Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

For any Arizonan with ties to the Navajo or Hopi reservations, daylight-saving time is a time warp.

Arizona does not observe daylight-saving time. The Navajo Reservation in the northeast corner of the state does – but the Hopi Reservation, which is located inside the Navajo Reservation, doesn't.

That means someone could go for a drive and both lose an hour and gain it back without leaving the state.

Imagine your phone's clock flip-flopping every time you drive to work, or heading to a store down the street before realizing it's already closed.

And for many urban Native Americans, it means constant confusion with friends and family that live on the reservations, missed meetings and early mornings.

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Hassle for Arizona Navajos, breeze for the rest

The Navajo Nation observes daylight-saving time as a way to be consistent among all of its territory, which also stretches into Utah and New Mexico. Larger than West Virginia, it's the largest reservation in the country.

So the change is no big deal for those who primarily deal with people in Utah or New Mexico, but for those dealing with the Arizona side, it gets complicated.

"My parents always knew when we were going to visit my grandma or visit family, and we’d always have to wake up extra early," said Jared Yazzie, a Navajo designer who grew up in Holbrook, just south of the Navajo Reservation.

Now, the difficulty comes at least once a month when Yazzie leaves Phoenix to visit family or attend special events on the reservation.

Yazzie sells his clothing line, OxDx, every year at the Western Navajo Fair in Tuba City, a town on the Navajo Reservation that's close to the Hopi border.

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Already a long drive, with the time change, he loses nearly seven hours, sleeping in his car before the fair to make up for some of the lost time.

"I don’t know anybody that likes it," Yazzie said. "As far as I know, it’s always been a hassle. We're always meeting together and talking about going home and say, 'Crap, it's daylight-saving time!' It's usually a pretty big conversation once a year."

All in all, it's not that bad, he said – as long as he always makes it to grandma's house outside Tuba City by 1 p.m. for family lunch.