Land Base Formation Timeline
- Dinétah - Ancestral homelands
- Hwéeldi - The Long Walk
- Treaty Land 1868
- Executive Order Land 1878-1917
- Congressional Ban 1919
- Aneth Extension, Utah 1933
- Eastern Checkerboard 1887-1934
- Arizona Boundary Act 1934
- McCracken Mesa, Utah 1958
- Navajo Partitioned Lands & New Lands
- Ramah Navajo 1957
- Satellite Communities
- Tribal Ranches
- Land Buy-Back Program
Dinétah – Ancestral Homelands
Dinétah, the ancestral homeland of the Diné people between the Sacred Mountains, has the literal translation: Among the People. Dinétah encompasses a large area of northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, and northeastern Arizona generally marked by sacred peaks corresponding to the four cardinal directions — Hesperus Mountain to the north, Blanca Peak to the east, Mt. Taylor to the south, and San Francisco Peaks to the west. There are two other sacred peaks–Governador Knob where Changing Woman came into being, which is the heart of Dinétah but lies outside the federally-established reservation; and Huerfano Mountain Dził Náʼoodiłii, the home of Áłtsé Hastiin (First Man) and Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́ (First Woman). Dinétah is the place of emergence, where the Twins played, a blessing from the Holy People. The traditional perspective is that human beings are one with this land, the earth, there is no distinction. This singleness of being was permanently interrupted by the great rounding up, the Long Walk, mass death, prolonged imprisonment, and destruction of social order during Hwéeldi.
Hwéeldi – The Long Walk
Beginning in fall and winter of 1863, the United States Cavalry marched through Navajo Country attacking and killing Diné at their camps, slaughtering livestock, burning hogans and crops, and virtually destroying any property and food supply the people would need to survive. Diné elders describe it as t’aa altso anaa’ silii’ (when existence of every living being was under attack). Approximately 8,500 starving and freezing Diné surrendered over several months and were death-marched on foot in four separate large groups and a number of smaller ones for over 400 miles to a barren reservation established for them at Fort Sumner (called Hweeldi) in eastern New Mexico. There, the Diné were imprisoned in indiscriminate groups and without shelter under military guard from winter 1863 to June 1868. At least 2,000 Diné died at Fort Sumner, not counting those who perished during the forced march.
Fort Sumner is synonymous with misery, starvation, disease, and death to the Diné people. Survivors were released when the Navajo Treaty was signed on June 1, 1868, guaranteeing that the Diné will remain a distinct people and a sovereign nation, in return for the people agreeing to live on a fraction of their ancestral lands, Dinétah. The land base designated as reservation by the Treaty (Treaty lands) is basically viewed as the federal government taking traditional lands and putting on paper a small part of what already belonged to the Diné people.
Treaty Land 1868
The Navajo Treaty of June 1, 1868 established the official Navajo Nation reservation which ended Hwéeldi, the five years-long imprisonment at Bosque Redondo. In Treaty negotiations, the tribe had rejected 3 other choices: to disband, to be resettled in lower Canada and Arkansas, or be given country west of the Rio Grande. The signed Treaty established the reservation in a small 5,200 sq. mile area surrounding Ft. Defiance, Chinle, Many Farms and Shiprock in exchange for the tribe surrendering rights to all other parts of Dinétah, the ancestral homeland. This initial piece of land is represented in the design of the Navajo Nation’s flag by a dark-brown rectangle. (Over the next century, the reservation would incrementally grew to more than 27,000 sq. miles by executive order and Acts of Congress).
The borders were defined at Article II of the Treaty as:
the following district of country, to wit: bounded on the north by the 37th degree of north latitude, south by an east and west line passing through the site of old Fort Defiance, in Canon Bonito, east by the parallel of longitude which, if prolonged south, would pass through old Fort Lyon, or the Ojo-de-oso, Bear Spring, and west by a parallel of longitude about 109º 30′ west of Greenwich, provided it embraces the outlet of the Canon-de-Chilly [Canyon de Chelly], which canyon is to be all included in this reservation, shall be, and the same hereby, set apart for the use and occupation of the Navajo tribe of Indians, and for such other friendly tribes or individual Indians as from time to time they may be willing, with the consent of the United States, to admit among them; and the United States agrees that no persons except those herein so authorized to do, and except such officers, soldiers agents, and employees of the Government, or of the Indians, as may be authorized to enter upon Indian reservations in discharge of duties imposed by law, or the orders of the President, shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in, the territory described in this article.
