More Livestock Impoundment
Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Mr. Ross Nez of Teesto.
Five of his cattle were impounded yesterday. The fees were $473.00
if he got them out by noon today. I apologized to him for not
having any funds to assist. He said he could cover it and had a
livestock trailer. Mr. Nez told me that the cattle got through an
opening in the fence where the wind had eroded the soil away. He
feels that the BIA was negligent in not maintaining the fence, and
so is paying the impound fees under protest.
Mr. Nez is a medicine man and a former Chapter Officer at
Teesto, a person who has a lot of respect in the community. Our
office will probably do a report on this incident, inspect the
break notify the BIA. Maybe they will fix the fence.
This is an issue we have raised many times with the BIA.
Fences break or the ground blows out around them. Cattle guards
fill with wind-blown sand and then livestock can cross them.
Sometimes there are gaps where a fence crosses a wash. Sometimes
Dine' cut the fence to get to water (the BIA has severely cut the
budget for range improvements on the Navajo side of the line, the
NPL area, so a lot of time the windmills are broken).
In White Cone, Mr. Kenneth White and his neighbors fixed the
fence themselves. It took two days. they did it because they were
afraid their cattle would get over the line and be impounded. We
wrote to the BIA Superintendent at Keams Canyon in Sept. 92, and to
his boss, the BIA Phoenix Area Director in December that year
requesting that Mr. White and his neighbors be reimbursed. No
reply to date.
Mrs. Helen Lewis came in today with her granddaughter Shay.
Shay's mother is away at school in Phoenix so Shay is staying on
the HPL. Shay is about 3 1/2, really lively. She was voting with
the adults at the last Dine' Bikeya Committee meeting, while her
brother slept with a bottle hanging from his mouth.
Dennis Lewis makes tiny Kachina earrings, perfectly carved and
painted, each figure about 1 1/2 inches tall. Mrs. Lewis was
selling them, sold six pair at the office here.
There is a campaign going on by the Hopi Tribe against the
Navajo Kachina carvers at this time, I suppose they would include
Mr. Lewis as someone they feel should not be carving. Actually,
the REAL Kachinas are carved by men who have become that Kachina in
a ceremony, and they carve that figure to give to their female
relatives - daughters, granddaughters or nieces - afterwards. A
REAL Kachina is very rare because they are not made for sale. A
lot of Hopi artists carve Kachinas for sale also, same as the Dine'
carvers. These Kachinas may or may not look exactly like the REAL
Kachinas. A lot of Hopi artists are now doing sculpture that is
derived from the Kachina form .. I even know of one Hopi woman who
is doing this. Some Hopis say that making the figures - she is
really good - has caused her to be unable to bear children.
This issue has been in the news lately, so I thought it would
be of interest. The Navajo Times said it was the latest Navajo-Hopi
dispute! (see Navajo Times, Jan. 27, 1994, p. A-1 & A-8. I think
it has also gone out on the Associated Press)