Copyright © 1996 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved
Traditional Dine'h Support Network
For more than 20 years, thousands of Traditional Dine'h (Navajo) people in Northeastern Arizona have endured extreme poverty imposed by a U.S. government effort to relocate them. In 1974, the United States split nearly 2 million acres of jointly occupied land between the Navajo and Hopi tribes to expedite mineral leases. Over 10,000 traditional residents of the area, mostly Dine'h, have already been removed and forced to abandon their ancient religion and lifestyle.As many as 3,000 people remain and continue to resist government efforts to relocate them. Livestock impoundments, fencing operations, home repair moratoriums, and water diversion have created tremendous poverty and substandard living conditions.
Recently a court-ordered mediation, in response to a religious freedoms lawsuit filed by traditional Dine'h Elders, has concluded with a take-it-or-leave-it settlement. The Dine'h have until December 1996 to sign a 75-year lease and become tenants of the Hopi Tribe.
The Agreement would give each family a 3-acre homesite and 10 acres of barren farm land. Livestock will be limited to 28 sheep per family, far short of what is necessary to support the average Dine'h family.
This settlement offers the Dine'h no security or control over their future and denies them any hope of becoming self-sufficient. Most of the Dine'h Elders find the agreement completely unacceptable.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Dine'h must sign a lease or be evicted. Once an Elder accepts a lease, they must resign themselves to a life of poverty and forgo all relocation benefits after 2 years. Having to choose between the lesser of two evils, many may choose to relocate.
Congress has shirked any responsibility for the matter. In a recent conversation with the office of Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, the possibility of a "Waco"-like eviction will be left to the discretion of the Department of Justice and the Federal Courts. A March 1996 letter from Attorney Lee Phillips, official legal representative for the Dine'h families, reveals that eviction will take place for all families not signing the lease.
At meetings in the disputed communities, Attorney Phillips and Navajo Tribal Council representatives have been counseling Elders that signing the "Accommodation Agreement" is the only way to avoid forced relocation.
Families objecting to the settlement can register a letter of objection with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court is expected to review and either accept or reject the Accommodation Agreement this summer.
The Elders desperately need adequate legal counsel and hope to appear before the Court themselves. If the Court implements the agreement, legal action or executive order may be the only way to prevent eviction.
What You Can Do?
* Write letters to President Clinton insisting he take measures to prevent any evictions and that his representatives meet with the Traditional Elders to discuss how to amend the settlement in order to provide real security for the Dine'h. Whitehouse, Washington DC 20500. E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
* Request your Congresspeople to also write to President Clinton. There is a complete list of Congressional e-mail addresses at: http://www.teleport.com/~amt/planetpeace/odds_ends/govt_email.html"> http://www.teleport.com/~amt/planetpeace/odds_ends/govt_email.html
You may e-mail Senator McCain at: Senator_McCain@mccain.senate.gov * Write letters to Judge John T Noonan, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Case # 90-15003, P.O.Box 193939, San Francisco CA 94119. Ask that the court survey the families and take direct testimony from the Elders. They must hear the overwhelming dissent of the families before ruling.
* A legal defense fund has been established to provide transportation to Washington DC and to make court appearances. Make checks payable to: The Native American Rights Network, P.O. Box 379, Ocotillo CA 92259. For more information you can call: 619-358-7232.
Statement to the Public on Behalf of the Traditional Dine'h Elders of the Disputed Lands on the Former Joint Use Area
Recognizing our religious obligation to steward the sacred ancestral land on which we currently reside, the Traditional Dine'h will not sign the "Accommodation Agreement" in its present state. Our allegiance is vested in the land and our Creator and we will not compromise our religious freedoms in order to facilitate a politically expeditious agreement.
The U.S. government and the Navajo Tribal Council have sought to keep us and the public out of the settlement process and now expect us to condone a completely unacceptable agreement. We will seek new legal counsel and continue to pursue our religious freedoms and human rights.
Our families have suffered 20 years of poverty and harassment at the hands of the U.S. government. Even amidst the five years of mediation, the BIA has continued to impound our livestock and intimidate Elders in an effort to relocate us. Our health, family life, and culture have suffered irreparable damage.
