Taylor: No question of Hopi sovereignty

0 Comments | Indian Country Today (Lakota Times), August, 2005 | by Norrell, Brenda

Norrell, Brenda Indian Country Today (Lakota Times) 08-03-2005 KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. - Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. said the Hopi Tribe is struggling to maintain its ancestral lands and sacred sites and appreciates some aspects of the recently introduced Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Amendments of 2005. "The Hopi people and our ancestors have lived in the southwest United States for more than 1,000 years," Taylor told Indian Country Today, reiterating his July 21 testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington. "We have lived on the mesas of northeastern Arizona since before 1100 A.D. The Navajo are relative newcomers.

The Navajo Reservation was established in 1868, its borders clearly within the aboriginal lands of Hopi ancestors but...