No physical boundaries or signposts were set in place. Many Diné remained or moved near the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers, on Naatsisʼáán (Navajo Mountain).
“Trust Responsibility”
While “trust land” is commonly understood as referring to the Treaty Reservation as later expanded by Executive Order and by Congress, the word “trust” does not appear in the 1868 Treaty. In the Treaty, the federal government took lands it wanted, set aside reservation lands, and guaranteed that the federal government would respect the sovereignty of the Tribe, would protect the Tribe, and would provide for the well-being of the Tribe. It made similar promises in treaties with almost 400 other tribes. The U.S. Supreme Court noted that the federal government could not just walk away from Treaty promises after taking land it wanted and, essentially, confining tribal people. The U.S. Supreme Court held that all these treaties created a special relationship between tribes and the federal government that obligates the government to keep its end of the bargain. This principle, that the federal government has a duty to keep its word and fulfill its treaty commitments, is known as the doctrine of trust responsibility. The purpose behind the trust doctrine is and always has been to ensure the survival and welfare of Indian tribes and people. This includes an obligation to provide those services required to protect and enhance tribal lands, resources, and self-government, and also includes those economic and social programs which are necessary to raise the standard of living and social well-being of the Indian people to a level comparable to the non-Indian society. Federal courts have recognized that when Congress delegates to federal officials the power to control or manage tribal land, their actions with respect to those resources must be “judged by the most exacting fiduciary standards.” Seminole Nation v. U.S. (1942).
Executive Order Land 1878-1917
The below executive orders (E.O.s) issued by U.S. Presidents between 1878-1918 expanded the Treaty reservation without involvement of Congress. The E.O.s include both increases and eliminations of the land base over time. The 1882 E.O. withdrew land for the “use” of Hopi and other tribes, and did not formally add to the reservation land base. The solid red areas, plus the 1868 Treaty land, are collectively referred to as the original Big Reservation:
1878 – Extended western boundary 20 miles into Arizona by adding 957,917 acres. (Rutherford B. Hayes, Oct 29). This added grazing land, and rich farmland in the Chinle valley.
1880 – Extended eastern, southern and western boundaries by adding 996,403 acres in Arizona and New Mexico. (Rutherford B. Hayes, Jan 6).
1882 – Designated a 70 x 55 mile, 2.5 million acre reservation in northern Arizona for the Hopi Tribe and “such other Indians as the Secretary may see fit to settle thereon” extending from the Navajo reservation’s western boundary (Chester Arthur, Dec 16) partly in order to end local opposition to Indian boarding schools. This added no land formally to the Navajo land base. However, from its inception, this new reservation was jointly used by Hopi and Navajo communities but controlled by neither. The area became highly disputed, resulting in the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement.
1884 – Extended Navajo reservation in northern Arizona and southeastern part of Utah south of the San Juan River by 2,373,870 acres, but eliminate 36,723 acres near Shiprock south of the San Juan River (Chester Arthur, May 17). The addition included the 431,160 acre Pauite Strip in southern Utah and was apparently an effort to contain Mormon settlement of land with agricultural and mineral potential. The decrease near Shiprock meant loss of community water access for herds.
1886 – Restored 36,723 acres near Shiprock south of the San Juan River to the Navajo reservation. (Grover Cleveland, April 24).
1887 – Large decreases in the Navajo land base by Executive Order occurred as a result of the Dawes General Allotment Act. Although enacted by Congress, the Dawes Act is historically mentioned as an initiative of the President and, in fact, expanded Presidential powers over Indian affairs, authorizing the President to subdivide tribal communal landholdings into allotments for Native American heads of families and individuals. Applied on a tribe-by-tribe basis over an extended period, it resulted in withdrawals of reservation land for both allotments and public sale by the federal government. (Some of the Navajo land decreases by Executive Order were later restored by Congress via the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934).
