Following is the Hopi perspective on the taking of Hopi lands and the
ultimate reduction from the millions of acres that are Hopi traditional use
areas to only a few hundred thousand acres completely surrounded by the vast
Navajo reservation.
This has been approved by the Office of Hopi Lands, the Hopi Tutsqua Team,
and the Hopi Public Relations Office within the Office of the Chairman.
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THE TAKING OF HOPI LAND: A HOPI PERSPECTIVE
Relocation of Navajo families from lands partitioned to the Hopi Tribe, as a
result of the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act, has generated international
concern and outrage. It has been condemned as a modern genocidal policy of
the United States, engineered by the greedy energy companies eager to
exploit the vast mineral resources underneath tribal lands.
Hopi, notwithstanding the "traditional elders" whose opposition to
relocation has been misconstrued and highly publicized by anti-relocation
activists, have received very little attention. They are regarded as the
other party to the dispute, the "forgotten Indians" as John Collier, former
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, described them when he was reporting on the
Navajo-Hopi land dispute in the 1930's. As a result, the official Hopi
position on relocation has been criticized as inflexible and unreasonable.
The facts surrounding the relocation controversy are not as simple and
straight-forward as the public is led to believe; it is a complex issue
involving two tribes with contrasting lifestyles and tribal histories,
forced by the United States Government to "share and share alike" the same
land originally set aside for the Hopis by the Executive Order of 1882.
However, the illegal taking of Hopi aboriginal lands (tutskwa) did not begin
in 1974 when Congress gave 40 percent of the 1882 area to the Navajos, or in
1934 when Congress enacted the Navajo reservation, encompassing a major
portion of Hopi traditional lands, or in 1882 when the President took a
fraction of Hopi lands and created an Executive Order reservation for Hopis.
The first unconstitutional taking of Hopi lands occurred in 1848 when the
United States took control of all Hopi lands and turned it into "public
domain" status. the United States would later concede that by 1950 it had
illegally taken away 85 percent of Hopi aboriginal lands.
Given a long history of having been pushed around by the Navajos and ignored
by the United States, the Hopi understand very well the hardships that
relocation can cause. After 100 years of domination, the United States
Federal District Court in Arizona finally acknowledged that the present
land-use pattern of the Hopis had not been a "matter of free choice," but a
result of Navajo intrusion and depredation "often in violation of Navajo
treaty obligations, expediently sanctioned by bureaucratic indifference and
... illegal government restraints on Hopi use (of the 1882 area)."
The purpose of this presentation is to provide a summary of the major
historical events leading up to the present controversy from a Hopi
perspective. The Hopis have a saying, that to plant a straight row of corn,
one must keep looking back to the point of origin. Likewise, to understand
the relocation issue, one must study its historical background.
The pattern of taking away Indian lands in the United States is familiar
to the Hopis. First, the U.S. clears the way declaring Indian lands
"public domain," thereby allowing white settlers to move in. Then,
treaties, executive orders, and legislative acts are enacted to confine
Indians onto small "reservations" without constitutional protection or due
process. Finally comes the cleansing process whereby the Federal
Government clears itself or wrong-doing by offering token payment to
Indians, based on the land values of the 1800's.
The unconstitutional taking of Hopi lands followed this precise pattern with
one exception; the settlers, or "squatters" as the Court described them,
were Navajos. Pointing to members of the Committee on Interior and Insular
Affairs, Chairman Peter MacDonald said, "We Navajos, in the best of American
tradition, came into a land that was empty ...and did exactly what your
ancestors did." Former Hopi Chairman Abbott Sekaquaptewa called MacDonald's
statement a doctrine of "Navajo Manifest Destiny," arguing that that area in
question was not "empty," but was inhabited and used by ancestors of the
Hopi, called Moti Senom "First People" in Hopi and Anasazi in Navajo, long
before the coming of whitemen or Navajos. The Federal Courts, including the
United States Supreme Court, agreed.
The present Hopi villages are located on three mesas in Northern Arizona.
Each village is an independent community with its own form of government,
with the exception of the First Mesa villages which operate as a
consolidated government. Some villages are organized in a traditional
manner under the hereditary chiefs (Kikmongwi), while others have adopted
modern forms of government run by elected officials. The Hopi Tribal
Council is the central government composed of representatives from a
majority of the twelve villages. The head of the Council is the Chairman,
who is elected every four years in a reservation-wide popular election.
The village of Oraibi is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited
community on the North American continent, dating back to at least 1150
A.D., and probably much earlier. Archaeological studies and findings
demonstrate conclusively that ancestors of the Hopis occupied all of the
Little Colorado River plateau and basin before the birth of Christ. The
Federal Court in Healing v. Jones found that "no other Indians in the United
States has a longer authenticated history than the Hopi. As far back as the
Middle Ages the ancestors of the Hopi have occupied the same area." This
finding, confirmed by the Unites States Supreme Court, was also noted by the
United States Indian Claims Commission.
