Committee approves eminent domain for Sanostee school

For the first time since the Zah administration, the Navajo Nation Council's Resources Committee Tuesday approved the use of eminent domain on the Navajo Nation - hopefully in the nick of time for Sanostee Chapter to salvage a $10 million grant to begin building a new school.

The proposal must now be signed by President Joe Shirley Jr., who has never before had to force a grazing permit holder to relinquish her rights.

If he signs, it will be the first time in recent memory eminent domain has actually been used on the nation. In the last case, recalled former President Peterson Zah in a telephone interview, the grazing permit holders voluntarily relinquished their rights before the nation had to force them to. That was to allow the Chinle airport to be built.

The current case involves a 40-acre parcel in the Tocito, N.M., an area which, if Shirley signs off on it, will be the site of a brand new Bureau of Indian Education elementary school.

The Sanostee Board of Education has been unable to convince any grazing permit holders in the area to give up their rights to the 40 acres the BIE says it needs for a campus. And if no land is withdrawn by the end of this month, the bureau has threatened to withdraw the funding and take it somewhere else.

Sanostee Chapter President and school board member Eddie Mike said asking for eminent domain - taking a parcel of land for the public good over the protest of the landholder - was a difficult decision, but the board was at the end of its rope.

"There are a couple of families who will probably be mad at us to the end of our days," Mike admitted, "but there will be a beautiful new school to educate two, maybe three generations of children. I think it was our only choice."

If Sanostee is passed over this time, Mike added, it could be 20 to 50 years before the day school surfaces at the top of the BIE's construction list again.

"It's a heartbreak," said school board President Treva Benally. "Sometimes you can't go to sleep at night. You just lie there thinking about it."

Sanostee Day School, which once had upwards of 100 students but has dwindled to fewer than 50, is currently operated out of two mobile units behind the chapter house. The original school building was condemned in 1984 when large cracks in the structure rendered it unsafe, according to Benally.

The BIE has refused to build a new school on the original site because it fears the shifting soil there would cause the new building to crack as well. But a 10-year search for an alternate site has proved fruitless.

About five years ago, Benally said, the board got a commitment from a local rancher, Marian Begay, to use her land near Tocito. The BIE surveyed the land and did some preparation work.

But Begay abruptly changed her mind before she signed the appropriate documents, and then last year she passed away. Her survivors have steadfastly refused to sign away their grazing rights to the site.

Linda Begay, Marian's daughter, says she's just trying to honor her mother's wishes.

"She said, 'Don't give up the land,'" said Begay, keeping her eye on a small herd of sheep grazing in the area. "I want to keep her legacy alive and I hope my daughter does too. We want the land to stay like it is."

Besides, Begay said, her mother is buried a short distance from the proposed campus.

"It's something like a taboo, having a grave that close to a school," she said. "We don't know how little children are going to react."

There is also a former Enemy Way site on the property in question, making it a sacred site for the patient.

"There's lots of land around Sanostee where they can build a school," Begay said. "We don't want it here. Why call it 'Sanostee Day School' if they're going to build it in Tocito?"

But Benally said at least three other grazing permit holders in the area have been approached, and none of them want to give up their land either.

Besides, noted Joel Longie, BIE education line officer for the Shiprock area, "The bureau has sunk a quarter of a million dollars into prep work for that parcel, and they're not going to want to pick up and start over somewhere else."

What caused Marian Begay to change her mind? Both sides agree it was probably an argument a few years ago between a former chapter official and Marian's husband, Albert Begay, who didn't want his wife to sign away her grazing rights.

"The lady called my father an 'outsider' because he's not from here," Linda Begay said. (Albert Begay is from Sanostee, a few miles from Tocito.) "She said he had no say over the land."

Benally said a group comprised of school board members, officials from the Department of Diné Education, BIE representatives and Vice President Ben Shelly approached the Begays to try to smooth things over, and the BIE has offered the family compensation of $150 per acre. But the family refused to budge.

As late as last week, Benally said she hoped the Begays would come around and the chapter wouldn't have to use eminent domain.

"We want the school to be something that brings the community together for the children," she said. "Not something that causes bitterness and tears us apart."

But at last Wednesday's Sanostee Chapter meeting, the chapter agreed to go ahead with the drastic step.

The Resources Committee unanimously approved the move.

"You have to ask the question, 'Who has the most to lose?'" said Committee Chairman George Arthur, "and in the long run, who benefits?"

After some discussion, Arthur said, the committee agreed they were choosing between "a privilege and a right."

"The individuals have the privilege of grazing their livestock on that land," Arthur explained, "but the young children of Sanostee have the right to learn in an environment that is safe and feasible."

If Shirley signs the legislation - and he'll have to do it before the end of the month - the grazing permit holders will be compensated for the loss of their grazing rights. If they disagree with the amount of compensation the Resource Committee offers, they are entitled to a mediated negotiation.

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