1892 – Eliminated from the reservation the 431,160 acre Pauite Strip (Benjamin Harrison, Nov 19). This decrease favored white gold prospectors, but gold fever soon died out.
1900 – Withdrew “from sale and allotment” 1,575,379 acres west of the 1882 Executive Order Reservation without specifically adding the area to the Navajo reservation (William McKinley, Jan 6). This eliminated rangeland competition from white settlers. The area was placed under the Western Navajo Agency and later in 1934 was confirmed by Congress as part of the Navajo reservation.
1901 – Withdrew 419,622 acres southwest of the 1882 Executive Order Reservation “from sale and settlement until such time the Indians residing thereon shall have settled permanently under the provisions of the homestead laws or the general allotment act.” (Theodore Roosevelt, Nov 14).
1905 – Cancellation of lands recently set apart for the Navajo reservation in Utah (Theodore Roosevelt, May 15).
1907 – Extended Navajo reservation by adding 3,000,000 acres in the Wide Ruins area south of Ganado, Arizona, and Crownpoint-Chaco-Hosta Butte area in New Mexico. (Theodore Roosevelt, Nov 9).
1908 – Decreased Navajo reservation by 1,800,000 acres to correct boundary mistake with Jicarilla Apache Reservation (Theodore Roosevelt, Jan 28). Decrease by withdrawing lands in New Mexico added in 1907, including eliminating certain unalloted lands except 110 unapproved allotments. (Theodore Roosevelt, Dec 30). This was in response to NM statehood, white settlers and rumors of rich oil deposits in the NM area. Separately, the Paiute Strip was again withdrawn for “use of various Indians” and placed under the Western Navajo Agency until 1922, but would not be part of the Navajo reservation again until 1933 by Act of Congress.
1911 – Eliminated from Navajo reservation all lands not allotted to Indians that had been added in 1907-8. (William H. Taft, Jan 16). Note: When former reservation areas were opened up for settlement, Navajos began swiftly taking allotments, resulting in greater competition with white settlers who began exerting local pressure to successfully block or delay most Indian attempts at acquiring allotments.
1912 – Restored to Navajo reservation areas in New Mexico previously eliminated from the reservation in 1911 excluding Zuni national forest. (William H. Taft, Feb 17).
1913 – Extended Navajo reservation by adding land in Arizona east of the Gila and Salt River Meridian, and land in New Mexico west of NM Principal Meridian (William H. Taft, Feb 10).
1917 – Extended Navajo reservation in Coconino County, Arizona by adding 94,000 acres including the Gray Mountain area (Woodrow WIlson, May 7).
1923 – The Indian Service in the Dept. of Interior (now called the BIA) established the first Navajo Tribal Council “to help meet the increasing desires of American oil companies to lease Navajoland for exploration,” according to the Navajo Nation tribal govt’s history website.
Congressional Ban 1919
By general legislation in 1919, later specifically affirmed on March 3, 1927, Congress banned further Indian reservation expansion by the President by precluding the enlargement of any Indian reservation from the public domain except by Act of Congress. In 1934, to reverse harmful effects of allotments, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18 (Wheeler-Howard Act) providing the Secretary of the interior limited powers to purchase additional lands or proclaim new Indian reservations.
Thus began the modern extensive era of congressional power over Indian lands and congressional legislation on Indian affairs. Congress has added to the Navajo Nation land base incrementally and significantly, imposing conditions, and using powers and justifications through enacted laws based on Congressional votes and findings.
Aneth Extension 1933
On March 1, 1933, the Aneth Extension, a very small strip of land located in southeastern Utah, was added to the Navajo Reservation with royalty-sharing terms between the Tribe and Utah. See Act of March 1, 1933, ch. 160, 47 Stat. 1418, 1418-19 (as amended by Pub. L. No. 90-306, 82 Stat. 121 (1968)). At the time an oil prospecting area, the Aneth Extension now has heavy oil industry development. Also permanently added was the 431,160 acre Pauite Strip.
