11/9/06 - BLACK MESA ELDERS TAKE DIRECT ACTION:
Black Mesa Elder Rena Babbitt-Lane (approx. 80 yrs old) is in the
hospital recovering from a minor heart attack and other injuries stemming
from an incident of harassment from BIA Rangers earlier this week. In a
visit at the hospital in Tuba City on Nov. 7, she was eager to tell her
story to us and have us circulate it. This is what she said, according to
my notes, memory, and understanding of the Navajo language:
STATEMENT OF RENA BABBIT LANE:
“My sheep herder had left recently, so I was home alone and I took the
sheep out to a close area where they like to graze. This was Monday,
November 3rd. Three of the goats somehow ran through the partition fence
and I could not get them back across. I cut the fence and herded the sheep
through and put them all back together. Then they went to a nearby water
hole on that side of the fence and were drinking. I laid down under a tree
because I was exhausted. Three Rangers came up to me there. I think they
were all Hopi, but one of them spoke good enough Navajo that I could
understand him. They immediately began to threaten me. The ranger was
saying, ‘You broke the law! You’re gonna go to jail! You are not allowed
to herd over here.’ They grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me around.
Pretty rough. I tried to tell them that they should not be pushing around
an old lady like me, what kind of people are they? They took me back to my
house and were trying to search around. I was trying to stop them. One
picked up a stick and threatened me with it. They were heavily armed. I
told them that they were a bunch of bullies, bringing all those guns
around my house and being intimidating. They said, “We’re gonna come back
tomorrow and either impound all your sheep or else maybe we will put you
in jail and let the coyotes eat all of your sheep while you sit in there.”
There were other things that they did to me too. I cannot remember all the
details very
well. Then they wrote a ticket or something and left. I was feeling very
weak after that. I have no transportation so I walked 3 miles to the
neighbors’ house. They drove me down to my relatives closer to town. In
the course of retelling the story, I realized that I was having a pain in
my chest. They brought me to the hospital here and I have been here for
four days now. I am very sad about what’s happened here. I am not a bad
person, I am a kind person. Just herding sheep and they treat me this
way…”
At this point grandma began to cry and so we sat with her for a while.
When she was feeling better we told her that we would do our best to get
her story out to those who have been her allies and who might be
interested to come out and live with her, to support her in her old age to
take care of the herd with her and keep an eye out for the rangers. She
approved of this idea. She said a couple is best and there is a lot of
work,
especially for this winter because the doctors are trying to have her take
it easy and not be out in the cold much.
The fence that was cut is a recent addition to the landscape and cuts
across Rena’s traditional herding area. The above incident took place at
least 25 miles from any Hopi dwelling place, on the far west side of Black
Mesa. As far as we know the Rangers have not followed through with their
threats at this point.
I had a little assistance with translation from a neighboring
hospital bed, but most of what I had recorded here is from my own
understanding of the Navajo, which is not my native language.
However the story that I understood from Rena is pretty close to that of
another source that was translated by her kids so I think it is fairly
accurate to what she is saying. Let any inaccuracy in the details fall on
my
misunderstanding.
THIS IS NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT:
Last month, an elderly Navajo man from Cactus Valley had reported that
some sort of government official, possibly from the land management team
came right within a mile of his house and loaded up a pile of wood that he
was gathering. The elderly man followed the officials up the road and got
them to stop. There was a heated exchange—the man demanded that the
officials return the wood. They insisted that he was somehow in violation
of his wood hauling permit and that they were taking the wood back to
Hopi. They wrote him a ticket and gave him a court date. He went to court
in Polacca, 50 miles away, on Oct.20. The charges were found to be false,
and the judge dismissed them outright. The firewood was not returned.
As friends of these elders and volunteers of Black Mesa Indigenous
Support, we are circulating these accounts at the request and permission
of the people involved. Our primary interest is that these elders and
their community be spared these hardships.
-O. Johnson and T. Gigante, Black Mesa Indigenous Support
A BIG MOUNTAIN RESIDENT DEMANDS:
On behalf of my Dineh Relations at Big Mountain and throughout the
so-called, "HPL,"
I demand an immediate investigation into this federally-sponsored elder
abuse and harassment of an individual(s) who still have no understanding
of the modern American laws, and
I demand that the Navajo Nation make an inquiry to the BIA Hopi Agency
and its Land Management Office about their justification for this
incident of intimidation and physically shove or thrust a lone and fragile
elder around, and
I further demand that the Navajo Nation immediately convene its council
members and the Office of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission to facilitate
the much needed testimonies from the residents of the "Hopi Partitioned
Lands" and begin to address the escalating Human Rights violations within
the aforementioned region.
Let it be resolved that, the traditional Dineh families and their
elderly matriarchs and patriarchs are highly valuable for the future of
the Dineh Nation and that honor is due to them for their years of defiance
against the illegal mandates implemented upon their lives in the name of
energy exploitation. Furthermore, if the Dineh continue to dismiss the
situations at Big Mountain and throughout the "HPL," a geninue part of
Dineh-Hopi prehistoric experiences will be obliterated as their ancestral
lands become the wastelands of energy developments.
COME SUPPORT RENA AND THE ELDERS AT BLACK MESA:
Families are asking for help. Now is the time to come and stay
with a family. BMIS is willing to help you get to the land--please check
our website for specifics.
http://www.blackmesais.org/what_can_do.htm
Meanwhile, the Hopi and Navajo governments have been in secret
negotiations in Washington and Phoenix. Joe Shirley, the President of the
Navajo Nation, announced on the radio several days before the Nov. 7
election that the Bennett Freeze has been lifted and that there will be no
forced relocation from the Freeze Area. Shirley was re-elected
yesterday by a significant margin.
Accord reached for sacred Hopi sites on Navajo land (from az daily sun)
http://www.senaawest.org/Dineh/compact_signed.html
Hopis, Navajos end 40-year battle (az rep)
http://www.senaawest.org/Dineh/land_dispute.html
President signs historic legislation (Gallup Independent)
http://www.senaawest.org/Dineh/Freeze_passed.html
More articles about the current policies and legislations
http://www.blackmesais.org/latest_indfo.htm