grazing permit

A young Navajo man by the name of Irv came into see me, he got back
into town late last night and dropped by. He comes from Pueblo Pintado,
somewhere near there on the Eastern side of the Navajo Reservation.
Like many he goes home on weekends to help out. He used to go quite a
bit, hauling hay, grain, fencing materials and would head out Friday at
noon and get back for work by Monday at 7 in the morning.

His father raised him, and like many of us had to make his own way,
going to Ft. Wingate to boarding school. He got a job near here and
married a girl from Smith Lake, but she was adopted out when she was
young and knows more about city life than the reservation. She will go
with him but only when she has to, but Irv goes home all the time.


I met his father and mother, they are traditional people, we camped by
one another one time, building a chaoh, shade house which we used way
up here in Utah. His father was a good man, who silversmithed until his
eyes got bad. He passed away last year. His brothers stayed with his
mother on the rez, and he would go home to check on her.


He came in and told me his brother now has the grazing permit, it is in
his name. When he got home, he found out his mother had given it to his
brother. Irv was upset, because he had left the rez to improve himself,
to get ahead and hopefully to eventually move back. No, with a surety
that one day that place would be his, since he is the eldest. He made
many pilgrimages home to help with cutting firewood, hauling hay,
taking them to town. He used to mention his brothers partied alot and
he would have help out when they got in trouble, or something was left
undone, like not enough grain for the few cows they had. He would drive
all night and drop off a few sacks and head back.


His mother told him, she gave the grazing permit to his brother, the
one who got in trouble all the time. When he got home his brother told
him, that Irv no longer had a say over anything there since he had
moved away. Irv asked his mother about this and he could not understand
it. I listened to what he had to say, the bitterness of it was thick in
his voice.


I told him, that I used to work at Navajo Land Administration and that
part of my work involved trying to resolve land disputes. You see
grazing permits are the nearest thing to a land deed there is on the
rez. So whoever controls the grazing permits controls use of the land.
The BIA maintains the permits and won't issue anymore than the 14000
allocated to the Navajo Reservation. This means that with 300,000 with
a median age of 19 that only 14,000 individuals control the use of the
land. It is the one divisive issue that makes enemies of brothers,
sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins, because the holder of the permit
can literally throw you off the land if they choose too.


Sitting at land administration where a family was disputing because a
brother who inherited the grazing permit threw his sister off the land,
even though she had a house there and had been living there for 15
years. She had to leave. We were trying to work out an arrangement
between them. When she came in, she sat down and then whipped her
brother with a piece of barbed wire. She did this because her brother
had thrown her off the land. The wounds from such a thing run deep and
last a lifetime with some disputes going back two generations.


I told Irv, that the BIA will not divide the grazing permit and it must
go to one member of the family. In this case, she had to give it
someone who is living there. It is the way it is done on the Navajo
Reservation. With so many young people out trying to get ahead, they
hope to return to their native land to live, but without some reform,
the 14,000 grazing permit ceiling creates hardship for them. The
grazing permit holder must give consent even for construction of a home
on the land.


One area that comes to mind is the Fort Defiance Veteran Cemetary, it
is full. People are being buried in the nooks and crannies. The roads
through the cemetary are now plots and there is no more room. The
adjacent grazing permit holders will not consent to the release of 5
acres to add to the cemetary. In some cases grazing permit holders are
provided compensation for use of the land, such as in the case of the
high school near Burnside Junction. The grazing permit holders family
there received paved roads, sewer, a windmill, stock watering,
pipelines and monetary compensation to buy furniture and jobs with the
school district.


I spoke to Irv about this, this young man from Pintado, he was angry
and upset. I explained that there needs to be reform to this antiquated
system, but it would take a one term Navajo President and likewise a
one term Navajo Nation Council. In past elections, I have gone to
Shiprock to the candidates forum and put this problem and question to
each of the candidates to see what there response would be. None of
them would answer it, they merely said it will take study. All this
talk did no good to Irv, he sat sourfaced in front of me. In the end he
said to me, you know it is no ones fault, but my own. I chose to leave
home, when I should have stayed and this is what I get it. I am alone
now and it is my fault.


Another family divided over land....
rustywire