The ancestral homeland of the Navajo or Diné people resides in the Southwestern portion of the United States with the bulk of the population being located in the States of New Mexico and Arizona. The estimated number of Navajo Language speakers varies widely, depending on the source referenced. The American Community Survey, conducted in 2007, placed the number of speakers at 170,717. Other estimates place the number of speakers ranging from a low of 120,000 to nearly 200,000. The Navajo Language (or Diné bizaad) remained the primary language of the Navajo-Dine until the end of the Second World War after which the fortunes of the language began to shift. The gradual decline in the number of children learning the language continued largely unabated until the 1980s when serious language preservation efforts were underaken.
Navajo or Diné bizaad is a member of the great Athabaskan family of languages, a family member of the sub-family of Na-Dené. It is one of the Southernmost members of the Athabaskan family, the majority of whose members are located in Canada and Alaska. Some linguists have posited a proto-language (unattested) which unites some Languages of the Asian Steppe, the Kartvelian Languages of the Caucauses (Georgian, Megrelian, Svan) with the Na-Dené family of languages. as well as, with the Afro-Asiatic and Indo-European language families. This supra-connection, known as the Nostratic Hypothesis (Campbell, Ivanov, Gamelkrelidze), has garnered wide attention in the realm of theoretical linguistics and is not without merit in supporting evidence drawn from the realms of archaeology, comparative theology and other cross-cultural comparisons such as burial practices.
Until contact with the Pueblo, the Diné had largely been hunter-gatherers. Following contact they began to become more sedentary, relying on sedentary, agricultural lifestyles for sustenance. Upon arrival of and contact with the Spaniards, the Diné also began to engage in herding activities, supplementing their livelihoods with the herding of both sheep and goats. The Navajo's long association with the Pueblo peoples also led to an advanced level of textile production and spinning and weaving became an integral part of Diné culture, yielding an incredibly rich set of cultural practices and traditions still manifest in contemporary society. The Diné are renowned for their rich and colorful production of material goods such as blankets, tapestries and other textiles.
The Navajo or Diné are the largest of the Federally recognized tribal affiliations in the United States, with over 300,041 members according to the last US Census. The Navajo Nation is a self-governing entity operating within the framework and geographical boundaries of the Continental United States. The first occurence of usage of a term by the Spanish to designate one of the Na-Dené Southern Athabaskan language speaking tribal groups was in 1620s. The Spanish first used Apachu de Nabajo to designate the people living in the Chama valley to the East of the San Juan river, near present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. By the 1640s the Spaniards had begun to utilize the term "Navajo" for the people inhabiting this region and they referred to their homelands as "Dinetah". During the course of the 1760s the Spanish sent the first of many military expeditions to the region.
First official contact with representatives of the Federal Government of the United States occurred in the year 1846 when a military expeditionary force during the course of the Mexican American War entered into the vicinity of Sante Fe under the command of Gen. Stephen Kearney. During the course of that same year a party of US soldiers commanded by Officer John Reid journeyed deep into Navajo country. Narbona and other Navajos negotiated a treaty with Colonel Alexander Doniphan on November 21, 1846, at Bear Springs, Ojo del Oso. In 1849, the military governor of New Mexico, Colonel John Macrae Washington led 400 soldiers into Navajo country, reaching the Canyon de Chelly, signing a treaty with two Navajo leaders.
In 1861, Brigadier-General James H. Carleton, commander of the Federal District of New Mexico, began a military campaign against the Navajo. The famed western frontiersman Kit Carson was ordered by Carleton to launch a military expedition into Navajo land and force them to outright surrender without terms. After a long and vicious campaign and facing great hardship the last of the Navajo resistance was forced to surrender at Canyon de Chelly. The survicors were taken to Fort Defiance and imprisoned on July 20, 1863. This forced removal to reservation lands and the hardships experienced along the way are remembered by the Navajo people as "The Long Walk".
As I write, I have just returned from giving offerings to the Holy Beings and the Creator up in the Ch’oo’gai Mountains near my home. I went there with my family and a guest. It was a difficult journey. It reminded me of the many difficult journeys others have taken. It also reminded me of good times people enjoyed in their journeys, as I did this time. I talked with the Holy Beings in ordinary prayer to help me discover the meaning of my particular journey, and I felt the difficulties and joy we all have. While talking with the Holy Beings, and in the presence of the Earth Surface Holy Beings (my family and guest), I thought of the many creations we exist with, and I sought to discover their existence and purpose. What was the purpose of my journey to the mountains?
