Rights panel: Border-town racism still alive

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — There is “disagreement and discord in the Flagstaff area regarding the San Francisco Peaks,” the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission found during recent public hearings.

The Human Rights Commission released the results and recommendations from the hearings in border towns to the Navajo Nation Council during a work session at the Navajo Nation Museum yesterday and continuing today.

A total of 64 people attended the public hearings held in Holbrook and Winslow Dec. 2 and in Flagstaff Dec. 3. Of those who attended, 22 gave oral testimony and 39 completed the survey provided by the commission.

The Navajo Nation was one of several tribes that sued the U.S. Forest Service in 2005 for approving the use of recycled sewage water on the peaks, which are sacred to at least 13 tribes.

For the Navajo, the San Francisco Peaks are Dooko’o’sliid — the sacred mountain to the west. However, the commission wrote that “law enforcement agencies are imposing strict rules on access and use, including for spiritual purposes.”

The commission issued four recommendations to address the peaks issue, including the Navajo Nation Council enacting legislation on the nation’s interest in protecting all lands sacred to the Diné people, seeking federal legislation to protect the peaks and other sacred sites, negotiating with the city of Flagstaff to cease its efforts to sell wastewater to make snow if another source of water could be identified, and continuing participation at United Nations sessions and other international forums citing the Peaks situation as a human rights violation.

Another issue brought up during the public hearings was unsolved border town homicides. The Human Rights Commission stated that since 1989 there have been about 11 unsolved deaths of Navajos in Winslow.

The commission recommended that the Navajo Nation submit a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the number and circumstances surrounding the deaths of unsolved murders involving Native Americans and consider an intergovernmental agreement with law enforcement in border towns to forward such information to the Human Rights Commission’s office.

The Human Rights Commission had several other recommendations based on its first public hearings including reconsidering the ban of smoking in public buildings within the Navajo Nation, considering banning the sale of cigarettes, passing a resolution condemning the effects of the Navajo-Hopi Relocation Act and “formally declaring that the Navajo Nation will never again participate in the forced removal of people,” and beginning dialogue and public relations activities with border town city and college officials.

According to the Human Rights Commission, 88 percent of those surveyed believe that discrimination exists today and 56 percent indicated they had experienced some form of discrimination within the past year.

The majority of those that experienced discrimination — 68 percent — did not file a case report for numerous reasons, including it would be too time consuming, views that municipal agencies are ineffective, fear of retaliation and the belief that no one cares.

Of those that did file a report, 75 percent were unhappy with the way their cases were handled and how they were resolved.

On Thursday, the Council heard opening remarks from the Office of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission executive director Leonard Gorman, commission chairman Duane H. Yazzie on the commission’s accomplishments and results of the first public hearing, retired regional director for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights John F. Dulles, Navajo human rights advocate Grace Smith Yellowhammer on Diné women’s human rights issues, and Council Delegate Rex Lee Jim on Navajo rights issues and future efforts by the Navajo Nation.

On Friday, the work session will include a morning presentation by Indian Law Resource Center executive director Robert Coulter on using international law to protect human rights and the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. An afternoon presentation will be conducted by S. James Anaya, professor of human rights law and policy, and Yazzie and Gorman will finish the session with recommendations on what’s next for Navajo human rights.