Leslie 1

Eric Leslie

Dr. Healey

AIS 201

4 May 2018

How Public Law 93531 Created Disharmony Between

the Diné and Hopi Nations

Two native tribes who call most of what is now known as “Northern Arizona” home are

the Diné and Hopi. These are two domestic Native Nations that have a long-standing history of

living side by side with peace and harmony. They relied on one another with every day things,

they also traded with one another for good and services. The relationship between both nations

were good, that was until minerals were found on the land where many Diné and Hopi lived in

the Black Mesa and Big Mountain area of the Hopi Nation. Obtaining these minerals was the

ultimate goal of the of the dominate society. With this in mind the dominate society disrupted the

long-standing relationship between these two nations and its people.

The working relationship between the Diné and Hopi’s as seen today isn’t the same way

the two nations dealt with one another in the past. Before contact with American’s, these two

tribes lived with one another. They lived in harmony with one another and shared the land that

they called home (Broken). This was the way of life before the bureaucracy from the forth

coming dominate society.

As American expansion made its stake to land westward in the newly formed United

States, the dominate society went on a land grab of lands that belonged to the Native people that

have resided in areas for hundreds or even thousands of years before. When this land grab moved
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west, the Native communities who were already there were pushed out of the way of “progress”.

They were relocated or in some cases were killed if they were considered in the way of such

progress. This included the Diné and Hopi people, the Diné people were more affected by this

removal from traditional lands than the Hopi’s, since the Diné were nomadic people and the

Hopi were dwellers high in the mesa’s, which help them keep the new people at bay.

About eight thousand Diné were rounded up and taken to Bosque Redondo, which is

located in what is now eastern New Mexicoand and is about 300 miles from the where the Diné

called home. To the Diné this place was called Hwéeldi. The Diné people that were taken here

spent 3 years at Bosque Redondo (Hwéeldi), an area that was very different from the lands that

they were used to. During this time roughly 2000 Diné people passed away. In 1868 a treaty was

drawn up to end the holding of the Diné people at Bosque Redondo and to have the Diné return

to their homeland where they were taken from.

The Diné returned back to their lands where they had called home, but now the Diné

were told, as written in the Treaty of 1868, they could return and be free, but they were only

given 40 square miles to settle on. This was a concept that was foreign to many of the Diné

people. The lifestyle that all Diné had was to be a nomad and to follow their livestock. While

some did go to the land where all Diné were supposed to go, many continued back to the area

where they had considered their home before the long walk to Hwéeldi. This included land that

was on the Hopi Nation.

When the Diné moved back to homelands located on the Hopi Nation, the Hopi’s at the

time did not mind that the Diné were moving back on Hopi land. They just wanted the Diné to

respect the people that were already there and not to use land that was already being used. The
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United States Government at the time didn’t mind either, since the Hopi’s were okay with this

arrangement, but also because they also wanted to have more Diné move onto Hopi Land.

…[T]he Navajo came into existence through a circular opening called the

Emergence place, they settled within the four scared mountains with the

Hopi at the center, they along with the hopi[s] believed they were placed

here to be caretakers of Mother Earth and to protect the scared center of

the continent. (Broken)

This was said by a traditional Hopi woman who didn’t mind the Diné living on their land.

This was the sentiment for all traditional Hopi leaders about the Diné living on their lands. In

1884 and unidentified Indian Agent wrote, “The best of good feelings generally exists between

these two tribes, they constantly mingle at festivals, dances and fests.” (Broken)

In the 1900’s many minerals, natural gas and oil were found on the Diné and Hopi lands,

at this time it was estimated that there were about one hundred million barrels of oil, twenty-five

trillion cubic feet of natural gas, eighty billon pounds of uranium, and fifty billon tons of coal.

(Broken) There are conservative estimates. With all these minerals, oil and gas, energy

companies wanted these resources under the Diné and Hopi land and “…and if necessary the

Native people would be sacrificed” (Broken). This set up the scene for outsider’s to come onto

these Nations to get what they wanted with the help from politicians and people who worked for

the United States Government:

The [Navajo] Tribal Council was established in the 1920’s to sign contracts on behalf of

the Navajo people for energy development, for oil development at the time and ever since the
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attitude of political leaders in Phoenix and the rest of Arizona has been that the purpose of Tribal

Government is to go along with whatever program is proposed (Broken).

