From: DINETAH29@aol.com

Subj: (no subject)
Date: 10/27/99 9:52:37 AM US Mountain Standard Time
From: <A HREF="mailto:DINETAH29">DINETAH29</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:redorman@theofficenet.com">redorman@theofficenet.com</A>

Dear Bob,

I am sorry for my long absence, but I had to figure out how to get on line
via cellular. The power to run this is coming from wind and solar.

So finally I am sending this.

Yours sincerely,

Marsha Monestersky

 

Big Mountain Alert

Rena Babbitt Lane has asked for witnesses to travel to Black Mesa. If you
cannot come to the land then please call, fax, write letters to the BIA in
Keams Canyon.

Please call, fax and write letters to:
Wendell Honannie, Acting Superintendent, US Department of the Interior (DOI),
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) , Hopi Agency
Phone: (520) 738-2225 Fax: (520) 738-5187

V. Heather Sibbison, Special Assistant to the Secretary, Department of the
Interior (DOI) Phone: (202) 308-5617 Fax: (202) 208-2051

Tom Davis, Western Regional Office Range Management, Phoenix Area BIA
Phone (602) 379-6789 Fax: (602) 379-6835

On behalf of Rena Babbitt Lane, I wish to thank you for your help.

Marsha Monestersky

 

Monestersky-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

Rena Babbitt Lane
P.O. Box 539
Tonalea, AZ 86044

October 11, 1999

Wendell Honannie
Acting Superintendent
US Department of the Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Hopi Agency
P.O. Box 158
Keams Canyon, AZ 86034

Dear Wendell Honannie,

I just received your letter and wish to inform you that my husband John Lane
does not sign his name as you allege. He, like me uses his thumbprint for
his signature. Therefore, you did not in fact give us proper notice before
seizing our animals. Also, missing in your letter was any mention of the
status of your investigation into what Fred Chavez and the other Hopi Rangers
did when they impounded my animals.

On September 21, 1999, John Lane was hauling wood with my son Jerry. I was
weaving inside my house and cooking because my husband and son were on a wood
run. I believe it was around 1 or 2 PM that the BIA came by to impound my
animals. I am not sure exactly because we didn’t see them and they never
came to my door to tell me they what they were going to do. It was only when
our animals did not come home that we traced the tracks of the BIA
impoundment trailers. I did not even know what you took because when you
rounded up my animals you chased them. Some animals were missing for days
afterwards. Some of my sheep are still limping and my sheep dog is still
missing and I am afraid he is dead. From their tracks there must have been 2
trailers and maybe 1 police vehicle.

That night we went first to John Benally in Big Mountain and then Marsha
Monestersky in Black Mesa for help. We stayed with Marsha that night and
went with her and John the next day, September 22, to the BIA in Keams
Canyon. We are elderly and this is causing us much suffering.

On September 22, on our way to the BIA we stopped first at the impoundment
yard to see what you took. We did not even know what you took since you
chased many of our animals away from here. What we saw is that you took 19
sheep, 3 goats, 4 cows and 2 calves from us. Then we went to meet with you,
Wendell Honannie, Acting Superintendent, Fred Chavez, Land Operations Manager
and Eugene Seckakuku, BIA employee. I asked you then "How can you take our
livestock? This is our food. We care for our animals." I pleaded with you
and asked you how you could do this. But all Fred Chavez said in your
presence was, "We would have taken all your animals if we had enough trailers
with us." Then also in your presence, Fred Chavez waived a BIA permit at me
and said the only way that I could only get this permit is if I signed the
Accommodation Agreement, otherwise, everything I have is illegal. How can
the BIA push the Accommodation Agreement (AA), lease from the Hopi tribe?
People have told me that this is extortion! Other people have also received
5-day notices. There is so much stress out here.

I told you then that what you should have done was approach me first before
taking my animals. You should have came to my house and at least notify me.
I told you that you should hand deliver your 5-day notices since we do not
read, write or speak English and do not know what is going on at the post
office where other people might be signing for our mail from you. All I know
is that the first time I knew my animals were gone was when they did not come
home at night.

When I saw you, you told me that I had to come up with $1,709.00 to get my
animals out of impoundment. Then you said you would reduce the price to
$1,288.00 with an increase of $110.00 per day for impoundment fees. That is
too much money. I told you that I have no money and you just told me, "So
raise the money." We were fortunate that our friend Carol Halberstadt from
Massachusetts gave us the money. She also called the BIA in Washington, DC
and Phoenix, AZ to tell them I needed a BIA permit without signing the AA.
But what you offer us is only 40 sheep units. What about Tom Davis promise
to see if my permit could be increased to 60 sheep units? 40 and even 60
sheep units is not enough for my survival. But I know that you do not care
if I survive.

