Navajos, Hopis Approve Proposed Land Settlement

PHOENIX — The Navajo and Hopi tribal councils have approved a proposed settlement of the tribes’ century-old land dispute, officials said Tuesday.

The proposed settlement would let 150 Navajo families remain for 75 years on land previously partitioned to the Hopis. In return, the federal government would give the Hopis $15 million as well as 408,000 acres of public and private land near Flagstaff, Ariz.

The dispute dates at least to 1882, when a presidential order set aside 2.5 million acres in northeastern Arizona for the Hopis and other American Indians. Some Navajos already lived on the land, and by 1907 the Navajo reservation expanded to completely encircle the Hopi reservation.

The land the Hopis would acquire includes 200,000 acres of national forest land, 165,000 of state lands, 8,000 acres of federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and 35,000 acres of private land to be acquired through condemnation. The state would be allowed to replace the 165,000 acres with BLM property.

The land is north and east of Flagstaff and includes pine and aspen forests on slopes of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, as well as grazing allotments, mining claims, rural subdivisions, and some cross-country skiing and hunting areas.