History of the Hopi-Navajo Land Dispute
The Navajo and the Hopi Indians have lived side by side for decades in the corner of Arizona and New Mexico, but have lead completely different lifestyles. The Navajo and Hopi come from very different peoples with different histories. The Hopi are descendents of a highly sophisticated farming community who originated in the area that they inhabit today. They are theocratic, governed by laws and prophecies desiring peace, but are aggressive when their way of life and land is threatened (Benedek,1993,p.63). The Navajo are descendents of simple people, wanderers with adventuresome spirits, who migrated down from the Canadian North. They are mostly hunters and herders and live in Hogan villages that are spread out across their territories. They have little organized government with few ceremonies or ritual that guide their ways of living (Lindig, 1993).
The two tribes have had their differences and conflicts over the decades of living as “neighbors” because of their separate ways of life, however, the conflict between them intensified in the late 1860s as there was a huge westward movement of white settlers who were pushing the Navajo from their villages in New Mexico into Arizona closer to the Hopi villages in the north. “Few Hopi lived on the land in the North yet, had a strong relationship with the land because it was a place with historical as well as religious significance to the Hopi as it is the original homeland of their ancestors” (Lindig, 1993, p.202).
As the Navajo population continued to grow, rather than face the politically unpopular task of returning more white controlled land to the Indians, the Interior Department of Indian affairs encouraged the Navajo to squeeze around the Hopi. The Navajo began to move around the southern parts of the Hopi reservation and eventually the entire Hopi reservation was enclosed by the Navajo. The Hopi complained almost immediately about the presence and trespassing of the Navajo in the Hopi territory.
“Between 1850 and 1863 the Hopi repeatedly requested the United States government to protect their land form the growing Navajo population” (Hopi Tribe, 2001, no page). In 1882 the President of the United States, Chester Arthur, signed an executive order setting aside a rectangle of land in Arizona referred to as the Executive Order Area that consisted of 2.5 million acres for Hopi reservation (Benedek, 1993, p.33). Within the new boundary of the Hopi reservation, lived 300-600 Navajo sheep herders, tending to their cornfields and traveling between their summer and winter pastures; clearly paying no attention to the legally recognized Hopi territory. The Navajo continued to push forth onto Hopi territory due to their need for more sheep herding land.
The Hopi continued to complain to the Indian Affairs and Interior officials about the Navajo’s lack of respect for their land. At first the Indians Affairs office avoided any confrontation with the Navajo to improve the Hopi situation because they hoped that the two tribes would become so friendly and cooperative as to enable them to live in the same country without further jurisdiction or other difference (Benedek, 1993, p.34). However, this was impossible due to the distinctly different lifestyles the two tribes lived. The Interior officials did not know what to do about the continued complaints and conflict between the two tribes. They offered suggestions ranging from the view of the Navajo within the Hopi reservation having rights of equal occupancy to Hopi land and equal attachment. The Hopi had historical, cultural and religious attachment, while the Navajo’s attachment to the land was more immediate than the Hopi’s. “Their Hogan’s were built on it their ancestors bones lie in it, asking them to leave means asking them to abandon the repository of their memories, the land they have learnt to master” (Benedek, 1993, p.33). Nonetheless, complaints continued by the Hopi for having complete control and rights to their reservation.
The Hopi were beginning to fear the complete loss of their land and culture from the growing population of the Navajo and the lack of support of the United States government to protect their reservation from the Navajo tribe. This was the famous court case, Healing v. Jones, that will be discussed in greater detail in the later United States Government section. The continued conflict between the two tribes is the result of the lack of support from the United States government and courts, but mostly because of the several clashes between the two ethnically different groups (Lindig, 1993, p.202). The Navajo herding lifestyle left no room for the Hopi’s farming ways of life.