Chapter
members ask for hearing on Freeze deal
By
Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK
— Members of Tuba City Chapter finally will have an
opportunity at a public hearing Friday to learn details
of a proposed intergovernmental compact between the
Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe regarding the Bennett
Freeze.
Delegate
Duane Tsinigine (Bodaway-Gap/Cameron/Coppermine) and
Attorney General Louis Denetsosie presented legislation
on the compact Tuesday to the Public Safety Committee,
which passed it after considerable debate.
Denetsosie
and Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Chairman Roman Bitsuie
then spent two hours on KTNN Radio Tuesday evening discussing
the history of the Bennett Freeze and denying reports
that the compact had been negotiated in secret.
Several residents
have filed a complaint in Tuba City District Court on
behalf of residents directly affected by the Bennett
Freeze, asking for a permanent injunction against passage
of the intergovernmental compact, alleging they have
been denied due process.
"The
homesteaders that are directly affected were never informed
of the development of the compact at any time prior
to the call for a resolution to be voted upon in the
chapter houses, and held the compact as secret, confidential,
not for publication, never to be revealed upon seal.
"Without
sharing the contents of the compact, the Navajo Nation
officials are misleading and manipulating the people
to support a resolution to lift the freeze they said
was in their best interest."
However,
the court says it will not act on the plaintiffs' request
until they refile the document because they failed to
give a 30-day notice to Navajo Nation President Joe
Shirley Jr. and the attorney general, as outlined in
the Navajo Nation Code.
Shirley,
Denetsosie, Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan, and Bitsuie
all are named as defendants in the suit.
In addressing
the Public Safety Committee, Tsinigine said, "I
live right in the middle of the Bennett Freeze. I used
to see my grandparents, aunts and uncles go to the Interior
and Hopi Tribe to approve construction.
"I noticed
that when I was about 10 years old. To this day, we're
still doing that. That is not a good feeling; that is
not a good subconscious feeling. It retards your emotional
development and your mentality in living with these
type of conditions."
Tsinigine
said he believes there has been a tremendous amount
of attainment on the settlement compact.
"In
1994 it was mentioned that only 64,000 (acres) was to
be given to the Hopi Tribe. That was at Moenkopi and
Pasture Canyon. They wanted 800 million acres and that
was toward Bodaway/Gap, most of it. That 800 million
acres was denied. They were only given 64,000 acres."
He said he
liked language in the compact's Article 7 which mentions
"quieting title" and dismissing any and all
claims asserted by the tribes "with prejudice,
meaning it will never come before the courts again."
"Navajos
will keep their land. Hopis will keep theirs,"
he said.
"When
we go to practicing our religious rights on the Hopi
Reservation, we can go in there without them spying
on us. There's also some fencing around hogans and somewhere
at Star Mountain. If this settlement compact is approved,
they will have to tear down those fences."
He said the
compact also provides that when the Hopi come onto Navajoland
for religious purposes, "we will not spy on them
either, for we respect their story of origin and their
traditional way of life."
But, he added,
"If we are going to have 20 or more people, we
will just give notice to the Hopi Tribe, and vice versa,
that 20 will be coming. Just notice. No license, no
permits will be involved because we will respect each
other's traditional religion."
Confidentially
speaking
Denetsosie cautioned that the compact is marked confidential
and is protected under the Navajo Nation Privacy Act
and that any disclosure of the compact is punishable
by law.
Public Safety
Committee Vice Chairman Pete Ken Atcitty (Shiprock)
questioned how they were presenting the information
to the public if it was confidential and argued that
if the information has been presented to the public,
it is no longer confidential.
Committee
member Ben Curley also questioned how the presentations
were made to the chapters if the information is confidential.
Tsinigine
said they went to five chapters Bodaway/Gap, Cameron,
Coppermine, Tonalea, Red Lake, and Bird Springs. "We
explained to them word for word what was in the compact
and we translated in Navajo. When we did the map, we
showed it to the people because there was no media there,"
he said.
The generic
map basically differentiates Navajo and Hopi-controlled
lands in the affected area without pinpointing locations.
Confidential maps can be shown only to elected leaders
and employees of the Navajo and Hopi tribes "having
responsibility for performance and/or enforcement of
this compact."
Denetsosie
said several exhibits in the compact must remain confidential.
Those involve a map showing the location of the Hopi
Salt Trail, Hopi eagle-gathering areas, a five-page
list of existing eagle nests on Navajoland, and a two-page
list of springs, located on both Navajo and Hopi lands.
"That
is proprietary information. They have asked us not to
reveal that. If we reveal that information then the
compact is gone. We won't have a compact. Those are
all the Hopi sacred places. All that information is
protected by the Navajo Nation Privacy Act," Denetsosie
said. "We did not show that to the membership of
the tribe."
Committee
member Harry Brown said that back in the 1880's when
the land was set aside, "it was set aside for Navajo
and Moqui." But, he argued, "There is no such
tribe today."
"If
the Hopi were there in 1882 when Kit Carson rounded
the Navajo up, there were no Hopis rounded up. I guess
that says that the Hopi were not there," Brown
said.
In addition
to the 62,000 acres set aside for Hopi, Denetsosie said
the District Court of Arizona in 1992 also designated
land shared by the San Juan Southern Paiutes.
"The
judge determined that there is an area of concurrent
use but said he had no jurisdiction to create a reservation
for them, so that just sits right there.
"He
determined that there was about 40,000 acres of concurrent
use of land by the Navajos and San Juan Southern Paiutes,
but he did not establish a reservation for the Paiutes,"
Brown said.
Challenging
chapters
Tsinigine said that of the chapters affected by the
freeze, only Tuba City and Coalmine Canyon chapter support
are questionable. He said legislation was presented
to the Resources Committee last Wednesday at Coalmine
Chapter, where the committee approved it.
Residents
of Coalmine Chapter have yet to be presented the proposed
compact.
Referring
to the lawsuit filed in Tuba City court, Tsinigine said,
"The majority of people that live in the Bennett
Freeze area, residents of the chapter, they support
this and they want this lifted as soon as possible.
"What
is causing chaos is people that don't live in the Bennett
Freeze, that never lived in the Bennett Freeze, they're
the ones that are questioning the validity of the document.
So we need to listen to the people that actually live
in those freeze areas," he said.
Public Safety
Committee Chairperson Hope MacDonald-LoneTree (Tuba
City/Coalmine) took exception to Tsinigine's comments.
"Just as a correction, I understand from looking
at the attachment to this summary, there are two of
those people that are listed here that I know of that
live in the Bennett Freeze area," she said.
Atcitty added
that the language in the compact does not specifically
state that the Bennett Freeze would be lifted and that
there also was no specific language pertaining to rehabilitation
funding.
MacDonald-LoneTree
agreed, saying that though Denetsosie and Tsinigine
said the freeze would be lifted as soon as the document
is signed, it still has to be approved by Congress.
"And there's no assurance in the document that
there will be funding available to meet some of the
needs."
Tsinigine
countered, "They don't want funding, they just
want it lifted. Funding goes along with all of this,
but right now we're in a human issue and we need this
lifted.
"We
can ask the chapters to get infrastructure and housing
and water without going through the tribe to approve
it further and then going to the Hopi and Interior.
We want to get rid of all of that. It's a gross feeling.
Funding's going to come, but right now we want this
lifted as a human issue," he said.
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