NAVAJO-HOPI "LAND DISPUTE" UPDATE: MAY 8, 1995
More Meetings
The last time I wrote an Update, I was jammin off to Jeddito
for a meeting of the Dine' resisters' family representatives.
The issue of that meeting was whether to approve one of three
versions of a plan of operation, and what name to adopt. At the
previous meeting, April 18, attendance had been light and nothing
was resolved except to narrow down the choice of names somewhat.
The Jeddito meeting, April 20, was held at the Chapter House
instead of Louise Begay's place. It had been cold and snowy for
a few days. Mrs. Begay's house is too small for indoor meetings
and it was too cold to meet out doors. Mrs. Begay lives on the
mesa above Jeddito wash, where the soil is very sandy and drains
well. The roads in her area are usually pretty good, but in
this very wet year they have big mudholes in every low spot.
The issue which dominated the Jeddito meeting was not the
plan of operation or name of the group. It was whether to
continue meeting with the Hopi tribe at all. The Hopis had
refused to discuss the religious issue and had instead tried to
extract a pledge of support from the families for the Agreement
in Principle. This, plus their continued in their attempts to
cast the talks as being a phase in the implementation of already-
complete agreements caused many of the representatives to
question the worth of meeting with the Hopi Tribe's
representatives at all.
Things were looking pretty grim when Alvin Clinton stood up
and said he was through meeting with the Hopis. He is no longer
president of Dine' Bikeya Committee, but he has enough influence
to carry that group with him. It has been the Dine' Bikeya group
which has been the most organized, and which has taken the most
pragmatic line on the mediation. If they were to pull out of the
mediation it would almost certainly collapse.
Roman Bitsuie followed Mr. Clinton out of the meeting room
when he walked and sat down to talk with him for a while. He
succeeded in convincing Mr. Clinton to stick with the mediation,
at least until the Hopis had responded fully to the religious
issues raised by the families in their March 2 document. Mr.
Clinton agreed, and so once more things were held together.
The representatives did agree on a plan of operation, and
they chose as their name, Voice of the Dine' Families. They
elected permanent officers as well. Roger Attakai continues as
President, while Katherine Smith of Big Mountain is now Vice
President. Irene Begay continues as Secretary-treasurer.
Spring Gathering
Saturday, April 22, I drove out to Big Mountain, Alice
Benally's place. This is the former Anna Mae Camp, where one of
the two Big Mountain Sun Dances has been held for the last seven
years. I drove my old red volvo, with a shovel, tow chain and
tire chains along. Luckily it had cleared up and dried out a bit
in the two previous days, so the only real bad stretch of road
was the last half mile to Mrs. Benally's place.
When I got there Joe Chasing Horse was getting ready to do a
pipe ceremony at the Sun Dance grounds. A whole bunch of people
were in the shade house at the west side of the circle, the ball
snow pelting down through the brush roof onto their heads. Mr.
Chasing Horse was talking about the history and meaning of the
Sun Dance, the resistance to relocation, all at the same time
bringing out the pipe and loading it. He talked about the white
buffalo calf that was born last year, in Minnesota or Wisconsin,
said that there would be some hairs from that calf at this year's
Sun Dance.
Those of you who listen to National Native News have heard
all about the Calf. What Mr. Chasing Horse said is that the
White Buffalo Calf Woman, who brought the sweat lodge and Sun
Dance to the People, said when she was passing away that she
would return four times. She would come when things were really
looking bad, when the People really needed her. So people are
saying that she has come back as this Calf.
The pipe ceremony was for the Sun Dancers and the family of
Violet Ashike, who is the sponsor of the Dance. They were led by
Mr. Chasing Horse out into the center of the dance ground and
formed up in a circle around the tree. Mrs. Ashike has been
losing her strength the last year and was in a wheelchair, which
had to be dragged through the fresh mud of the circle. The pipe
was lit and passed around, everyone getting a chance to pray.
After the ceremony I talked a little bit with Ron Wood, Mrs.
Ashike's son-in-law, also with John Benally and Jack Strasburg.
Meetings were going on, mainly there was a woman from the
International Indian Treaty Council who was talking about the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo while a video crew taped her speech.
I shot the breeze with a few other friends, then took off. The
fresh snow had made the roads worse and I had to blast through
about seven or eight bad spots, throwing rooster tails of mud,
before I got to Hardrock chapter house, where the pavement
begins.
April 26
The Navajo-Hopi Land Commission met most of the day in
Window Rock in the gutted house trailer we scored off the BIA two
years ago, then rehabbed. Roger Attakai came to talk about the
Voice of the Dine' Families and to ask for official recognition.