Energy corporations had their sights set on obtaining land in the Black Mesa and Big

Mountain area. A Mormon lawyer from Utah, named John Boyden, came on to the issue of

helping Peabody to get to the land that they desired. On the other end, the BIA were trying to

“solidify control over both tribes, the BIA set up a Hopi Tribal Council” (Broken) The traditional

Hopi leaders were not in favor of this type of government on their land. These Hopi leaders were

content on how their nation was running, with traditional teachings.

Since the traditional Hopi leaders were not in favor of forming a tribal council, the BIA

found younger Hopi’s to form the council. The Hopi’s knew that the BIA was doing this in order

to take land for Peabody to dig up coal. Once the Hopi Tribal Council was formed, John Boyden

was eager to have the new Hopi Tribal Council hire him. This was not for the Hopi’s benefit, it

was only for Boyden’s benefit. Because he was also a lawyer working for Peabody at the same

time. The Hopi’s never met with Boyden, but this did not stop Boyden from trying to work for

the Hopi’s. When all else failed, Boyden held a fraudulent election at Hopi Villages, he then

persuaded the B.I.A. to appoint him attorney for the Hopi Tribal Council.

With everything working in favor of Boyden to open up Black Mesa and Big Mountain to

mining, the people who resided there started to be ordered to relocate to other areas of the Nation

or move into a city. Fences were put up to show that the lands the Diné and Hopi live on in the

area, were no longer theirs. Congress then set up a subcommittee to create a land dispute and

legislation was drawn up and passed to what the politicians would consider a war between the

Diné and Hopi over the land dispute that was created. The Hopi also lost a lot of land during this

land dispute so Peabody could move in. The Diné people who lived on the Hopi land in the
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Black Mesa and Big Mountain area were given mineral rights, just as the Hopi’s did, but the

Hopi’s controlled the rights.

Well it was a conspiracy among big business to lower the mineral royalties they had to

pay the tribes. It was a conspiracy within the Navajo and Hopi tribes to get royalties higher. [The

Anglo lawyers representing both tribes] were interested in getting a lot of land for “their”

Indians and a lot of fame and money for themselves. It was about minerals, sure, but it wasn’t

some grand conspiracy. (quoted in Johnson 1987)(Bush)

With all the things that had occurred during this land dispute, many modern Diné and

Hopi’s still have resentment for each other. Each side continues blaming the other for what had

been done to them by the United States Government, Peabody and even their own Tribal leaders.

Many elderly people from both tribes still hold on to the values and relationship they had with

each other, it was the younger people who held most of the resentment. With people learning and

educating themselves about the land dispute and Peabody, they are seeing that this issue was

created all for mining rights and not really anything with the people who were displaced during

the relocation and closing of lands in the Black Mesa and Big Mountain area. There are some

Diné who still live on Hopi land today with the permission of the Hopi Nation, with a lot of rules

that the people who reside on the land can and cannot do. But the Hopi’s also help these people

when the Diné government does not help. This issue needs to shown or taught to the two nations

people, so we can go back to living in harmony with one another and not fighting over trivial

things that the dominate society has people worried about.

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Work Citied

Bergman, B.J. Wrong Side of the Fence. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2000/01/wrong-

side-fence/. Mother Jones and the Foundation of National Progress. January/Feburary

2000. Accessed on 1 May 2018.

Bush, Caleb M. Subsistence Fades, Capitalism Deepens: The “Net of Incorporation” and Diné

Livelihoods in the Opening of the Navajo–Hopi Land Dispute, 1880-1970. American

Behavioral Scientist 2014, Vol 58(1) 171 –196. Sage Publicans. 2013.

Florio, Maria and Mudd, Victoria, dir. Broken Rainbow. 1985; Earthwork Films. 2008. DVD.

Howe, John. We Shall Remain the Navajo. https://www.kued.org/video/we-shall-remain-the-

navajo. KUED Productions. 2009. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Long Walk of the Navajo.

http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=8643&pa

ge=1. The Patriot Files. 2018. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Adopting the Public Hearing Report: The Impact of the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of

1974. P.L. 93-531, el al., and Approving the Dissemination of the Report. 21 July 2012.

Redhouse, John. Geopolitics of the Navajo-Hopi ‘Land Dispute’.

http://www.azwater.gov/Adjudications/documents/HopiContestedCaseDisclosures/Navaj

o%20Initial%20Disclosure/Images/CDV002/Box006/001/MAN000585.pdf. 24 July

2002. Accessed on 2 April 2018.

Unites States. Cong. House. Public Law 104-301 104th Congress. An Act. To provide the

settlement of the Navajo-Hopi land dispute, and for other purposes. 11 October 1996.