Bert, Carolin, Shirley Tohannie

P.O. Box 1035

Tonalea, AZ 86044

 

October 12, 1998

 

To: Ms. Elsa Stamatopoulou-Robbins, Representative of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

For: Ms. Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights

Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance

Mr. Francis Deng, Special Rapporteur for Internally Displaced Persons

United Nations Commission for Human Rights

 

AND: Mr. Christopher J. Bavasi, Executive Director and

Mr. George Manygoat, Relocation Specialist

United States Government

Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation

P.O. Box KK

201 E. Birch

Flagstaff, AZ 86002

 

And: President Milton Bluehouse Sr.

Office of the President

The Navajo Nation

P. O. Box 9000

Window Rock, AZ 86515

 

Re: Request to stop the harassment

 

We are non-signers of the 75-year lease Accommodation Agreement and wish to bring some urgent matters to your attention.

 

The assault against us still continues as armed Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Rangers visit us and threaten us. We just received a letter in the mail from the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Indian Agency dated September 29, 1998 trying to scare us into selling off our livestock at auction. We request that these letters from the BIA threatening a massive livestock impoundment immediately cease.

 

We are scared because Larry H. Nez of the Navajo Hopi Land Commission taped a handwritten note to our door. We are attaching a copy of this handwritten letter for your review. In it he states that "Because you did not sign an agreement with the Hopi tribe which would have allowed you to stay on HPL legally, your livestock is in trespass and subject to impoundment."

 

We wonder how Larry H. Nez can get away with making these unofficial threats and under whose authority? There was an article in the Navajo Times on October 1, 1998, entitled, "No impoundment planned for HPL livestock says BIA". But what will happen to those of us that did not hold Hopi permits because in the article the BIA says that non-signers of the Agreement will automatically have their old Hopi permits renewed. We do not hold a Hopi permit so what will happen to us. We did not sign the 75-year lease Accommodation Agreement, do not recognize Hopi jurisdiction over us and still honor our old Navajo permit. Therefore we are not subject to Hopi livestock reduction or their authority to impound our livestock. But we wonder why the BIA is working so hard to scare us into selling off our subsistence herds to avoid impoundment even though this means our starvation? Winter is coming and their actions constitute cruel and unusual punishment -torture tactics against us.

 

When the BIA comes here and they see our younger kids they ask them what they are doing here. They ask them a lot of questions and scare them. Our livestock is our livelihood, our survival. If we butcher 1 sheep for my grand kids we am reducing our livestock. This is the way we control the size of our herd. But what the US government's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is doing to us by making us reduce the size of our herd means starvation. The BIA Rangers say a lot of threats and causes our minds to be distressed and off balance. The BIA Rangers are criminals. They come in force with guns on them to try to force us to sign. They come by here often.

 

Lester Deal, the Council delegate from Tonalea did a campaign here - threatening that they would throw our belongings outside the fence if we did not sign the 75-year lease Accommodation Agreement by midnight of the deadline date - March 31, 1997. We have continued to remain here resisting even after the deadline and we are continuing to carry on our way of life.

 

We never considered filing for Relocation benefits and consider the attached letter sent to us by Mr. Manygoats dated September 30, 1998 as harassment. We request you back off. We will not relocate and we will not accept any relocation benefits.

 

From the Tuba Relocation Commission they come up here to threaten us to relocate. Some have alcohol on their breath. They come here aggressive. They tell us we have to relocate and if we do not relocate we will be moved by force. They say they will haul our belongings away from here and that we are here on this land illegally and we and our animals are trespassing on our own land.

 

We consider the actions of Mr. Lester Deal, Mr. George Manygoats, Mr. Larry H. Nez and the BIA to constitute elder abuse. We are great grandparents and there are laws that are supposed to protect us from elder abuse but they are not enforced. We request that you stop the harassment immediately.

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Bert Tohannie Carolin Tohannie Shirley Tohannie

 

Translated by: Date:

attachments: Letter from Mr. George Manygoats, Relocation Specialist,

US Government Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation

Handwritten note, Larry H. Nez, Navajo Hopi Land Commission Office