<center>Letters to the Editor</center>

Editor:

Being a traditional village, the village of Mishongnovi values the Hopi way of life and respect the prophecies of our Hopi elders who have gone on before us.

The By-Laws of the Hopi Constitution mandates that the representatives, “shall inform the people of their villages of the matters discussed and the actions taken, and they shall fairly and truly represent the people of their villages.” We do not believe this is the case today. Having said this we point out that from 1943 to 1955, the only Hopi government which existed was the traditional village government. and. even prior to the existence of the constitution. the traditional village government survived. We insert here the following from a report made to the Hopi Kikmongwis and Other Traditional Leaders, made by the Indian Law Resource Center in March of 1979.

“Oliver LaFarge, the founding father of the Hopi Tribal Council, reflected... in a 1950 postscript to his diary: ‘...The pattern of tribal council, decisive action, minority self-subordination, etc., simply did not suit them....Above all, no village, I think, was prepared to surrender any part of its sovereignty, or to lay aside any of its quarrels with other villages.’

“John Collier, in his memoirs, also looked back at the failure and death of the Hopi Tribal Council: ‘The work by LaFarge had and retains a particular interest. It took into account all of the institutional structures of the eleven Hopi villages or city-states. The Hopis adopted this constitution and it has never worked. The constitution conformed to the institutional structures of the Hopis, but it assumed (an unavoidable assumption, as of the date it was drawn up) that the Hopis would utilize the constitution with what may be termed an Occidental Rationality. The constitution did not take into account, and even with the deeper knowledge of later time, could not take into account...the conscious and unconscious motivations and accompanying resistances of the several diverse Hopi Societies.”

Collier claimed ignorance as the excuse for imposing the constitution and Hopi Tribal Council on the Hopi people. The Council had “never worked” because it was, in essence, a non-Hopi scheme of government.”

So here we are today with a committee that is making amendments to a constitution that is not of our doing. We further understand that the Hopi Tribal Operations Officer, who heads up this committee, is recommending that the Kikmongwis be left out of the constitution. If this happens another chain of our Hopi way of life would be broken and our traditional society would be threatened. Maybe it is time again for the villages to consider removing their representatives to make them understand that they represent and are the servants of their Hopi people within the villages that they represent, not the other way around. This is especially true for the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman who are elected by the Hopi People at large, so their responsibility is greater than the representatives, and we feel that they have lost sight of their responsibility.

The dialysis center for our Hopi People is at a standstill. Our Hopi People, who have to travel so many miles for their treatment, were looking forward to being treated right here on Hopi. The campaign of Chairman Taylor focused on this issue. The $20,000, dollars which went for the rodeo and the $15,000, dollars which went for the fourth of July fireworks, could have gone towards the dialysis center. This is but one example where the Hopi Council as a whole ignored the welfare of our Hopi People.

Although Lower Moencopi does not have representation on the council, we would urge their CSA Mr. Harrison Polelonma, to seek reimbursement from the council for the $10,000, dollars spent on drinking water. This is a matter that council should support and fund. It seems that they talk on one side of their mouth, saying that there is no money; yet on the other side somehow the money for other activities is always there.

The Councils’ voting record is also inconsistent. The votes from the representatives for the different villages are most always split. This shows that they are voting their own conscience and not the wishes of their villages. The most recent case is the action of the council wherein it returned the Office of the Vice-Chairman to its constitutional role, based upon some recommendations made by a consulting firm in Phoenix.

We believe that the Tribal Council has a duty to the Hopi People to have the representatives take the Public Sectors recommendations to their villages; or, the special committee should have gone to the villages for their purview and maybe their acceptance. This is another example of council acting on it own. If the council is finally going to abide by the Constitution, than we say that the roles of all persons named by the Constitution also be returned to their Constitutional Roles. We would ask that no more delegation of authority be given to the Chairman and that the Tribal Council, once and for all, will do its duties set forth in the Constitution. The Constitution sets forth this mechanism at Article VI, Section 1, (n) “To adopt resolutions providing the way in which the Tribal Council itself shall do its business.” We will assume that the Public Sector evaluation touched on the whole operation of the Council, not targeting the role of the Vice-Chairman.

In conclusion we want to point out that the Hopi People should have the option of continuing under a constitutional form of government or under a traditional form of government.

The Supreme Court on matters of Indian people to develop and establish their own form of self-government has been consistent in acknowledging this power. We understand that many Indian reservations or nations have selected governmental models similar to that of the United States; however, we also understand that others have chosen to retain their traditional form of government. In the court case of the Pueblo of Santa Rosa vs. Fall, the Supreme Court confirmed that tribes are not required to function under a constitutional form of government if they elect not to. Therefore, we the Hopi People have an option.

We urge and demand that no further meetings of the Constitutional Reform Committee be held until the villages have had an opportunity to decide this issue.

This letter is signed in behalf of the Mishongnovi Cultural Preservation Board by its Chairman..

Reuben Pawytewa

Chairman, Mishongnovi Cultural Preservation Board

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