Special Conditions:
Under the 1933 Act and a 1968 amendment, the State of Utah would serve as trustee of the Utah Navajo Trust in which 37.5% of all oil and gas royalties from the area would be placed and out of which the State of Utah has a fiduciary or trust responsibility to use to provide for the health, education, and general welfare of Navajos residing in the Aneth Extension and throughout San Juan County, Utah. (The Navajo Nation treasury takes 62.5%). Between 1960-1990, Utah received $61 million in royalties but has not been able to account for $51 million. In spite of this, Utah Navajos have tried to ensure that the State of Utah, not the Navajo Nation, continues to control and administer the trust out of fear that the Tribe would spend few dollars on Utah Navajos. Largely Mormon, area Navajos are a minority within and have unique cultural and political experiences from other Navajo Nation areas. They are the most impoverished residents in Utah and the Navajo Nation.
Eastern Checkerboard 1887-1934
In 1887, the Dawes General Allotment Act was enacted by Congress as an initiative of the President that expanded Presidential powers over Indian affairs, authorizing the President to subdivide tribal communal landholdings into allotments for Native American heads of families and individuals. Applied on a tribe-by-tribe basis over an extended period, it resulted in withdrawals of reservation land for both allotments and public sale by the federal government. After the Meriam Report revealed the shocking conditions on reservations resulting from allotments, on June 18, 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18 (Wheeler-Howard Act or IRA) curtailed the future allotment of tribal communal lands to individuals and provided for the return of “surplus” lands to the tribes rather than to homesteaders. The IRA extended limits on the sale of American Indian lands, and authorized the Dept. of the Interior to purchase additional lands or proclaim new Indian reservations.
Funds were authorized for the establishment of a revolving credit program for tribal land purchases, for educational assistance, and for aiding tribal organization. The IRA is the foundational document for federal rules and regulations concerning Indian affairs and tribal management of land and mineral assets. It imposes upon the DOI a duty to carry out conservation policies in exercise of statutory functions respecting Indian land. Critically, the IRA directs the DOI to prevent overgrazing and make regulations to restrict livestock to the estimated range carrying capacity.
The IRA slowed the practice of allotting communal tribal lands to individual tribal members, but did not restore to tribes land that had already been allotted to Indians or sold by the federal government to homesteaders, railroads and other entities. Between 1930-34, over 150 allotments had been given out to individual Navajos. However, much land at the time was still unallotted or was allotted to an individual but still held in trust for that tribal member by the federal government. The IRA did allow the U.S. to purchase some of the fee land previously withdrawn from the reservation and restore it to tribal trust status.
Because the IRA did not otherwise disturb existing private ownership of Indian reservation lands while restoring unallotted land to trust status, it left reservations as a checkerboard of tribal or individual trust and fee land. This remains the highly problematic case today in the Eastern Navajo Agency. There remains 210,100 acres of individual Indian allotments across 17 Navajo Nation Chapters in the Eastern Agency checkerboard area. The original 150 allotments has grown to over 4,000 today due to fractionation. Due to heavy oil industry presence in the area, high friction exists today between allottees (who own mineral rights), private landowners, and Big Reservation communities.
Special Conditions:
The allotment trust lands are managed by the BIA as “individually-owned” trust lands subject to unique regulations. See Note on Allotments.
Arizona Boundary Act 1934
On June 14, 1934 Congress enacted the Arizona Boundary Act that set the boundaries of the reservation in Arizona and added 1,000,000 acres to the reservation’s southern boundaries and over on the Little Colorado River. Adding no conditions, this simply added land to the Big Reservation.
McCracken Mesa 1958
In 1958, approximately 51,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands at McCracken Mesa in southern Utah became part of the Navajo Nation pursuant to the Navajo-U.S. Land Exchange Act (Pub. L. No. 85-868, 72 Stat. 1686), in exchange for tribal lands in Glen Canyon for construction of Glen Canyon Dam as part of the Colorado River Storage Project. McCracken Mesa is historically part of the Utah Navajos relocation along the San Juan River in the 1950s. It is a tiny community in a desolate region with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) only beginning electrical install in 2017.
Special Conditions:
PL 85-868 contains specific instructions and guidelines for residential and land use rights on McCracken Mesa that do not apply on Big Reservation trust land. The Navajo Nation Council has enacted procedures implementing PL 85-868 at 16 N.N.C. 1601. Mineral rights and all royalties are retained by the State of Utah.
