Program Information

The Hopi-Navajo land dispute is much more intense because it is wrapped up in issues of energy independence, resource exploitation, and environmental annihilation.

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Transcript

Lead: The Hopi-Navajo land dispute is much more intense because it is wrapped up in issues of energy independence, resource exploitation, and environmental annihilation.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: After centuries of relatively peaceful cohabitation, the arrival of white civilization forced both the Hopi and Navajo tribes into the Four Corners region of northeastern Arizona. What would have been a normal intertribal crowding dispute has been vastly complicated because their individual and shared lands sit atop enormous energy resources, particularly coal.

During the oil crisis of the 1970s the United States set, as one of its national goals, freedom from dependence on foreign oil. A great source of abundantly available energy in North America is coal. Unfortunately for the tribes, some of the greatest U.S. coal reserves lie under Black Mesa, Big Mountain, and other landmarks and ceremonial sites held sacred by the Navajo and Hopi tribes. The richest deposits are under Hopi land, and soon after their discovery, the tribe entered into intensive business arrangements with Peabody Western, a division of the Peabody Group, one of the largest energy companies in the United States.

In many ways, the coming of energy companies into the area has been beneficial to the tribes. Because of the coal lying under their land--which previously had no value to anyone except Native Americans--jobs, steady income, education, and cultural enrichment have been realized for the Hopi and Navajo people.

However, the extraction and transportation of coal is environmentally destructive. The tribes realize that, despite its current abundance in the area, coal will someday be depleted and they fear that mining operations will have destroyed the land for future generations long after the energy companies have packed up and gone away. They are also concerned about their water supply--coal extraction uses an enormous volume of water, which is pumped from underground and siphoned from nearby rivers--in an arid area where water is increasingly unavailable for agriculture.

Intertribal conflict arises due to the fact that, since the majority of the coal deposits are on Hopi land, the Hopi tribe depends much more heavily on employment and subsidies from Peabody Western. It tends to side with the company in court cases as well as in disputes with the Navajos, who have resisted development on Native American land for religious and sometimes financial reasons.

In many ways this is a classic conflict between traditional lifestyles and development. Attempts in the 1990s by the federal government to arbitrate disputes between the tribes and other stakeholders were only partially successful. The continuing energy crisis has made matters even worse . . . and so the Hopi-Navajo land dispute continues.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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