The Navajo Hopi Land Dispute

In 1882 President Chester A. Arthur signed an executive order that created a joint-occupation reservation for both Hopis and western Navajos in present-day Arizona. This policy was the start of a century-long land dispute between the two tribes. The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute recounts the origins and history of the legal battle between the two peoples for control of the 1882 reservation, focusing on the federal court case, Healing v. Jones, in which the author served as a consultant for the Navajo Nation. Although the federal government wanted to relocate impoverished Navajos from the disputed land, Brugge firmly believed that a fair court hearing would reinforce the Navajo claim. His account of Healing vs. Jones - events leading to the case, the court case itself, and the aftermath of the judge's decision - tries to balance the extreme positions staked out by advocates for the Hopis and the Navajos. Brugge argues that, to this day, the Navajos suffer stereotyping and prejudice, both of which were decisive in the tragic outcome of the legal battle. Lawyers for the Hopis, he contends, exploited ethnic hatred to the benefit of their client tribe and to the detriment of the Navajos.

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An account of the battle between the Navahos and Hopis over millions of acres of disputed Arizona land discusses the various competing interests involved

Told in a sympathetic, emotional and powerful way from an Indian perspective and largely in Indian voices, this is a riveting account of the ongoing battle between the Navajos and the Hopis over two million acres of disputed Arizona land--a disastrous story of United States intervention in Native American affairs. 16 pages of photographs.

Many know that the removal and relocation of Indigenous peoples from traditional lands is a part of the United States’ colonial past, but few know that—in an expansive corner of northeastern Arizona—the saga continues. The 1974 Settlement Act officially divided a reservation established almost a century earlier between the Diné (Navajo) and the Hopi, and legally granted the contested land to the Hopi. To date, the U.S. government has relocated between 12,000 and 14,000 Diné from Hopi Partitioned Lands, and the Diné—both there and elsewhere—continue to live with the legacy of this relocation. Bitter Water presents the narratives of four Diné women who have resisted removal but who have watched as their communities and lifeways have changed dramatically. The book, based on 25 hours of filmed personal testimony, features the women’s candid discussions of their efforts to carry on a traditional way of life in a contemporary world that includes relocation and partitioned lands; encroaching Western values and culture; and devastating mineral extraction and development in the Black Mesa region of Arizona. Though their accounts are framed by insightful writings by both Benally and Diné historian Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Benally lets the stories of the four women elders speak for themselves. Scholars, media, and other outsiders have all told their versions of this story, but this is the first book that centers on the stories of women who have lived it—in their own words in Navajo as well as the English translation. The result is a living history of a contested cultural landscape and the unique worldview of women determined to maintain their traditions and lifeways, which are so intimately connected to the land. This book is more than a collection of stories, poetry, and prose. It is a chronicle of resistance as spoken from the hearts of those who have lived it.