By Kathy Helms, Dine Bureau; Gallup Independent 06.26.06
KAIBETO, Ariz. -- The Western Navajo Agency Council passed a resolution
Saturday opposing Sen. John McCain's Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Amendments
of 2005 and urging Congress to establish a blue ribbon panel to study and
review "the awful effects of relocation."
The agency council is requesting a Senate Interior Committee on Indian
Affairs allow agency council representatives and affected community members
the opportunity to testify on the proposed amendments.
Toh Nanees Dizi/Coalmine Canyon Delegate Hope MacDonald-LoneTree told the
council that she is one of four delegates representing communities and
individuals affected by the Navajo-Hopi land dispute, which includes
portions labeled the Joint Use Area, Navajo Partitioned Land, Hopi
Partitioned Land, and New Lands.
"Recently, Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) had proposed a bill before the Senate to
close down the relocation office, which meant cutting off the funding to the
relocation office in Flagstaff. It would cut off all of the funding and
assistance to the relocation efforts for all of the communities and
individuals.
"We all know that that office as well as the services that were supposed
to have been provided through the relocation act have never been fulfilled,"
she said.
For that reason, Coalmine Canyon Chapter passed a resolution opposing the
bill, "because McCain has no consideration and he does not want to hear
Navajos' concerns or how we need to be accommodated by the promises that
they made in that original relocation act," she said.
McCain opposed Senate Bill 1003 over a year ago. "Through the Navajo-Hopi
Land Office and the Washington D.C. efforts, they were able to hold off
McCain's efforts by lobbying the other senators," according to
MacDonald-LoneTree.
Sen. Pete Domenici and Sen. Jeff Bingman of New Mexico and another
senator were enlisted to hold McCain off for awhile so the Navajo Nation
could prepare opposition and gain support on the House side to make sure
McCain's bill would not go through, she said.
"In the end, being the powerful senator in the Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs, he was able to get his bill passed anyway," MacDonald-LoneTree
said.
Coalmine Canyon Chapter President Charlie McCabe said the federal
government has spent more than 30 years and $470 million on relocation.
"This is a Barry Goldwater mess," he said. In comparison to the money spent
on relocation, "Iraq is costing $1 billion a week."
Though certain relocation benefits were promised, not all have
materialized. "We have a lot of people who are still homeless, jobless, and
in need of getting services," MacDonald-LoneTree said.
"We all know that the relocation efforts have caused tremendous social
ills and have really robbed us of any kind of economic development or roads
in the areas that we have."
Council Delegate Hope MacDonald Lone Tree
20th Navajo Nation Council
P.O. Box 792
Tuba City, AZ 86045