Navajo Partitioned Lands & New Lands
In 1974, Congress passed the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act (Relocation Act) to avert what it feared was an imminent inter-tribal war over the 2.5 million acre 1882 Executive Order Reservation which, from its inception, was settled by both Navajo and Hopi communities but controlled by neither tribe. In 1934, 700,000 acres of grazing range (District 6) within this area had been set aside exclusively for Hopi use under the Indian Reorganization Act. In 1962, a federal district court in Arizona ruled in Healing vs. Jones that both tribes would have joint and equal rights to the 1882 area outside District 6, known as the Joint Use Area, and ordered creation of a joint use plan. When no joint use plan was created, Congress intervened with the Relocation Act.
The land use terms of the Relocation Act are more strict than general federal and tribal lease and permit management laws. Lands taken into trust for the Navajo Nation under the Act must be used solely for the benefit of Navajo relocatees that at the time of the Act’s enactment had been residing on lands partitioned to the Hopi. A 2012 report of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission observed that the Act appeared “structured to allow corporate mining companies to exploit valuable subsurface minerals,” including coal mines that have depleted the Navajo Aquifer, the only source of drinking water to 50,000 Diné people in 14 communities in Black Mesa.
Navajo Partitioned Lands
The Relocation Act carved out a 900,000 acre Navajo Partitioned Lands (NPL)(Dził Yijiin) out of the Joint Use Area. The relocation of thousands of Navajos from the Hopi partitioned area (HPL) created such hardships that it has come to be known among Diné as the Second Long Walk. Lawsuits were subsequently filed by Navajo families in the HPL and the Hopi Tribe. In 1996, Congress passed the Navajo-Hopi Accommodation Agreement which gave $50.2 million to the Hopi tribe to drop its lawsuits, and required the remaining 250 Navajo families in the HPL to sign 75-year leases, called Accommodation Agreements, or be evicted. Pub. L. No. 104-301, 110 Stat. 3649 (1996).
Special Conditions:
Residents of the Navajo Partitioned Lands are restricted by federal grazing regulations specific to their area, managed by the BIA-Navajo Region. See Navajo Partitioned Lands Grazing Regulations, 25 CFR 161. NPL residents also deal with decades of stalled infractructure development, lack of water, and residual environmental harms left behind by closed mining companies.
New Lands, Nahata Dził
The Relocation Act also created the 352,000 acre New Lands (Nahata Dził) along the Arizona part of the AZ-NM border to the south of the Navajo Nation, and ordered the relocation of Navajos living on Hopi land.
Evolved Conditions:
Relocatees in the New Lands (Nahata Dził), along the Arizona part of the AZ-NM border, benefit from planned ranching communities restricted only to relocatees and their families and descendants, with the ONHIR having authority to build homes, and support local beef and industry through independent issuance of leases.
Special Note:
Office of Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation (ONHIR)
the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act (Relocation Act) further created a 3-member relocation commission to administer the Act. In 1988, the relocation commission was abolished and the Office of Navajo Hopi Indian Relocation (ONHIR) was established in its place as a separate administrative program governed directly by the Relocation Act. The ONHIR’s unique existence and funding stream has had large consequences reservation-wide, both positive and negative.
ONHIR is separate from the BIA and answerable directly to Congress. For decades, ONHIR administered lands taken into trust under the Relocation Act for the Navajo Nation. It has been allocated immense funds (estimated $300 million) for relocation. In July 1990, ONHIR issued procedures for the leasing of New Lands, including homesite and business leases. As of 2018, ONHIR had 31 employees in 3 offices in Flagstaff, Sanders and Chambers, AZ.
Special Conditions:
While sometimes called the “BIA Phoenix office” by NPL residents, the ONHIR has no relation to the BIA and lacks BIA internal control standards. It has greater independent power and none of the BIA’s budgetary and oversight constraints. Its newness, independence, and immense budget has given the ONHIR unmatched regional influence and presence. For many years, the ONHIR displaced the BIA as the go-to office for funding for capital projects in return for a chapter’s approval of some homestes for a relocatee.To encourage existing chapters to receive relocatees, the Act heavily funded chapter infrastructure development, and ONHIR technical advisors drafted lease templates for the chapter’s use for the relocatees. Due to the trust placed in the ONHIR as a federal entity able to provide infrastructure funding without undue red tape, Navajo Nation chapters have advocated for its continued operations even though the ONHIR itself has asked for termination due to fulfillment of its mission.
