Opinion | Setting the record straight on cemetery bill
By Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03)
The recent article, “Chaco Decision, Land Bill Exposes Deep Divide in Eastern Navajo Communities,” misrepresents what my Small Cemetery Conveyance Act actually does.
Let’s be clear: this bill is about protecting historic cemeteries that are now on United States Forest Service land and only on small parcels (40 acres or less) that already contain existing cemeteries. By definition, allottee lands are not Forest Service lands. So the bill has nothing to do with allotted lands or Chaco Canyon.
What the bill actually does is far more limited – and far more human.
I believe in respecting every culture’s ties to their ancestors and the manner in which they are buried. While every culture follows different practices and rituals, if the federal government has taken those cemeteries, they should be returned to the communities that built them.
Right now, under existing law, communities must pay the federal government or exchange land of equal value just to reclaim cemeteries where their loved ones are buried on Forest Service land. Families are forced to navigate federal bureaucracy and come up with money to reclaim the resting places of their own ancestors.
To read the full article, please see the April 30, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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