Navajo resister exclusion hearing postponed indefinitely

KYKOTSMOVI—The ongoing exclusion hearing for a Navajo residing on Hopi reservations land has been postponed indefinitely, due to ill health of the prosecutor's mother.

"We don't know when the hearings will begin again, as [Hopi Tribal Prosecutor] Scott Canty's mother is very sick and he has left Hopiland to be with her," Hopi tribal spokesperson Eugene Kaye explained. "It's all up in the air."

Proceedings against long-time Navajo relocation resister Kee Shay have been ongoing since the end of May. Kee Shay spends time between the Navajo partitioned lands of the 1882 Hopi Executive Order Reservation and the Hopi partitioned lands.

The Hopi Tribe maintains that Kee Shay is illegally occupying Hopi land, as he has refused to sign an Accommodation Agreement supported by both the Hopi and the Navajo tribal governments.

The Exclusion hearing is the latest development in a long series of legal battles, federal orders and Congressional actions involving the 1882 Hopi Executive Order Reservation; which was partitioned by Congress in 1974 between the Hopi and Navajo tribes. The determination of exclusion could be a boost for Hopi self-determination and Indian tribal sovereignty, but may not bode well for individual Navajos unwilling to sign the Accommodation Agreement and comply with Hopi tribal authority.

The hearing started on May 22. Kee Shay is represented by Navajo Legal Advocate Reed Tso and counsel Mick Harrison. The Hearing Officer is Elbridge Coochise.