Copyright 1996 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 29-Aug-96 ***
Title: ENVIRONMENT: Centuries-Old Navajo and Hopi Struggle Continues
by Pratap Chatterjee
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 29 (IPS) - Some 2,000 members of the Navajo nation say
that the U.S. government is forcing them off lands in the deserts of
northern Arizona that they have shared in peace and in war with the Hopi
peoples for centuries.
The issue is complicated by the fact that there are at least five
different parties that have an interest in the matter -- the community
facing resettlement, the U.S. government, the Hopi and Navajo tribal
governments, and Peabody Western, a large British coal company -- and not
all of them are at the negotiating table.
Under a deal worked out between the Navajo and Hopi tribal governments,
with the assistance of the federal government, a bill will be presented to
the U.S. Congress next month that will give the Navajo community until the
end of the year to accept the jurisdiction of the Hopi tribe, who have
official title to the land under U.S. law, or be evicted.
This would not the first time that the Navajo, who call themselves the
Dineh peoples, have been evicted from their homelands.
[ The matter of whether the lands under dispute can rightly be considered
"ancestral homelands" is itself unclear. --Gary (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) ]
In 1864, thousands of Navajo died when U.S. government agents forced them
to relocate to Fort Sumner, New Mexico so that miners could search for
gold and other precious metals on their lands, in what is now known as the
'Long March'.
The Navajo, who returned to Big Mountain four years after the 'Long
March', were again evicted from their lands in 1974, when Peabody arrived
to dig for coal. But the 250 families who currently live on Big Mountain
refused to join the some 10,000 others who left their lands.
Roberta Blackgoat, the chair of the "Sovereign Dineh Nation," who represents
these families, says that those ''who continue to resist are political and
religious prisoners.''
Congress, for its part, is now very keen to settle the matter as soon as
possible.
''The federal government has spent more that than 350 million dollars on
this programme ...over 22 years. That exceeds the original cost estimates
by 900 percent. The relocation programme must come to an orderly and
certain conclusion,'' Senator John McCain of Arizona told Congress recently.
But the members of the community which has lived and raised sheep for
centuries on Big Mountain in Four Corners -- so named because it lies
where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet -- point
out that they were not consulted about the proposed settlement, even
though it affects their future.
Hopi and Navajo tribal officials counter that the settlement is the best
possible deal for the Big Mountain community, whose members have denounced
officials from both tribes as nothing but Peabody lackeys.
Blackgoat points out that the 1974 relocation plan was masterminded by
John Boyden, a lawyer who was employed by a Salt Lake City-based company,
Evans and Associates, that was contracted by both the Hopi tribe and an
association of 23 energy companies that wanted to mine for coal and build
power plants.
Peabody records show that the Navajo leaders who moved now receive some 27
million dollars a year in royalties from Peabody, while the Hopi tribe
gets some 14 million dollars in annual payments from the operation of the
company's two mines, which produce about 1.5 million tonnes of coal
annually.
Hopi and Navajo leaders deny that the problem has anything to do with the
coal mining.
''The relocation of the Navajo is not because of Peabody's mining
activities but is due solely to the efforts by the Hopi government to
claim Navajo homelands,'' Navajo tribal president Peterson Zah wrote in a
letter to the company two years ago.
Hopi chairman Ferrell Secakuku wrote a similar letter to Howard Carson,
Peabody's president, last year. ''Peabody is no way acting in concert with
the Hopi tribe ...in the relocation effort,'' he said.
Earlier this month, representatives of the Navajo and Hopi tribes came
here to put the final touches on an agreement to hand the Big Mountain
area over to the Hopi, with the aid of a U.S. government-appointed
mediator. No Big Mountain representative was invited to the closed-door
meeting, but the mediator did met with residents for an hour before the
meeting began.
Hopi officials told IPS that they expect the deal to be signed soon after
it is approved by Congress, which has jurisdiction over tribal lands.
''Our history tells us that we are the original peoples of the
mesas and that the Navajo were raiders who arrived centuries ago to
pillage our fields,'' says Bill Havens, an assistant to Secakuku.
''Under this agreement, which offers a solution to the problems of the
last 20 years, the Hopi will allow the Dineh to continue to live on Big
Mountain for 75 years, so long as they live by Hopi law. But they won't
have to change their religion,'' he added.
In addition, the proposed agreement calls for the federal government to
pay the Hopi government 50.2 million dollars to settle claims over grazing
rights and other matters.
Meanwhile, the Navajo community of Big Mountain says that in recent years
their lives have become miserable because of harassment by Hopi police and
pollution from Peabody's coal-mining operations, which lies some 20
kilometres from their homes.
For example, in May the Hopi police prevented the Navajo from performing
the spring Sun Dance on the grounds that it posed a fire hazard. The
Navajo say their failure to perform the traditional rite and the
destruction of ceremonial buildings by the Hopi caused this year's
drought.
Despite the drought, Peabody continues to draw down 5.4 billion litres of
water every year from the only water source in the desert area for its
mining operations.
Company officials deny their operations affect local residents, noting
that ''scientists estimate that less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the
water stored in the Navajo aquifer will be used, and they believe that all
of the water will be replenished naturally 10 years after mining
concludes.''
In March, however, the Big Mountain community won a lawsuit in which it
charged that mining operations polluted the air and water, ruined the
health of the local people, killed their sheep, and destroyed sacred
sites. The court revoked the Peabody's mining permit, but the company
continues to operate under an interim permit as the case is
appealed.(end/ips/pc/pz/96)
[ For more information on this subject from the point of view of those
who are protesting this proposed agreement, you can contact the Dineh
Alliance (dineh@primenet.com) or Sky Crosby (sky@indirect.com). Some
information on the issue from both perspectives is also available at:
http://bioc09.uthscsa.edu/natnet/archive/nl/navajo-hopi.html
--Gary ]
Origin: Washington/ENVIRONMENT/
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[c] 1996, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
[ Redistributed to NATIVE-L and Usenet newsgroups with permission. ]
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