Evolved Conditions–Unnecessary prohibition against keeping livestock on homesites across the reservation
To discourage relocatees from remaining on the Big Reservation where every land not used was considered “customary land” belonging to someone, the Relocation Act prohibited the raising of ivestock for relocatees who chose to relocate to existing Navajo Nation chapters on the Big Reservation.
The ONHIR drafted template homesite lease forms for chapter use for the relocatees limiting homsites to one acre and prohibiting livestock. Over time, these form s were used for all homesite leases, even for homesites of families who long lived in the area. Officials began applying the Navajo-Hope Land Settlement pohibition against livestock and limitig size of homesites, to everyone, and not just relocatees. Soon, it was forgotten that the forms originated from he ONHIR to implement a particular provision only for a small group. The forms soon came to be used reservation-wide for everyone, under a general impression that they are required by law, and that land shortage is severe.
Ramah Navajo 1957
is named for a valley south of Gallup, NM to the west of the Zuni Pueblo, “Ramah” being the name given to the area by Mormon settlers in the late 1800s. Diné have lived in the area for several hundred years and call it “Tłochiin” (wild onion). It is part of the Diné ancestral homeland but not included in the small initial Navajo reservation in 1868. After Hwéeldi, seven Diné families returned to this area rather than submit to reservation confinement. They were vulnerable to hostile Anglo settlers who pushed them off fertile areas. A cohesive band dedicated to create their own land base in Tłochiin, present-day Ramah is a checkerboard of different status lands. Its first titled land was individual allotments, later converted to trust allotments. In 1944, Picuris and Pojoaque Pueblos purchased 60,000 acres of railroad land grant and leased them to Ramah. In the 1950s, the Navajo Nation purchased the leased land for Ramah. In the 1980s, Congress enacted Pub. L. 96-333 and Pub. L. 97-434 setting aside 18,192 acres of federal trust land for Ramah. Later, privately donated land passed to Ramah through the BIA and the band also purchased fee land. Ramah is heavily checkerboarded. The final checkerboard comprises individual trust allotments, Ramah Band trust land, Navajo Nation fee land, Ramah Chapter fee land, NM state trust land and private fee land across 154,000 acres for its 3,500 members.
In addition to land base, Ramah has pursued securing services for its members, relying first on the DOI Indian Service in Crownpoint serving the Eastern Navajo Agency but distance/access were issues. More readily linked were the 19 pueblos that collectively were the United Pueblo Agency. In 1942, Ramah became part of this Agency, then part of the Zuni Agency. On Oct 31, 1957, Ramah joined the Navajo Nation’s 110 chapter system.
Dissatisfaction with both tribal and federal services continued. In 1972, Ramah attained status as a stand-alone Ramah Navajo Agency served by the BIA Southwest Regional Office in Albuquerque, a status endorsed by the Navajo Nation Council in 1995 in resolution CJY-61-94, which also recognized Ramah’s authority to independently contract with the BIA. Contracting directly with the BIA Southwest Office, in 1970 the Ramah Navajo School Board (RNSB) began 638 contracting for schools, and in 1984 the Ramah Navajo Chapter began locally governing its natural resources/agriculture, capital improvement, and most recently Roads Maintenance also as 638 programs. Ramah is recognized as a “tribal governing body.” BIA-Southwest directly operates Forestry. The Navajo Nation funds Ramah chapter services and operates the Ramah court. Ramah is its own “service unit” under the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Service.
Difference from Big Reservation:
Ramah is its own Agency served by BIA-Southwest in Albuquerque, entirely separate from the 5 Navajo Nation Agencies served by the BIA-Navajo Region in Gallup. Regarding land, it is able to independently contract and diversity land governance across its various land areas, including making full use of economic tools provided by the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, and self-determination tools from “going 638” through the RNSB. A point of contention since 2006 has been land use management of the 60,000 land grant acres purchased for Ramah by the Navajo Nation which is covered under Navajo Nation land use management regulations authorized by Congress under the Navajo Trust Land Leasing Act of 2000, which duplicate the federal leasing system but imposes further layers of tribal “red tape.”
