# Marc S. Roy

> Briefs, arguments, decisions, and more.

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Ahopi_arizona%3A88daf842c9fdc3db

## Record

- **Collection:** Tribal code
- **Document type:** Tribal code

## Text

Marc S. Roy
Appointed by
Hopi Tribal
Council to serve
as Chief Judge

Arizona law allows
greater cultural
expression at
graduation

-More on pg.5

-More on pg. 10

COMMUNITY

COLUMN

LARRY’S CORNER

Cat to the
Future
Read more
about it

More on Page 9

December
is “National
Drunk and
Drugged Driving Prevention
Month”

More on Page 5

Merry Hopi Holidays

December 15, 2021

Volume 29
Number 23
54˚/ 22˚
Sunshine

~Est. 1987 • OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE HOPI TRIBE • NEWS SOURCE FOR THE HOPI PEOPLE~

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Announced by Hopi Tribal Secretary

HOPI TUTUVENI
PO BOX 123
KYKOTSMOVI, AZ 86039
1110-01600-7460

CHANGE IN
ADMINISTRATION

Kyaamuya
December
Beginning
of
Hopi New
Year
This Month In
Hopi History
•December 16, 1882
:President Chester A.
Arthur signed Executive
Order
Chief Judge Roy and Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma (Photo by Romalita Laban/HT)

Chief Judge Roy and Vice-Chairman Craig Andrews (Photo by Romalita Laban/HT)

Have a Safe
Wonderful Christmas, and
Have a Happy New Year,
from the
Hopi Tutuveni Staff

By: Judith Youvella, Hopi
Tribal Secretary
Kykotsmovi, Ariz. – December 2, 2021, on behalf of the
Hopi Tribal government, it is
with great honor we announce
a momentous occasion held
on December 1, 2021, at the
Hopi Tribal Council Chambers. Performed by the Hopi
Tribe’s Chief Judge Marc Roy,
Honorable Chairman Timothy L. Nuvangyaoma and
Honorable Vice Chairman
Craig Andrews took the Oath
of Office, a necessary step
before the two being seated in
their positions.
Chairman Nuvangyaoma
and Vice-Chairman Andrews
have begun serving a fouryear term that commenced
on Wednesday, December 1,
2021, ending on November
30, 2025.
You are welcome to contact
the offices of the Chairman
at (928) 734-3102 and the
Vice-Chairman at (928) 7343113 for information and
assistance. The offices are both
located in the Hopi Tribe Legislative Building.

•December 19, 1936.
Hopi Constitution adopted. Established the
Tribal Council.
•December 28, 1890,
104 Hopi children captured and sent to school.
•Smallpox decimates
Hopi in 1780, 1840,
1853-1854 and 1897

Hopi
Tutuveni
wants to
know how we
are doing.

Call or email us
to tell us if we are
doing a good job.
We need your
feedback
928-734-3283 or
rlaban@hopi.nsn.us

More photos on PG. 2

Office of
the Vice-Chairman
- Close-Out...

-More on pg. 3

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

2

CHANGE IN ADMINISTRATION Announced by
Hopi Tribal Secretary, pictures

Chief Judge Roy and Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma and Vice-Chairman Craig Andrews (Photo by Romalita Laban/HT)

Chief Judge Roy shaking hands with Vice-Chairman Craig Andrews (Photo by Romalita Laban/
HT)

Chief Judge Roy shaking hands with Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma (Photo by Romalita
Laban/HT)

FMCV representatives Albert T. Sinquah , Ivan Sidney, Dale Sinquah, and Wallace Youvella Jr.,
and being sworn into council on DEC 1st (Photo by Romalita Laban/HT)

Phillip Quochytewa, Sr. and Herman G. Honanie kyakotsmovi representatives sworn in DEC 6th

(Photo by Romalita Laban/HT)

Marylin Fredricks, village of Bakabi being sworn in DEC 1st. (Photo by Romalita Laban/HT)

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

3

Office of the Vice-Chairman - Close-Out/Transition Report
(December 2017 – December 2021)

President Joe Biden and Vice Chairman of the Hopi Tribe, Clark Tenakhongva (Pic Submittal)

Submitted by: Clark W. Tenakhongva,
Upon assuming office in December
Hopi Vice-Chairman
of 2017, Vice-Chairman Clark W. Tenakhongva was appointed, via Hopi TribScope of Delegations
al Council Resolution, to the Bear Ears
ARTICLE I-DUTIES AND QUALIFI- Commission, replacing outgoing Hopi
CATIONS OF OFFICERS SECTION 2. Vice-Chairman Alfred Lomahquahu,
The Vice Chairman shall help the Chair- who along with the Hopi Cultural Presman in his duties when called upon to ervation Office, played a key role in esdo so and in the absence of the chairman tablishing the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal
shall act as Chairman with all the atten- Coalition and in ensuring Bears Ears was
dant powers and duties.
declared a national monument.
ARTICLE VI-POWERS OF THE
As an extension of his office’s priorities
TRIBAL COUNCIL SECTION 1 (l) To around the Preservation of Hopi culture,
delegate any of the powers of the Coun- history and language, Vice-Chairman
cil or committees or officers, keeping the Tenakhongva, as co-chair of Bears Ears
right to review any action taken.
Inter-Tribal Coalition, continued ongoing
In exercising the powers granted to the efforts to protect the Bears Ears National
Hopi Tribal Council in the articles above, Monument from rescission, vandalism,
the Office of the Vice-Chairman was commercial development and contraction
delegated as the point of contact for the while also endeavoring to keep the area
programs, committees, programs, teams, accessible for the traditional and cultural
and departments indicated below by the practices of the tribes.
Hopi Tribal Council at various points
In April 2021, as Secretary of the Inthroughout the four-year administration terior Deb Haaland toured the Bears
of Vice-Chairman Tenakhongva. What Ears National Monument as part of her
follows is intended to be a summary of executive-ordered review of the Utah
the activities of the office in relation to monument for President Biden, Hopi
these Hopi Tribal Council delegations Vice-Chairman Tenakhongva and other
and is in no way exhaustive.
tribal leaders met with Haaland voicing
Bears Ears Commission
their support for the restoration of the
Since Vice-Chairman Tenakhongva’s monument to its original boundaries.
appointment as the commissioner for the
To Vice-Chairman Tenakhongva,
Hopi Tribe to the Bears Ears Commis- meeting with Secretary Haaland was a
sion near the start of his administration, valuable opportunity to share the true sigthe Office of the Vice-Chairman has par- nificance that Bears Ears—Honmuru—
ticipated in weekly conference calls and has for the Hopi people. This landscape
various meetings throughout the Fourth is an ancestral home to many Hopi clans
Quarter which included receiving up- who, in the past, migrated throughout the
dates regarding the Bears Ears litigation Four-corners region, and the responsibilias well as updates on the drafting of the ty to educate and impart to others the valBears Ears Land Management Plan.
ue and history of the Bears Ears National
Throughout the entirety of the Hopi Monument was not one that the Office of
Tribe’s involvement with the Bears Ears the Vice-Chairman took lightly.
Commission the Office of the Vice-ChairFollowing the signing of the Proclaman has been engaged in public advo- mation, President Biden was gifted a hat,
cacy and has continually expressed the Hopi Tribal Flag, and Hopi Veteran’s latribe’s support for the Obama Monument pel pin, by Vice-Chairman Tenakhongva
Proclamation and the continued desire to to which President Biden reportedly reremain engaged in the lawsuit entitled the sponded, “Clark you are one man who
Hopi Tribe et al vs. Donald J. Trump et al. has worked so hard on this matter, and I
Restoration of the Bears Ears Na- have so much respect for you. You never
tional Monument
gave up. Please continue the work of the
On October 8th, 2021, President Joe Nation, your people and the World.”
Biden signed a proclamation restoring
Yet despite the restoration of the Bears
the Bears Ears National Monument to Ears National Monument via Presidential
1.36 million acres in San Juan County, Proclamation, the legal battles surroundUtah effectively reinstating environmen- ing the monument will likely continue
tal protections to an expansive and varied and require Hopi tribal involvement.
landscape.
Following President Trump’s action
Hopi Chairman Timothy L. Nuvan- to revoke and replace the Bears Ears
gyaoma and Vice-Chairman Clark W. National Monument in 2017, the Native
Tenakhongva were present at the signing American Rights Fund (NARF), repreof the proclamation along with other fed- senting the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of
eral, state, and tribal leaders.
Zuni, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe,
This move came four years after for- filed a lawsuit against the Trump Adminmer President Donald Trump stripped istration, claiming such action was not
protections away from the Bears Ears only an attack on the five sovereign naNational Monument, a place sacred to tions with deep ties to the Bears Ears resurrounding Native Nations, reducing the gion, but a complete violation of the separea by 82%.
aration of powers enshrined in the United
The Bears Ears National Monument States Constitution, and asserting that no
was originally established in December president had ever revoked and replaced
of 2016 by the Obama Administration a national monument before because it is
following a multi-year effort by indige- illegal to do so; only Congress may alter
nous-led organizations to protect the pub- a monument.
lic lands. The creation of the Bears Ears
However, this lawsuit has been on hold
National Monument was significant, in since Biden issued an executive order in
that for the first time in history, Native January of 2021 to look further into the
Nations were given a powerful voice in matter. Regardless, President Biden’s demanaging a national monument as the cision may not prevent future lawsuits,
proclamation called for the establishment with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, already
of a Bears Ears Commission, staffed by a having stated that he would sue Biden if
representative of each of the tribes com- he restored the monument unilaterally.
prising the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal CoaliBears Ears Land Management Plan
tion, namely the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo
While the Drafting of Bears Ears Land
of Zuni, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Indi- Management Plan was originally to be
an Tribe (of the Uintah and Ouray), and managed by Logan Simpson, a specialthe Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
ized environmental Planning firm, due

