Law enforcement personnel guarded cattle impounded following an April 5 roundup and seizure of the animals in the southeastern portion of the Big Mountain area. Photo courtesy Vangie Pedwaydon
Seizure of Navajo livestock prompts grassroots call to public for help
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor
www.nsweekly.com DINEH BIKEYAH (BIG MOUNTAIN), AZ. –– Grassroots supporters of traditional Navajo resisters to relocation from disputed territory here called April 6 for members of the public to immediately contact authorities to stop the confiscation of impounded livestock. At the time, law enforcement personnel were guarding at least 40 head of cattle impounded at a Hopi Indian police stockade following an April 5 roundup and seizure of the animals in the southeastern portion of the Big Mountain area, according to a report from Black Mesa Indigenous Support and Direct On-Land Supporters to Big Mountain Dineh Resisters to Public Law 93-531. That law, also called the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act, federally partitioned the former Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area in 1977, forcing 10,000 Navajos and 100 Hopis to relocate. Resisters have braved four decades of measures that combine to break their ranks. The measures have included reduction of livestock to levels below subsistence, as well as destruction of wells and springs, together with bans on wood gathering, home repair, and new construction. The livestock is withheld from owners until they pay several hundreds of dollars per head.
Read the rest of the story on the all new Native Sun News website: Seizure of Navajo livestock prompts grassroots call to public for help (Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Inspector General Reports:
Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation’s Eligibility and Relocation Practices (February 2016)
Operations of the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation (December 2014)
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Liza Gross: Navajo and Hopi families still
suffering from relocation (4/18) Cronkite News: Navajo and Hopi relocation effort could finally end (03/01)
Lawmakers seek end to Office of Navajo Hopi Indian Relocation (02/09)
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