Navajos want full control of canyon
Monument funding eyed
Felicia Fonseca ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, September 12, 2008
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. | The
Navajo Nation is seeking full control of the only national monument
entirely on reservation land, the majestic Canyon de Chelly and its hundreds
of ancient rock carvings and paintings.
Since 1931, the National Park Service has been charged with preserving
thousands of artifacts and ruins within the monument's towering red
sandstone walls, while the land revered by the Navajos as sacred remained
tribally owned.
Now the Tribal Council wants full control of the 131-square-mile monument
in northeastern Arizona and the more than $1.8 million in federal funding
that goes with it.
Doing so would strengthen the tribe's sovereignty and demonstrate its
expertise and competence in administering tribal land and resources to
benefit Navajo people, supporters say.
"It's a site that is very important in terms of not only the historical
but also the cultural and spiritual aspects of the nation," said Arvin
Trujillo, director of the tribe's Division of Natural Resources. "We are
moving in a direction where we're becoming better equipped to take over some
of these monuments."
The Tribal Council was to take up legislation to seek the transfer of the
canyon to the tribe during a special session in Window Rock on Thursday.
Canyon de Chelly, near Chinle, in the heart of the Navajo Nation, has
been inhabited for some 2,000 years. Artifacts and cliff dwellings lining
the canyon walls date from the fourth to 14th centuries. The Navajo call the
canyon "tsegi," which means "within the rock," and about 80 Navajos live in
the canyon.
Canyon residents have been divided over the years on how much involvement
they believe the Park Service should have in overseeing the monument. Some
favor a joint management plan, while others want the Park Service out of the
picture.
The Park Service has various agreements with tribes whose reservations
lie within a national monument. Some allow tribes to manage a portion of
park, rebuild trails, restore watersheds and hunt on tribal land, for
example.
In South Dakota, the Park Service is thinking about returning complete
control of the South Unit of Badlands National Park to the Oglala Sioux. In
2000, Congress passed a law that allows the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe to
completely manage tribal trust land within Death Valley National Park. At
Everglades National Park in Florida, the federal government has set aside a
special reserved area for the Miccosukee Tribe within the park.
Patricia L. Parker, chief of the Park Service's American Indian Liaison
Office in Washington, D.C., said tribes are encouraged to take a more active
role in managing their lands.
But no national monument has been completely turned over to a tribe, as
the Navajo Nation is asking, she said.
"If I were the tribe, I would take a good look at to what extent would
the lands be better protected, what would be the benefits locally for having
it be a tribal park rather than it be a national monument or park, and I'm
sure they're weighing the benefits," she said.
The Park Service, which employs about 25 people at Canyon de Chelly, says
the Navajo Nation has every right to seek full control of the canyon,
believed to be the birthplace of many tribal deities. Congress would have
the final say.
"There would be a lot of coordination that would need to happen and a lot
of discussion with lawyers to figure out how things would transfer," said
Canyon de Chelly superintendent Tom Clark. "It would be a big process, but
obviously doable."
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