Satellite Communities
To’Hajiilee (Canoncito) 1925
The DOI-Indian Service appears to have treated the Cañoncito Band of Navajo Indians (now To’Hajiilee) as a self-negotiating band, off and on, for years without formal acknowledgement. In 1925, Congress passed Pub. L. 68-550 allowing 40 acres west of Seboyta, NM to be “permanently withdrawn for the use and benefit of Navajo Indians residing in that immediate vicinity,” who were the Cañoncito Band. Upon this enactment, the Cañoncito area became non-contiguous “satellite” land to the Big Reservation and Cañoncito became a Navajo Nation Chapter. In 1949 following a lawsuit filed by three Cañoncito families, allotments were placed into trust which expanded To’Hajiilee to its current size of 76,000 acres in the Mt. Taylor region 30 miles west of Albuquerque. To’Hajiilee’s mixed Navajo/Pueblo bloodlines, great distance from the Big Reservation and separate histories has long created a sense of difference from the Big Reservation. It has been in the region since 1580 and has also been variously referred to as “Cebolleta (little onion) Navajos” and Diné Ana’í (renegade or enemy Navajo), who independently signed a treaty with Spain in 1786 and attempted a treaty with the U.S. in 1858. Band members were rounded up during Hwéeldi, after which they chose to return to their homeland. When they found it occupied by others, the band members migrated east to their present area.
In 2000, Cañoncito changed its name to To’Hajiilee which means “Where they pull the water up and it keeps refilling itself.” It also became a certified Local Governance Act (LGA) Chapter governed like other Navajo Nation chapters. It runs “638 contract” programs including a band-chartered school board and health clinic. It has little business development, and critically insufficient water for its 2,400 members (5 of 6 wells having failed). A water pipeline for To’Hajiilee is being pursued by the Navajo Nation. The extent of lands other than tribal trust lands in this satellite community is unclear.
Alamo 1968
Alamo is a community of 2,000 members on 63,000 acres located 220 miles east of Window Rock and 140 miles southwest from Albuquerque. The poorest Indian community in the United States, it received electricity in 1967, a paved road in 1982, and telephone service in 1987. Oral history has them settling in the area after release from Hwéeldi. While never formally acknowledging Alamo as a band, the DOI-Indian Service placed the Alamo Band of Navajo Indians in the Southern Pueblo Agency until 1968, when it was transferred to the Eastern Navajo Agency. It then became a Navajo Nation chapter.
The Alamo Navajo School Board, Inc. (ANSB), created in 1979 as a 638 contract program, represented the political birth of Alamo, with ANSB and Alamo Chapter now administering five 638 programs including natural resources. Alamo has no congressionally recognized boundaries and no water or mineral rights. 1948 Socorro County records show the majority of surface land belonging to the Alamo Navajo Band and the U.S. Government by warranty deed. In 1982, the NM Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources reported the reservation as 54% Alamo Band land, 25% Indian trust allotments, 7% “Navajo Nation-owned” land, and 14% private non-Indian land. Ownership records maintained by BLM, Forestry Service, and tribal records are conflicting.
Tribal Ranches
After the federal government began recommending that the Tribe lease ranch lands off reservation to accommodate growing livestock herds, in 1954 the Navajo Nation enacted tribal land acquisition processes, amended in 2016. Between 1957-65, the Tribe purchased 8 ranches. The Navajo Nation now owns or has grazing rights to about 1.5 million acres of ranch land off the reservation which are private lands for which the tribe pays state property taxes. Navajo ranchers may lease the ranches for use only and are not allowed to live on them. Funds for land purchases are generated through the Navajo Nation’s Land Acquisition Trust Fund established in 1993. Each year, the Nation invests two-percent of its annual revenues to the trust fund to acquire properties to expand the Nation’s land base.
Land Buy Bank Program 2016
STUB: some 149,524 acres of land were returned by the Department of Interior to the Navajo Nation for tribal communal use.