is the de facto border between the two reservations and two time zones.
Reva Hoover, longtime manager of the Bashas’ supermarket along U.S. 160 on the Navajo side, says Sunday will inevitably be chaotic. Despite posting reminders in the locker room, employees who live on both reservations likely will arrive late.
Tourists might not be aware.
Guests staying at the Moenkopi Legacy Inn & Suites on the Hopi side across the street who come into the grocery store at what they think is 8:30 p.m. would have only 30 minutes to shop before it closes, Hoover said.
“In reality, it probably would be a lot easier for everybody if we all stayed on the same time. But I take it as being unique,” Hoover said. “Where else can you say that? ‘Oh they’re on a different time across the street.’ ”
Arizona lawmakers passed legislation in 1968 cementing standard time after the federal government attempted to make daylight saving time the norm nationwide. Arizona tried daylight saving the previous year. Residents living in sweltering summer heat complained about having to wait through an extra hour of sunlight.
Arizona and Hawaii do not change clocks.
In contrast, the Navajo Tribal Council — now the Navajo Nation Council — issued a resolution in March of that year proclaiming the reservation would follow the U.S. government’s lead. The original resolution notes this would avoid confusion even in areas in other states.
Adding another layer to the alternating time zones is a pocket in the southern end of the Hopi reservation that is Navajo Nation. Those traveling more than 160 miles from northern Arizona through Tuba City, and back and forth from Hopi to Navajo, could cross time zones several times.