ABSTRACT The Navajo Nation courts use ancient Diné (Navajo) customs and traditions or Navajo common law to decide cases. While the concepts called Navajo common law are free-flowing, communal, and egalitarian, the forum where they are used, the Navajo Nation court, is adversarial and uses adopted American court rules to strain traditional concepts to relevancy. Incorporating Navajo common law into American-styled court litigation is a difficult process. Navajo common law is rooted in Navajo philosophy, while the forum of its application is of Anglo-American design. The Navajo judges, nonetheless, have developed methods using adopted American rules of evidence, particularly the expert witness rules and the judicial notice doctrine, to bring Navajo common law into Navajo court litigation. This work focuses on three foundational Navajo doctrines, hozho (harmony, balance and peace), ke (kinship solidarity), and k’ei (clanship system), to analyze how the Navajo judges use Navajo common law to resolve legal problems. The three doctrines are first examined within the Navajo cultural context and then the case method of analysis is employed to explain how the Navajo judges engage the incorporation process. The three doctrines are not laws that can be applied to legal issues, but their derivative norms and values are applied as laws in the Navajo Nation courts.
The fundamental laws of the Diné, “the People” in the Navajo language, were placed by the Holy People long before Spaniards arrived in the New World. Since Coronado first traveled to Navajo Country almost five centuries ago, Diné have resisted European assaults on Navajo Law. On November 1, 2002, the Navajo Nation Council acknowledged the survival of the fundamental laws of the Diné, recognizing four specific constituent elements — traditional law, customary law, natural law, and common law – and explaining the principles of each. This action by the legislature follows more than two decades of conscious efforts by the Navajo Nation judiciary to apply Navajo common law in written legal opinions and to incorporate traditional Navajo dispute resolution into the judicial system. This paper examines the Council’s efforts to incorporate consuetudinary law in its written statutes in English. It is primarily descriptive, attempting to provide a Spanish audience with an understanding of Diné legal principles employed by the Navajo legislature in first attempting codification of principles of Navajo consuetudinary law.
Deshna Clah Cheschillige and many other leaders worked for the Navajo people's ability to direct their own affairs. Congress, however, did not allow the Navajo people to attain true self-determination. In fact, the federal government in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century wanted all Native people to assimilate to Western society. Today, Native nations supposedly have the ability to self-determine, yet numerous United States Supreme Court decisions have limited tribal sovereignty. So, if Native nations have limited sovereignty, how does that affect Native nationalism?Before 1923, the Navajo Nation did not have a Western political government. Since 1923, the Navajo people have been building their nation along the Western concept of a nation. What does it mean to have the Navajo Nation? How do Navajo people devote their interest to the Navajo Nation? What does Navajo nationalism look like in the twenty-first century? Should the Navajo Nation work toward self-sufficiency? National independence? Navajo society has undergone many changes in the twentieth century, and a thorough discussion of Navajo nationalism will help create a better Navajo society for the coming decades.
In this Article, Professor Donna Coker employs original empirical research to investigate the use of Navajo Peacemaking in cases involving domestic violence. Her analysis includes an examination of Navajo women's status and the impact of internal colonization. Many advocates for battered women worry that informal adjudication methods such as Peacemaking ignore domestic hierarchies of power and thus facilitate the batterer's ongoing violence against the victim. Those who endorse the use of Navajo Peacemaking and other systems of restorative justice believe that such processes are better equipped to cut through the batterer's denial and victim blaming and are more likely to marshal resources for the victim than are formal methods of adjudication. Coker argues that both formal and informal methods of adjudication should be assessed for the likelihood that they will realize change in the material and social conditions that foster battering. Coker's study of Peacemaking finds that it may be autonomy enhancing for some battered women because it effectuates such change.
I argue that RJ processes may be beneficial for some women who experience domestic violence, but only if those processes meet five criteria: prioritize victim safety over batterer rehabilitation; offer material as well as social supports for victims; work as part of a coordinated community response; engage normative judgments that oppose gendered domination as well as violence; and do not make forgiveness a goal of the process. I review my earlier study of Navajo Peacemaking in light of these criteria. I also explore the significant differences between Peacemaking and other processes that are said to be derived from Indigenous justice models, noting in particular that the process is completely controlled by the Navajo Nation.
The sovereign Navajo Nation has the authority to enact laws, apply its laws, and enforce its laws. The Navajo Nation Council enacts the laws; the Executive Branch executes those laws; and the Navajo Nation courts interpret and apply those laws. The Navajo Nation courts make up the Judicial Branch of the Navajo Nation. The Judicial Branch is one of the three branches of the Navajo Nation government. The other two branches are the Legislative Branch, made up of the Navajo Nation Council, and the Executive Branch, headed by the President of the Navajo Nation. The Judicial Branch is equal to the other two branches. The Navajo Nation operates a two-level court system: the trial courts and the Navajo Nation Supreme Court. Cases begin in the trial courts. Appeals of trial court decisions and quasi-judicial administrative bodies' decisions go to the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, which sits in Window Rock. Individuals have their rights protected and claims settled fairly in the Navajo Nation courts. The Navajo Nation courts handle over 75,000 cases per year.
