Longtime Navajo tribal worker remembered

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - A Navajo tribal worker of 27 years is being heralded as a champion for environmental issues.

The Navajo Nation says Arlene Luther died earlier this week after a brief illness.

Navajo President Joe Shirley Junior says Luther was among the first generation of environmental professions who has set an incredibly high standard for those who follow her.

Luther served as the department manager for the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency's Waste Regulatory Compliance Department.

Navajo EPA executive director Stephen Etsitty says Luther was instrumental in convincing the U.S. EPA that it had a responsibility to clean up radium-contaminated soil from the abandoned Northeast Church Rock Mine near Gallup.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

* Dine CARE offers its condolences to the Luther Family, Friends, and Kin. *