More Livestock Impoundment
Alvin Clinton's horse is still in jail at Keams Canyon, he is
too broke to get it out and we are still scrounging for money to
help. By tomorrow I think we can do something, that's what I told
him today. So I called the BIA Hopi Agency at Keams. Eugene
Secakuku, the Land Operations Director, was out and Beverly said
she guessed she was in charge. I was just getting the latest bill
on Mr. Clinton's buckskin, but thought to ask if she had any other
stock.
Yesterday, she told me, the BIA had impounded 5 cows and one
heifer, all "whitefaces" from the Tonalea area. They belong to
Slim Manygoats, I think he's a relative of Sonny Manygoats, who
lives all alone way up on Black Mesa, practically up against the
big cliff that forms the north edge of the mesa. He is one of only
eight families left living full-time in the Tonalea HPL community.
There is some good grass up there, but the Hopis have not been
moving out there much 'cause it is so far to drive from the
villages. Unless you take the road through Blue Canyon, a little
chancy especially towing a livestock trailer, you have to go around
Tuba City. This is an area where the Hopis, if they were smart
would PAY the Dine' to stay and watch over their cattle.
The bill for Mr. Manygoats' cattle is $828.30. We will
probably be hearing from him.
Relocation Commissioner Testifies in Washington
Relocation Commissioner Carl Kunasek testified before the
House Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations on Monday, February
28, 1994. I have a copy of his written testimony. According to
Mr. Kunasek, relocation is way down. Only 130 families relocated
in fiscal 1993, compared to 205 in 1992. In the first four months
of FY 1994, 35 families relocated. ONLY FOUR OF THESE FAMILIES WERE
HPL RESIDENTS. The Commissioner blames the MANYBEADS mediation for
raising false hopes among the HPL Dine'. Otherwise, he feels, they
would gladly relocate.
We actually supported the Commissioner in asking for funds
this year. We asked for additional funds to finish the new High
School at Pinon, where so many relocatees and refugees are living,
and to construct a clinic at Dilkon to serve the Teesto-White Cone
area of the former Joint Use Area.
Bruce Babbitt's Visit
I had a phone message this morning from Betty Tippeconnic, who
is a relocatee from the Big Mountain area now working in Ada Deer's
office. I knew her when she was a relocation counsellor, years
ago. So after we got done with the ya'at'HEY s, she told me she
was setting up a visit by Interior Secretary Babbitt on March 15
and 16. She wanted an update on Navajo-Hopi issues, 'cause the
Secretary is going to have to meet with President Zah and Hopi
Chairman Secakuku. I gave an earful, anyway. One thing, the
Secretary is going to hear again about the Peabody mine water use
issue. So I made certain that it was passed along to the
Secretary, that there is an offer on the table of water from lake
Powell through a pipeline over the Navajo Reservation. This offer
is good ONLY if there is an honest and generous settlement of the
so-called Navajo-Hopi "land dispute." That means a settlement that
the Dine' communities themselves approve.
Sheep Head
This morning, Frank Neswood brought in a sheep head for us.
It was cooked in the ground, the Dine' fashion, when he butchered
yesterday. It really smelled good. So the secretaries put it in
the office microwave, pushed the button, guessing at how much time.
I watched the sheep head inside the microwave, turning around and
around inside as the oven beeped and hummed. There was no
instruction on how long to cook a sheep head.
So I could smell that delicious mutton aroma all the time I
was talking on the phone with Betty Tippeconnic, but when I finally
got through, Mary Lucy Joe was just dumping the last of the bones
in the trash.
Jon Norstog