to the lack of progress and failure to produce substantial material over a period
of four months the Bears Ears Coalition
leadership determined that it was in the
best interest of the component tribes that
various sections of the Land Management
Plan should be drafted by the respective
tribes using subcontractors.
To this end staff for the Office of the
Vice-Chairman who were part of the Bear
Ears Cultural Sub-committee worked diligent with the Hopi Tribe’s sub-contractor Maren Hopkins to conducted work
sessions with the Program Managers of
Hopi’s Department of Natural Resources
to review the management goals and objectives in the existing BLM and USFS
Monument Management Plans for BENM
and modify them as needed to conform
to Hopi tribal perspectives on preservation. On September 20–24, 2021, Maren
Hopkins, Daryn Melvin, Chief of staff for
the office of the Vice-Chairman, and five
Hopi DNR staff members conducted site
visits to various locations within BENM.
Trip participants included: Priscilla Pavatea (DNR Director), Norman Honie
(Mining), Robbie Honani (Grazing), Max
Taylor (Water), and Georgiana Pongyesva (Cultural Preservation). The group
was accompanied by Brandy Hurt of the
BEITC, and Ryan Pelizzoni of Friends
of Cedar Mesa. The purpose of the site
visits was to familiarize Hopi DNR staff
with the various types of resources and
their locations within BENM that require
management, including cultural sites,
grazing allotments, water sources, Special Use Areas, recreation sites, and other
locations.
In addition to conducting work sessions, interviews, and site visits, Hopi
contributions to the BENM LMP included
an extensive review of Hopi ethnographic
literature. For the past 30 years, the Hopi
Cultural Preservation Office has conducted ethnographic studies across the
Four Corners region to document Hopi
connections to their ancestral homeland.
These studies have resulted in a rich body
of reports and archives describing Hopi
history and values for resources, much of
which is relevant to the BENM region
The goal of the report that was ultimately produced is to present the Hopi
Tribe’s contributions to a land management plan developed by the BEITC. This
report includes six fundamental components that describe Hopi needs and priorities for management, including: (1) Hopi
connections to the BENM, (2) Hopi stewardship values, (3) Hopi perceptions of
threats and impacts to BENM, (4) knowledge gaps, (5) management actions to reduce threats, and (6) plan implementation
and programs. Information presented in
this report will be integrated into a comprehensive land management plan soon
that includes inputs from all five of the
BEITC member tribes.
Hopi Department of Education and
Workforce Development - Hopi Education Code
Following the adoption of the Hopi Education Code by the Hopi Tribal Council
in August, 2019, which officially created
a unified school district under which all
local Hopi schools would be required to
operate and report to new Hopi board of
education, the Office of the Vice-Chairman has participated in various meetings
throughout the last two years including
meetings with the newly formed Transition Team whose focus it is to address
various school operation issues during
the transition from numerous Hopi school
districts to a unified school district.
Hopi Education Endowment Fund
As an Ex-Officio to the Hopi Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) the Office
of the Vice-Chairman attended a number of meetings with the Hopi Education Endowment Fund’s Executive and
Nominating Committees via telephone
throughout the four-year administration
of Vice-Chairman Tenakhongva.
Hopi Proficiency Exam
In the 2002 Hopit pötskwani’at, The
Hopi Tribal Council directed the Hopi
Cultural Preservation Office and the Hopi
Office of Education and Workforce Development “to promote and preserve the
Hopi language by developing a total cultural immersion program”.
While the dream of a total cultural
immersion program has not yet been realized, one of the key aspects of this directive was the teaching of the Hopi language and the assurance that “instruction
in the language would be made available
to students of all grade levels, in all Hopi
schools serving the Hopi nation.” Additionally, in resolution H-010-2006, The
Hopi Tribal Council recognized a series
of Language survival goals drawn from
the Hopit pötskwani’at, which included “Teacher training and certification in
Hopi language and culture.” To this end
the Hopi Department of Education and
Workforce Development, the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, and the Hopi
Office of the Vice-Chairman, in 2018
made substantial progress toward fulfilling these two particular directives by

developing a Hopi Language Proficiency
Exam. The exam, administered for the
first time on December 7, 2018, to a pilot
group of 13 Hopi educators seeking certification, was intended to be conducted
on a quarterly basis. In order to ultimately
provide instruction in the Hopi language
to students of all grade levels, in all Hopi
schools serving the Hopi reservation, we
must first ensure that we have educators
certified to teach the Hopi language. Impetus to create such an exam also came
from a 2012 State Board of Education
ruling regarding Native American Language Certification in which a certificate
would be “issued to individuals qualified
to teach only a Native American language
in Grades Pre-K-12.” However, one particular requirement of this certification
was that “proficiency shall be verified on
official letter head by a person, persons,
or entity designated by the appropriate
tribe.” Therefore, as the manner in which
Hopi language proficiency is verified is
left to the Tribe’s discretion, the Hopi Department of Education, the Hopi Cultural
Preservation Office, and the Hopi Office
of the Vice-Chairman aimed to develop
a proficiency exam that would serve as
an unbiased yet quantifiable measure of
one’s linguistic abilities. To do this the
Hopi Proficiency Exam was structured
to assess one’s proficiency in four fundamental areas: Comprehension, Reading, Speaking and Grammar. These four
fundamental areas were meant to correspond with the Hopi language instruction
requirements also set forth by the Hopi
Tribal Council Resolution H-010-2006,
which stated that “Hopi language instruction shall include to the greatest extent
practicable…speaking, comprehension,
reading and writing skills and study of
the formal grammar of the language”.
One of the biggest misconceptions regarding language is that fluency is purely
about speaking the language, when in reality, learning how to speak is only part of
the process. In academic terms, Linguistic Proficiency is the ability of an individual to demonstrate adequate mastery of
the language in a range of skills and applications, which is why we endeavored
to develop an assessment that took into
consideration as many of the key areas
of language as possible. It is important
to understand that Language is a living
thing and it always takes place within a
relative context. Fluency is not an absolute status, and the use of language constantly changes, matures, and grows, and
while this exam is meant to be a tool for
assessing one’s language proficiency, it
can also be a great motivator for Hopi
people to perfect their language abilities
and take their Hopi language skills to the
next level. Being able to teach and utilize
a language in an academic setting is often very different from the casual everyday use of the language, even for a fluent Hopi speaker. So, it is unfair to place
teachers or paraprofessionals, without
proper assessment and excellent preparation, in situations where teaching conventions and students’ expectations may
be quite different from their earlier experiences. Ensuring a quality education for
Hopi students and promoting the use of
the Hopi Language have been top priorities for the Office of the Vice-Chairman
and have been priorities that he and his
staff have worked on diligently with other tribal programs and departments since
the start of the current administration. By
establishing consistent protocols to test
language proficiency, we are not only being considerate of the welfare of both the
teachers and the students that will learn
from them. It was the intention of the Office of the Vice-Chairman to establish a
foundation on upon which we can build
a comprehensive Hopi language program
and curriculum in the future.
Hopi Department of Natural Resources
Hopi Cultural Preservation Office –
Desert View Watch Tower
The Office of the Vice-Chairman
to date has continued its involvement
regarding the renovation of the Desert Watchtower. Over the course of
the several meetings the Office of the
Vice-Chairman has engaged with U.S.
National Park Service Staff on planning
and developing the Hopi Tribe’s Participation in this project and arranged for
the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office
(HCPO) to have a one-on-one consultation with The United States National Park
Service regarding the various options and
alternatives the National Park Service
is proposing for the Desert Watchtower.
Following these consultations, the plan
for turning the Desert View Watch Tower
into an inter-tribal cultural heritage site
was agreed upon. Prior to the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic, each of the tribes
associated with the Grand Canyon were
asked to submit artwork representative of
their tribe. This artwork would in turn be
incorporated, following consultation and
approval, into the overall layout and design of the proposed Inter-Tribal Cultural
Heritage Site.

CONT. PG 4

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

4

Office of the Vice-Chairman - Close-Out/Transition Report (December 2017 – December 2021), Cont.
Finland Repatriation
On Wednesday October 2, 2019,
during a press conference between President Trump and Finnish President Sauli
Niinisto it was announced that Finland
had agreed to return Native American remains that had been excavated and taken
from the Southwestern United States to
northern Europe in 1891 by Scholar Gustaf Nordenskjold.
This announcement came after a yearslong concerted effort by the Hopi Tribe’s
Cultural Preservation Office, Office of
the Vice-Chairman and other tribal nations to have these remains and funerary
items returned.
The history of this case played an important role in swaying public perception
about the importance of protecting cultural heritage resources that ultimately
led to the 1906 Antiquities Act and the
Establishment of Mesa Verde national
park, as Nordenskjold, who was of Finnish and Swedish descent, also took hundreds of artifacts from the Mesa Verde
region (which the Hopi people refer to
as Tawtoykya, or Place of the Songs) of
Colorado in the 1891 and was arrested
for attempting to export these remains
and artifacts out of the country. He was
later released, and the collection shipped
to Stockholm Sweden as no U.S. Laws
at the time prohibited such action. Nordenskjold then sold the collection to a
Finnish doctor who later bequeathed the
collection to the state of Finland following his death, and the collection was ultimately placed in The National Museum
of Finland in Helsinki
The museum took an inventory of the
collection following inquiries by the
Hopi Tribe’s Cultural Preservation Office
who in 2016, along with other Hopi consultants, led efforts to identify the human
remains funerary objects in the collection.
This inventory, which was complete
in June of 2018, determined that the
collection contained 600 items, including the remains of 20 individuals and
28 funerary objects. In July of that same
year, the United States State Department
sponsored an International Visitors Leadership Program to build relationships
between Native American Communities
and European Museums and as part of
this program Heli Lahdentausta Curator
of the Nation Museum of Finland met
with Representatives from Hopi and visited other cultural institutions in New
Mexico.
Following this visit the Government
of Finland notified the U.S. Embassy in
Helsinki that it would consider an Official request for repatriation of Human re-

mains and Funerary objects made by the
U.S. Government through Official Diplomatic Channels. The Official request was
made in Fall 2018.
Repatriation
On September 13, a coalition of tribes
including the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of
Acoma, the Pueblo of Zia, and the Pueblo
of Zuni repatriated and reinterred ancestors and associated funerary objects at the
Mesa Verde National Park. The National
Museum of Finland returned the human
remains of 20 ancestors pursuant to a
joint agreement with the sovereign tribes
who claim cultural affiliation to the Mesa
Verde Area. The U.S. Ambassador to Finland, Robert Pence, and representatives
from both the Finnish government and
the National Museum of Finland escorted
the remains back to America.
Hopi Language Grant
The Hopi Cultural Preservation Office (HCPO) and the Hopi Office of the
Vice-Chairman in September of 2021 began work on a new Hopi Language project, made possible through funding from
the American Rescue Plan, and distributed through the Administration for Native
Americans.
The project will see the development
of new instructional material which will
focus on a common core of words and
grammatical structures to attain proficiency in the Hopi Language and help
Hopi individuals to better understand
and grasp the language. Historical audio
recordings of Hopi speakers currently
housed at the American Philosophical Society (APS) in Philadelphia will be used
in this Hopi Language project and new
recordings of current Hopi speakers will
also be created as necessary. Recordings
will then be paired with an introductory
language-learning curriculum designed
to ensure that learners have good control
of the high-frequency vocabulary and
grammatical conversions. Upon completion this instructional material will then
be made accessible to the Hopi community.
Hopilavayi is at a crossroads. There is
less transmission of the language within
families and homes, across all Hopi villages. Despite the dedicated and tireless
work of the Hopi Cultural Preservation
Office staff, the Hopi Department of Education, and Hopilavayi teachers in the
school settings, older and younger generations are sometimes unable to converse
with each other in Hopi.
It is the Hopi of the Office of the
Vice-Chairman that the instructional materials developed through this grant, will
enhance, and provide much needed support for the ongoing efforts to increase