The relationship among race, crime, and community is complex and multiform. Although every crime is a violation of community, 1 community concerns acquire special significance with interracial and interclass crimes where offenses can easily be seen as injuries one of you inflicted against one of us. 2 Enforcement of crime may also take on an interclass or intergenerational dimension, such as when police enforce anticruising ordinances against teenage drivers or antigraffiti laws against inner-city youth. 3 Nonenforcement can also raise class and community concerns as well, such as when the black community charges the police with lax enforcement of street crime because of subconscious racism and devaluation of black life
The Navajo Nation Álchíní Bi Bee-haz’áanii Act of 2011 was passed by the Navajo Nation Council during its fall ses-sion on October 19, 2011, with a vote of 19 in favor and none opposed. President Ben Shelly signed the act into law on October 31, 2011. The following are sections of the law that relate to the services that Nábináhaazláago Initiative offers in the field of case manage-ment and as a diversion program: Title 9. Domestic Relations. Chapter 11. Navajo Nation Children’s Code Subchapter 1. General Provisions. 9 N.N.C. § 1001 Purpose (B) To protect children by taking actions and offering programs as may be proper and necessary to prevent delinquency, incorrigibility, truancy, neglect and abuse. (E ) To seek out culturally appropriate methods for prevention, intervention and treatment of family disharmony. 9 N.N.C. § 1003 Courts; Generally. (A ) The Court is authorized to cooperate fully with any federal, state, Navajo Nation, public or private agency to participate in any diversion, rehabilitation, training, peacemaking programs and to receive grants in aid to carry out the purposes of this Chapter.
Introduction by Wallace Coffey: I would like to acknowledge all of our friends and relatives who have taken time to come and be with us. One of my good friends and colleagues and a former attorney for our Comanche tribe is here, Glen Feldman, and I know that he worked tremendously hard on the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, many times in the years back, and that's why we are going to discuss today the issues with regard to the implementation of the AIRFA. But I wanted to share with you that right after we conclude this panel, I'm going to call on my brother over there from the Ho-Chunk Nation to do a prayer and a short ceremony for Arvol Looking Horse. He just got a call that his mother is going into the hospital for back surgery. They were planning on leaving this conference and taking her up into Canada so she can participate in a ceremony, a healing ceremony, but unfortunately she had to be taken into the hospital on an emergency basis, so as Indian people, we always take time and we pray—pray to the spirits of our ancestors and through our loved ones that they will watch over and comfort his mom while she is going through this serious operation on her back. And to those of you who still have your parents, I wish you the best. I hope you have your parents—your moms and dads—for a long time
Educational and psychotherapy experiences are presented for two Native American youths incarcerated in a California Youth Authority prison treatment program. Although both were Native American and were both 16-years old, their personalities were very different, with one being very aggressive and dangerous, and the other being passive, and mostly a threat to himself. Both had educational problems, which were helped somewhat at the ungraded prison school.
Indian inmates are building their own sweat lodges for their ceremonies. "The sweat lodge is a very important and ancient practice of our indigenous people of North America," says Lenny Foster, director of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project. "It's a central part of the ceremony and provides spiritual foundation for ceremonies and practices." Through the sweat lodge, Indians believe they receive insight, cleansing, and purification. Indian inmates believe that as they have become more and more immersed in Indian traditions and religious beliefs, they have found a peace and spiritual perspective that helps them maintain a positive attitude while in prison. Sharing in the ceremonies of the sweat lodge also creates a supportive bond with other Indian inmates.
Although the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, by the mid-1800's, nearly all aspects of traditional Native American religious practices were against the law. Not until the late 1970's did the Federal Government acknowledge its long history of Native American religious repression. In 1978, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), which specifies the many ways that the Federal Government has failed to recognize Indian religions and has interfered with or prohibited their free exercise. AIRFA, however, has been more of a policy statement than a law with enforcement mechanisms that require compliance in particular situations.
A volume in Research in Social Issues in Management Series Editors: Stephen W. Gilliland, The University of Arizona, Dirk D. Steiner, Universit de Nice-Sophia Antipolisand Daniel P. Skarlicki, The University of British ColumbiaThis volume of Research in Social Issues in Management critically examines theoreticalunderpinnings of organizational justice and corporate social responsibility by identifyingmotives underlying desires for justice and by considering responses to injustice. The first setof chapters explores issues of morality, emotions, and social exchange relationships. Thesecan be seen as engines that drive reactions to organizational justice. The second set of chaptersaddresses injustice and recovery, the social systems surrounding justice, and the application ofjustice principles to organizations' environmental and sustainability practices. A commentary chapter highlights ten themes that crossthis interesting collection of paper on Justice, Morality, and Social Responsibility
In their discussion of the fundamentally different concepts of sovereignty in European-based development and Native American tradition, Boldt and Long (1984: 537-547) identify European-based concepts such as authority, hierarchy, and ruling entity as being in conflict with the Native American concepts of spiritual compact, tribal will, and customary/traditional world view. This systemic conflict sets the stage for both individual and organizational conflict, particularly among those Native peoples who must work in both the Native and Europeanbased legal systems and cultures. This paper focuses on one aspect of the conflict, that of the cultural dissonance faced by a sample of Navajo Police Officers resulting from the enforcement of two, sometimes competing, forms of social control within their own community. Those forms are the traditionally-based Navajo Common Law along with some of the traditional methods of conflict resolution and social control and the Europeanbased law which has been imposed on the Navajo Nation since the arrival of Europeans in the Four Corners area of the Southwestern United States.
