CONTACT: Annette Brown (520) 871-7919, Navajo Nation Press Officer
George Joe, Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office
HALE: NO MORE LIVESTOCK IMPOUNDMENTS
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz./April 8, 1997/ ? A major source of conflict on
Hopi Partitioned Lands may soon end. Navajo President Albert Hale has
asked the BIA to halt all livestock impoundments on Hopi Partitioned
Lands until grazing allocations can be worked-out with Accommodation
Agreement signers.
In an April 4 letter to Robert Caroline, Hopi Agency, BIA
Superintendent, Hale told the BIA to "immediately cease all livestock
impoundment activity on Hopi Partitioned Lands. We are at a critical
stage [in the] implementation of the Accommodation Agreement," he wrote.
"Most of the Navajo HPL residents have signed the Accommodation
Agreement with the Hopi Tribe. Under the Agreement, the Navajo families
and the Navajo Nation must develop a plan for the allocation of 2800
sheep units among the Navajo families on the Hopi Partitioned Lands."
Hale said the grazing allocations would take time to complete, as the
number of HPL Navajo families who signed the agreement have not yet been
finalized. He said that in the meantime, the BIA did not need to
exacerbate or create a situation by impounding livestock on HPL.
Hale said, "Pending the completion of this effort (grazing
allocations), it is important that federal offices such as yours help
the two Nations and their people by not creating any adversarial or
confrontational situations."
This action comes a week after a deadline has passed to sign the
Accommodation Agreement with the Hopi Tribe. Hale believes that
Caroline will approve of the request because it would defuse any
problems that may arise as a result of livestock impoundments. Livestock
impoundments have always been a source of friction on HPL.
In the past, the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office provided
assistance for Navajo families to reclaim their livestock from the BIA
livestock impoundment yard. But this program ended last year, "due to
the lack of funds," said Colbert Dayzie, executive director of the
Navajo-Hopi Land Commission.
The Accommodation Agreement requires the Nation to allocate the 2800
sheep units among the families. When that is completed the Hopi Tribe
will issue an annual grazing permit to each allocatee by December 1 of
each year which the Hopi Tribe says will become effective the following
month on January 1.
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