According to Hopi oral tradition, the Navajos are newcomers (considered only
visitors) to the southwest. In his testimony before the 1955 Hopi Hearings,
David Monongye, religious leader of the Hopi Independent Nation, explained
that there is a land dispute between the Hopis and Navajos, "Both tribes are
pulling on land which we know belongs to Hopi. We all know that not very
long ago there were no Navajos anywhere in this section of the country."
Healing v. Jones confirmed this, "From all historical evidence it appears
that Navajos entered what is now Arizona in the last half of the 18th
century." There is no record of Navajos in the chronicles kept by Spaniards
when they explored the Hopi province of "Tusayan" in 1540,1583, or 1598, or
at any time during the mission period at Hopi from 1629-1680. In fact, not
until the mid 1700's were there any references to Navajos west of the
current Arizona-New Mexico state line.
The court finding is consistent with Hopi oral tradition, which speaks of
Navajo ancestors coming from the north where they lived in houses made of
ice. Their language belongs to the Athapaskan family along with Apaches and
that of other tribes who migrate from the North. Many Athapaskan languages,
very close to Navajo, are spoken in Northwestern Canada and Alaska today.
The closeness of these languages suggest that Navajo only separated from the
Northern Athapaskan within the last 600 years.
In contrast, Hopi migration legends all point to origins in the southwest,
from which different clans migrated and then returned. Hopi language family
extends from the Shoshones to the north and west, to the Aztecs in the
south. Hopi is situated at the geographical center of this language family.
The first white men to come to Hopi country were the Spanish conquistadors
looking for the "Seven Cities of Cibola," a mythical settlement built out of
pure gold. Their arrival in 1540 began a long period of domination lasting
until 1680 when they were driven out by a brilliantly planned and executed
rebellion involving Hopis, Zunis and other pueblo tribes along the Rio
Grande in what is now New Mexico. In 1820, the Mexican Government
officially took over the Hopi area, which remained under their jurisdiction
until 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo relinquished the land to the
United States. The Mexican government inserted the following stipulation to
protect the property rights of its citizens, which included the Hopis.
On the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans
not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners,
the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property
by contract, shall enjoy with respect to its guarantees equally ample as if
the same belonged to citizens of the United States.
Shortly after the Treaty was signed, the entire area encompassing the Hopi
province of Tusayan was opened to the white settlers under the doctrines of
"Manifest Destiny" and "public domain." This act of the United States was
to be the first of many violations of an international treaty agreement, a
treaty which mandated the United States Government to "inviolably" respect
the property rights of the Hopis and to protect them from the "savage
tribes," i.e. Navajos (Indigos barbaros in Spanish).
The United States, like the Spanish and Mexican governments, made no effort
to respond to Hopi petitions seeking protection from the Navajos. The
government was finally forced to take military action, not to protect the
Hopis, but the white settlers who were under increasing attacks from
Navajos. In 1862, Col. Kit Carson began a brutal campaign, destroying
Navajo fields and livestock in the process of rounding up the Navajos. Many
Navajos eluded capture by hiding out in the Black Mesa area north of the
Hopi villages.
After the Carson roundup, the Hopis were assured that the Navajos were to be
permanently confined to lands in New Mexico. With this assurance, the Hopis
began moving back to their customary land-use areas. By 1890, Hopi and Tewa
cattlemen were running their livestock as far east as Ganado, as far south
as the Little Colorado River and as far west as Cow Springs near Kayenta.
The name "Cow Springs" is, in fact, a literal translation of the Hopi name
for the place ... Wakasva.
In 1868, the United States entered into a treaty of friendship with the
Navajo Tribe. In return for agreeing to cease hostilities, the Navajo were
given 3.4 million acres of land, mostly in New Mexico, well to the east of
the Hopi villages approximately 150 miles distant.
Article 13 of the treaty recites:
The Tribe herein named...agreed to make the reservation herein described
their permanent home, and they will not as a Tribe, make any permanent
settlement elsewhere.
Shortly thereafter, to the dismay of the Hopis, who had never entered into
any treaty agreement with the United States, the Navajos began moving into
Hopi territory. Around this time, a band of Navajos, fearing another
roundup, approached the Hopi village of Walpi seeking permission to remain
on their land. The meeting resulted in a covenant of peace which was sealed
by a sacred Navajo object. ("Tiponi" in Hopi). The Navajos were granted
permission to stay, but only temporarily, and on the condition that they
cease depredations forever.
The Navajo-Hopi covenant of friendship was quickly broken by the Navajos.
By 1880 the trespass problem became so acute that the United States Indian
agents began to consider ways to stop Navajo expansion into Hopi territory.
One proposed remedy was to redefine the western boundary of the Navajo
treaty reservation beyond which the Navajos who would not be permitted to
wander. Hence, in 1878, the first of a series of fourteen Executive Orders
were issued, each time conceding more Hopi land to the Navajos, until by
1943, the Hopis were confined to a 600,000 acre land area.