transmission of our language.
Hopi Emergency Response Team Hopi Return to Work Guidelines
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hopi Tribe instituted widespread
community mitigation and prevention
efforts that included closing much of the
tribal government. These efforts, combined with ongoing containment activities, served as an effective intervention
for limiting the spread of COVID-19, but
at the same time, have become a stressor
to the economic well-being of Hopi communities. However, during that shutdown
of the Hopi Tribal Government, executive leadership, in partnership with Hopi
Tribal Department Directors, reviewed
federal guidelines and recommendations
from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and developed guidelines for
the purpose of achieving Return to Work
preparedness.
As circumstances surrounding the
COVID-19 pandemic continue to change,
a flexible phased Reopening Plan for a
new operational norm was necessary. To
that end, Return to Work Guidelines was
prepared by Staff from the Office of the
Vice-Chairman and various other Hopi
Tribal Department Directors. This document is to serve as a guiding document
to aid in understanding the impact of
COVID-19 on our workplaces, standardizing hygiene practices and reinforcing
the shared responsibility that each of us
have for the collective health and safety
of the Hopi Nation.
Again, during its Government Shutdown, the Hopi Tribal Government established a Hopi Government Re-Opening Task Group (RTG), in which the
Office of the Vice-Chairman played a vital role, to assess the various facilities of
the Tribal Government and with technical
assistance from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), to implement key mitigation measures necessary
to safely continue the essential operations
of the Tribal Government.
Budget Oversight Team
Since the delegation of the Budget
Oversight Team (BOT) to the Office
of the Vice-Chairman, the Office has
worked diligently over the last four
years, as a part of the BOT to develop a
functional Annual General Fund budget,
as well as put forth feasible cost-cutting
recommendations for the consideration
of Hopi Tribal Council.
Given that the Hopi Tribe is faced
with declining revenues, a cursory total
of the Tribe’s Unrestricted Investments
was taken, which resulted in the sum of
approximately $107,657,142.72. This total was then prorated for 6-8 years. (This

time frame was based on reports that it
would take at least 6 years for any economic venture of the Hopi Tribe to produce revenues comparable to those lost
from the closure of NGS), which resulted in several annual budget totals, the
amount of which was dependent on the
number of years the Hopi Tribal Government was to function. The longer the
Tribe was to be in operation the smaller
the budget would ultimately have to be.
Throughout the four years of Vice-Chairman Tenakhongva’s Administration, the
Budget Oversight Team put forth several
cost cutting recommendations each year,
the most notable of which were: 1.) the
recommendation to reduce to a 32-hour
work week, 2.) Ending the payout of Excess annual leave and 3) Using the Revolving accounts of various programs
who have them, to off-set that particular
program’s general fund allocation. While
the work of putting forth a workable Annual General Fund budget is taxing, it is
important and will become even more
important in the future.
Veterans Affairs
The Hopi Office of the Vice-Chairman
met with the Hopi Office of Veteran Affairs various times throughout the last
four-years and collaborated with the Office of Veterans Affairs on a number of
events and celebrations including the Annual Hopi Code Talkers Day, Hopi Post
80, and the Hopi Honor Riders Event.
Yet, one of the most significant events
that the Office of the Vice-Chairman was
able to lend its support to with the Office
of Veterans Affairs, was the renaming
of four sections of Arizona highways in
honor of the 10 Hopi Code Talkers that
served During World War II. While the
Legislation was drafted during the Honanie administration, when Honanie’s
term ended, the Office of the Vice-Chairman continued the work through completion.
Law and Order Committee - Hopi
Tribal Detention Center
While the previous administration was
active in requesting that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) take immediate action
on the need for a modular detention center on the Hopi reservation, after the construction of this facility was met with a
number of delays and set-backs, the Hopi
Office of the Vice-Chairman became vigorously engaged in numerous lobbying
efforts on both the state and national level
to address these issues and sited that the
closure of the lone detention center on the
reservation, in Keams Canyon, continues
to create a hardship for the officers, extra wear and tear on official vehicles and
negatively impacts public safety

First Mesa Elementary School Presents School
Safety Plan at Native American Grant School
Association 2021 Winter Conference

First Meas Elementary School conference presenters. photo by Romalita Laban/HT

By: Romalita Laban, Managing Editor
Las Vegas, NV – December 9, 2021 was the first
day of the Native American Grant School Association
(NAGSA) 2021 Winter Conference scheduled from December 9 through December 11, 2021, and during the
day First Mesa Elementary School (FMES) staff presented the School Safety Plan created as a response to
the 2020 world-wide pandemic due to the COVID-19
which is still ongoing after a year and nine months.
Being that FMES is technically still a grant school being funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), the
BIE still exercises some authority with regard to federal
mandates and requirements. During the pandemic, the
BIE required grant funded schools to submit a School
Safety Plan in response to being prepared for the pandemic and FMES was the first local Hopi school to submit its plan.
During the afternoon session, Alma Sinquah, FMES
Community School Administrator provided an over-

view and explanation of how the FMES staff took
charge once she presented the requirement by the BIE.
She further explained that like for many other schools
and staff, it was a challenge because no one knew exactly how to approach creating a School Safety Plan
surrounding such an unknown virus but the staff did not
reproach and instead approached the situation and all
members of the Safety Team contributed even during
the summer on their break.
Initially Sinquah approached Annalese Nasafotie,
School Nurse requesting something in writing by the
end of the day which led Nasafotie to begin researching and gathering information from as many sources as
possible, including the Centers for Disease Control. By
the end of the day the School Nurse delivered the beginnings of the plan which has since been tweaked and
added to by the Safety Team.
Eventually the Hopi Tribe’s Assessment Team assigned to going to all Tribal Buildings, including the
schools, to determine the needs to be able to function

during the pandemic visited FMES. The FMES staff
shared the plan which the Hopi Tribe eventually shared
with all Hopi schools as some did not develop one as
quickly as the FMES team did.
Staff members who presented included Annalese Nasafotie, School Nurse, Shawn Tootsie, Facilities and
Francelia Tom, Lead Teacher who all talked about the
various effects the pandemic had on their workload and
most importantly attending to the children during the
pandemic. The team provided a listing of all the staff
who aided with developing the Safety Plan and expressed much appreciation to their colleagues.
The presentation provided reminders about the challenge, emotions and how positive teamwork helped the
staff to do a better job and to prove that they had the
ability to face even a world-wide pandemic. The team
made a big impact on the audience and were praised
very well by all those attending the NAGSA 2021 Conference.

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

5

Marc S. Roy Appointed by Hopi The Hopi Tribal Council 1st Quarter
Session December 1, 2021 Agenda
Tribal Council to serve as Chief UNFINISHED
BUSINESS
1.
Discussion/Possible
– Letter dated July 30, 2021 Re: Request to rescind
Judge of the Hopi Tribe as of Executive Order #011-2021Action
and direct the Drought Task Team to reach out to Hopi
ranchers and Navajo Accommodation Agreement signers to work on identifying alNovember 7, 2021
ternatives for addressing drought issues on Hopi lands. / Letter dated August 16, 2021

Chief Judge Marc Roy (Photo Submitted)

Submitted by: Kathryn Kooyahoema,
Court Administrator Hopi Tribal Courts
Keams Canyon, Ariz. – December 7,
2021, Chief Judge Roy is a licensed attorney with over 30 years of experience
and an Arizona State Bar Association
member. Additionally, state, and tribal
bars, numerous federal courts, including
the United States Supreme Court, were
awarded a Fellowship by the National
Association of Attorneys General earlier
in his career.
He began his judicial experience as a
local criminal court judge in Mississippi
during the first year of law school, where
he augmented that experience with government service, including supervising
tribal relations, security, legal and infrastructure professionals for the US Department of Homeland Security. In addition,
several capacities following Hurricane
Katrina. Chief judge Roy works as Regional Director in the Office of the President of the United States in Gulf Coast
Recovery, serving as Chief Judge of the
Ute Tribe, setting up a newly authorized
office as a tribal attorney general in South
Dakota. Also, he has appointments as a
senior assistant attorney general and as a
vital member of the Governor’s staff in
the US Territory of American Samoa.
His educational credentials include a
B.A. in anthropology with an emphasis
on Southwest archaeology from Texas
Tech University, a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Mississippi College, and a

Master of Laws degree from the University of Nottingham in England.
Judge Roy has developed and taught
leadership programs, criminal law courses, and economic recovery seminars as a
professor and faculty member at Tulane
University and other universities. He
also, has served as a consultant or representative to other governments, including
Haiti, China, and the independent state of
Samoa.
Chief Judge Roy has published articles
on constitutional law and was recognized
for his legal and management contributions on behalf of the public by a Proclamation from the City Council of New
Orleans and in the Congressional Record
and has received commendations from
FEMA, DHS, the Governor of Mississippi, and others for his work in behalf of
criminal justice, infrastructure improvements and assistance to those in need. He
has served as a speaker and commentator
on governmental policy, jail standards,
law enforcement, disaster management,
and justice matter in interviews, presentations, and televised appearances, such
as C-Span, in this country and others. He
currently serves on the Finance Committee for the American Judges Association
and as a member at large on the Executive Committee for the Senior Division of
the Arizona State Bar.
Judge Roy and his wife, Diane, an attorney, very much enjoy hiking and restoring historically recognized properties.

