Diné ranchers protest Hopi impoundments
(Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
By Donovan Quintero and Cindy Yurth
Navajo Times
BLACK MESA, Ariz.
Norman Patrick Brown raises his fist into the air and protests how heavily armed Hopi and BIA SWAT teams confiscated sheep in the Hopi Partitioned Lands. (Times photo – Donovan Quintero)
Every year about this time, Clarence and Mary Lou Blackrock invite their neighbors on Black Mesa to their home.
It’s a time of feast and thanksgiving for the blessings of the old year, which in Navajo tradition comes to a close with the first frost.
This time, the gathering had a much different tone, as ranchers on the Hopi Partitioned Land recounted raids by armed Hopi Rangers, watching helplessly as their livestock were loaded into trailers, and, in Jerry Lane’s case, being handcuffed and hauled off to Hopi jail when he got into a “wrestling match” with one of the officers.
The livestock impoundments — of more than 100 sheep in one case — were the Hopi Tribe’s response to drought and overgrazing on the HPL.
According to a press release issued by the Hopi Tribe, some 43 ranchers were in violation of the animal quotas listed on their grazing permits — including both Navajos and Hopis.
(Times photo – Donovan Quintero)
In addition to friends and family of the Blackrocks, venerable Navajo leaders like Percy Deal and Duane “Chili” Yazzie joined the group crowded into the family’s clapboard kitchen Saturday, along with Council hopeful Tauchoney Slim and an activist all the way from Phoenix.
Some members of the group, even a few nonagenarians, had marched on Window Rock last Thursday to demand action and gotten it.
President Ben Shelly and Speaker Pro Tem LoRenzo Bates had issued a demand for the livestock raids to cease and pledged to call a meeting with Hopi Tribal Chairman Herman Honanie to see if the situation could be resolved peacefully, while Attorney General Harrison Tsosie said he would look into legal options.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow