Testimony
Thomas and Elsie Bedonie
P.O. Box 122
Sanders, AZ 86512
Translation by Rickson Bedonie
September 4, 1997

To: The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Center for Human Rights, Special Rapporteurs, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, all appropriate UN fora and US Congress

We relocated to Nahata Dziil "New Lands" 9 1/2 years ago from Hopi Partition Land (HPL), suffering from intimidation, forcing us to relocate. Back then we thought we had a beautiful home that would last us a lifetime, and for my children and my grandchildren. Land and a home that they could live in. But we look at our home today, it is deteriorating. A lot of photos have been taken of our house and we have requested some attention from the government, the relocation bureau and the tribe to see what can be done to mend the damages that are occurring on the house. But nothing happens.

We've been requesting to be moved elsewhere to a higher elevation, to better soil. Here the soil is collapsible, it moves when it gets wet and does not support the weight of the house. We've planted in the soil and it won't produce the crop that we are used to producing on HPL where we lived. The soil here is deficient in a lot of minerals. The sand is too coarse. When it rains it is beautiful but the soil dries too quick. That is what really bothers me and is always on my conscience.

Now, being here, being relocated, we pay for utilities and water and every month. A lot of our little money goes to this and we can not buy anything for ourselves. Back then, when we were signing to be relocated, we were promised a lot of employment for the kids and schooling for ourselves in any field we wanted. What about our grandkids we brought out, they are not even allowed to build places of their own. The government does not even want to consider the youth today. They are young adults, a lot of them are homeless. The government does not even consider the young generation, now at the age of having families of their own. We have 6 children and 16 grandchildren. Where are they going to go, everyone living all in one house?

From the bottom, verbally, we were also promised medical facilities in our community. We have to travel to Zuni, Ganado and Gallup medical facilities. That is about an hour drive from here. Look at us now, we are elders and we are aging and we even requested senior citizens homes thinking of ourselves in the future. We have not seen that yet. We are missing all those promises, we still think about them. Seems like they more hand us things we don't want like liquor establishments. I wonder what they think of us to want us to be at the liquor and spend our time drinking. Liquor itself has destroyed families, homes.

What if I return back to my ancestral land, where I left? Are people really going to push us aside there or will they accept us? That is always on my conscience and on my mind. Some people treat us really good out there. That crosses our minds every day when we think about Big Mountain. This was where we were both born and lived.

Now, thinking about it, I wonder how many, how much money, big millions of dollars the government has ripped off of me. I would still be there if they did not startle me with intimidation's, forcing me to relocate. Yes, if I was not intimidated I would still be over there. I would be happy to be living over there. I do not want this lifestyle, 1 acre, permits, water concerns. I think about my grandkids every last one of them and my kids, I am I am speaking for every last one of them, all generations. My kids and grandkids have had their future stolen from them by the US government.

Nowadays, it seems like all we are having is financial problems. It is just getting bigger and bigger. I guess that what makes me think. If we hadn't move out here would that be a problem for what I am facing now. And if I had stayed would it be the same kind of problems out there? I want compensation for the damage caused me by the U.S. government, the pain they have inflicted on me mentally, physically and spiritually.

Leaving our ancestral land was never our thought to begin with and the promise that they made to us that we would be in a good place, have a good home, good piece of land. But what we see is that the Navajo Rangers and now on top of us with their regulations just the same as the Hopi Rangers. We need the same permits as Hopi Partition Land (HPL) for ceremonies, cutting trees, firewood permits, livestock permits. It is just the same. I abide by the rules but I feel very uncomfortable with all these ordinances and regulations. And if I am one stock over what is stated on my permit I am subject to impoundment of that stock.

If I could go home to Big Mountain I would. Yes, I do think that way but when I do visit out there someone always says what are you doing back over here. I feel really hurt by my own clan, my own people. That's the only thing. If no one thinks of you that way, it would be very easy to go back, yes, go back.

I feel comfortable with fences around property what we utilize because people talk about land and say I can't herd sheep there. In that way I feel comfortable with fences. Before the 1974 Relocation Act was passed it was better, but then it got much worse.

We wish to invite the Special Rapporteurs for Religious Intolerance, Internally Displaced Persons, Forced Evictions, Violence Against Women and other appropriate Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations to conduct a fact finding mission out here to investigate human rights violations by the U.S. government against my family here in the New Lands and in Big Mountain.

It seems as though we were rushed through the relocation process with a lot of verbal promises for a better lifestyle at this end of the conflict and what we have found here are the same things we left. The only thing we have here is a better watering system for our livestock. And now our livestock wells are dried out and we don't know what to do. This began about one year ago. Some say that at the aquifer level mud may cave in, but I think that it may be caused by water drawdown by mining. I don't know. That could be the reason. It seems like when we arrived here, the ladies were in better condition physically. Now it seems like we are always sick from something. We wonder, is it the water contamination? We've notified the hydrologist in Window Rock to test our water before but they have never done it. I want water testing done.

Yours sincerely,

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Thomas Bedonie Elsie Bedonie

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Witnessed by: Rickson Bedonie