December is “National
Drunk and Drugged Driving
Prevention Month”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Submitted by: Bernadean Kachinhongva, HSAPC Mentor
Kykotsmovi, AZ – November 24, 2021,
The HOPI Substance Abuse Prevention
Center (HSAPC) is supporting the December national awareness campaign National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month or 3D Prevention Month.
This awareness campaign is a reminder to
never drive impaired. Historically, there
has been an increase in impaired driving
during the annual holidays. The winter
months are typically the most impacted.
Your holiday plans may involve some
travel. Be cautious as you travel.
December has been proclaimed National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Awareness Month since 1981.
Every president since 1981 has shown
their commitment to stop impaired driving. The theme for Drunk and Drugged
Driving Prevention month or 3D month is
“Let’s take a Stand.” The HOPI Substance
Abuse Prevention Center has also seen
an increase in unhealthy activity during
the last few months of the year. Should
you be under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or other substances, highly consider
refraining from operating a vehicle and
machinery. You could be committing a
crime if driving while impaired. Impaired
driving may also lead to legal actions.
An impaired driving crime is when your
ability to operate a vehicle is impaired
by the effects of illegal drugs, illegal use
of prescription/over-the-counter medication, or alcohol. If driving a person who
has a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08
grams per deciliter or higher is impaired.
Alcohol concentration is varied by the
alcoholic beverage. For example, wine,
beer, malt liquor, whiskey, and liquor
have different variants of alcohol content.
Some have less and others have higher alcohol content. A person should also
consider their health, weight, social occasions, and first experiences as key factors
in their ability to consume alcohol and
substances. Your choices can highly impact your life if you're not consciously
aware of your health and body.
HOPI Substance Abuse Prevention

Center would like to share a friendly reminder that the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is described by
the National Association of Drug Court
Professionals as “One of the deadliest
and most dangerous times on America's
roadways due to an increase in impaired
driving.” We here at HSAPC encourage
you to refrain from impaired driving and
drive defensively while on the roads.
Accidents caused by driving under the
influence are very preventable. Here are a
few tips for your holiday travel and gatherings to keep in mind as you travel. Plan
- if you think alcohol or substances are
going to be at an event. Designate a sober
driver. Also, consider arranging an alternate route to travel home. Plan friendly
and loving reminders - talk to your loved
ones about the importance of being safe
and responsible.
Hopi teachings remind us it is
Kyaa’muya, a fragile month. We can do
our best by keeping away from having
risky behaviors. Staying home and finding a fun activity to do with loved ones
can help. Challenge yourself - Create a
healthy sober challenge. Tell yourself,
“Just for today I’ll keep from consuming
substances, alcohol, and unhealthy behaviors.” Reach out to a trusted and encouraging person when you feel the urge
to use alcohol, substances, or engage in
unhealthy behaviors. If you’re hosting an
event offer to provide non-alcoholic and
substance-free options to family members and guests. This will show a loved
one you are supporting them and showing
them, they can still have a good time.
HSAPC encourages everyone to support National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention month on social media
as well by using the theme “Let’s Take
a Stand”, #Drunk Drugged Driving Prevention Month, #3D Prevention month. If
you need support, we encourage you to
seek help by calling a trusted individual,
program, or HSAPC staff member at 928734-0300.
To learn more about National Drunk
and Drugged Driving Prevention month
visit HSAPC’s Facebook page or call
928-734-0300 and/or visit https://www.
naadac.org; https://www.nationaltoday.
com/

Re: Executive Order #011-2021 Range Mitigation and Livestock Reduction – Albert
T. Sinquah, Tribal Council Representative, First Mesa Consolidated Villages – TABLED UNTIL DECEMBER 2021
NEW BUSINESS
1. Action Item #001-2022 – To accept Grant Funds awarded to the Hopi Cultural
Preservation Office in the amount of $82,609.00 from the American Rescue Plan Act
Emergency Native Language Funding to explore alternative educational methods in
combating Hopi language loss within the Hopi villages and communities – Author/
Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, Program Manager, Hopi Cultural Preservation Office
2. Action Item #002-2022 – To obtain Hopi Tribal Council authorization to accept
funds from the U.S. Department of Treasury to support a Homeowner Assistance
Fund (HAF) Program and authorize the CARES Act Committee and the Office of the
Executive Director to develop and administer the program – Author/Jamie B. Navenma, Chairman, CARES Act Committee
3. Action Item #003-2022 - To approve Clause Law PLLC, as the Hopi Tribe’s
Lobbyist for one (1) year – Author/Timothy L. Nuvangyaoma, Chairman
4. Letter dated November 3, 2021 Re: Presentation of a potential partnership and
project for the Hopi Tribe – Wallace Youvella, Jr., Tribal Council Representative,
First Mesa Consolidated Villages – Time Certain - December 7, 2021 @ 1:00 p.m.
5. Interviews for the following positions:
Sergeant-at-Arms (1 candidate) - December 8, 2021 – 9:45 a.m.
Treasurer (2 candidates) - December 8, 2021 – 10:00 – 11:15 a.m.
Chief Revenue Officer (3 candidates) - December 8, 2021 1:00 – 2:50 p.m.
Deputy Revenue Officer (3 candidates) - December 8, 2021 – 3:00 – 3:35 p.m.
6. Memorandum dated October 27, 2021 from Priscilla Pavatea, Acting Director,
Department of Natural Resources and Clark W. Tenakhongva, Chairman, Drought
Task Team; Re: Request for Extension on Drought Mitigation meeting with ranchers
– Albert T. Sinquah, Tribal Council Representative, First Mesa Consolidated Villages
7. Letter dated October 5, 2021 Re: Walpi Housing Management – Timothy L.
Nuvangyaoma, Chairman, The Hopi Tribe
8. Letter dated November 3, 2021 to Mr. Virgil Pinto, Chief of Police, Hopi Law
Enforcement Services – Mervin Yoyetewa, Tribal Council Representative, Village of
Mishongnovi
9. Interviews for Hopi Tribal Housing Authority Board of Commissioners: Five
(5) candidates - December 20, 2021 – 9:15 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
REPORTS
1. Office of the Chairman – Trip to Washington, D.C.
2. Office of the Vice Chairman
3. Office of Tribal Secretary
4. Office of the Treasurer
5. Office of the Executive Director
6. Office of the General Counsel
7. Land Commission
8. Water/Energy Committee
9. Transportation Committee
10. Law & Order Committee
11. Investment Committee
12. Health/Education Committee
13. Report from Chief Virgil Pinto, Hopi Law Enforcement Services and Jamie
Navenma, Director, Department of Public Safety & Emergency Services; Re: Hopi
Tribe’s Letter of Intent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to take over Hopi Law
Enforcement Services (HLES) – Mervin Yoyetewa, Tribal Council Representative,
Village of Mishongnovi
14. Report – 2021 Year-End Review: Significant Accomplishments by the Hopi
Tribal Housing Authority (HTHA) Interim Board of Commissioners (Written)

Lomayaktewa Awarded NAGSA Hall of
Fame Class of 2021 School Employee
of the Year

Jennifer Lomayaktewa photo by Romalita Labab/HT

By: Romalita Laban, Managing Editor of Mishungnovi. Her parents are Genevieve Humeyestewa and the late Ronnie
Las Vegas, NV – December 10, 2021 Lomayaktewa. Jennifer graduated from
and during the second day’s events of the Hopi High School with Honors in 2014
Native American Grant School Associa- and attended the University of Arizona
tion (NAGSA) 2021 Winter Conference and Pima Community College. Prior to
scheduled from December 9 through De- joining the staff at FMES, Jennifer got
cember 11, 2021, Jennifer Lomayaktewa, to travel to places like New York City,
Teacher Aide for First Mesa Elementary Tennessee, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas
School was awarded the School Employ- for volunteering opportunities and sumee of the Year award.
mer internships. Jennifer has been a TA
According to its website the “Native for more than 2 years working alongside
American Grant School Association great teachers and has had the opportu(NAGSA) is a non-partisan, non-prof- nity to work with different grade levels.
it school board association governed Jennifer also got to help coach the junior
by its Board of Directors. Each board varsity basketball team. She currently
member is elected school board that he works with the third grade and enjoys usor she represents their school. NAGSA is ing her skills to contribute to the exciting
a multi-tribal school board association.” educational environment that happens evWith a Vision Statement that reads, "Uni- ery day. During Jennifer’s free time, she
ty to Inspire and Advocate for Diversity loves to run, read books, spend time with
in Education to Retain Language, Cultur- family and raise her Husky pup Miska”
al & Spiritual Values" The mission of the
The Award Ceremony was hosted by
Native American Grant School Associa- Alberto Peshlakai, Navajo County Distion is to advocate for all Native students trict II Supervisor with Opening Remarks
to ensure the best quality education for by Royd R. Lee, NAGSA Superintendent
Native American students.
and Presentation of Awards conducted by
According to the NAGSA Event Agen- NAGSA Officers & Superintendent, Euda, “Jennifer Lomayaktewa is a Teacher siw John, President, Leslie Williams Vice
Aide at First Mesa Elementary School. President, Sophia Francis, Secretary/
Jennifer is Hopi from Second Mesa, Treasurer and Royd R. Lee, Superinten[AZ] and is Fire Clan from the village dent.

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

6

HOPI H.E.O.C UPDATES

Hopi Tribe Department of Health and Human
Services Covid-19 Emergency Response
Update December 7, 2021 Report
KYKOTSMOVI, AZ – December
7, 2021
This data is updated on the Hopi
Tribe’s website “COVID-19 Response and Resources” page.
Hopi Health Care Center – Community COVID-19 Testing & Vaccination Information
COVID-19 vaccines are available
mornings and afternoons for the
month of December for those 5-years
and older. To schedule an appointment call (928) 737-6148 or 7376081- Appointments are required. For
questions about COVID-19 vaccines
call: (928) 737-6198 or 737-9197
COVID-19 Testing Drive-up Testing schedule: Monday – Friday from
8-9:30am AND 3– 4 pm. Enter at the
west entrance & drive around back.
Mask must be worn by everyone in
your vehicle. Please stay in your vehicle at all times. To schedule for testing or for more information please
call (928) 737-6233.
Tuba City Regional Health Care
Corporation - Community COVID-19
Testing & Vaccination Information
Moenkopi residents Tuba City Regional Health Care will have a Pfizer
vaccine community drive-up vaccine
clinic now available for individual’s
12-years and older. Call 1-866-9765941 to schedule your appointment.
As of December 7, 2021 the United
States now has approximately 49,002
million confirmed positive cases with
over 785,655 deaths reported.
Over 1,298 million confirmed positive cases now exist in Arizona. Of
those, close to 25,200 are in Navajo
and 26,000 in Coconino Counties.
“Prevention:
Watch for Symptoms - people with
COVID-19 have had a wide range of
symptoms reported – ranging from
mild symptoms to severe illness.
Symptoms may appear 2-10 days after exposure to the virus. Anyone can
have mild to severe symptoms. People with these symptoms may have
COVID-19:
• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Shortness of breath or difficulty
breathing
• Fatigue
• Muscle or body aches
• Headache
•New loss of taste or smell
•Sore throat

•Congestion or runny nose
•Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea
This list does not include all possible symptoms. CDC will continue to
update this list as we learn more about
COVID-19. Older adults and people
who have severe underlying medical
conditions like heart or lung disease
or diabetes seem to be at higher risk
for developing more serious complications from COVID-19 illness.”
Retesting of COVID-19 Positive
Employees. Per guidance and alignment with HHCC, CDC, state and
local health departments, and OSHA
workplace guidance for COVID-19
re-testing of positive or suspected
COVID-19 employees before they return to work, nor providing letters to
go back to work is not recommended.
The recommended reason for not
re-testing is an individual may continue to test positive on a viral test
long after they are recovered from
COVID-19. These dead viral particles will turn viral tests positive even
though they cannot cause disease in
others. The Hopi Health Care Center
strongly encourages employers to use
the CDC’s symptom and criteria below even if they continue to test positive. Once they meet the three criteria,
they are no longer considered infectious to others. However, if the employee was severely ill (hospitalized)
or in immunocompromised, plead advise them to visit their primary care
provide before returning to work.
The “checklist” below will be used
by employers to use with their employees to determine when an employee with confirmed or suspected
COVID-19 may return to work safely. For additional questions, please
call the Hopi Health Care Center
COVID-19 hotline (928) 737-6188.
□ It’s been at last ten days since I
first had symptoms or received my
positive diagnosis if “I’ve not had
symptoms (please note date of first
symptoms: (________)
□ Overall my symptoms have improved and I am feeling better.
□ It’s been at least 72 hours since
I last had a fever without using fever-reducing medicine.
If you checked all three boxes, you
are no longer a considered at risk
to infect others. You can go back to
work!

