O’Halleran Introduces Bill to Amend Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974, Address Former Bennett Freeze Area

WASHINGTON-On Friday, Congressman Tom O'Halleran (AZ-01) introduced H.R. 6141-legislation to make technical amendments to the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974-to restore federal obligations from the original settlement act to account for impacts of the relocation on Navajo relocatees while also advancing tribal sovereignty, authorizing critical funding, and expanding rehabilitation activities in the former "Bennett Freeze" development area. The bill will invest in the region by ensuring that adequate housing and related community facilities and services, such as utilities, roads, schools, and healthcare facilities, are available at relocation sites.

In 1974, Congress passed the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act to address a land dispute between the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe. Regrettably, the Act not only required division of the disputed lands, but that citizens of one tribe, living on the other tribe's lands, would have to relocate. This poorly-handled relocation process caused large-scale social, economic, and cultural disruption and hardship.

In an effort to resolve another dispute, in 1966, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Bennett imposed a development freeze on the western side of the Navajo Reservation that lasted for 40 years. The freeze devastated a 1.6-million-acre area encompassing nine Navajo chapters. Navajos in these areas were either trapped in poverty or effectively forced to leave their lands to find employment and decent housing.

"The relocation of thousands of Navajo families caused generations-long problems and has hamstrung growth and economic development of entire swaths of sovereign lands," said O'Halleran. "It's incumbent upon the federal government to live up to its promises to these families to right these wrongs and to provide social services, infrastructure, and acceptable housing. I am proud to introduce my legislation to address deficiencies in the current relocation law and to provide for a focused, commonsense effort to fulfill these promises."

O'Halleran's bill

• requires the Secretary of Interior to conduct a comprehensive study of the social, economic, cultural, and other impacts of the relocation and federal development freezes and submit a report to Congress within 6 months;
• allows any Navajo families who signed agreements allowing them to remain on Hopi-partitioned land to relinquish those agreements, if they so choose, and receive relocation benefits;
• corrects a surveying error, resulting in the Navajo Nation unintentionally selecting 757 more acres of land than it had intended, reducing the amount the Nation has left to select under the relocation act, and would authorize the Commissioner to carry out a rehabilitation program in the Former Bennett Freeze Area for housing construction and renovation, and initiatives for infrastructure improvements and economic development
• encourages development and streamlines the regulatory process by authorizing the Navajo Nation to waive certain Federal laws, while keeping in place their Navajo equivalents, for the limited purposes of renewable energy, housing, public and community facilities, infrastructure, and related economic development.

View the full text of the bill here.

Support for the legislation:

President Jonathan Nez, Navajo Nation:

"For generations, Navajo people have faced hardships caused by the forced relocation from our ancestral lands in northwest Arizona. This sad legacy disrupted the way of life for nearly 16,000 Navajo citizens, including many elders, and separated them from their ancestral homelands - forever changing their quality of life. Our people relocated to other communities in accordance with federal promises of adequate housing, social services, and infrastructure that have yet to be fulfilled. Congressman O'Halleran has long recognized the sacrifices of our people and the Federal obligations through the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974. H.R. will finally set the federal government on the path of fulfilling these long-awaited promises. We stand united with Congressman O'Halleran in support of this bill as a matter of fundamental justice for the Navajo Nation."

Chairman Otto Tso, Navajo Hopi Land Commission of the Navajo Nation Council:

"The forced relocation of Navajo individuals and families off our ancestral lands is a black stain on American history. It has seeped through the generations to leave its mark on relocatees' children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who are being raised apart from their sacred sites in sub-standard housing in areas that lack basic infrastructure, facilities, and services. Development constraints impair economic development that, when coupled with the ongoing absence of adequate community resources, have all but locked relocatees and their descendants into poverty. All of this has been so much worse by generations-long construction freezes, such as the former Bennett Freeze. Congress must act now to alleviate this intergenerational suffering and scrub this stain clean. This legislation introduced by Rep. O'Halleran begins this process of healing through much needed concrete action and policy change."

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