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The Navajo/Hopi land dispute involves an excruciatingly complex mix of tradition, religion, economic exploitation, scarce energy resources, and environmental devastation.

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Transcript

Lead: The Navajo/Hopi land dispute involves an excruciatingly complex mix of tradition, religion, economic exploitation, scarce energy resources, and environmental devastation.

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In the American southwest the states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah come together at a precise point in the middle of the desert. The region surrounding that point is known as Four Corners. This area is the home of two Native American tribal groupings, the Hopi and the Navajo.

For centuries these two clans existed in relative harmony. Indeed, they share many religious, cultural, and ethnic characteristics. Yet they are different. The Hopi traditionally have been pacifists, domestics, and farmers. Since ancient times they have lived in pueblos on the top of mesas, their ancestors having discerned that life atop a mesa was much more easily defended than settlements on the ground below. The Navajo have historically been ranchers, herders and horse-riding raiders, hunting particularly the buffalo until the coming of Europeans drove that animal nearly to extinction.

Because they had no land disputes, the two groups had little conflict until the Navajo tribe--seeking to avoid clashes with the Spanish and Mexicans--began to move into Hopi territory in northeastern Arizona. By the end of the 1800s, there was friction between the tribes because increasingly they were trying to live on the same land. In 1882 the Bureau of Indian Affairs attempted to carve out separate Hopi and Navajo reservations, but this was largely unsuccessful. The Navajo outnumbered the Hopi significantly, and Hopi land was then almost completely surrounded by Navajo land.

Yet because of their common beliefs and interests, the two tribes could probably have reached some degree of accommodation had there not been a significant energy crisis in the 20th century. Just beneath the surface of the Four Corners territory resides one of the richest concentrations of energy-related minerals on the continent--uranium, probably oil, but especially coal. This heralded the arrival in the region of the Peabody Group.

Next Time: Competing Interests

Research assistance by Erin Morgan, at the University of Richmond this is Dan Roberts.

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