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

7

Tribe inches closer to historic purchase of
Las Vegas resort

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has moved closer to owning the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas Strip. If the $650-million deal goes through, the tribe would be the first to own a
resort in the heart of the U.S. gaming industry. (Photo courtesy of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians)

Stewart Huntington
Special to Indian Country Today
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — A California tribe is poised
to make gaming history later this month after the Nevada Gaming Control Board voted unanimously last week
to recommend approval for its purchase of a Las Vegas
resort.
If the state’s gaming commission green lights the sale
of the Palms Casino Resort on Dec. 16, the San Manuel
Band of Indians would become the first tribe to own and
operate a resort in the heart of the U.S. gaming industry.
“It’s great to see tribes using their success (in gaming on Indian land) to diversify their economic portfolios,” said Dustin Thomas, the National Indian Gaming
Commission’s director of compliance and citizen of the
Mohawk and Oneida Nations. “As time goes on, more
tribes are looking for opportunities off of tribal land.”
The Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut in March 2021
became the first tribe to operate a casino in Las Vegas
when it opened the Mohegan Sun Casino At Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The San Manuel investment goes a step
further with proposed tribal ownership of an entire Las
Vegas destination property.
“This is an exciting story,” said Daniel Cobb, a professor of American studies at the University of North
Carolina.
“It’s one more chapter in a much longer story of renaissance and renewal,” as tribes across the continent
reclaim their culture and re-assert their sovereignty, he
said.
The tribal gaming industry has ballooned since its early days. In 2000, there were 256 Indian gaming operations in the country that handled $10.6 billion in gross
gaming revenue. By 2019, the last year not disrupted by
the pandemic, the industry had grown to 522 operations
that handled $34.6 billion in gross revenue, according to
the National Indian Gaming Commission.
In May, the San Manuel Band, based in San Bernardino, California, announced plans to purchase the Palms
Casino Resort located just west of the famed Las Vegas
Strip for $650 million in cash from Red Rock Resorts, a
unit of Station Casinos. The Palms opened in 2001 with

a 42-story hotel, and a second hotel tower with 40 floors
was added in 2005. The entire operation has been shut
down since March 2020 when the state of Nevada shuttered all non-essential businesses because of COVID-19
concerns.
The potential expansion into Las Vegas comes at a
busy time for the tribe.
On Dec. 13, the tribe will hold a grand opening for
a new 432-room hotel addition to its casino resort in
Highland, California, 60 minutes from Los Angeles.
The $760-million addition and renovation will also be
accompanied by a rebranding. The resort, which had
been known as the San Manuel Casino, will now be
called the Yaamava’ Resort and Casino.
“As we watched Yaamava’ take shape over these last
three years, the San Manuel community recognized we
were building something special,” San Manuel Chairman Ken Ramirez said in a prepared statement.
The tribe started gaming operations on the property
in 1986 with a bingo hall, and has overseen multiple expansions over the years.
A spokesperson for the tribe said it was in a so-called
quiet period during the regulatory hearings in Nevada
and couldn’t comment on the pending acquisition of the
Palms or its plans for the Las Vegas resort if the deal
is approved. But a clear theme has emerged since May,
that the tribe is dedicated to its employees and its traditions.
“In Southern California, our tribe is well known for
being a successful casino operator and recognized as
a community leader and an employer of choice,” Latisha Casas, chairman of the tribe’s subsidiary that will
manage the Las Vegas project, said in a statement. “We
live by values passed down by our ancestors; our values
define us.”
The tribe was recognized this year at the Global Gaming Awards as the “Responsible Business of the Year”
for its significant contributions to its community during
the COVID-19 pandemic. The award acknowledged the
tribe and its gaming enterprise for its commitment to
corporate social responsibility in the gaming industry.
“(This) is a testament to our tribal values and we
are proud to receive recognition of our philanthropy,”

Ramirez said in a prepared statement at the time. “I look
forward to working together to continue these meaningful efforts to give back to our community and those
in need,” which is considered an answer to the call of
Yawá, a Serrano word meaning “to act on one’s beliefs.”
The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, a federally
recognized tribe, descended from the Yuhaaviatam clan,
or “People of the Pines,” of the Maara’yam (Serrano),
who thrived in the highlands, passes, valleys, and mountains in and between the southwestern Mojave Desert
and what is known as the Inland Empire region in what
is now Southern California. Their history is remarkable
in its rise from near-annihilation to flourishing cultural
and economic power.
Beginning in the 1780s, the Maara’yam were forced
from their villages into church missions in order to
provide unpaid labor to Spain. Later, after the territory
became part of the state of California, the Yuhaaviatam
were attacked by a state government-sanctioned militia
in Big Bear Valley during a 32-day campaign in 1866.
Fewer than 30 members of the clan survived the massacre and ended up, in 1891, on what was established as
the San Manuel Reservation.
The tribal lands have grown from 640 acres to more
than 1,100 acres.
“Though the Reservation had very little usable space
and natural resources, the community came together to
establish a new way of life on the Reservation that not
only led to our survival, but also honored our culture
and traditions,” the tribal website states. “Our San Manuel Tribal Government works to provide a better quality
of life for our citizens by building infrastructure; maintaining civil services; and promoting social, economic,
and cultural development.”
The tribe this year is one of the largest employers and
philanthropists in the Inland Empire as well as in the Las
Vegas region.
“The generosity of (the tribe’s) investments is extraordinary,” said Cobb, the UNC professor. “Investing in the
economy of the people who sought to eliminate them is
a remarkable thing.”

PASSED: O’Halleran Bill to Extend Yavapai County and ADHS Confirm First
Case of Omicron Variant in Arizona
Deadline by which Tribes Must Use
Public health’s recommendation remains
CARES Funding
vaccination, boosters and mitigation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, December 8, 2021

WASHINGTON – Today, the House of
Representatives voted to pass H.R. 5119,
bipartisan legislation introduced by Congressman Tom O’Halleran (AZ-01) and
Congressman Don Young (R-AK-AL) to
extend the coverage of Coronavirus Relief Fund payments allocated under the
2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to tribal
governments from December 30, 2021,
to December 30, 2022.
“At the beginning of the pandemic,
bureaucratic red tape and disorganization within federal agencies forced tribes
across America to go with no aid for
over a month; during this time, the Navajo Nation in Arizona’s First Congressional District became the most concentrated COVID-19 hotspot in the nation,
and tribes all across our state lost far too
many elders, friends, and neighbors,”
said O’Halleran. “Our bill ensures sovereign tribal nations have adequate time to
allocate the monies they are owed to most
effectively address and recover from this
ongoing pandemic. I’m pleased to see
this much-needed legislation pass the
House today and urge the Senate to act
on it without delay.”
The CARES Act was signed into law
on March 27, 2020, allocating $8 billion
for tribal governments under the Coronavirus Relief Fund. However, tribes across
America did not receive any funds until
May 5, 2020, well after the bill’s statutory deadline. During this time, the Navajo
Nation in Arizona’s First Congressional

District became the most concentrated
COVID-19 hotspot in the nation.
"I am very proud to help lead House
passage of this bill with my good friend,
Congressman O'Halleran. But we must
not forget, the clock is ticking for countless Indigenous people in Alaska and
across the country,” said Young. “The
Senate must now act with great urgency.
The CARES Act was an essential piece
of legislation that came at a critical time.
But for all the assistance it provided for
Alaska Native and Native American communities, bureaucratic red tape has delayed the disbursement of these critically
needed funds. Our cause is an important
one for Tribes and Tribal organizations.
As it stands, approximately $16 million
has not been distributed, and up to $400
million has not been spent. The best stewards of federal resources are those closest to the people. Very frankly, Native
Americans know their communities best,
making this a worthy cause to get behind.
I am pleased with today’s progress, but
this is not done until it is done. Indigenous people were some of the hardest hit
by the COVID-19 pandemic, and pulling
the rug out from under them by letting an
arbitrary deadline take away these needed resources is a flagrant violation of
our federal trust responsibility. We must
avert this catastrophe. I call on my House
and Senate colleagues to join myself and
Congressman O'Halleran in this fight and
get it done."
The legislation builds upon O’Halleran’s 2020 bill to ensure that tribes had
the time and resources they needed to allocate and spend CARES funding.

For Immediate Release:
December 8, 2021
Media Contact: Steve Elliott
Email: pio@azdhs.gov
PHOENIX ‒ The Arizona Department
of Health Services (ADHS) and Yavapai
County Community Health Services
(YCCHS) have confirmed Arizona’s first
known case of the COVID-19 Omicron
variant.
“Much remains unknown about the
Omicron variant at this time, including
whether it is more transmissible and more
capable of producing severe illness than
the Delta variant,” said Don Herrington,
ADHS interim director. “We do know
that current COVID-19 vaccines have remained very effective against Delta and
other variants, and I strongly encourage
Arizonans to get vaccinated if they aren’t
already and make sure they’re current on
their booster dose if they are fully vaccinated.”
Leslie Horton, director of Yavapai
County Community Health Services,
echoed these sentiments.
“It’s natural to be concerned, but we
should avoid overreacting to this news,”
Horton said. “Since late 2020, as different variants have come along, COVID-19
vaccines have consistently proven highly effective at preventing severe illness,
hospitalization, and death. Our best response to the Omicron variant, as with
any other variant of concern, is renewing
our focus on vaccination and following
recommendations, such as staying home
when sick, that are proven to reduce the
spread.”