When dealing with issues involving American Indians, there has been the tendency among many academicians to observe and explore “issues” within these communities framed as “Indian problems”. It is the point of view of this writer that “Indian problems” do not exist without taking into account the relationship between the White conquerors and the subjugated Indians. Virtually the whole apparatus of western civilization, including its vaunted legal edifice, has been used to exploit and degrade the rights and privileges of all Indian communities. The law and its arm of force contained within its technology continue to exploit these communities and are an omnipresent factor in all socalled “Indian problems”. So when we talk about issues of social disorganization, domestic violence, substance abuse, we need to keep in mind the factors of conquest and imperialism.
One hundred documents written by Diné men, women, and children speaking for themselves and on behalf of their communities are collected in this book. Discovered during Iverson's research for Diné.
Injuries sustained in motor vehicle crashes involving impaired drivers are among the most significant preventable health care problems in the United States. Since the early 1980s, driving while impaired (DWI) has received substantial public and political attention. Most states have revised laws and established programs directed at detecting, prosecuting, and imposing sanctions on drinking drivers. These measures are designed to deter impaired drivers through education, enhanced perception of risk of apprehension, and punishment. The programs and policies that have evolved from the deterrence model1 have resulted in a dramatic increase in the public’s perception of impaired driving as an undesirable and risky behavior. Several analyses of policy-related interventions have suggested that for social drinkers, that is, individuals who are capable of making choices about when, what, and how much to drink, rates of alcohol-related crashes and arrests have declined.
The causes, consequences, and secular trends of abuse of children have been of increasing interest in the past several decades. Much of that concern has manifested itself in American Indian communities as well. In this paper we use data from a study of alcohol use and abuse by Navajo Indians to examine one small piece of the problem: the degree to which abuse in childhood is a risk factor for alcohol dependence and domestic violence. The evidence from Native American communities, limited though it is, indicates that child abuse is not unknown (US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, 1990). For Navajo children, White and Cornely (1981) and Hauswald (1987) report a rate of 13.5 per 1,000. Drawing on a medical chart review and staff survey at the San Carlos (Apache) Indian Health Service Hospital, Fischler (1985) found a rate of 5.7 per 1,000. For Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation children, Wichlacz, Lane, and Kempe (1978) reported a rate of 26 per 1,000, derived from a register of suspected cases. In a study of an Alaskan village, one third (28 of 84) of the native children were considered to have severe problems of abuse, neglect, and homelessness related to poverty and demoralization in the village (Jones, 1969); and a study in an unidentified southwestern Indian community reported a history of childhood sexual abuse of 49% among women and 14% among men (Robin, Chester, Rasmussen, Jaranson, & Goldman, 1997).
Civilian oversight of police is an increasingly important policy practice in the United States and dates back more than 30 years. 1 Recent studies have determined that there are now more than 90 different civilian review procedures in the United States and that three-fourths of the nation's 50 largest cities have some form of civilian review (Walker 1998b). In particular, it now appears that civilian oversight systems are becoming more prevalent in Indian Country. 2 Furthermore, while police throughout the United States are generally opposed to civilian oversight, American Indian tribal police departments are outspoken in their support of the concept and its implementation in the communities they serve.
One of the lingering controversies surrounding the juvenile justice system in the United States is the transfer of juvenile offenders to adult criminal courts, ostensibly for more severe dispositions. This issue especially has been of concern as the “get-tough” movement seemingly has gained momentum over the past two decades. This article examines the waiver process in New Mexico to establish the characteristics of the juveniles subject to the process and to determine the actual, instead of symbolic, criminal court dispositions of juveniles tried as adults.
Tribal courts are faced with the task of restoring harmony to their communities and crafting practical remedies acceptable to the people can be challenging. Many tribal courts in the United States are struggling to incorporate traditional tribal customary law into modern judge-decided law. The Navajo Nation has been especially proactive in this endeavor. Berkeley law professor Robert D. Cooter and Professor Wolfgang Fikenstscher of the University of Munich observe: The Navajos, who have the largest, most populous, and one of the richest reservations in America, also have the best funded tribal court system. The Navajo Supreme Court hears many cases each year argued by lawyers who continually refer back to its past decisions, which are published and stored in an impressive library. The Navajo judges speak about “Navajo common law” and regard themselves as participating in its elaboration and development. The Navajo Nation touches four states, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah and its population nears one quarter million tribal members.
Introduction: Peacemaking as carried out by Navajo Peacemakers is a form of restorative justice, but the basic principles of Peacemaking predate Euro-based restorative justice models and programs by centuries. It will be argued in this paper that because the current Peacemaking program is the result of different cultural processes than those contributing to Euro-based restorative justice programs, Peacemaking may have already surmounted many of the issues that are of concern about restorative justice programs operating in the dominant society. It is concluded that some of these solutions may be of use to non-Native American programs, but some will not because of their rootedness in Navajo (Dine) specific cultural practices and values. This paper contains brief overviews of traditional Navajo justice strategies and current Peacemaking principles, a comparison of Peacemaking principles with the restorative justice model, and finally, a discussion of ten issues that have been raised about restorative justice programs and how these may or may not apply to Peacemaking.
This article examines the record of the American judicial system in the protection of American Indian prisoners in the exercise of their religious rights. The article briefly examines the factors related to the high rates of Indian incarceration and the important role of Indian spiritual values and the exercise of Indian religious practices in the process of rehabilitation. The Supreme Court has ruled that all prisoners retain the right to practice their religion if the exercise of these rights does not interfere with legitimate penological interests. Whether due to ignorance of spiritual native values and practices, latent discrimination, or the overly strict interpretation of judicial tests, Indian inmates in the last decade have found it difficult to obtain support from the courts for the exercise of their religious rights.
In the mid 1930s, surveyors and other agents from the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Soil Conservation Service descended on the Navajo Reservation in the southwest USA. During their short stay, the surveyors produced detailed reports on the extent of overgrazing and soil erosion on the reservation. The reports, which contained maps, tables of numbers, accounts, and photographs claimed to depict and represent the real. As part of social survey research, popular in the UK and US from the turn of the century until World War II, the Navajo documents, as we refer to them, used a form of family budget or income and expenditure report to construct the Navajo economically. Indeed, Navajo families were referred to as consumption units or groups. The economic construction of the Navajo permitted the construction of an economic solution to the Navajo problem. In effect it was demonstrated economically, that the impact of stock reductions, thought necessary to prevent further soil erosion, could be offset by increased agriculture. In contrast to the economic claims, the stock reductions were an economic and social disaster for the Navajo.
This chapter discusses the issues surrounding the lack of criminal justice for women living on the Navajo Reservation and includes a short review of American Indian law as it relates to the Navajo Nation. To shed light on the problems associated with the health and welfare of women living on the Navajo Reservation, there is a discussion of the federal and tribal laws that govern violence against women. To fully elucidate the problems regarding the crimes committed on the Navajo Reservation, there is a discussion on the Major Crimes Act and the Dawes Act, otherwise known as the General Allotment Act. This chapter also discusses the similarities of vulnerability in sexual assaults against women living in rural American and women living on the Navajo Reservation. The chapter describes the efforts of community members and nurses working in Chinle, Arizona, who hope to address the issues surrounding sexual assault and violence against women.
Practitioners and theorists of transitional justice and post-conflict resolution are effectively engaged in helping societies move either from war to peace, or from a repressive or authoritarian regime to democracy. In so doing, they face a number of challenges. Yet repairing the social interactions and institutions of a particular society is paramount. The theory of acknowledgement posits that individuals and societies must consciously engage in a process through which they may come to terms with, emotionally respond to, and actively remember and discuss the events of the past. This acknowledgement is a necessary component of forgiveness, social trust, civic engagement, social cohesion, and eventual outcomes including reconciliation, democratization, or other functioning institutions of society. The process of acknowledgement, then, is critical to the rebuilding of any society.
Frequently referred to as “customary law,” the unique traditions and customs of different Native American tribes are cited by their tribal courts as authoritative and binding law. The recent use of customary law as a mechanism for deciding individual cases is not uniform among tribal court systems as it differs depending upon which tribe’s judges are working to place custom into contemporary judicial analysis. Understanding the present role of customary law in tribal law requires first understanding the nature of customary law and then understanding how it is being used. The effect of customary law is dependent upon the place it has in relation to other sources of law from tribal statutes to state common-law. Furthermore, the differing treatment afforded customary law by separate tribal court systems in many ways is a reflection of the degrees of proof required by different courts to establish what is or is not a tribal custom.
In the winter of 2000, Judge Dorothy McCarter of Helena, Montana ordered Dawn Sprinkle, who had been convicted of using drugs during pregnancy and who later violated her probation, not to get pregnant for ten years. Specifically, Judge McCarter sentenced her to ten years in prison (suspending five), and ordered Sprinkle to take birth control pills and report for regular pregnancy tests at the local jail. Should Sprinkle become pregnant after serving her time, Judge McCarter would jail her again or place her under some other form of intensive supervision. As a twenty-nine-year-old woman, Sprinkle thus faced a decade of intrusive regulation into her intimate life and health care decisions, as well as the chance that this sentence would foreclose the possibility of her ever again having a child.
