50 Years Ago

“Let’s talk union.”

That was the talk on the reservation throughout February and early March as federal employees on the reservation were preparing to vote on unionization and who they wanted to represent them if the vote was in favor of a union.

Everyone on the Navajo Reservation in 1972 knew about the century-old land dispute between the Hopis and Navajos but there was another dispute between the Navajos and Utes over oil-rich land in northwestern New Mexico.

Leaders for both the Hopi and Navajo tribes spent most of this week in Washington, D.C., as the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs were planning to hold a hearing on the century-old land dispute between the two tribes.

Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald got nowhere with his efforts to get the Arizona Legislature to redo county maps and take out the Native American portions in Apache, Navajo and Coconino counties and create an all-Native county.

A bill was introduced into the Arizona House of Representatives this week that, if passed, eliminates the complaints from non-Indians in Apache, Navajo, and Coconino counties to having Navajos elected to their boards of supervisors.