Arizona has hundreds of providers
offering safe, free, and highly effective
COVID-19 primary vaccines to everyone
age 5 and older. Booster doses are recommended for everyone 18 and older at least
six months after completing a primary series of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or
at least two months after the single-dose
Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine.
Arizonans also can protect themselves
and their families while preserving hospital capacity by:
Getting a flu shot: azhealth.gov/Flu
Masking up, maintaining physical distance, keeping hands washed, staying
home if sick, and following other prevention steps: azhealth.gov/COVID-19
Getting tested if you have symptoms
or five to seven days after being exposed
to someone who has or who you believe
may have COVID-19: azhealth.gov/Testing
If you or a loved one contracts
COVID-19, looking into monoclonal antibody treatments that can reduce the severity of illness and reduce the chances of
hospitalization: azhealth.gov/mAbs
To find a vaccination provider, please
visit azhealth.gov/FindVaccine or call the
bilingual Arizona COVID-19 Hotline at
844.542.8201 (press 8 to be connected to
a navigator) between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
seven days a week.
More information on COVID-19
vaccines is available at azhealth.gov/
COVID19Vaccines. More information on
COVID-19 and ways to curb the spread is
available at azhealth.gov/COVID-19 and
www.yavapaiaz.us/chs.

CLASSIFIEDS

8

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT
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Center
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We offer available space for any kind
of announcements, call for pricing and
availability call or email today
Call:
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Position Summary:
Primary responsibility is managing the Center and
supervising program staff. This position is based
in Kykotsmovi, AZ however services are provided
throughout the Hopi community. Manager will facilitate program development, maintain HSAPC programming and services, and apply strategies for the unique
and important work of the HSAPC, to ensure program
objectives. Also ensures effective communication with
partner agencies and the HSAPC Community Advisory
Board. He/she will complete other duties and responsibilities, as assigned.
Minimum qualifications:
Must have Five years current and continuous sobriety; Three years management and supervision experience; Associate’s or bachelor’s degree; or Any equivalent combination of education, training and experience
which demonstrates the ability to perform the duties of
the position.
FULL JOB DESCRIPTIONS & APPLICATIONS:
HopiFoundation.org/jobs
Contact: 928-299-0452 │ hannah.honani@hopifoundation.org
Salary: Based on experience & qualifications;
$35k-40k/yr
Benefits: 401k, vision, dental, telework options available
‑Minimum Requirements: Must possess valid driver's
license; No misdemeanor convictions within the past 5
years and no felony convictions; Background investigation and fingerprinting is required; Must have reliable
transportation
HOPI Substance Abuse Prevention Center is a project
of The Hopi Foundation.

porturica@gmail.com

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

Natwani Coalition Job
Announcement
Program Coordinator
Position Summary:
Primarily responsible for coordination of Natwani
Coalition programing activities. S/He will develop,
maintain, and facilitate projects, communication, and
community organizing to meet program goals with the
support of community members, collaborators, Community Advisory Board members, and other interested
individuals.
Minimum qualifications:
Three years programming and coordination experience; and An associate’s or bachelor’s degree; or Any
equivalent combination of education, training and experience which demonstrates the ability to perform the
duties of the position.
Salary: Based on experience & qualifications; Starts
at $25k/yr
FULL JOB DESCRIPTION & APPLICATIONS:
HopiFoundation.org/jobs
Contact: 928-299-0452 │ hannah.honani@hopifoundation.org
Benefits: 401k, vision, dental, and telework options
available
Deadline to Apply: Friday, January 28, 2022
Minimum Requirements: Must possess valid driver's
license; No misdemeanor convictions within the past 5
years and no felony convictions; Background investigation and fingerprinting may be required; Use of personally-owned vehicle may be required to carry out job
related tasks.
Natwani Coalition is a project of The Hopi Foundation.

Hopi Tutuveni
wants to know how
we are doing.

Call or email us to tell us if we
are doing a good job. We need
your feedback

928-734-3283 or
rlaban@hopi.nsn.us

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

The Hopi Tribe P.O. Box 123 Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
Ph: (928) 734-3281 • Ph: (928) 734-3283
Editorial Board of the Hopi Tutuveni
Kyle Knox , Gary LaRance, George Mase
Hopi Tutuveni Staff
Managing Editor - Romalita Laban
RLaban@hopi.nsn.us
Assistant Editor - Carl Onsae
Consae@hopi.nsn.us

ARTICLES:
The Hopi Tutuveni
welcomes original articles
reporting on local, state
and national news items
on issues related to Hopi
or of interest to Tutuveni
readers. We are especially
interested in articles reporting on issues impacting the Hopi community
or on events and activities
involving members of
the Hopi Tribe. Articles
should not exceed 750
words and should follow
Associated Press (AP)
style and formatting. The
Managing Editor reserves
the right to edit articles
for style, length and clarity. If significant editing
is required, the Managing
Editor will communicate
with the author prior to
publication.
PRESS RELEASES:
Press releases must be
submitted on official
letterhead and include the
name of the organization,
contact person, telephone
number and email address.
Press releases should not
exceed 500 words and
submissions may be edited
for length and clarity at
the discretion of the Managing Editor.
LETTERS TO THE
EDITOR:
Letters should not exceed
250 words and must
include the name of the
author and complete contact information (address,
phone number or email
address) and the headline
and date of the article on

which you are commenting. Anonymous letters
and letters written under
pseudonyms will not be
published. The Tutuveni
Editorial Board reviews all
submissions and reserves
the right not to publish
letters it considers to be
highly sensitive or potentially offensive to readers,
or that may be libelous or
slanderous in nature.
OPINION
EDITORIALS:
Submissions must be
exclusive to Hopi Tutuveni and should not exceed
1,000 words. Include
with your submission
your name and complete
contact information, along
with a short 2-3-sentence
bio.
SUBMISSION
INSTRUCTIONS:
All press releases, articles, letters to the editor
and Opinion Editorials
electronically as a Word
document or as plain text
in the body of an email
to the Managing Editor,
Romalita Laban. Articles,
press releases and editorials that include photographs must be in high
resolution, 300dpi or more
and must be your own. All
photographs must include
photo credit and a caption
for each photo listing
the names of all persons
included in the photo and
description of what the
photo is about. (call 928734-3283 for deadline
schedule).

CIRCULATION
The Hopi Tutuveni is published twice a month, with
a circulation of 2,500 copies throughout the entire
Hopi Reservation. The paper is delivered on the 1st
and 3rd Wednesday of each month to the following
locations: Moenkopi Travel Center, Moenkopi Legacy
Inn, Hotevilla Store, Kykotsmovi Village Store, Tribal
Marketing Coordinator
Government Complex, Hopi Cultural Center, Hopi
Position Summary:
Health Care Center, Polacca Circle M, Keams CanPrimarily responsible for fundraising and resource yon Store.
development to maintain KUYI operations. Main focus is on raising non-Federal financial support through
underwriting, merchandise sales, donors, contributions,
Hopi Tribal Council
planned giving, in-kind donations of goods & services,
memberships, volunteer recruitment, and general station
Timothy L. Nuvangyaoma,
Chairman
support through outreach. Works closely with The Hopi
Foundation staff to ensure financial reporting and manCraig Andrews,
agement of station resources and financial contracts.
Vice Chairman
Minimum qualifications:
Must have an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in
Judith Youvella
Tribal Secretary
marketing, advertising, communication, or business/financial management and at least 2 years of experience
Wilfred Gaseoma, Tribal
in sales, business/financial management, and/or nonTreasurer
profit fundraising. Must also have 2 years supervision or
management experience or any equivalent combination
Violet Sinquah,
of education, training, and experience which demonSergeant-At-Arms
strates the ability to perform the duties of the position.
Village of Upper
Salary: Based on experience & qualifications; $25Moenkopi
30k/yr
Robert Charley
Receptionist (Part-time)
Philton Talahytewa, Sr.
Position Summary:
Hubert Lewis, Sr.
Michael Elmer
Responsible for providing clerical and general support to the station and program staff to ensure efficient
Village of Bakabi
day-to-day operations of the KUYI Radio Station and
Marilyn Fredericks
its entities. Also responsible for coordinating general
Clifford Qotsaquahu
communication from and to the public.
Velma Kalyesvah
Minimum qualifications:
Village of Kyakotsmovi
Must have 3 years of clerical and office manageDavid Talayumptewa
ment experience and a high school GED and/or some
Phillip Quochytewa, Sr.
post-secondary educational experience OR any equivaDanny Honanie
lent combination of education, training, and experience
Herman G. Honanie
which demonstrates the ability to perform the duties of
Village of Sipaulavi
the position.
Raymond Namoki
Salary: Based on experience & qualifications; $25k/
yr
Village of Mishongnovi
FULL JOB DESCRIPTIONS & APPLICATIONS:
Delores Coochyamptewa
Pansy Edmo
HopiFoundation.org/jobs
Mervin Yoyetewa
Contact: 928-299-0452 │ hannah.honani@hopifoundation.org
First Mesa Consolidated
Benefits: 401k, vision, dental, and telework options
Villages
available
Albert T. Sinquah
Dale Sinquah
Deadline to Apply: Friday, January 28, 2022
Wallace Youvella, Jr.
Minimum Requirements: Must possess valid driver's
Ivan L. Sidney
license; No misdemeanor convictions within the past 5
years and no felony convictions; Background investigation and fingerprinting may be required; Use of personal
vehicle may be required.
KUYI-Hopi Radio is a project of The Hopi Foundation.