In the last few years, scholars, reporters, lawyers, and the general public have focused much attention on tribal membership requirements. Recent controversies over membership of “Freedmen,” or descendants of slaves, in the Cherokee Nation and other Oklahoma tribes have produced scholarly and popular discussions of what it means to be “Indian” and a member of a tribal nation. Enrollment controversies among gaming tribes in California and recently recognized tribes in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, among others, have exposed acrimonious disagreements within tribal communities over how to define tribal membership. Tribes have disenrolled whole extended families and entire categories of members by reviewing prior enrollment records, or amending their laws to redefine membership eligibility. Popular press reports and scholarly articles on these controversies have introduced the concepts of “blood quantum” and “tribal membership” to a wider non-Indian audience. The resulting publicity has tested the power of tribal nations to define their membership independent of state and federal judicial and political control, as calls for outside intervention increase.
The Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program is part of The University of Arizona's tradition of excellence, which includes academic centers such as American Indian Studies and Anthropology and community outreach centers such as the Native Nations Institute and the Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office. What makes IPLP unique is its approach to education. Students are educated both in the classroom and the real world, by faculty who are leaders both in their academic field and in the community. Faculty pass these values of community service along to their students. The University of Arizona Rogers College of Law is also the only law school offering all three law degrees (JD, LLM and SJD) with a concentration in Indian and Indigenous peoples law.
The Navajo Nation is the largest of over 560 federally recognized indigenous entities in the United States today. Navajo history and politics thus serve as a model for understanding American Indian issues across the board ranging from the tribal-federal relationship to contemporary land disputes, taxation policies, and Indian gaming challenges. This revised edition of a recent text includes new census data along with a new introduction and an updated timeline of Dine political history. The text's thoroughgoing analysis of Navajo political institutions and processes is amplified by a consideration of the distinctive Navajo culture. Presented in the context of indigenous societies everywhere, the book offers a way to explore the culture of politics and the politics of culture confronted by all native peoples.
Gambill on Justice
Veterans, Data Privacy, Process of Advocacy, La America Latina, Homelessness, Mass Institutionalization, First Nations
Navajo (Diné) and Justice
Justice and the Navajo
The Navajo (Diné) and Justice
Para la versión en español hazle clic aqui
Atta' bichíí, dahohtaat
Sin aniidíí bee Ataa' bichii dahohtaat
Nahasdzáán da hwinees áádee
Diné danohtíni t'áá ánottso
Ataa' bichii dahohtaat.
--Gathering of Nations Song, Source: Gathering of Nations
The ancestral homeland of the Navajo or Diné people resides in the Southwestern portion of the United States with the bulk of the population being located in the States of New Mexico and Arizona. The estimated number of Navajo Language speakers varies widely, depending on the source referenced. The American Community Survey, conducted in 2007, placed the number of speakers at 170,717. Other estimates place the number of speakers ranging from a low of 120,000 to nearly 200,000. The Navajo Language (or Diné bizaad) remained the primary language of the Navajo-Dine until the end of the Second World War after which the fortunes of the language began to shift. The gradual decline in the number of children learning the language continued largely unabated until the 1980s when serious language preservation efforts were underaken.
Navajo or Diné bizaad is a member of the great Athabaskan family of languages, a family member of the sub-family of Na-Dené. It is one of the Southernmost members of the Athabaskan family, the majority of whose members are located in Canada and Alaska. Some linguists have posited a proto-language (unattested) which unites some Languages of the Asian Steppe, the Kartvelian Languages of the Caucauses (Georgian, Megrelian, Svan) with the Na-Dené family of languages. as well as, with the Afro-Asiatic and Indo-European language families. This supra-connection, known as the Nostratic Hypothesis (Campbell, Ivanov, Gamelkrelidze), has garnered wide attention in the realm of theoretical linguistics and is not without merit in supporting evidence drawn from the realms of archaeology, comparative theology and other cross-cultural comparisons such as burial practices.
Until contact with the Pueblo, the Diné had largely been hunter-gatherers. Following contact they began to become more sedentary, relying on sedentary, agricultural lifestyles for sustenance. Upon arrival of and contact with the Spaniards, the Diné also began to engage in herding activities, supplementing their livelihoods with the herding of both sheep and goats. The Navajo's long association with the Pueblo peoples also led to an advanced level of textile production and spinning and weaving became an integral part of Diné culture, yielding an incredibly rich set of cultural practices and traditions still manifest in contemporary society. The Diné are renowned for their rich and colorful production of material goods such as blankets, tapestries and other textiles.
The Navajo or Diné are the largest of the Federally recognized tribal affiliations in the United States, with over 300,041 members according to the last US Census. The Navajo Nation is a self-governing entity operating within the framework and geographical boundaries of the Continental United States. The first occurence of usage of a term by the Spanish to designate one of the Na-Dené Southern Athabaskan language speaking tribal groups was in 1620s. The Spanish first used Apachu de Nabajo to designate the people living in the Chama valley to the East of the San Juan river, near present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. By the 1640s the Spaniards had begun to utilize the term "Navajo" for the people inhabiting this region and they referred to their homelands as "Dinetah". During the course of the 1760s the Spanish sent the first of many military expeditions to the region.
