The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute

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and to establish a protected homeland for the Hopi. Instead, it effectively set the stage for a convoluted century-long dispute.
From 1882 on, no real problems occurred until one of the world's densest deposits of accessible coal - representing about $10 billion in revenue - was discovered in the 1950s beneath land occupied by both tribes (Wood 1999), an area later established as the "joint-use area" (JUA) in 1962. While the JUA existed in relative peace, the technical problem of land usage rights was becoming more apparent to politicians and big business interests. Only one year after the coal's discovery, Hopi Tribal Council representative - and attorney for Peabody Coal, the nation's largest coal company - John Boyden began petitioning the Secretary of the Interior to partition the JUA.
The land was officially partitioned in 1974 by mandate of P.L. 93-531 - also known as the "Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974" - without the input or consent of those from both ...

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the health and spiritual well-being of many."
As a result, the Navajo have traditionally been viewed as the transgressed and the Hopis the transgressors in the eyes of the media, fueling the tensions further.
In response to the Navajo slanted coverage, Eugene Kaye, chief of staff for the Hopi Tribe says, "Hopi felt the same way the Navajos did. But we have not felt we gave up our religion by moving off the land. The Navajo have migrated from Canada all over the US for centuries. They can practice their religion anywhere."
Once again in 1996 the US government tried to permanently end the 117-year-long dispute with S.1973; also known as the "Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act ...

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