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

KUYI - Hopi Radio Job
Announcements

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

Larry’s Corner

December is almost over, and the New Year is almost here. Now for Hopis, the New Year will start
next year February…I know confusing, but we Hopis like to confuse each other with our complicated
religion.
So, in the Pahana religion, it is customary to set
goals for the New Year, or what many call New
Year’s resolutions. So, let me ask you, what has
anyone contributed to this life? What has anyone
contributed anything in this life? What sort of
contributions do you make towards life? All these
listed are different ways of saying, “What are we
living for?” Well, what are we living for in this lifetime?
We, as human beings, measure time by the hours
on the clock and by the days of the calendar. Not
that anything is wrong with that, but what happens when we don’t make time using the western
concepts of time and date keeping? What happens
when there is no counting of the passage of time?
And when you are the only one keeping track of
that passage, from your perspective? Today we’re
going to explore the inside of time…or the best
way I can explain the idea through my cat eyes and
brain. Let me add this…that as far as a Hopi cat is
concerned, I sleep all day lying flat as a board until
I am ready to eat again…it is so good to be a cat,
like right now.
When the New Year starts to show itself, people
start to panic. Maybe we haven’t contributed anything towards life or anything in it, so we begin to
play catch up. When you think about it, we start to
pile on everything to fulfill our goals or meet some
quota to contribute to life at - the end of the year.
It’s like that final exam you haven’t studied for in
school. In that instance, we think we can cram everything taught throughout the year to fit a year’s
worth of knowledge into 8 hours before the final
exam. I believe life is like that…well, to some extent.
When I was a mush head kitten, I thought time
moved slowly. It felt like a whole year took decades to come to an end. And yet, in comparison, it
seemed like I was a hummingbird. Only National
Geographic’s high-powered cameras could capture
my fast-beating wings; that’s how fast I thought

I was while time was dripping by. I thought time
moved so slowly. I seemed to feel like it was Friday, but it always turned out it was only Monday.
You know that kind of feeling. It seemed the older
I got, the more time started to speed up, and I began to get slower. Time seems to be flying so fast;
I thought it was the year 1999, but in less than a
month, it will be the year 2022. I guess we are flying so fast in time that we forget what time is, so
we create goals to pretend to work towards accomplishing them.
When I was a handsome young kitten, and the
year was December 1993, I was in grade school,
and our project was to create something for our
class wall. I think it was to create a hand wreath
or clothespin deer, you know, the generic 90’s arts
and crafts. I believe there is even a book named
“Boring 90’s arts and crafts”.
Being mush head kittens back then, we took the
opportunity to take it as free time to mess around
while creating something with our hands. But our
teacher at the time said we had to write a poem
about our project reflecting the following year’s
Christmas. Sort of like a future goal for the following year’s holiday.
I didn’t want to write anything while working
with scissors with a blunt tip trying to cut out construction paper. You really must focus on one thing
at a time, and I didn’t want to do that.
So, this assignment took me quite a while because
we were mush head Native kittens who didn’t like
school, let alone the writing projects. So, my poem
consisted of all generic words like, “I love my parents” and “I will be good next year,” you know,
the selfish things that I only wanted. Now don’t get
me wrong, I’m not a greedy cat; I love my parents
and culture. But when we were kittens, we never
thought about what we wanted to accomplish anything when we grew up, nor what we wanted to do
with our lives when we grew up. Heck, there are
adults around here on the Hopi reservation that still
don’t know what they want to be when they grow
up, yet they are still dreamers.
So, when I reached my final year of schooling,
all 12 years of it. Our final assignment was to reflect on our lives, childhood, what we learned in

9

life, or what we knew while going to school for 12
years. As a Native cat, that consisted of going to a
public school where they taught you how to avoid
X number of years of jail time. Also, seeing those
female cats fight over the ugliest cat in the school
just because he talks with a REZ accent, but I digress…
Back to my writing assignment, before I started
to ramble, I wrote that my life was a fixed point
in history in the project. Like everything else, our
lives are fixed moments in history. At that time,
I believed that I could not go back to the past to
change anything, nor could I go into the future. I
could only watch my history unfold, like the crusty
folded homework that I never turned in, as I lived
it. Time travel is impossible, let alone just thinking about time travel. We can’t simply go back to
the past or jump into the future to change anything
with our lives. So in my mind, the assignment was
bogus.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that we must
move forward with our lives. Even though life gets
us down and we can’t find the early exit door, we
must move forward because we are all fighting to
become someone or accomplish something in our
lives. So, our exit door is indeed further than we
think.
Now don’t get me wrong, maybe time travel is
possible. Perhaps we can go back to our past lives
to tell ourselves not to wear that silly Jnco Jeans
that we thought were cool, or you can say to your
past self that your Hip Hop album will never go
platinum. You’re just singing silly songs in your
So’oh’s living room.
So, my advice is that the New Year we can all
look forward to and start fresh once again. I love
that we can just kind of “reset” our lives every year
and try it again. But life goes on, and for now, we
can’t do anything with a fixed time in our history.
But, if you still want to figure out time travel, I’m
very interested in that. That way, I can go slap myself as a mush head kitten to say, “DO IT BETTER
LARRY!” but until then,”Marty! We must go Cat
to the Future”!!

Games and Puzzles
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Hopilavyit - Christmas Time

HOPI WORDS

December 3 issue

TICK-TACK-TOE

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B W W
A A P
A A F
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S M I
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Santiki – Church

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Lestooni – Ribbon

Q
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Pas Pay – About to

Atsa – False

Kis’ovi – Roof top

Kyaptsiyma – Abide by

Salavi – Fir (Douglas)

Possaltaapalo – Shawl

law

Noova – Food

(Heavy)

Awaptu – Afford

Kuna – Funny

Lalaytuwiki – Sheep

Hisat – Ago (Long)

Tayawinpi – Gift

Herder

Sipàltuva – Almond

Nima – Go home

Talvi – Slippery

Mansaala – Apple

Awtavi – Hand over

Nuva – Snow

Tukpu – Bag

Tunglayta – Hope

Tal’upta – Sparkle

Pono – Belly

O’kiwa’at – Humble-

(Stars)

Maqa – Bestow a gift

ness

Aasala – Spread

Tìitiwa – Born (Be)

Lepena – Icicle

Soohu – Star

Kyenti – Candy

Suutokihaq – Midnight

Aw – To

Poksoö – Chimney

Lakapa – Mistletoe

Somatsi Taaqa – Wise-

Kyesmis – Christmas

Qaavo – Next day

man

Kyesmistaawi – X-mas

Òlentsi – Orange (Fruit)

Mokyàata – Wrap

Song

Sowi’yngwa – Reindeer

Sunat-Tsiot – 25

Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

10

Arizona law allows greater cultural
expression at graduation

Lourdes Pereira stands next to Gov. Doug Ducey on Sept. 1 as he signs House Bill 2705, which prevents schools from banning Native dress at graduation. Pereira three years ago helped
change Tucson Unified School District policy that had required special permission to display such regalia. (Photo courtesy of Lourdes Pereira)

Chad Bradley
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – Just minutes before her high school
graduation in Gallup, New Mexico, three years ago,
Dakotah Harvey was told to remove the eagle feather
from her mortarboard or she would be escorted out of
the ceremony and her diploma would be withheld.
Her grandfather had tied the feather to the cap’s tassel
earlier that day, Harvey told Cronkite News. He loaned
it to her after performing a Navajo prayer in celebration
of her achievement.
“I didn’t have the heart to tell him I couldn’t wear it,”
Harvey said.
To Navajos and many other Indigenous peoples, the
eagle feather is an important and sacred component of
many ceremonies and blessings.
In April, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation
that public schools can’t prohibit Indigenous students
from “wearing traditional tribal regalia or objects of cultural significance at a graduation ceremony.” The bill
specifically includes eagle feathers or eagle plumes.
Cultural regalia includes hair buns, rug dresses, woven sashes, moccasins, beadwork and turquoise jewelry,
including bracelets, belts and necklaces.
New Mexico does not have a similar law.
A few weeks before Harvey’s graduation from Hiroshi Miyamura High School, officials issued a graduation dress code that banned cultural dress or regalia that
was not concealed by the graduation gown. The cap also
couldn’t be adorned in any way, which included tying
anything to the tassel.
Students were allowed to wear moccasins, sashes,
jewelry or other items, but only if they were underneath
the gown, concealed for the majority of the ceremony.
Harvey fumbled with the feather and struggled to un-

tie it.
“They were trying to take it from me,” she recalled. “I
told them ‘No, I’m going to hold on to it.’”
She placed the feather between her dress and gown
and brought it back out when the ceremony’s prayer
in English, Navajo and Spanish began. She carried the
feather in full display when she walked onstage to accept her diploma – even receiving a compliment on the
feather from the school’s namesake himself, Korean
War veteran and Medal of Honor recipient Hiroshi Miyamura.
Representatives from Gallup-McKinley County
Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
Arizona law allows Indigenous regalia
The Arizona bill, House Bill 2705, was introduced in
early 2021 by Rep. Arlando Teller, D-Chinle, who later
resigned from the Legislature to work for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The bill was championed by
Rep. Jasmin Blackwater-Nygren, D-Arizona, a fellow
Navajo, and passed in April.
At the Capitol on Sept. 1, Lourdes Pereira, who is
Hia-Ced O’odham and Miss Indigenous Arizona State
University for 2020-21, stood at Ducey’s side as he
signed legislation that included HB 2705.
In 2018, Pereira and fellow Pueblo High School graduate Maddy Jeans, who is Navajo, Pascua Yaqui and
Otoe, successfully fought to change Tucson Unified
School District policy to allow Indigenous students to
wear cultural regalia at graduation. Previously, special
permission was required.
Similar laws exist in California and Montana, and
Utah lawmakers recently introduced similar legislation.
“Graduation is a milestone and is a ceremony,” said
Jolyana Begay-Kroupa, Phoenix Indian Center director
of development and Navajo language professor at Arizona State University.

Violence against Indigenous
women is a crisis, report finds

Navajo leaders offer their support for families of missing and murdered relatives at the
Navajo Nation Council Chamber in Window Rock, Arizona on May 5, 2021. (Photo courtesy
of Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President)

Shondiin Silversmith
Arizona Mirror
Violence against Indigenous women in
the U.S. is a crisis, but the extent of the
problem remains unknown, according to
a report released by the U.S. Government
Accountability Office.
“There’s no one single database that
has all this information,” Gretta Goodwin, the director of GAO’s Homeland
Security and Justice team, told the Arizona Mirror. “So, the full scope of the
problem is we don’t know.”
And gathering the data needed to figure
out just how big the problem is is complicated by a history of police racism and
prejudice that has left Indigenous people
feeling that there is no reason to seek help
from law enforcement agencies, leaving
untold numbers of cases unreported —
and uninvestigated.
The report, which was published Nov.
1, comes two years after more than a dozen members of Congress wrote a letter to
the GAO requesting an investigation on
missing and murdered Indigenous women in the United States.
With no centralized database among
the thousands of federal, state and tribal
entities, there is limited data on missing
and murdered Indigenous people.
The GAO report identified four major
federal databases that included some data
on missing and murdered Indigenous
people. The missing person data was
pulled from the National Missing and
Unidentified Persons System (NamUS)
and The National Crime Information
Center (NCIC). The data for murdered
individuals came from the National Violent Death Reporting System and the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
For instance, NamUS published a report in August stating that there are 734

unresolved missing Indigenous people’s
cases from 36 states. Arizona has the
thirst-highest number of cases at 55.
The NCIC publishes a roundup every
year that highlights the total number of
missing persons and unidentified person
cases reported.
In 2020, over 9,500 cases involving Indigenous people were reported, and nearly 1,500 were still active cases at the end
of 2020.
The lack of overall data is only one
of the issues that local MMIW advocate
groups and tribes have been talking about
for years, and now that the MMIW crisis
has more of a national spotlight, federal
and state entities are starting to pay attention.
“The GAO has affirmed what we have
known for a long time — that the federal government’s response to the crisis of
missing and murdered Indigenous women has been inadequate and lacks a basic
understanding of the scope of the crisis,”
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Tucson, said.
Grijalva and Rep. Ruben Gallego, a
Phoenix Democrat, both signed the letter
submitted to the GAO in 2019, and each
of them released statements pointing out
how the GAO report echoes what local
MMIW advocates and tribes have been
saying about the crisis for years.
“For too long, government and law
enforcement ignored the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women,”
Gallego said. “The findings of this report
confirm what Indian Country and advocates know: there is more that must be
done to end this crisis.”
In some tribal communities, Indigenous women face murder rates that are
more than 10 times the national average,
according to the Department of Justice.

