Testimony
Leonard Benally
P.O. Box 733
Hotevilla, AZ 86030
September 2, 1997
To: The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Center for Human Rights, Special Rapporteurs for Religious Intolerance, Internally Displaced Persons, Forced Evictions, Violence Against Women, other appropriate Special Rapporteurs, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Sustainable Development, all appropriate UN fora, the European Support Network, Supporters, Non Governmental Organizations and U.S. Congress
Human rights. The U.S. government took my teenage years. They robbed my soul. They took what I have right now. When I look back on it, they took it all away. The whole relocation thing is a mistake (Public Law 93-531, the Relocation Act). Now I don't have both my parents. This is what comes of human made laws. It has caused a lot of the elders to go before their time. The whole thing is a big mistake. That is what Senator John McCain said on the radio a couple of days ago. The whole thing just kills off people. These laws were passed without our consent. They are just imposed on us. That is what kills the people.
There are a lot of people my age, homeless people because they have been denied everything. When my mother died recently, we couldn't even bury her on Hopi Partition Land (HPL). That is what U.S. government laws are all about. We had to bury her in Hardrock. It drives us to despair. That's why there is a lot of alcoholism. Young people relocated. It broke their heart. It tears people apart, families. That's what it does to young people and middle age people and elderly. I don't have a home. I want a home. The U.S. government tried to trick people into signing a 75-year lease agreement. They lied to the people saying they would get housing but the Navajo Nation, U.S. Department of Justice and Hopi Tribe says they have no money. Our elders were threatened that if they did not sign by midnight federal agents would come in and throw them out and they were told they could not take anything. They are not criminal people.
I want an investigation of human rights violations by the U.S. government. I want justice for my people. What is happening here is a sad tale of America, a country that stands for freedom. A sad tale. How can people believe in the pledge of allegiance with my people suffering. My mom was arrested by the F.B.I. The first time that I ever saw the F.B.I. they arrested her and my 3 sisters for stopping construction of a barbed wire fence dividing Hopi Partition Land (HPL) and Navajo Partition Land (NPL). This was in 1979.
Please investigate Senator McCain, Udall, Attorney John S.
Boyden who represented the Hopi Tribe and Peabody at the same
time the mineral leases were being signed, also drafting the Relocation
Act. Please investigate and conduct a fact finding mission.
Please send in observers to protect our elders. The U.S. government
must pay for what they did. They are killing us off. That is
what their laws have done. The people living in the New Lands
that relocated say to us, hold on. Many that relocated have been
told to relocate again. I hear their stories, they are told only
what not to do, they are not allowed to wander in the hills from
contamination. They are told it is not safe to walk around.
They want to sit under the shade in the hills. The Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) is controlling everything. The BIA means
Bossing Indians Around. I hear stories of what happens to those
that relocate. A lot of young people have become alcoholics.
I can name many names.
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There is a book that says I am not eligible. I am only on the B list, not eligible for a homesite. Two of my brothers and my mom are on the A list. The rest of my brothers and sisters are all on the B list. Many of my people are on no list at all.
Yes I am sure they can grant relocation if we pursue it because they want us out. They treat me like I am a teenager. I am over 18 years, but here we are even denied signing the Agreement. But I will not relocate anywhere. At election time the politicians shake our hands and make us promises to help. Then when they win they don't even look at us. They beg for our votes, then they do not even know who we are.
I want to make my life comfortable. Everywhere I go I have no place to go. I won't go to the New Lands, it is contaminated. I went to school in Tuba City, I lived and went to school less than 8 miles from uranium contaminated sites blowing in the wind. Dust storms every spring and fall would carry it everywhere. I pray for long life and happiness. Where I live I see old sweat lodges belonging to my relatives who have lived here since before Ft. Sumner. I still have my grandmother Bikeddy and she told us about how they tricked them to be forced on the long walk by telling them there was going to be a big meeting in Ft. Defiance, a potluck. Then they ambushed my people, shot them on the spot and along the way they shot pregnant women. They killed Medicine men, the most traditional. They had to go 30 miles to gather firewood there but I was taught in school that my people were well cared for.
What is happening to us is torture. What ever laws they push drives my people into despair and problems.
The Hopi rangers that are rookies like to arrest people. I have been harassed 3 times by #716. He said he would run us in on suspicion. My brother John said what is the charge, for doing what? #716 said, for trying to give a plastic bag to a horse. John said we were trying to catch our horse. We shake the feed bag to see if the horse wants food. They said I took off but my truck only has 3rd gear, bypass from 1st to 3rd. He said we took off in this truck. We couldn't take off if we tried. He wanted to arrest us. He said he would check the brand on the horse to see if it was ours, but instead he was tailgating us. This is just harassment. He said he would run us in and more rangers were on the way. He said tell us your name. But he already knew our names. This is harassment. A month later, 2 months later, he kept coming back, even right after my mother's death. I was still grieving and he came to harass me. He said he wanted to check the condition of our place. I said I am the caretaker. He asked me, where is John. I never told him John's name. He said I didn't see the burial. I said that's because as you already know I couldn't even bury my mom here.
Please conduct a fact finding mission and investigation. Please send out observers. Thank you,
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Leonard Benally