First official contact with representatives of the Federal Government of the United States occurred in the year 1846 when a military expeditionary force during the course of the Mexican American War entered into the vicinity of Sante Fe under the command of Gen. Stephen Kearney. During the course of that same year a party of US soldiers commanded by Officer John Reid journeyed deep into Navajo country. Narbona and other Navajos negotiated a treaty with Colonel Alexander Doniphan on November 21, 1846, at Bear Springs, Ojo del Oso. In 1849, the military governor of New Mexico, Colonel John Macrae Washington led 400 soldiers into Navajo country, reaching the Canyon de Chelly, signing a treaty with two Navajo leaders.
In 1861, Brigadier-General James H. Carleton, commander of the Federal District of New Mexico, began a military campaign against the Navajo. The famed western frontiersman Kit Carson was ordered by Carleton to launch a military expedition into Navajo land and force them to outright surrender without terms. After a long and vicious campaign and facing great hardship the last of the Navajo resistance was forced to surrender at Canyon de Chelly. The survicors were taken to Fort Defiance and imprisoned on July 20, 1863. This forced removal to reservation lands and the hardships experienced along the way are remembered by the Navajo people as "The Long Walk".
Alvarez, Alexander and Ronet D. Bachman, American Indians and sentencing disparity: An Arizona test, Journal of Criminal Justice, 1996, vol. 24, issue 6, pages 549-561
Austin, Ray, Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law, A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the American Indian Studies Program In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate College, the University of Arizona, 2007
Deshna Clah Cheschillige and many other leaders worked for the Navajo people's ability to direct their own affairs. Congress, however, did not allow the Navajo people to attain true self-determination. In fact, the federal government in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century wanted all Native people to assimilate to Western society. Today, Native nations supposedly have the ability to self-determine, yet numerous United States Supreme Court decisions have limited tribal sovereignty. So, if Native nations have limited sovereignty, how does that affect Native nationalism?Before 1923, the Navajo Nation did not have a Western political government. Since 1923, the Navajo people have been building their nation along the Western concept of a nation. What does it mean to have the Navajo Nation? How do Navajo people devote their interest to the Navajo Nation? What does Navajo nationalism look like in the twenty-first century? Should the Navajo Nation work toward self-sufficiency? National independence? Navajo society has undergone many changes in the twentieth century, and a thorough discussion of Navajo nationalism will help create a better Navajo society for the coming decades.
Introduction by Wallace Coffey: I would like to acknowledge all of our friends and relatives who have taken time to come and be with us. One of my good friends and colleagues and a former attorney for our Comanche tribe is here, Glen Feldman, and I know that he worked tremendously hard on the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, many times in the years back, and that's why we are going to discuss today the issues with regard to the implementation of the AIRFA. But I wanted to share with you that right after we conclude this panel, I'm going to call on my brother over there from the Ho-Chunk Nation to do a prayer and a short ceremony for Arvol Looking Horse. He just got a call that his mother is going into the hospital for back surgery. They were planning on leaving this conference and taking her up into Canada so she can participate in a ceremony, a healing ceremony, but unfortunately she had to be taken into the hospital on an emergency basis, so as Indian people, we always take time and we pray—pray to the spirits of our ancestors and through our loved ones that they will watch over and comfort his mom while she is going through this serious operation on her back. And to those of you who still have your parents, I wish you the best. I hope you have your parents—your moms and dads—for a long time
Indian inmates are building their own sweat lodges for their ceremonies. "The sweat lodge is a very important and ancient practice of our indigenous people of North America," says Lenny Foster, director of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project. "It's a central part of the ceremony and provides spiritual foundation for ceremonies and practices." Through the sweat lodge, Indians believe they receive insight, cleansing, and purification. Indian inmates believe that as they have become more and more immersed in Indian traditions and religious beliefs, they have found a peace and spiritual perspective that helps them maintain a positive attitude while in prison. Sharing in the ceremonies of the sweat lodge also creates a supportive bond with other Indian inmates.
Feinman, C., Police Problems on the Navajo Reservation, Journal: Police Studies Volume:9 Issue:4 Dated:(Winter 1986) Pages:194-198, NCJ 104537
Fordham, M. "Within the Iron Houses: The Struggle for Native American Religious Freedom In American Prisons" Social Justice 20.1-2 (1993): 165-171.
Although the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, by the mid-1800's, nearly all aspects of traditional Native American religious practices were against the law. Not until the late 1970's did the Federal Government acknowledge its long history of Native American religious repression. In 1978, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), which specifies the many ways that the Federal Government has failed to recognize Indian religions and has interfered with or prohibited their free exercise. AIRFA, however, has been more of a policy statement than a law with enforcement mechanisms that require compliance in particular situations.
One hundred documents written by Diné men, women, and children speaking for themselves and on behalf of their communities are collected in this book. Discovered during Iverson's research for Diné.
Kunitz, Stephen J., Jerrold E. Levy, Joanne McCloskey and K. Ruben Gabriel, Alcohol Dependence and Domestic Violence as Sequelae of Abuse and Conduct Disorder in Childhood, Child Abuse & Neglect, Vol. 22, No. 11, pp. 1079–1091, ©1998 Elsevier Science Ltd
The causes, consequences, and secular trends of abuse of children have been of increasing interest in the past several decades. Much of that concern has manifested itself in American Indian communities as well. In this paper we use data from a study of alcohol use and abuse by Navajo Indians to examine one small piece of the problem: the degree to which abuse in childhood is a risk factor for alcohol dependence and domestic violence. The evidence from Native American communities, limited though it is, indicates that child abuse is not unknown (US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, 1990). For Navajo children, White and Cornely (1981) and Hauswald (1987) report a rate of 13.5 per 1,000. Drawing on a medical chart review and staff survey at the San Carlos (Apache) Indian Health Service Hospital, Fischler (1985) found a rate of 5.7 per 1,000. For Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation children, Wichlacz, Lane, and Kempe (1978) reported a rate of 26 per 1,000, derived from a register of suspected cases. In a study of an Alaskan village, one third (28 of 84) of the native children were considered to have severe problems of abuse, neglect, and homelessness related to poverty and demoralization in the village (Jones, 1969); and a study in an unidentified southwestern Indian community reported a history of childhood sexual abuse of 49% among women and 14% among men (Robin, Chester, Rasmussen, Jaranson, & Goldman, 1997).
Luna, Eileen, Seeking Justice, Critical Perspectives of Native People, Oversight in the American Indian Community, The Georgetown Public Policy Review, 4 Geo. Public Pol'y Rev. 149, Spring, 1999
Civilian oversight of police is an increasingly important policy practice in the United States and dates back more than 30 years. 1 Recent studies have determined that there are now more than 90 different civilian review procedures in the United States and that three-fourths of the nation's 50 largest cities have some form of civilian review (Walker 1998b). In particular, it now appears that civilian oversight systems are becoming more prevalent in Indian Country. 2 Furthermore, while police throughout the United States are generally opposed to civilian oversight, American Indian tribal police departments are outspoken in their support of the concept and its implementation in the communities they serve.
This article examines the record of the American judicial system in the protection of American Indian prisoners in the exercise of their religious rights. The article briefly examines the factors related to the high rates of Indian incarceration and the important role of Indian spiritual values and the exercise of Indian religious practices in the process of rehabilitation. The Supreme Court has ruled that all prisoners retain the right to practice their religion if the exercise of these rights does not interfere with legitimate penological interests. Whether due to ignorance of spiritual native values and practices, latent discrimination, or the overly strict interpretation of judicial tests, Indian inmates in the last decade have found it difficult to obtain support from the courts for the exercise of their religious rights.
In the mid 1930s, surveyors and other agents from the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Soil Conservation Service descended on the Navajo Reservation in the southwest USA. During their short stay, the surveyors produced detailed reports on the extent of overgrazing and soil erosion on the reservation. The reports, which contained maps, tables of numbers, accounts, and photographs claimed to depict and represent the real. As part of social survey research, popular in the UK and US from the turn of the century until World War II, the Navajo documents, as we refer to them, used a form of family budget or income and expenditure report to construct the Navajo economically. Indeed, Navajo families were referred to as consumption units or groups. The economic construction of the Navajo permitted the construction of an economic solution to the Navajo problem. In effect it was demonstrated economically, that the impact of stock reductions, thought necessary to prevent further soil erosion, could be offset by increased agriculture. In contrast to the economic claims, the stock reductions were an economic and social disaster for the Navajo.
This chapter discusses the issues surrounding the lack of criminal justice for women living on the Navajo Reservation and includes a short review of American Indian law as it relates to the Navajo Nation. To shed light on the problems associated with the health and welfare of women living on the Navajo Reservation, there is a discussion of the federal and tribal laws that govern violence against women. To fully elucidate the problems regarding the crimes committed on the Navajo Reservation, there is a discussion on the Major Crimes Act and the Dawes Act, otherwise known as the General Allotment Act. This chapter also discusses the similarities of vulnerability in sexual assaults against women living in rural American and women living on the Navajo Reservation. The chapter describes the efforts of community members and nurses working in Chinle, Arizona, who hope to address the issues surrounding sexual assault and violence against women.
In the winter of 2000, Judge Dorothy McCarter of Helena, Montana ordered Dawn Sprinkle, who had been convicted of using drugs during pregnancy and who later violated her probation, not to get pregnant for ten years. Specifically, Judge McCarter sentenced her to ten years in prison (suspending five), and ordered Sprinkle to take birth control pills and report for regular pregnancy tests at the local jail. Should Sprinkle become pregnant after serving her time, Judge McCarter would jail her again or place her under some other form of intensive supervision. As a twenty-nine-year-old woman, Sprinkle thus faced a decade of intrusive regulation into her intimate life and health care decisions, as well as the chance that this sentence would foreclose the possibility of her ever again having a child.