Kee Shay
P.O. Box 203
Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
December 14, 1999
To: The Hon. Eldridge Coochise
Hearing Officer
Hopi Tribe
8565 W. Granada Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85037
Re: The Hopi Tribe Petitioner vs. Marsha Monestersky, Respondent
in the Hopi
Tribe Exclusion Process, Hopi Indian Reservation, Kykotsmovi,
AZ
Support Statement for Marsha Monestersky
Dear The Hon. Eldridge Coochise,
We, the people that reside in the Big Mountain area are being
threatened with
exclusion order from Hopi Partition Lands. On the other hand,
Marsha
Monestersky who is from far away in the east has saved us many
times with her
paper work. We really appreciate her work for us.
From the English language, she told us we have rights. And
that is how she
is helping us to express our rights for those of us that cannot
read or
write. So that is a miracle that she is helping us with the English
way of
processing papers as our legal assistant.
Marsha has worked on the land issue so the people can have
their beauty way
of life back. She wants us to be free to walk the land and to
live our life.
She has been around in this area for a lot of years and she knows
where our
homesites are and the roads that go to different households where
she is
welcome.
To this day we know that the Navajo Nation has turned their
back on us on
behalf of the land dispute. The Navajo Nation was established
to represent
us in the past but their entity has never come forward to help.
So thats
why Marsha is here to help us.
The Navajo Nation workers have never helped us with paper work
including
computers and printers. Right now, we know that we have a Navajo
President
in Window Rock. He has never come over here to set up a computer
to help us
on our behalf.
I dont believe this land belongs to the Hopi Tribe like
they say because we
Navajo people and Hopi people share the same customary use areas.
And to
this day, the Hopi have taken jurisdiction over this land. We
also had a
trading system with the Hopi a long time ago and all those things
are of the
past because the Hopi Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is controlling
the land
which is part of our customary use area. We use the land for grazing
our
livestock and we also depend upon the land for our garden, crops.
All this
is part of life for traditional people.