Hosteen Nez and Mazzie K. Begay
P.O. Box 295
Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
To: Ms. Mary Robinson, The High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance
Mr. Francis Deng, Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons
Mr. Wayne Taylor, Chairman, Hopi Tribe
Mr. Milton Bluehouse, President, Navajo Nation
Re: Withdrawal from the 75-year lease Accommodation Agreement
We withdraw from the 75-year lease Accommodation Agreement. I, Mazzie K. Begay never put my thumb print on it and I am told that I signed the Agreement. I do not even know how to sign my name so how can I have signed the Agreement but Ray Russell signed me up. This is forgery.
I, Hosteen Nez Begay never gave my consent to sign the Agreement. This is fraud. We said that we would wait until Kee Watchman came back from Geneva Switzerland but sometime around the last two weeks of March Ray Russell from the Navajo Nation came around to the house with a woman, Kathryn Hazard from the US Department of Justice. They just signed us up without our consent.
Ray would say, I am just showing where people live but later on we heard about him that he really lies and promises to do something but he does not. We said, why didn't you tell us then that Ray Russell would make up promises? Now people say Ray Russell can lie to you, we did not know.
The Hopi just came to our house and counted our cattle, they did not bother to count the sheep. They said they would send us a letter but we haven't gotten any letter from them. The grazing committee person is the one that did the branding on our cattle.
The people that came to our house didn't make any promises to us they just asked me, Mazzie Begay for my name because I can't write my name. I told Ray Russell my name and he put my name down on a piece of paper. I asked them what they intend to do with this paper. Other people say the same thing. We did not sign the Agreement. We refused.
We are the head of household. According to their regulations, the only one that can sign for their family is the head of household.
The only one that signed was our son and he only signed for himself because he is not a head of household and cannot sign for us. But our names appear on the Agreement only because Ray Russell put our names on it without our consent or knowledge. We refused to sign the Agreement.
Ray Russell asked us to come over to Jack Woody's place. That is where they talked about it. I guess there was a paper. They asked for a particular paper and it was given to somebody there, Jack Woody and that is how it was said that we agreed. He had a copy of it. I do not know where the paper was. What we know is we did not sign it. A man, Lee Phillips from Flagstaff, a woman Kathryn Hazard from the US Department of Justice and a Navajo translator with them in addition to Ray Russell.
The Anglo man and woman were supposed to come back the 14 th of September, they will be back. They will be back about having us relocated. We only get messages relayed to us that we will be relocated. We hear that there is a period of time, within that time we are supposed to be relocated. That is what they are coming back for. I am scared of them coming back.
We hope we do not get relocated anywhere else. The woman came and told us that we would not be relocated and we could stay here for a little while longer. He said if we give you 3 acres here, you are just going to live here and have another 10 acres for the cornfield. And then your livestock can be anywhere outside of the 3 acres, near water, anywhere.
We asked twice, once we get a 3 acre homesite, can we build a house and if we want a hogan over here in our 3 acre homesite, can we transfer this hogan onto this 3 acre lease. Both times Ray Russell said yes that is what you are going to do. You can transfer your house over to your 3 acres. I asked them where will my 3 acres be and they said wherever we want our house built. And they told us that this is the only way that we can keep our land and our livestock.
Two guys came up from Flagstaff. Our daughter was home by herself when they came around, they came around again. They said that they were making another appointment and do paperwork for relocating us to another area and he said we have so many years to live there and then we would get chased out of our relocated house under the 75-year lease.
During that 75 years, we were told that we have to find a house or land close to relatives out of the Joint Use Area and build a house over there. We were told that we have to find land to build a house and this house will be waiting for us at the end of 75 years. We were told, look near your relatives. We do not want to do this. We want to remain where we are on our land.
But still we told them that we refused to sign the Agreement. We were told that if we signed we would not be relocated, we could keep our land and our livestock for a little while longer. 75 years from now, we will probably pass away and our kids will still be there. We want to share our land with our children and future generations. We want to live here, but they will not let us live here. We want to build a house but we are not allowed. We want our children to live with us but they are not allowed to build a home. Our children want to move back to where we live now.
Please help us remain on our land. For 31 years we have not been allowed to build a home because of the US government ordered freeze. Our children are not able to build homes. Please help us to be allowed to build a home for us and our children. Please help us stop the relocation. What the US government is doing to us is elderly abuse. That is one of the main reasons why our health goes down at times.
We had a supporter here but the Hopi Rangers chased them out of here. The Hopi Rangers don't want us to have supporters but we need it. That person was really helpful to us taking care of the sheep and the cattle, helping us around the house. They cannot do this to us. There are supposed to be laws to protect us from elderly abuse.
Please conduct a fact finding mission and provide observers for our safety. Please help us remain on our land and stop this Accommodation Agreement and the relocation laws.
Thank you.
Hosteen Nez Begay Mazzie K. Begay
Translated by: Originally submitted: August 24, 1997
Resubmitted: