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Hopi say evictions at Big Mountain 'imminent'

by Brenda Norrell > Indian Country Today staff

BIG MOUNTAIN, Ariz. - Navajos facing forced eviction appealed to the United Nations in Geneva in April, as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal that relocation violates the religious rights of Navajo, in the case of Jenny Manybeads vs. United States.

U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll in Arizona also lifted a 1977 injunction, which now authorizes the Hopi Tribe to enforce its grazing laws - livestock permits and impoundments - on Navajos living on Hopi Partitioned Lands (HPL).

Cedric Kuwaninvaya, chairman of the Hopi Land Team, said the U.S. Supreme Court decision means time has run out for Navajos who refused to sign 75-year lease accommodation agreements with the tribe. "Denial of the Manybeads appeal makes imminent the eviction of Navajo individuals on the HPL without a lease agreement with the Hopi Tribe," Kuwaninvaya said in a written statement.

Carrying their fight for human rights to Geneva, Kee Watchman of Cactus Valley community, told the United Nations Human Rights Commission in its 57th session in April, that Navajos have suffered for 30 years, enduring constant harassment and threats because the energy industry seeks Navajo coal.

"The United States government, for reasons of its own policy, is actively and knowingly destroying our families, our livelihood, our sacred places and our way of life."

Watchman told the United Nations that Peabody Coal Co. seeks the "rich and low sulfur coal that lays beneath our feet."

In his address on religious intolerance, Watchman said deep injury will result if the Hopi proceed with a plan to construct a cellular tower on a peak over "the shrine called 'Dzil'na Sa i' or Big Mountain," without consultation with Navajos living there.

Representing the Indian Treaty Council, Watchman asked for an avenue of appeal to an international tribunal where the United States and its officials would be held accountable for their actions. Meanwhile, at Big Mountain, Bahe Katenay said, "The people's way of life is constantly under attack." He said the people are disappointed with the court decisions, but they will not give up the struggle to remain.

"The feeling is that the American government doesn't want to hear about our culture and history and why we want to stay on the land to protect it."

Katenay said Dineh at Big Mountain believe both court decisions are a direct reaction to success in creating international awareness about the coal industry's intent to remove Navajos to permit mining of the Black Mesa coal beds.

"The people are going to be living with more fear that evictions will take place, but they will try and stop the eviction in any way that they can."

In nearby Kykotsmovi, the Hopi celebrated both court decisions as victories. After more than two decades, the Hopi regained full control and jurisdiction over grazing on Hopi Partitioned Lands when Judge Carroll lifted the 1977 injunction.

"It is an indisputable fact that we have been second-class citizens on our own lands for too long," Chairman Wayne Taylor said. Taylor congratulated the U.S. Supreme Court for refusing to overturn the 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruling in Jenny Manybeads vs. United States. Navajos filed the suit in 1988, based on their right to practice traditional religion on sacred land, challenging the 1974 Navajo Hopi Settlement Act that resulted in Navajo and Hopi partitioned lands.

"Their action threatened to undermine Hopi sovereign authority to use and control its own lands and threatened the implementation of a settlement that took years of compromise between the Hopi and Navajo," Taylor said.

"We want our children to put the Navajo-Hopi land dispute behind them and chart a different history of peace between both tribes." Hopi elders Dan Evehema and Thomas Banyacya, however, stood with Navajos for decades and supported their struggle to remain on the land.

Before their deaths two years ago, Evehema and Banyacya said the order of the world will be upset and mankind would suffer great calamities if Navajos are forced to relocate.

On Black Mesa, Glenna C. Begay, Navajo, who lives less than two miles from Peabody Coal mine, said the dust in the air, water, soil and plants has made the people sick with respiratory diseases. Ancestral burial sites have been destroyed and precious water is used to "flush coal to the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada" by way of coal slurry.

Saying the people have suffered long enough from chemical spills and hazardous waste spills, she said it is time to close Peabody's two coal mines on Black Mesa.

"The beautiful landscape is gone forever."

The Navajo Nation defended mining leases as a means of employment and revenues, with the majority of the tribe's $100 million annual income derived from coal, oil and gas royalties and taxes.

It has filed suit against Peabody, claiming Peabody and two energy providers conspired with a former BIA official to deny the tribe a fair 20 percent royalty rate for coal.

After the Navajo Nation filed the $1.8 billion lawsuit, it was joined by the Hopi Tribe.

Peabody denies the conspiracy, pointing to its charitable contributions and royalty payments, as California's demands for Arizona water and coal-powered electricity increased in 2001. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, Navajo President Kelsey Begaye extended his sympathy to Navajo families living on Hopi Partitioned Land. Begaye said the decision was hard to accept, but families have fought valiantly to preserve Dineh sacred ways.

"I want to extend my appreciation to the families who were involved in this case and their attorneys for setting forth a great effort to protect our way of life."

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona and Hopi Tribe said eviction of Navajo families who refused to sign 75-year-leases by Feb. 1, 2000, will proceed by court action.

On Black Mesa, Norman Benally appealed for international support in the three-decade long battle. "We have exhausted our strengths to protect our homelands."

c2001 Indian Country Today