Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

On, Sunday, August 22, 1999, R. Honyumpewa, Hopi BIA Ranger G-684BS and G-495BV Ranger accosted Rena Babbitt Lane. Rena has been keeping her sheep on Navajo Partition Land (NPL) since she and her animals are considered illegal. However, there was a pool of water that accumulated from a recent rainfall just inside the Hopi Partition Land (HPL) fence and she went with them through a gate to allow them drink the water.

R. Honyumpewa, a Hopi BIA Ranger came up to her and told her “Your sheep are trespassing. I do not want you to herd sheep on this side of the fence (HPL). I will be back to check on them and if you take your sheep here for water again today, I will come back with 2 trailers this evening or tomorrow and load up all your sheep.”

Rena says “This fence was not made by the Hopi or BIA, it was made by Navajo and was not intended to be used as a boundary marker for a partition fence. I did not cut the fence, I used a gate that was there and I was with my sheep the whole time. I just wanted them to have water. There is so much hardship out here. It is getting us sick and is causing a lot of heartache. I have to haul water, going off the mountain every day when I live right above the slurry pipeline and three million gallons of water a day flows beneath my land. But I have no water, not for me and not for my sheep. I am afraid of what the Hopi BIA will do to me.”

Last winter 13 armed BIA and Hopi police confiscated Rena Babbitt Lane’s horse from her corral. She has a heart condition, wears a pace maker and has sustained broken fingers by BIA Rangers in the past, including being thrown in an impoundment trailer with enough force the gate to shut on her back. She used to have a house but the Hopi Rangers destroyed it and put a barbed wire fence in denying her access. Rangers and police have also confiscated her wood and truck carrying wood.

Please call the Hopi BIA Area Agency, Wendell Honannie, Acting Superintendent, U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Hopi Agency. Phone: (520) 738-2249

Tell them to stop committing elder abuse. Water is a right not a privilege.

For anyone thinking of coming to Big Mountain to support the elders, please contact me by e-mail.

Thank you for your support,

Yours sincerely,

Marsha Monestersky,
Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation
E-mail: dinetah29@aol.com