The current agreement provides us with no security from future eviction and provides us with no means by which we can economically sustain ourselves. Our families will not be able to afford to live as full time residents on the land and therefore we will not be able to pass this sacred land on to our future generations. This agreement violates every principle of our religion, culture and sovereignty.
This settlement does not address the needs of thousands of refugees who have already been relocated. We cannot dismiss their concerns and those of family members and part time residents who will have no rights under the proposed agreement.
Representatives of the Navajo Nation and our former attorney, Lee Brooke Phillips, have counseled us to sign leases with the Hopi Tribal Council as the only way we can avoid eviction. We have been warned to expect violence from U.S. Marshalls if we do not sign this agreement by December of 1996.
The U.S. government is threatening to cut-off relocation benefits after years, adding further duress as we are being asked to consider this settlement. This settlement is a product of a United States Department of Justice policy designed to pit the Hopi and Navajo against each other in an attempt to escape their own responsibility to the Indian people of both tribes.
We will not accept an agreement without protection from eviction and freedom to sustain ourselves through our traditional lifestyle. We are undeniably attached to our sacred homelands and will not compromise our obligation to continue to steward this land so that we can pass it and our culture on to our future generations.
Lee Brooke Phillips
Attorney at Law
224 East Birch
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Tel: 520-779-1580
Fax: 520-779-2909
March 18, 1996
PROCESS FOR PRESENTING PROPOSED
ACCOMMODATION AGREEMENT TO
NAVAJO FAMILIES AND THEIR DECISION
TO ACCEPT OR REJECT THE AGREEMENT
- Accommodation Agreement (A.G.) approved by family representatives. (Nov. 1995)
- Various documents put together into one document with one cover sheet. (Jan 1996)
- Update meetings with family representatives and HPL communities. (Feb. 1996)
- Mapping of HPL homesites. (Jan., Feb. & Mar. 1996)
- Mediation meeting with David Lombardi. (March 14, 1996)
- Update meeting with family representatives. (March 18, 1996)
- Update meetings with HPL communities. (March 19 & 20, 1996)
- Senate Hearing to review A. G. and Hopi/U.S. Agreement. (March 28, 1996)
- Educational meetings with HPL communities. (April, May 1996)
- Written notice to all full-time residents on HPL about proposed A.G. (June, July 1996)
- Families who wish to stay on HPL can begin to sign A.G. (June 1996)
- Families who oppose A.G. can file written objections with the Federal Court and request a hearing on their objections. (June, July 1996)
- Families who sign A.G. will work with Navajo Nation to set up new grazing program and begin new construction of homes, etc. (June, July, Aug. 1996)
- Federal Court hearing on objections to proposed A.G. Court will either approve or reject proposed A.G.
- Court will issue its decision either accepting or rejecting the proposed A.G. (August, Sept. 1996)
- Families will continue to consider the proposed A.G. (Sept., Oct., Nov. 1996)
- Final deadline to sign A.G. (Dec. 1996)
- Families who accept and sign Agreement have three (3) years to live with Agreement and remain eligible for relocation assistance.
- Families who reject the Agreement will be subject to eviction once relocation homes are built for them on New Lands.
Big Mountain Dine'h Update - Part 2 April 3, 1996From: Roberta Blackgoat/Traditional Dine'h Elders
Subject: Livestock Impoundment
This morning at Sunup, three BIA Rangers came to the residence of Rena Lane in Big Mountain, Arizona. Yesterday, they exchanged a bull with Horse with a friend. It was the only one that didn't have a brand on it. The Ranger with a police officer only to impound one, next thing - they loaded all four of the Horses. They act very mean toward the Elders. The Elders are very sick and unable to move around, just stood and watched them. They both appealing not to take the Horses. While in a rush, driving away, they ran over Pauline Whitesinger's best sheep herder dog; killed the dog. They also took Kee David's baby calf; he suffered a slight heart attack just watching the Rangers drive off with cattle.
-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=- Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
You may e-mail the Senators at the following:Jon Kyl, info@kyl.senate.gov
John McCain, Senator_McCain@mccain.senate.gov
Please take a minute to voice your concern for the Elders. Thank you.
