Blue Corn Comics -- The Kee Shay Exclusion Hearing

The Kee Shay Exclusion Hearing
(10/4/00)

From an article about the Navajo reaction to the recent BIA apology:

>> "Navajo people have been subjected to forced relocation by the United States government since 1975, and it's still going on right now in the Hopi Partitioned Lands," he said. <<

"Forced" relocation by the US government...and by the Hopi people...who have fought the Navajo on this issue in the courts...and won repeatedly.

>> Kee Shay, 85, a relocation resister living on the HPL, is currently in Hopi tribal administrative court fighting an exclusion order issued by the Hopi Tribe to prohibit him from continuing to live on his ancestral homeland. <<

Shay's "ancestral homeland" is also the Hopi ancestral homeland. The Hopi have been on this land much longer. If Shay wants to stay, he should sign a lease. Then he can live and practice his beliefs in comfort.

The view from Los Angeles in response to "The View from Hogan #15":

>> Everything on one side of the fence was "given" to the Hopi Tribal Council. The logic of this still escapes me. <<

Keep reading and I'll try to explain it.

>> How can some people thousands of miles away, who work for an institution that did not exist when these people began living here (the U.S. Govt) "give" something away that never belonged to them in the first place? <<

How can the Navajo take something that never belonged to them? As far as I know, most Hopi support the division of the partitioned lands. They'd prefer to have ALL their land back, but they'll "settle" for what they can get.

The US government isn't driving the settlement of the land issue, the Hopi people are. They want their land back from the US and the Navajo.

>> Now the Corporate Hopis have slapped one of their infamous "exclusion orders" on Kee. <<

This is another blatant stereotype: the idea that any Indian who disagrees with the "poor resistors" must be bought and paid for by corporate interests. Ask the Hopi people what they think. Don't slander their beliefs based on news reports. Quote them if possible, as I've done on my site.

>> Telling him he is trespassing on the Hopi Reservation. <<

Apparently, they're telling Shay that because it's true.

>> The rationale of the Exclusion Orders is to remove people who pose a "threat to the Hopi Tribe". How is Kee threatening the Hopi Tribe? <<

Occupying land that isn't yours is a threat. If you occupy long enough, you can claim it's yours—as the Navajo have done. And if resistors like Shay are bringing hundreds of protestors onto Hopi land, it's much more of a threat.

>> The nearest Hopi is twenty miles away. <<

So what if the Hopi land is sparsely populated? Many reservations are sparsely populated. Does that justify giving them away to occupying parties?

>> None of the absentee Hopi cattle barons are running stock near his land. <<

"Cattle barons" is a joke. The Hopi are no wealthier than the nearby Navajo or other Indians. They're poorer than most.

>> After talking with the Corporate Hopis involved, a reporter covering the case came to the conclusion that they were trying to create a "rubber-stamp" procedure to easily remove Navajos. <<

After compromising their beliefs for decades in search of an acceptable solution, the Hopi have done more than enough.

>> If this is a dispute between Hopis and Navajos, how come its all being done with Whiteman language and Whiteman Law? <<

The Hopi and Navajo have fought their battles in US courts because the US is neutral between them. If the Navajo would like to accept the jurisdiction of the Hopi Tribal Courts instead, I'm sure the Hopi would accept it also. Does that sound like a fair arrangement to you?

As for the Shay case, most Hopi court business, like most Navajo court business, is conducted in English using a variation of US law. If Shay would prefer to plead his case in the Hopi language according to traditional Hopi beliefs, I suspect the Hopi wouldn't mind.

>> Not only is Kees work suffering, somehow he must try and raise money to pay for legal help. <<

Perhaps some of his thousands of supporters around the world can help. That's more help than the Hopi are getting.

>> Success for the Corporate Hopis. <<

Stereotypes against Indian people.

>> The decision is a forgeone conclusion. <<

It would be nice if it were, since the Hopi cause is just and the courts have recognized it as such.

>> In response, in 1882, Prsident Arthur drew an abstract square on the map of arizona, having no relationship to existing land-use. Some Hopis lived outside of the square, and some Navajos lived inside it. <<

And all of it was Hopi ancestral land.

>> Traditional Hopi and Navajo people continue to resist US genocide with the assistance of some non-indians. <<

Nontraditional Hopi and Navajo are Indians too. To imply they aren't "real" Indians is the worst sort of sophistry.

>> The Corporate Hopis did in fact recently attempt to introduce some taxes, one of which would have meant that the grandmas would have to pay tax on their rug sales (but Hopis wouldn't) <<

The Hopi tribe introduced a measure to tax all non-Hopi businesses on their reservation, as many other tribes have done. They wanted it because they voted against gambling and need to diversify their economy. Anything wrong with that?

>> but the Hopi people voted overwhelmingly against these taxes. <<

The proposed taxes lost by a mere 16 votes. "Overwhelming" is a blatant misstatement. Almost half the Hopi who voted favored the new taxes, which shows there are plenty of Hopi who aren't "traditional."

>> With the help of some friends, I am in the process of setting up my own Website. One section will be something I call Gallery of Resistance <<

Great. And I'll continue posting the pro-Hopi position here.

Here's a concluding report from the Hopi Tutuveni newspaper, 9/5/00:

If you expected the Kee Shay exclusion hearing to be standing room only, you would have been most disappointed. Not only did Shay lack a supportive audience, his legal counsel, Reed Tso, was hard pressed to get Shay's witnesses to attend and rpovide testimony for Shay. Even his freinds offered Shay little support, with Louise Begally refusing to interpret unelss she received financial compesnation.

In his closing statement, Hopi General Counsel, Scott Canty, eloqquently expressed what is at the heart of the issue: who has the right to control the HPL portion of land upon which Shay resides for part of each year. "This is Hopi land, and it is the Hopi who have the right to determine who may stay on their land," said Canty.

Could it be that the Navajo Nation and people and their supporters don't care about Kee Shay, but are only using his case to score political points? Wow, people using Indians: What a concept.

* More opinions *

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