Testimony
Louise Begay
P.O. Box 893 Kayenta, AZ 86033
August 24, 1997

To the Hopi Tribal Council, the Navajo Tribal Council, the Navajo Hopi Land Commission, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Center for Human Rights, Special Rapporteurs for Religious Intolerance, Internally Displaced Persons, Forced Evictions, Violence Against Women, other appropriate Special Rapporteurs, the Commission on the Status of Women, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the European Support Network, Supporters, Non Governmental Organizations and US Congress

My name is Louise Begay. I live in Manyfarms because I can't build a house here. I want to be able to live in Owl Spring but this brown house is falling apart. It is on Hopi Partition Land (HPL) and we cannot fix our homes. There are five of us and my husband is forced to pay rent for us to live somewhere else. I want to have my own home here where I grew up. I do not want to pay rent and live in someone else's house. I am not working, I take care of my kids at home. I want to be able to live here but you guys won't let us build a house here.

I hereby rescind my signature on the 75-year lease (Accommodation Agreement) imposed upon us by the US Department of Justice. I have the right for three years to rescind my signature. The promise you made did not work. It was on March 31, 1997. That night at midnight, the deadline date for signing the Accommodation Agreement that Ray Russell of the Navajo Hopi Land Commission came here with a woman from US Department of Justice and a Hopi tribal official. My mother, my uncle and I were there. My mom said they came around here before and we just let them stand outside. We didn't talk to them.

That night, I was inside and my mom was outside. She talked to Ray Russell and then they all came inside. My mom asked what they are doing here. He said that he was here to get us to sign the Accommodation Agreement. That night was the deadline. My mom said no to them. She said she can't sign. And would only sign if my dad was here and they agreed. But that is not possible since he is at work. So she can't sign anything. They asked her two times. But my mom said to Ray Russell, you would probably do the same thing.

They asked me to sign and I told them I said the only way I will sign this is if you promise that you will not be harassing people, not coming around to this house, not going to bother the livestock and impound them. My parents do not speak English and if you speak English to them they will not understand you. They said yes, we will not bother the people and their livestock. I asked them again. And again they said this is a promise.

I told them I do not want them coming around harassing the people and bothering the livestock and confiscating them. I said what would you think if I went around to the Hopi Reservation. What if we said to you, you cannot do this, you cannot do that. Would you like it? The Hopi said no. I said, how come you guys are harassing other people, why are you bothering our livestock. We are not even allowed to build a house. I am sure you are getting money from Window Rock, Peabody, you are building houses. We don't bother you. We can't even fix the house we are living in. They are just falling apart. Us, we kids can't even build a house to live in on our land. We are 9 children and 30 grandchildren. Us, we kids can't even build a house to live in so we have to go find a house and rent. We want to live here. So I said yes, if I do sign I want 3 acres and a house.
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Ray Russell asked the Hopi can you help me and back me up for a house. The Hopi said we don't have the money. So he asked if DOJ can help, she said I can't make any promises. We don't have the money, we can't do it, and they said they would have to check it back with other people. So Ray Russell said, you're the one that wants to come out here and now she's asking in return for a house and you are not willing to help her? That's where they started talking about it. So Ray Russell said he would go back to the office and talk to his people and talk to President Albert Hale to see if he could pitch in half the cost for a house and his office will pay for the other half, maybe. Yes, he said we will build you a house. He said he would write to me and tell me what President Hale says. He said, give me your address. I asked is this guaranteed? Ray said, yes, this is a guaranteed thing. I said I want this promise on the paper. So Ray said, I will let you know. To this date I still have not received a letter.

I asked them, is the 3 acres for everyone or just for me? There are 11 people and 30 grandchildren here. They said no, the three acres was just for me. I asked them did you meant this and I repeated everything back. I asked them, is this 3 acres just for me or does it mean that it includes everybody. They said no, it is just for you and everyone else will have to sign individually, my mother, father, brothers, sisters have to sign for themselves. They said that this was a promise. I repeated this again and they said yes this was a promise.

Please investigate these concerns. Please rescind my signature. I hear that you are saying I signed the Accommodation Agreement for everyone in my family. This is not true. It is for these reasons and to protect my family that I hereby rescind any signature I gave you on the Accommodation Agreement.