In 1878, Hopi Agent William R. Mateer proposed that a reservation extending
30 miles along the Little Colorado River, 50 miles south of the Hopi
villages, be set aside for the Hopis, and that the entire Tribe be relocated
to the new land. A year later, Indian commissioner Ezra A. Hoyt asked
Mateer to formalize the relocation proposal. Mateer resigned before
submitting his plan. The idea of moving the entire Hopi Tribe to make room
for Navajos was previously proposed in 1866 by another Indian Agent who
toyed with the idea of moving the Hopis to the Tonto Basin in central
Arizona, and by a Mormon missionary, Jacob Hamlin, who proposed a
resettlement in Utah.
After Mateer's proposal died, several attempts were made to define a
reservation boundary around the villages to protect them from the intrusion
of Navajos, Mormons, and "white intermeddlers." It was not until December,
1882 that an Executive Order Area (EOA) consisting of 2,500,000 acres was
set aside for Hopis, and "such other Indians as the Secretary of Interior
may see fit to settle thereon." Approximately 300 Navajos were living, but
not "settled" on the 1882 area at the time.
In their haste to create the reservation, the Federal agents failed to
include the Hopi village of Moenkopi, and a large portion of the Hopi
aboriginal lands, such as the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, portions
of the Grand Canyon, and sacred areas around Window Rock, site of the
present Navajo capitol.
The EOA did not accomplish the objective of keeping the intruders out.
Indeed, by 1890, Secretary William Villas was compelled to dispatch U.S.
troops to evict Navajos from the EOA. The troops arrived on Christmas Eve.
In the spirit of Christmas, and the fear of "inflaming the minds of
Navajos," the troops were instructed to avoid any "harsh measures" against
them. Instead of evicting the trespassing Navajos, the troops were used to
conduct a pre-dawn raid on Oraibi. Over 100 Hopi children were kidnapped
and taken to Keams Canyon Boarding School. Similar raids would continue in
subsequent years, this time by Navajo police officers hired by B.I.A. school
officials. In 1895, nineteen (19) Hopi religious leaders were imprisoned at
Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary in San Francisco, for disobeying Federal
Indian policies...policies which outlawed the Hopi religious ceremonies.
The military expeditions did not curb Navajo encroachment onto EOA.
Instead, emboldened by the Federal Government's fear of aggravating Navajos,
many Navajo families moved closer to the villages until they were camped
less than 15 miles away.
In 1891, Special Indian Agent, George Parker and trader Thomas V. Keam
devised and executed a plan to stop the Navajo encroachment. They drew a
circular boundary around the Hopi villages with a radius of 16 miles from
the imaginary center of the villages (Mishongnovi),. and marked the boundary
with stone monuments. Afterwards, they boasted to their superiors that the
land dispute was brought to a "satisfactory conclusion." Eight years later,
the Federal troops were again requested to return the troublesome Navajos to
their treaty Reservation but did nothing. The "Parker-Keam line"
encompassed an area consisting of approximately 450,000 acres.
In 1892, the Dawes Severalty or Allotment Act of 1887 was put into practice
on the Hopi reservation. Under the Act, each Hopi family would receive a
piece of land sufficient in size for farming and grazing. Surplus lands
would be returned to the United States. Many Hopi objected to the allotment
program and raised havoc with government surveyors by pulling out survey
stakes at night. In 1894, an extraordinary letter objecting to allotment as
signed by 123 Hopi leaders with their clan symbols and was presented to the
President. In a concluding statement, the Hopis made reference to a "land
area set aside" (EOA) for them and requested that the boundary be marked to
keep the Navajo out. The petition by Hopis and friends forced the
government to suspend the allotment project but did not stop Navajo trespassing.
In 1907, the Federal Government reinstated the allotment program. This
time, Navajo families were allotted Hopi land. The second allotment was
abandoned in 1911; however, Navajo families who accepted allotments were
considered to have established an interest in the 1882 EOA, and the Federal
Government began to talk about Navajo rights. The demand for grazing lands
caused by the rapid increase in Navajo and Hopi livestock persuaded Senator
Carl Hayden from Arizona to call for an investigation to determine the
desirability of dividing the EOA Reservation between the two tribes.
The dispute over grazing areas was aggravated by a new Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) policy of encouraging Hopis to reclaim their customary use
areas. Government protection was promised, and this prompted Hopis to
begin moving their livestock and farms further away from the villages,
causing the Navajo to complain bitterly about "Hopi trespassing." By 1925
this policy was canceled because it was " too successful" and the BIA
ordered Hopis to move back to the mesas.
By 1927, the Navajo completely surrounded the 1882 EOA and began moving in
greater numbers onto lands being used by white homesteaders and ranchers.
Congress acted promptly to curtail Navajo expansion into white-held areas by
enacting a law prohibiting future establishment of Executive Order Indian
Reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. Both Hopis and Navajos were not
considered to have the same rights as American citizens at this time.