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Dispute flares up
Hopi officials, Navajo resisters' views of sun dance incident clash

By Marley Shebala
The Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK (July 19, 2001) - If the five Navajo females arrested by Hopi Tribal police at a Lakota ceremony on Big Mountain on July 11 are convicted, they could be sentenced to one year imprisonment and/or a $5,000 fine.

 Hopi Tribal spokesperson Claire Heywood on Wednesday said Pauline Whitesinger, in her 80's, Ruth Benally, 85, Elvira Horseherder, 62, Louise Benally, age unknown, and Joella Ashkie, age unknown, were arrested for trespassing on Hopi land last Wednesday (July 11) and released on their own recognizance about 10 a.m. the next day (July 12).

 Hopi tribal court staff on Wednesday reported that they would be arraigned at 9 a.m. on July 31.

 Heywood said Hopi field monitors noticed last Tuesday (July 10) that there was an unusual amount of activity at the residence of Louise Benally, who lives on Hopi Partitioned Land.

 Benally for several years has been very public about her resistance to federal relocation and her refusal to apply for federal relocation benefits or to sign a 10-year lease or an accommodation agreement with the Hopi Tribe.

 She has repeatedly maintained that the area where her hogan, corn fields, sheep corrals and the Anna Mae Sun Dance grounds are located is the ancestral land of her family and the Navajo Nation.

 Benally is among hundreds of Navajo families that had their homeland declared Hopi land and themselves under Hopi jurisdiction after a federal judge partitioned the land once known as the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area among the governments of the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation.

 Heywood said the Hopi Tribe did not know that the Benally family was conducting a sun dance, which was confirmed by the Hopi Tribal field monitors and Hopi tribal rangers on Wednesday.

She said Chief Ranger Mervin Yoyotewa, who also was the arresting officer, went to the Benally residence and tried to convince the individuals to stop the "illegal" ceremony, which was being conducted without a permit from the Hopi Tribe.

 Heywood said Ruth Benally, who actually signed an accommodation agreement, also signed a permit for a sun dance three years ago.

 She said Benally was aware that the permit, which allowed for a sun dance from July 15 to 19, 1998, was approved with the understanding and condition that the 1998 ceremony was the last sun dance to be held on Hopi land.

 According to a copy of a July 7, 1998, letter to Benally from Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr., the chairman also informed Benally that if she was to hold another sun dance that it would have to be held off the Hopi reservation.

Heywood recalled that Louise Benally on July 11 asked Yoyotewa to take her and the four females to talk with Taylor.

 She said when they arrived at the Hopi tribal offices that Taylor was not around and that's when Louise informed Yoyotewa that they would be returning to the sun dance to continue the ceremony.

 Heywood said Yoyotewa decided then to charge the five women with trespassing on Hopi land and arrested them.

Louise Benally, in a statement released last Sunday (July 15), said the Hopi police took the Navajo women to the Hopi tribal headquarters with the promise of negotiating a permit for the sun dance, but then they arrested them.

 She said the Hopi rangers cited about 10 other individuals with trespassing on Hopi land but those people were not arrested.

 Heywood said she had a copy of Horseherder's statement about the arrest, which she described as "a clear mixture of fact and fiction to gain public sympathy."

 She admitted that the "larger picture" painted by Horseherder's statement was true.

 But Heywood repeatedly denied Horsehorder's accusation that the women were deliberately mistreated by Hopi tribal detention staff or Yoyotewa.

 She said the Hopi Tribe did not attempt to physically stop the sun dance because of a threat made by John Benally to shoot anyone that tried to obstruct it.

 Heywood said Yoyotewa informed Hopi officials that John made the threat and advised them to take it seriously.

 Horseherder said, "The newspaper has a bunch of lies saying John Benally was going to shoot around to people that interfered with the ceremony.

 "John didn't talk that way to anyone, he only told the (Hopi) police, don't push the grandmothers around. We got freedom. This is what he said. There were about 50 witnesses that heard what was really said," Horseherder said.

 Heywood said the Hopi Tribe's decision not to have a sun dance on its land is not a violation of the religious freedom of the Navajo people living on Hopi land.

 She reiterated that the Hopi Tribe does not object to the sun dance.

 "Once again groups of Navajo resisters living illegally on Hopi Partitioned Lands and their friends are flouting the laws of the Hopi Tribe - this time under the guise of participating in a religious ceremony," Heywood said.

 Taylor's only comment on the incident was: "Apparently Ms. (Ruth) Benally's word means nothing to her."

 Hopi land team chairman Cedric Kuwaninvaya said, "Just like any government or landowner, the Hopi Tribe has the right to regulate the use of its land by requiring permits and by objecting to any use which violates Hopi laws.

 "By coming onto and using Hopi land for this ceremony without the tribe's permission they are violating the tribe's sovereign rights," Kuwaninvaya said.

 Louise Benally said the Sun Dance was a religious ceremony, which was held because the resisters believe that prayer is their only defense against federal relocation and Hopi exclusion orders.

 Benally described the Hopi police as terrorists and the only ones wearing guns.

"We are at peace with ourselves," she added. "We are praying and continuing our sacred traditions on our ancestral land."

 President Kelsey Begaye on Monday said the sun dance has been conducted for a number of years on the Hopi Partitioned Lands at the request of the Navajo families living there.

 Begaye said the sun dance is not a traditional Navajo ceremony, but no one should obstruct the freedom of religion of these families to practice their spirituality as they wish.

 "While I understand Hopi claims to jurisdiction over this matter, I find it much harder to understand why the Hopis would choose to deny these Navajo families the opportunity to organize and participate in religious ceremonies of their own choosing," he said.

 Begaye added, "Having the authority to stop the ceremony, as Hopis claim, is a very different matter from choosing to stop it. The spiritual issues at stake are very important.

 "Our two peoples are going to continue to be neighbors until the end of time. We must look for opportunities where we can support each other," he urged.

 "I would ask that the Hopis reconsider their approach to matters of Navajo religious practice on the HPL. A spirit of generosity towards the religious beliefs of these Navajo families will help foster a spirit of generosity between our two peoples on other matters," advised Begaye.

 He noted, "My administration will continue to support the right of HPL Navajo families to practice their spirituality as they choose. We will closely follow the judicial process for these five Navajos, as well as examine the legal and political options available to the Navajo Nation."

Begaye explained that for the past two years, Taylor and he have been meeting on issues related to the dispute and other matters.

 He noted, "Situations such as this require a diplomatic approach with minimal interference from outsiders who only cause increased confusion and escalated emotions."

 

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