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Bennett Freeze officially unthawed
The U.S. Senate has voted to lift a decades-old ban on development on about 700,000 acres in Arizona's Black Mesa region that both the Navajo and Hopi tribes claimed as their own.
The Senate unanimously approved a bill by Arizona senators John McCain and Jon Kyl on Thursday night to lift a ban on development in the "Bennett Freeze" area. The ban had prevented about 8,000 Navajos who live there from putting in electric lines, repairing leaky roofs and running water lines to their homes unless the improvements were approved by the neighboring Hopi Tribe. Action by the House is still required, but no opposition is expected.
The ban was imposed in 1966 by former U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Bennett as a way to settle the land dispute between the tribes. It was lifted in late 2006 after the tribes reached an agreement and a federal judge signed off on it. But tribal members remained fearful that the freeze could be reinstated if the law that authorized it wasn't repealed.
"That's the last scar that needs to be erased," Leslie Dele, chairman of the Navajo Nation Council's Navajo-Hopi Land Commission, said Friday. "It will be there as memories, but at least we get it off the books. This will be good news for the people back home."
The Bennett Freeze area, on the western edge of the Navajo Nation, includes nine Navajo communities and arguably is the most depressed area on the 27,000 square-mile reservation.
A recent study commissioned by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs found that 77 percent of the homes in the area aren't suitable to live in, more than 40 percent of homes don't have electricity and 10 percent of residents make almost daily trips to haul water.
It's expected to cost upward of $1.3 billion to rehabilitate the area, and tribal officials largely will be looking to the federal government for funding.
"The federal government has a moral obligation to support the redevelopment of the former Bennett Freeze area," said Roman Bitsuie, executive director of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office. "The construction freeze is over. The legal issues between the two tribes are largely resolved. Now it is time for all parties to work together to address the human issues that this legacy of tangled and unjust laws has left behind."
As part of the compact that put an end to the Bennett Freeze, the Navajo and Hopi tribes agreed to support legislation in Congress that would repeal the authorization of the freeze, said Scott Canty, an attorney for the Hopi Tribe.
An identical bill to the one passed Thursday had won approval from the Senate last year but wasn't voted on in the House, according to McCain's office.
"It's been sitting in front of Congress for quite some time, and we're glad they finally acted on it," Canty said.
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Leave your comments below:
Jon Norstog wrote on Mar 17, 2009 10:09 AM:
" Roman is right. It was the federal government that imposed the freeze, and it is the federal government that has to make people whole again. The cost is peanuts compared to what the US doled out just to AIG in the last 6 months.
Before you disagree, go out to the "freeze" and see how 3 generations of people have been forced to live.
jn "
Before you disagree, go out to the "freeze" and see how 3 generations of people have been forced to live.
jn "
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The Arizona Daily Sun, Copyright 2009 © 1751 S. Thompson, Flagstaff, AZ
The Arizona Daily Sun, Copyright 2009 © 1751 S. Thompson, Flagstaff, AZ
Beverly Franco wrote on Nov 5, 2009 10:32 AM:
Its times for us all to step away from our comfort zones and get involved - however that might be. Calling attention to this evil is the first step and then calling out our so-called elected officials to step up and get this resolved now. If the Freeze has been lifted, where is the action?
The same is true for the coal-fired plant, now closed, that provided power to others, but not to the people who worked there. Black Mesa. More injustice How hard is it to do the right thing? That includes us all, everyone. "