Peacemaking could resolve Eastern land disputes

WINDOW ROCK

Peacemaking just might fix the issue of land disputes in the Eastern Navajo Agency.

That was discussed on Monday during a Law & Order Committee meeting when Patrick Adakai was given 15 minutes to talk about allotted land and the BIA’s policies and procedures.

The land in the Eastern Agency has always been controversial since the Navajos returned from Hwééldi in 1868.

On Monday, Adakai, who said he lives in Tijeras, New Mexico, with his family, spoke about the dire need for harmony and balance to be restored to families fighting over land.

“This is making our Diné people to fight and argue among each other like my family is currently doing, as we speak, to determine who those homes or grazing areas, legally belongs to,” he told the LOC.

The Eastern Agency includes 23 different types of land status, Delegate Mark Freeland said. Some of the land, such as allotted land, is under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a federal office created in 1824.

Under Native law, allotment is a term that means a specific parcel of land, taken from a larger, common parcel, and granted to an individual.

Throughout the country, the BIA manages about 55 million acres of land held in trust by the federal government from 12 regional offices. Each of those offices provide services to federally recognized tribes like the Navajo Nation.

Greg Mehojah, director of the BIA’s Navajo Region, replaced Bartholomew Stevens on Aug. 29.

After Adakai gave his presentation, LOC asked Mehojah if he wanted to respond.

He said his office “empathized” with Adakai’s “very valid” concerns, but that was all.

“Our hands are tied,” Mehojah said. “I would highly recommend that if Mr. Adakai has wishes to elevate his concerns that he do that with the central office. If he hasn’t already done so he’s welcome to contact his congressional representatives.”

When owner dies

The concerns Mehojah is referencing are what Adakai said was causing families to divide, which is what happens to allotted land and property when the owner, or life estate holder, dies.

According to Adakai, the BIA issues residential leases on allotments, but has no plans in place to probate leases that would help establish who the heirs are.

To make it even more complicated, BIA requires remaindermen, or an heir, to go through a lengthy process just to obtain a residential lease.

“(The) BIA branch of leasing requires the eligible heirs to go through the entire process of getting consent of many interest holders on the allotment, Adakai said. “Oftentimes, eligible heirs have to visit 40 to 50 interest holders, including the Navajo Nation, to acquire a 51% of the interest holders’ consent needed to obtain residential lease.”

An interest holder, or co-owner, is usually a younger relative of the life estate holder.

Eligible heirs also have to deal with unfriendly interest holders. Sometimes, they could not be found, which causes extended delays.

The western way of obtaining allotted land made Navajos feel “unimportant,” Adakai told the LOC, which seemed to work against the Navajo people.

And the more people, or interest holders, there were, the more it seemed to work against everyone, except the BIA.

The BIA’s already complex leasing process can become even more complex when the number of interest holders of an allotment is high.

Adakai learned firsthand how dirty things can get. According to a 2013 Interior Board of Indian Appeals, Office of Hearing and Appeals document, he questioned if Western Refining, a company located near Gallup, and the BIA provided adequate information and assistance while obtaining consent for a 20-year right-of-way renewal, back in 2010.

Adakai argued that Western obtained consents from other landowners through a faulty course of action. In addition, he said Western paid too little in compensation.

For pipes to run through .52 miles of their allotment, the refinery said they’d pay $6,656.40 to the eight landowners. Court documents doesn’t specify if that was a one-time, monthly, or annual payment.

What came into question and what ultimately helped the New Mexico district court reverse the IBIA’s decision to not renew Western’s application, was not Adakai’s argument that the company and the IBIA used flawed and questionable procedures to obtain the necessary signatures.

Instead, the court said the IBIA was “arbitrary and capricious” in denying Western’s application for a right-of-way, meaning it “abused the possession of power.”

Peacemaker Court could help

To help his family and other families who might be fighting over land, Adakai suggested to the LOC that the Peacemaking Court, which is based on Diné Fundamental Law, begin to repair families that are divided by fights over land.

Elaine Henderson, coordinator of the Peacemaking Program, agreed and said there is no technical language for the word “probate.”

“In peacemaking, what we refer to is reassigning these permits to another person,” Henderson said while explaining how probate is described in a Navajo peacemaking proceeding. “In the Diné life way, this is where peacemaking helps.”

Navajo peacemaking, according to the Navajo Peacemaking brochure, is based on “Diné traditional method for solving problems between people.”

The program provides six services: Hozh????jí Naat’aah, Á?chíní Bándazhnit’á, Nábináhaazláago A?ch’i’ Yáti’, Peacemaker Youth Apprentice Mentoring Program, Teaching the Traditional Dispute Resolution Curriculum, and School Presentations & Community Outreach.

It is based on Navajo common law and was introduced into the Navajo tribal court system in 1982.

Since returning from Hwééldi, the federal government established a Court of Indian Offenses on the newly formed reservation.

“There’s a few (things) that was mentioned and brought out,” Henderson said. “Mostly, the concern I hear is centered on relief to our people and being able to use the traditional process.”

In 2012, Henderson said the peacemaking court was challenged by a judge who said the Navajo traditional court was practicing without a license. And it was taken away. The court still operates under that decision.

After a dispute is settled, it sends it back to a more Westernized and adversarial court where it is finalized.

Adakai said the Peacemaking Program is aware that different concepts of ownership of property still exist and are practiced on the Navajo Nation.

“In that way of establishing ownership of property is passed down by word of mouth to handpick a relative rather than by a complicated and expensive method of using other than the Navajo judicial court for a legal, legal binding document to show a legal ownership of property,” Adakai said.

He praised the Peacemaking Program and said it plays an important role and acts “as a buffer in solving problems in the Diné way using the Navajo Fundamental laws already in place.”

Delegate Eugene Tso said peacemaking is a long ways from the perfect system that’d remedy important issues like with complex real estate and jurisdictional conflict.

“We have a tough fight to go because we have to really go to apportion of school and social service and the police department, et cetera,” Tso said.

He also added that young people and older people had contrasting views and ideas that includes their beliefs on traditional teachings and values.

“When I was on grazing committee, we used to push only ladies to be on the grazing permit or land-use permit, not men because, as I understood, men don’t really own anything,” Tso said. “We’re just helpers. We’re just there to have respect for the family that we’re married into. That’s what we used to abide and live by long ago.”

“I enjoyed this discussion,” Adakai said. “I think this will be important to kind of clear out some of the muddy waters that we have confronted here. And it was very meaningful.”


About The Author

Donovan Quintero

"Dii, Diné bi Naaltsoos wolyéhíígíí, ninaaltsoos át'é. Nihi cheii dóó nihi másání ádaaní: Nihi Diné Bizaad bił ninhi't'eelyá áádóó t'áá háadida nihizaad nihił ch'aawóle'lágo. Nihi bee haz'áanii at'é, nihisin at'é, nihi hózhǫ́ǫ́jí at'é, nihi 'ach'ą́ą́h naagééh at'é. Dilkǫǫho saad bee yájíłti', k'ídahoneezláo saad bee yájíłti', ą́ą́ chánahgo saad bee yájíłti', diits'a'go saad bee yájíłti', nabik'íyájíłti' baa yájíłti', bich'į' yájíłti', hach'į' yándaałti', diné k'ehgo bik'izhdiitįįh. This is the belief I do my best to follow when I am writing Diné-related stories and photographing our events, games and news. Ahxéhee', shik'éí dóó shidine'é." - Donovan Quintero, an award-winning Diné journalist, served as a photographer, reporter and as assistant editor of the Navajo Times until March 17, 2023.

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