-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=-
21 March, 1996U.S. Senators McCain and Kyl
U.S. Senate
Washington D.C. 20501Dear Senators,
As a 79 year-old Elder who has lived all her life on the so-called "Hopi Partition Lands," I'm asking your help in stopping the current "Accommodation Agreement" being forced on us by Lawyer Lee Brooke Phillips, the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the U.S. government. 22 years after Congress passed the genocidal Relocation Act, I'm still fighting the constant psychological warfare directed against my people who only wish to live in peaceful harmony on our ancestral homelands. I still cannot understand why we have been made to suffer so much for so long when we have done nothing but maintain our sacred ways and traditional lifestyles. The Creator is the only one who is going to relocate me.
Dine'h have lived on "HPL" for many hundreds of years. My own family can be traced back five Grandmothers with me being the sixth to live in this area. I know and honor all the gravesites of my ancestors. I cannot, and will not, leave them alone to be trampled by Hopi cattle or strip mined out of our Mother Earth by Peabody Coal. My umbilical cord, along with those of my children and relatives, is buried here and I won't abandon them either. The shrines I must pray at, and the medicinal plants which cure us are all here on "HPL". I cannot be separated from them and still maintain my sacred traditions. To evict me is to deny me my freedom to practice my religion. I know this is against your Constitution and the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights which your government has signed.
I don't believe we can live under Hopi Tribal Government rule. The small number of non-Traditional Hopi who make up their Government have continuously used the most hateful, racist terms to describe their feelings toward Dine'h. I have newspaper clippings quoting the various Hopi Chairmen through the years using derogatory language towards us. How can we expect me to believe these same people will treat me on a fair and equal basis as they would another Hopi? The Hopi Tribal Government has engaged in the same practice I've heard about on the radio called "Ethnic Cleansing". I understand what is happening to us has gone on in a more physically violent way towards the Bosnian Muslims. What is the difference between Hopi Chairmen continuously trying to force us off our homeland because our religion and customs are different from theirs and the Serbs doing the same to the Muslims? Both actions are genocidal.
Over the last 20 years, many thousands of Dine'h have been forced off their lands by PL 93-531, the Relocation Act. It has caused untold misery and premature deaths to my people. This ethnic cleansing must stop and the best way is for Congress to correct it's wrong and repeal the Act. This would be possible if both Arizona Senators were to push for it. I call on both Senators to do the right thing and denounce the unjust law and work for it's repeal. Then the Dine'h and Hopi Traditional Elders can begin to work out any differences fairly without threats and intimidation.
Roberta Blackgoat
Traditional Elder
Resister to Location
Chairwoman, Sovereign Dine'h Nation
Statements from Traditional Elders Dine'h have intermarried with Hopi to the extent most families can count members of their clan who are part one or the other. We have always had Hopi friends among the Traditional people and they never mentioned to us that we should leave our homes. Only when your government created Tribal Councils in order to easily exploit the minerals under our lands did the current dispute arise. Anglo lawyers, working for the the prospect of enormous sums of money to be had from lawsuits, have driven an artificial wedge between Dine'h and Hopi, who peacefully co-existed before the U.S. government intervention.Now a lawyer who we once trusted to work on our behalf has betrayed our confidence by ignoring our opinions and sacred rights. Attorney Lee Brooke Phillips has been "fired" by many who live on "HPL." Yet he still publically claims to represent us all despite repeated statements by us to the contrary. He has grown tired of the unexpected length of time the "Manybeads" case has taken. He said he want to have it be done with so he can move on to other things. So he has put together the "Accommodation Agreement," which I and many other resister will not agree to. He tells us we will be evicted if we don't go along with it. You Senators should understand this creates a dangerous situation for Dine'h on "HPL" as some will defend our homes to the end. Do you wish to see another Wounded Knee occur with federal forces shooting at Indians from armored personnel vehicles? Will America, and the rest of the world, stand by quietly and watch while the U.S. government wages war to carry out the final phase of ethnic cleansing begun in 1974 with the passage of PL 93-531?
This summer I hope to travel to Canada to attend the Russel Tribunal on Human Rights. Appearing before the Tribunal for the third time, I will again call on the world to help us stop the terrible evil that is called the Relocation Act [PL 93-531]. I will ask for those who have previously supported our struggle , as well as those whose hearts our pleas touch, to denounce the ethnic cleansing of the "HPL." If need be I stand ready to ask for physical assistance in defending our homes against the forced evictions we are threatened with. You Senators have the power to help avoid an unjust and unnecessary final "showdown". Please take actions to stop relocation; do not support the "Accommodation Agreement". Don't be party to denying us our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Help us maintain our traditional religion and the sacred land it must be practiced on. My prayers will be for your good health in which you can make the right decision.
In Truth, [signed] Roberta Blackgoat
February 14, 1996
Statement by Pauline Whitesinger
My name is Pauline Whitesinger, an elder from Big Mountain. The truth must be told. In October 1989, I tried to express my concerns and complaints with the area B.I.A. Director, Wilson Barber, in Phoenix with some non-Indian, non-violent supporters. We were told to go home. Also awhile back, I was herding my sheep and saw a big, white cloud developing over my head with a strong wind starting to blow, so I said to myself that I have to get home right away. Later that day on the radio I heard that the sacred San Francisco Peaks were to be given to the Hopi for use. It was shocking for me and our community.
Back in the Spring of 1985, I was expecting approximately 9 calves to be born any day. I was checking the cows every day. It so happened that I got the flu and laid up for a couple days and unable to go outside. Upon recovering from the flu, I checked the cows again. I was horrified to find nine baby calves slaughtered by gunshot. I took notice of the vehicle tracks near the scene. I also reported the incident to the Hopi Rangers who said nothing can be done about it. About a week later I noticed that the B.I.A. Ranger's tire tracks were the same as those that I'd seen around the scene. For months the B.I.A. Rangers parked at times around my home and watched me when I picked pinons in the fall. They would talk in English to me but i didn't understand them. I speak no English.
During the summer, I also lost 41 goats/sheep to lightning. I have very little sheep, donated by the community.
Life has been very stressful, painful and emotional downfall due to the PL 93-531. It is a nightmare life I have had to live.
I have told my story to my daughter, Grace Smith, and it is my statement.
Statement by Fannie Goy
My name is Fannie Goy. I never went to school; I don't speak or write English. I live the traditional way of life on the west side of Big Mountain, Arizona. My sister, Helen Goy, lives next door to me. We lost our mother two years ago. We are still grieving over her death. I am a very emotional person and I blame my mother's death on Forced Relocation Law [PL 93-531].
The BIA police come around our place all the time. The Rangers keep telling me to sell my sheep. The Hopi traditional people never tell us to move; in fact, they say not to move. But the Hopi government and relocation people keep on coming around trying to get us to move.
I will never relocate. I intend to live and stay here.
This is my statement to Grace Smith.
March 22, 1996
My name is Lena Lane. I want to make a statement. A Navajo Nation staff person, Larry Nez, came to my home and tried to persuade me to sign the Agreement in Principle, which I will not sign. He said I had no voice in the matter and if I didn't cooperate I would be roughed up by the Hopi Rangers and the U.S. Marshalls and dragged off to new lands. He told me my family would get only 33 head of sheep, two cows and one horse totally.
I want to say this; that the U.S. Marshalls first have to shoot my animals then they have to shoot me next, and after I am dead, they can do what they want with me.
What happened to our elected Tribal government officials who are supposed to speak for us and protect us? The Hop and Navajo Tribal governments, U.S. government and our own lawyer, Lee Phillips, have teamed up against the traditional elders and families. What is wrong here that women don't get respect anymore from the man who originally came from women.
Our religion is being denied within our four sacred mountains. Our prayer hogan is not mentioned. My umbilical cord ties me to the land here and my prayers are lost if I am under Hopi government jurisdiction and it is considered Hopi land.
My family has lived on this land for many generations; we didn't have to pay rent; we have no money. I'm tired of being harassed and intimidated by Hopi Rangers wearing guns, who are ready to shoot us. I will not sign the Agreement in Principle.
My statement to Grace Smith.