Mark Shaffer
Republic Flagstaff Bureau
07.07.06
FLAGSTAFF - The heart-wrenching stories of traditional Navajos facing
relocation stopped making headlines 20 years ago.
But the federal Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation in
Flagstaff is still around, despite repeated efforts by Sen. John
McCain to write it out of the federal budget.
The office, which employs 47 people, recently passed two milestones:
It celebrated its 30th anniversary, and it exceeded the $500 million
mark in spending on a program that was expected to take only several
years and cost $40 million.
That's why McCain, R-Ariz., has repeatedly referred to the office as
a disaster.
The office hasn't accepted applications for relocation benefits for
six years, but it has been budgeted a total of $56.5 million since
fiscal 2002. It also hasn't had a commissioner since the early 1990s.
Mike McAlister, deputy executive director of the office for more than
two decades, acknowledges that he has little to do and that he and
the office's executive director, former Flagstaff Mayor Chris Bavasi,
have targeted September 2008 as a shutdown date.
"But it's really interesting, given how controversial this office has
been in the past, that both tribes now would like to see us stay
around and cast us as a redevelopment office to help with their
various projects," McAlister said.
McAlister makes $165,200 a year; Bavasi makes $145,600. Rep. Rick
Renzi, R-Ariz., whose district includes the Navajo Reservation, said
he plans to introduce a House bill to shut down the Flagstaff
relocation office, move it to Tuba City and rename it the Navajo and
Hopi Indian Office of Reconstruction.
"It would finalize whatever cases remain from Flagstaff and would
concentrate mainly on the deplorable conditions that came about
because of Bennett Freeze," Renzi said.
Percy Deal, a Navajo County supervisor who lives in Hard Rocks, said,
"If that passes, that's the first humane thing I've seen the federal
government do about all this mess that they've created."
Bennett Freeze is another land dispute, covering more than 700,000
acres of the western Navajo Reservation, involving the Navajo and
Hopi tribes.
For nearly 40 years, development there has been banned, leaving
thousands of families, mostly Navajo, without running water, lights
or modern appliances.
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Steps to a relocation
Jul. 7, 2006
1868: Navajo Reservation created in the Four Corners area, northeast
of the Hopis' traditional area.
1882: Hopi Reservation created. Law says Hopis "and such other
Indians as the Secretary of the Interior may see fit to settle
thereon" could live there.
1905: Executive orders result in Navajo Reservation nearly
surrounding Hopi Reservation.
1950s: Hopis able to use only about one-sixth of their land because
of Navajo encroachment.
1962: Court says most of disputed area would be used by both tribes.
Congress must decide how to share the land.
1974: Congress passes relocation act to split the area into equal
parts. Each tribe was required to leave the other's side.
July 7, 1986: Deadline to move.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0707navajohopi0707side.html