Navajos Move Toward Solar Power...03/27/00

DILKON, Ariz. (AP) - On the breezy grass plains where generations of Joanne Jackson's family have been born and raised, a wood bungalow with faded tan paint is alive with electricity. The three-room house was built years ago in this western part of the Navajo Nation using her husband's veterans benefits. And though it had white plastic outlet plates on the walls and lights in the ceiling, they were merely decorative - until September. It was then that Mrs. Jackson, 62, and her husband, Raymond, 82, became the first inhabitants of the Navajo Nation to get power through a solar generator program whose founders hope to eventually deliver power throughout American Indian reservations.

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