I want to know what gives you the right to rule over our lives? What gives
you the right to mess with my survival. I need to support my family and from
my own feeling these livestock, I love dearly, I don’t want to see them
impounded. And I was sick worrying, are they eating, did they get water in
the impoundment yard? You don’t feel from my heart as a traditional Navajo
woman. I have had open heart surgery. You are messing with my life. Before
this I have been abused by the BIA. My hand was broken and I went to the
hospital. I have the medical records documenting abuse by the Hopi Rangers.
I don’t have any money and you just steal my animals and expect me to get
the money to buy them back.

On September 28, 1999, when we had the money, we went to get our animals, you
hand delivered me a 5-day notice threatening to seize all of my animals. You
said this notice is good for a year. I am scared. I cant deal with the
impoundment's anymore.

Since you took my animals without even telling me, I have been wondering if
all those times when I was missing some of my sheep, goats, even cows,
whether it was because you stole them. I think the BIA is a coyote stealing
my animals when they want to.

Twenty days ago, BIA Rangers came to us when we were in our cornfield. Our
animals were drinking water from a pond next to it. The Rangers told me that
our animals could not be there, that this was another grazing unit but this
is where our garden is. You have put barbed wire fences in all around me.
It is like I am in prison. The Rangers told me that we could not even let
our animals drink water. They said this land does not belong to us. When
they were talking to us, they brushed up against us wearing their weapons.
There have been so many incidents, many times we have been threatened.

All you say is that you are only doing your job when you confiscate our
animals. How can the US government be allowed to do this? And why do we
have to buy back our animals or loose them at public auction? Is it just to
support your operations? I think the BIA doesn't have a heart. Many times
before you have abused our animals in the impoundment yard. You do not even
feed them. This time, when I got my animals back many of them were sick and
some are still sick. Some of my sheep are still limping. It took me days to
find some of my animals. Our horses came back later and my sheep dog is
still missing. I am afraid he is dead.

When I was at your office I called for an investigation of what Fred Chavez
and the other Hopi Rangers did to my animals during the impoundment but what
you sent me was a letter saying that my husband signed for our 5-day notice.
What I want to know is what Fred Chavez and the other Hopi Rangers did to my
animals when they chased them across a barbed wire fence that divides our
grazing unit 253? Why do you put in barbed wire fences in the same grazing
unit that we are supposed to use?

When you rounded up our animals you took only the young ones, the ones you
get the most money for at public auction. How can you be allowed to just
pocket the money you get for our animals? And if we don’t buy them back from
you then you just keep all of the money you get for them at public auction.
It is for these reasons that I want an investigation of what the BIA does
with the money you get for peoples. I also want a copy of the financial
records so we can see how corrupt the BIA is. The BIA has already been found
to have mismanaged 3 billion dollars. Why do you need to steal animals from
poor people? I want to know how the US government can be allowed to give us
such a hard time. How can you be allowed to mess with our way of life and
cause us to live in such fear? My people are dying from this abuse. They
get depressed, get hurt, have a heart attack or stroke. What the US
government is doing to us is harsh. Maybe you don’t have a sense of the hurt
you are causing us. What you are doing to us is not right. Our only income is
from our livestock. Our sheep give us wool and I weave blankets. This is
how we make a living. This is how we feed ourselves.

My heart has pain. We feel all this in our hearts. I am sick and I am not
in good health. My husband is also sick. Where is so-called human rights?
As a human being you should have respect for our way of life. But instead you
are allowed to control every part of our lives, saying, we cant let our
animals graze where they have always grazed. We have our own way of land
management. In our traditional way, in order for the land to have growth we
need our animals, everything counts, their pee, their waste. The animals
trim the plans where it will regrow. Their hooves make places for moisture
to go into the ground. The growth spreads the seeds. This is our
traditional style of land management and it needs to continue. Why should
the US government tell us how to herd our animals? We want our own way of
life. If the U.S. government would allow us to use another grazing area like
we need to, and this is where the water collects for our animals to drink,
there would be no over grazing. We should be able to manage our own affairs
under traditional land use but the US government does not allow us to live
our traditional way. When we used winter and summer camps we had no problems
and we had a lot more animals than we have now. This is the natural way for
us to live and for our plants to grow. We are the people that have always
lived here. We are the experts, not the US government.

I urge you to conduct an investigation of what Fred Chavez and the other Hopi
Rangers did when they impounded my animals and I request a full record of
what you do with the money you get when we buy back our animals from the
impoundment yard and when you keep the proceeds from their sale at public
auction.

There is no reason for you to steal our animals. You wouldn't even help us
haul our animals home, saying Fred Chavez was out in the field, probably
impounding other peoples animals with a smile on your face. What about our
treaty rights and the BIA’s pledge in the treaty to help us establish our
economy and livelihood? Shame on you that you are doing this to me and the
Navajo people?

‘ahehee’, Thank you,

Rena Babbitt Lane

 

Signed by: ____________________________________________
John Lane

Translated and witnessed by: _____________________________
Jerry Lane

Transcribed by: ________________________________________
Marsha Monestersky

 

cc: V. Heather Sibbison, Jean Rice, Tom Davis, Wayne Nordwall, Attorney Liz
Walker, Attorney Charles Miller, Marsha Monestersky