 

 

______________________________
Louise Begay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Testimony
Hosteen Nez and Mazzie K. Begay
P.O. Box 295
Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
August 24, 1997

 

To the Hopi Tribal Council, the Navajo Tribal Council, the Navajo Hopi Land Commission, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Center for Human Rights, Special Rapporteurs for Religious Intolerance, Internally Displaced Persons, Forced Evictions, Violence Against Women, other appropriate Special Rapporteurs, the Commission on the Status of Women, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the European Support Network, Supporters, Non Governmental Organizations and US Congress

We have had two times of harassment, one time all our livestock, the other time, our daughter was home by herself. Many people signed the 75-year lease (Accommodation Agreement AA). I told them not to sign it when Ray Russell came around with Department of Justice. I told them do not sign it. I said lets wait until Kee Watchman came back but Kee was not back when everyone signed the AA. Sometime later, around the last two weeks of March, when Ray Russell went around house to house with US Department of Justice and a Hopi official. Ray would say, I am just showing where people live but later on I heard about him that he really lies and promises to do something, he does not. I said, why didn't you tell me then that Ray Russell would make up promises? Now people say Ray Russell can lie to you, I did not know. The Hopi just came to our house and counted our cattle, they did not bother the sheep. They said they would send us a letter but we haven't gotten any letter back from them. The grazing committee person is the one that did the branding on our cattle.

The people that came to my house didn't make any promises to us they just asked for my name because I can't write my name. I told Ray Russell my name and he put my name down on a piece of paper. I asked them what they intend to do with this paper. Ray Russell wrote our names down on the paper. Other people say the same thing. We did not sign the Agreement. We refused. The only one that signed was our son and he only signed for himself. If our names appear on the Agreement it is only because Ray Russell put our names on it without our consent or knowledge. We refused to sign the Agreement. The only one that signed in our family was our son and they made it very clear that he was only signing for himself, he was not signing for all of us because he is not a head of household and cannot sign for us. We are the head of household. According to their regulations, the only one that can sign for their family is the head of household.

Ray Russell asked us to come over to Jack Woody's place. That's where they talked about it . I guess there was a paper. They asked for a particular paper and it was given to somebody there, Jack Woody and that's how it was said that we agreed. He had a copy of it. I do not know where the paper was. What we know is we did not sign it. A man, Lee Phillips from Flagstaff and a woman from US Department of Justice and a Navajo translator with them in addition to Ray Russell. The anglo man and woman were supposed to come back the 14th of September, they will be back. They will be back about having us relocated. We only get messages relayed to us that we will be relocated. We hear that there is a period of time, within that time we are supposed to be relocated. That is what they are coming back for. I am scared of them coming back. We hope we do not get to relocated any where else.
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A woman came and told us that we would not be relocated and we could stay here for a little while longer.. He said if we give you three acres here, you are just going to live here and another 10 acres for the cornfield. And then your livestock can be anywhere outside of the 3 acres, near water, anywhere. We asked twice once we get a 3 acre homesite, can we build a house and if we want a hogan over here in our 3 acres, can we transfer this hogan onto this 3 acre lease. Both times Ray Russell said, yes that is what you are gong to you, you are going to transfer your house over to your 3 acres. I asked them where will my 3 acres be. And they said wherever we want our house built.

We signed because we were told that if we signed we would not be relocated, we could keep our land and our livestock. Two guys came up from Flagstaff. Our daughter was home by herself when they came around, they came around again. They said that they were making another appointment and do paperwork for relocating us to another area and he said we have so many years to live there and then we would get chased out of our relocated house, the 75-year lease. 'That 75 years, we were told that we have to find a house or land close to relatives out of the Joint Use Area and build a house over there and after the end of 75 years, we have to find land and we will build you a house and this house will be waiting for you, sitting for your. Look near your relatives. We do not want to do this. We want to remain where we are on our land.

75 years from now, we will probably pass away and our kids will still be there. We want to share our land with our children and future generations. We want to live here, but they will not let us live here, we want to build a house, we are not allowed, we want our children to live with us but they are not allowed to build a home. Our children want to move back to where we live now.

Please help us remain on our land. For 31 years we have not been allowed to build a home because of the US government ordered freeze. our children are not able to build homes. Please help us to be allowed to build a home for us and our children. Please help us stop the relocation. What the US government is doing to us is elderly abuse. That is one of the main reasons why our health goes down at times. We have a supporter here but the Hopi Rangers chased them out of here. The Hopi Rangers don't want us to have supporters but we need it. That person was really helpful to us taking care of the sheep and the cattle, helping around the house. They cannot do this to us. There are supposed to be laws to protect us from elderly abuse.

Please conduct a fact finding mission and provide observers for our safety. Please help us. Thank you,

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Hosteen Nez Begay Mazzie K. Begay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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