Native Americans fight
to keep Big Mountain
By Paul Sturt/.
Of lh« f itter aid
t<ast month, "Broken Rain*
bow," a film about Navajo and
Hopi resistance to forced reloca
tion from the Big Mountain area
in Arizona's northern desert,
won the Academy Award for
best documentary feature.
At the same time, many
Americans drawn by stories of
these traditional people
threatened with removal to
cities like Flagstaff, Arte.., have
traveled down to the area to
lend support.
in late March. Queksta. an
• Okanogan Indian from Canada
who now lives in Veneta, spent
two weeks in the Big Mountain
area. She says she felt an ob
vious connection and respon
sibility to her Indian elders.
"it felt like I was going home
.. I was put right to work cooking.
Because of my background, .1
“was feeling welcome "
Shannon Kelley, a University
senior, says that seeing "Broken
Rainbow" inspired her to travel
the 1.200 miles to the Big
Mountain area. Unlike Queksta.
she was a little more anxious
about her reception.
"It felt really good to bo ac
cepted by (hum because I was
apprehensive about what they
would think of mo boing a whito
person," Kelley says.
Congress, believing there was
an intertribal dispute, passed a
law in 1974 that set up a barbed
wire fence lietween the Indian
communities and provided for
removal of the Navajos from the
joint-use area.
Cind lease procedures were
simplified, which paved the
way for easier coal mining in
the area. A relocation commis
sion was set up to remove what
was estimated to be 3,300 Nava
jos. but which now is estimated
to be closer to 10.000.
Now with 1.000 to 2,(MM)
‘‘high priority" people facing
forcible removal by July, atten
tion has been increasingly
focused on the Hig Mountain
area.
Although the relocation law
has been in effect for 12 years,
publicity and support has only
intensified during the last three
years.
"it's so blatant what's going
on,” Kelley says. “You can
work on a million different
issues, but this seems like the
root of all things going wrong in
this country.”
Queksta and Kelley both por
tray the Hig Mountain people as
a simple culture tier! to a tradi
tional relationship to tho laud.
They don’t recognize white
laws, they said, they only
answer to nature’s laws.
Queksta says the people are
born there and die there.
“When a child is him, the um
bilical cord is buried right on
their home. That's their attach
ment to the land.
“The elders felt like nobody
cared. They are so thankful for
people coming. You can just tell
by the way they shake your
hand,” Queksta says.
Supporters bring supplies,
chop wood for fires, clear land,
cook meals, take care of the
childmn and act as security dur
ing meetings.
While the politics of the
region have intensified only
recently, the Indians have a
history that stretches back hun
dreds of years before recent
laws. Unlike other tribes that
have been relocated in places
like Oklahoma, the Navajos and
Hopls have remained in one
place.,
In 1400 A.D., the Navajo peo
ple' arrived in the northern
desert of Arizona- and settled
east of the Uopi Indians. While
their sources of livelihood iri
the sacred Big. Mountain area
were diffefroit, both cultures
had a spiritual belief in the land
us a living being that sustained
all.
The .plot, continued through
the tnid-1800s when Kit Canon
and his cavalry-cornered 8.500
Navajos and had them inarch to
their deaths. •
Over the years, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs has set up tribal
councils whose p r q -
development leaders have leas
ed away uranium, 61.1 and coal
rights to the area. These leaders
have profited from royalty 1
payments received from
mineral leasing. Big Mountain
supporters say.
The tribal councils often are
linked to mining companies
like Peabody Coal Co., they say.
Although some Indians pro
tested the scars mining left on
land considered sacred, the
tribal councils had the power to
sell off land rights.
The Hopi Tribal Council even
hired a public relations firm
from Salt l^ike City, which also
represented utility companies
in the Southwest, to stage a fake
range war to make it appear that
there was a Navajo-Mopi con
flict, Big Mountain supporters
say.
The traditional people
Queksta dealt with have no in
tention of leaving. Queksta
departs for Big Mountain Tues
day so she can help prepare for
a gathering planned next week
in Big Mountain. After the
gathering. Big Mountuin sup
port groups expect to escalate
pressure on Congress to repeal
the relocation law.
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