The Bennett Freeze
The Bennett Freeze refers to a policy that froze development on a large swath of land in the state of Arizona. Named for then-Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Robert L. Bennett, The Bennett Freeze was enacted in 1966 due to a longstanding land dispute between the Hopi and Navajo Native American tribes. It affected an area of 1.6 million acres and approximately 8,000 Navajo people who live in the disputed area. Lasting for 40 years, the freeze was lifted in 2006 due to an agreement that was signed by the Hopi and Navajo Nations. In 2009, Congress formally repealed The Bennett Freeze (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Public_Law_111-18).
The legacy of the Bennett Freeze still looms over the region and deeply affects the day-to-day lives of its residents. In testimony before Congress, Nelson Gorman, Jr., Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, likened it to "the deplorable conditions approximating those found only in underdeveloped third world countries.[1]
Creation of the Navajo Reservation
The Bennett Freeze has its origins as far back as the late 1800s, when the Navajo (who call themselves the Diné) tribe was at war with the US army. During the 1860s the Kit Carson Campaign sought to end traditional Navajo way of life through a scorched earth policy . After their defeat and subsequent internment at Fort Sumner in New Mexico, the Navajo signed a treaty with the US government in 1868 which granted them a large piece of land in present-day New Mexico and Arizona. This land and other additions throughout the years became the Navajo Reservation.
In 1882, President Chester A. Arthur created an area of land designated for the Hopi tribe that was entirely within the boundaries of the previously-allotted Navajo Reservation. It was decided the Hopi allotment would be a rectangle framed by lines of latitude and longitude, exactly one degree by one degree, and it left out the significant Hopi village of Moenkopi.
Despite the legal uncertainties of property ownership in the overlapping portions of Hopi and Navajo land, the two tribes co-existed without incident for many decades to come. The sparsely-populated nature of the land in dispute and the differing traditional ways of life of the two tribes kept resource conflicts to a minimum.
The Mining Era
The land that makes up the Navajo Reservation contains rich deposits of coal and uranium. Generally considered barren rangeland at the time of its creation, the subterranean mineral richness of the area was not fully known or appreciated when the Navajo Reservation was first allotted by the US government.
In 1919, a mining consortium became interested in the coal potential of the western portion of the Navajo Nation. Suddenly, the uncertain nature of land ownership and the rights associated with it became a major issue.
With the advent of the Atomic Age in the 1940s and the subsequent onset of the Cold War, uranium mining on the Navajo Nation began. This has left a legacy of high cancer rates and other adverse health impacts, such as tainted wells and aquifers, that is still affecting the current residents of the area.
References
- Ward Churchill. Land Rights Reader: Struggle for the Land. Common Courage, 1993.
- Four Corners Sustainable Futures Initiative: Phase I Preliminary Report. Northern Arizona University, 2011.
- http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Public_Law_111-18
- http://www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/BIA/index.htm