This was debated a bit and it looked like, lacking a resolution,
they would postpone action. I volunteered to write a resolution
if they would give me 15 minutes. I went out to do one on the
computer, got it back, but the Land Commission had decided to
adjourn. They felt that they should not recognize the Voice
because there were communities who were not participating in it.
While I was typing I got a termination notice saying that
friday would be my last day, please clean out your office.
April 27
I drove out to Teesto for a meeting of the Voice. The
purpose was to discuss strategy for the upcoming meeting with the
Hopi Tribe. Turnout was pretty light, but there were enough
people to carry on the discussion. They asked Roman and me about
what was going to happen to us. Roman's last day of work in his
temporary position was April 28, same day as mine. Everyone was
upset about that, but Roger Attakai said we had done our work
over the last seven years to get things to the point where the
people could negotiate on their own. "It's up to us now."
April 28
I was workin like crazy, cleaning out my office, wrapping up
paperwork, and so on. The women from the office took up a
collection and threw me a dinner, also bought me a chief blanket.
I was really touched, just expecting to leave quietly. After
work I picked up Roman and we drove out to Roger Attakai's place
for a prayer service.
It was way past dark when we got there. When I turned off
the car engine, we could hear drumming, and could see a few
seated people silhouetted on the tipi by the firelight. Elmer
Clark was the drummer, he was just warming up. People came and
went for another hour before we got started. Roman and I sat on
the south, Arnold Paddock was at the door, then Albert Francis,
me Roman, Elmer on Drum, Cecil Miles was Road Man, Harris (a
relative of Roger's) was Cedar, then Roger, then Gloria, another
relative of Roger's, her ten-year-old son beside her, then
Kenneth Jensen, and Dennis Lewis was Fireman.
The service was mainly for Roger to get strength and
guidance for the meeting with the Hopis. Mr. Miles also doctored
me, Elmer and Roman, and Roger made up some medicine to help me
and Roman with our jobs, our health, and our finances. I got to
sit on my new chief blanket, which was a damn sight more
comfortable than the old turkish rug I been using.
In the morning Roger looked like he was about 22 years old,
flush and healthy. Everyone was in agreement about what to do.
April 30
A day later, on Sunday, the Voice met with the Hopi Tribe at
the Hopi Civic Center. I got up at six and made some breakfast.
Roman came by at 7:30 with the big, new Ford Crown Vic that is
Claudeen Bates Arthur's personal vehicle. He told me his
employment had been extended, maybe until June. We stopped by
Claudeen's house, she was up, dressed and wearing silver, but she
said she had family business to take care of and couldn't come.
We got to Hopi land a little early, went around to all the
Dine' sitting waiting in their vehicles, to chat and shake hands.
After everyone went in there was a little bit of meeting while we
got the tables set up. More space was needed so Ferrel Secakuku
and I dragged another one of the folding tables up to make a big,
hollow square.
The meeting went pretty slowly, as the Hopi team wanted to
read and translate for the Dine' families Hopi Ordinance No. 43,
all 21 pages of it. This is the Hopi range code. This went on
for about an hour and a half, and looked like it could go on all
day. Finally Roger Attakai asked if the group could get on to
discussing the religious issues. At that time the Hopi team
asked for a break.
After the break Mr. Attakai said "we want to discuss
religion, we'll get to the sheep that way but it's best we go
back to what we asked - how the Hopis will accommodate us on our
religion." He went on to say that the Dine' families had
reviewed the Hopi response to the March 2 document on religious
issues, but wanted to ask why they refused to accommodate the
Dine' on many of the points. As an example, Roger asked why the
Hopis could not include the additional language on religion and
goodwill into the "Accommodation Agreement" (this is the term the
Hopi team is now using for the Lease).
Mr. Secakuku said the Hopi team was not ready to discuss the
religious issues. He also said he did not want to see reports in
the press about the meetings. Cliff Ami, a Tewa and a member of
the Hopi team said something interesting, to the effect that the
Hopi team had already responded to the 17 concerns raised in the
March 2 document, and that they were willing to quote the
ordinances to the Dine'. "What does it do to the Agreement in
Principle if we change the preamble language?" he asked. This is
pretty much still the Hopi view then, that negotiation is over
and that all that's going to happen in the discussions is the
Hopi team will continue to read off various documents. No give
and take, in other words.
At this, both groups agreed to meet again on May 4. I
attended that meeting too, and will write about it within a day
or so.
During the meeting on April 30, Louise Benally and Marsha
Monastersky came in, shook hands a little and passed out copies
of a letter saying that people from most of the northern HPL
communities were not going to participate in the negotiations,
and would not be bound by any action of the Voice of the Dine
Families. They left after that.
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