CONT. PG 11

The use of feathers and other cultural regalia is important to many tribes in celebrating significant points
in life, she said, and it serves as a reminder to everyone
that “we’re still here.”
Begay-Kroupa hopes the new law will prompt discussions that lead to better understanding between cultures.
Harvey, who’s now studying at ASU, wished more
students and parents had advocated for a better, more
inclusive graduation dress code.
“I think at the time we were just like, ‘You know
what, we’re almost done with high school, we’re going
to suck it up through the ceremony and just get through
it and then we’re booking it out of here,’” she said.
Regalia allows for greater cultural expression
Such rules and policies can make it more difficult to
celebrate milestones in culturally relevant ways within
schools and make it harder to be Indigenous, especially
for those living near towns bordering reservations.
Gallup is outside the southeastern border of the Navajo Nation Reservation in New Mexico and serves as
a hub for commerce and education, which much of the
reservation lacks.
Other Navajo Nation border towns are Flagstaff and
Holbrook, as well as Farmington, New Mexico.
A life of commuting from the city to the reservation
is common around these towns, which can have stark
cultural differences.
“I know a lot of kids who struggled with trying to be
a city kid, or a suburban kid, or a Native kid and they
would struggle back and forth,” Harvey said.
Harvey hopes New Mexico adopts a similar law,
which would support freer cultural expression and alleviate some of those struggles. She doesn’t want her
younger siblings to endure what she did when they walk
across the graduation stage.

Stars align to celebrate
Indigenous film artists

Indigenous stars turned out for a special event honoring Native film and performers at the
new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Nov. 6, 2021. Among those
attending were, from left, Oscar winner Buffy Sainte-Marie, Academy Trustee Ray Halbritter of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, actors Wes Studi and Tantoo Cardinal, and
musician and songwriter Robbie Robertson. (Photo courtesy of The Academy Museum of
Motion Pictures)

Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to Indian Country Today
A star-studded lineup of Indigenous
celebrities turned out for a special event
honoring Native film at the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los
Angeles.
Among those attending the private ceremony were Academy Award-winning
musician Buffy Sainte-Marie, actors Wes
Studi and Tantoo Cardinal, musician
Robbie Robertson and academy trustee
Ray Halbritter of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York.
The event was held Nov. 6 during the
opening week of Native American Heritage Month to showcase the museum’s
commitment to Indigenous film artists,
officials said.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences, the organization that hands
out the Oscars, opened a stunning, seven-story, 300,000-square-foot museum
on Sept. 30 that draws on the history and
magic of filmmaking.
Cinema has a long history in the Los
Angeles area, built on the premise of
making movies and turning people into
movie stars. It’s built on Tongva land,
though Indigenous actors and filmmakers
didn’t begin to get the respect or recognition they deserved until the 1970s.
The new Academy Museum seeks to
offer celebratory, critical, and personal
perspectives on the disciplines and impact of movie-making, past and present.
The special ceremony was preceded
by two days of film screenings featuring Indigenous films from the past 40
years, including The Fast Runner (2001),
Christmas at Moose Factory (1971), and

Walking is Medicine (2017).
The event honored award-winning Indigenous artists.
Sainte-Marie, Cree, became the first
Indigenous person to win an Oscar, when
in 1983 she won for her song, “Up Where
We Belong,” from the film An Officer
and a Gentleman.
Studi, Cherokee, was awarded an Honorary Oscar for his decades of outstanding work in mainstream (Hostiles) and
indie films (Ronnie Bo Dean).
Cardinal, Cree and Métis, was honored
for her work in Dances with Wolves and
other films since the 1970s.
And Robertson, a songwriter and musician of Mohawk and Cayuga descent,
was recognized for his work that includes
composing soundtracks for multiple Oscar-winning films by director Martin
Scorcese — Raging Bull, Casino, The
Departed. He is now working on the
soundtrack and score for the upcoming
Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the
Osage murders in the 1920s.
The evening was kicked off with a
blessing from Tongva spiritual leader
Jimi Castillo. Other notable Native celebrities attending the event were Crystal
Williams, Rudy Ortega, Stevie Salas and
Tishmall Turner.
On display in the museum are the clip
of Sainte-Marie winning her Oscar, clips
from the Scorcese movies with Robertson’s film scores, performer Cher’s wild
Mohawk outfit that she wore to present
an Oscar in 1988 - the year before she
won an Academy Award, and a looping
clip of Sacheen Littlefeather’s rejection
of Marlon Brando’s Oscar in 1973 over
his protests of how Natives had been
treated in
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Hopi Tutuveni December 15, 2021

11

Violence against Indigenous women is a crisis, report finds, CONT.
In 2017, homicide was reported as the fourth-leading
cause of death among Indigenous women between the
ages of 1 and 19 years and the sixth-leading cause of
death for ages 20 to 44, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
In a report from the National Institute of Justice, 84
percent of Indigenous women experience violence in
their lifetime, compared to 71 percent of white women.
GAO Report Findings and Recommendations
The GAO’s inquiry into MMIW started in January
2020 and concluded in October 2021. The report examines to what extent the number of MMIW is known in
the U.S., as well as what steps the Department of Justice and Department of Interior have taken to address
the issue.
“When we started this work, we knew that a number
of groups had already been attempting to highlight this
issue,” Goodwin said. “This is the first time we’ve done
this work.”
Outside of the databases, the GAO was able to identify other data collection efforts, including regional efforts from researchers, tribes, and states.
The GAO worked with locations in seven states to
see how they collected MMIW data: Alaska, Arizona,
Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and
Washington.
Within these locations, the GAO interviewed law enforcement agencies, collected tribal perspectives on the
MMIW related issues from 23 tribes, and reviewed reports from local advocacy groups.
“Our seven cases certainly don’t speak to the experience of all 574 federally recognized tribes,” said Anna
Maria Ortiz, the director of GAO’s Natural Resources
and Environment team. “They do give us glimpses on
some of the factors that we think might play into this
crisis.”
Goodwin said they did not name the locations they
worked within the report out of respect because the
GAO intends on continuing their work in this field.
“We determined that while the data have limitations
for estimating the absolute magnitude of missing or
murdered (Indigenous) women, they were sufficiently
reliable for the purposes of identifying potential locations with relatively high numbers and missing or murdered (Indigenous) women per capita,” the report states.
In terms of what contributes to the lack of data, the
GAO report pointed out several reasons, including how
federal databases do not contain national data on all Indigenous women reported missing, but also that officials
are prone to underreporting cases, misclassification of
race as well as misclassifications of the manner of death
to the federal databases.
The findings in the report were not surprising to Ortiz,
but she was struck by how haunting some of the stories
were that tribal community members shared with them
during their research.
“The legacy of historical racism and prejudice made
families feel like they could not even go to law enforcement because law enforcement was going to be dismissive or ignore their concerns,” she said. “So, it was not
a surprise per se, but it was devastating and speaks to
how important it is that the federal government do what
it can to improve its response to this crisis.”
The GAO report also looked into how the Justice and
Interior Department has addressed the MMIW issue.
The report found that some of the requirements listed in
two laws from 2020, the Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act, could help address part of the MMIW crisis,
but it’s up to both departments to implement them.
National attention on the crisis involving missing and
murdered Indigenous people has been increasing over
the years.
In 2019, the Justice Department announced the agen-

cy’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative and President Donald Trump launched a task force
on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska
Natives known as Operation Lady Justice.
In April, another national push came from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland when she launched
the Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of
Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services. This unit will
provide leadership and direction for cross-departmental
and interagency work involving missing and murdered
Indigenous people.
“Whether it’s a missing family member or a homicide
investigation, these efforts will be all hands on deck,”
Haaland said at the time. “We are fully committed to
assisting Tribal communities with these investigations,
and the MMU will leverage every resource available to
be a force multiplier in preventing these cases from becoming cold case investigations.”
The Interior Department reported that 2,700 cases of
murder and non-negligent homicide offenses have been
reported to the federal government’s Uniform Crime
Reporting program.
Even though the Justice and Interior departments increased their efforts to address the MMIW crisis, the
GAO report found that the departments have not implemented certain requirements to increase intergovernmental coordination and data collection as part of the
Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act. The agencies have
even missed some of their statutory deadlines.
As part of the Not Invisible Act, one requirement is
that the secretary of the interior, in coordination with
the attorney general, is supposed to appoint members
to a Joint Commission on Reducing Violence Against
Indians. Those appointments were supposed to be made
by February 2021, 120 days after the act passed.
None have been appointed. In August, nearly nine
months after the deadline, the Justice and Interior departments announced they wanted to start finding members for the commission.
Savanna’s Act directs the Justice Department to review, revise and develop law enforcement and justice
protocols to address missing or murdered Indigenous
people.
Some of the requirements from Savanna’s Act include
having the attorney general, in cooperation with the secretary of interior, consult with tribes on how to improve
tribal data relevance and access to databases.
The Justice Department also needs to provide training to law enforcement agencies on how to record tribal enrollment or victims in federal databases as well as
develop and implement a strategy to educate the public
on NamUs.
GAO reported that, as of June, the Justice Department
is in the planning stage for meeting this data collection
and reporting requirements and is considering using
data from two federal databases to satisfy it.
The GAO reported that the Justice Department had
until April to conduct a strategy to educate the public
about NamUs, but as of June, there was still no plan or
time frame for its implementation.
The GAO stated that the Justice and Interior departments developing plans to meet the joint commission
and other unfulfilled statutory requirements would provide more confidence that they are working to meet their
legal responsibilities, as well as support tribal partners
in reducing violent crime.
“Implementation of data-related requirements in new
laws and ongoing data analysis present opportunities to
increase understanding of the scope of the MMIW crisis,” the GAO report states.
The GAO report made four recommendations on addressing the MMIW crisis in the US, three for the Justice Department and one for the Interior Department.

Stars align to celebrate Indigenous
film artists, Cont.
film and in real life. Her speech was
met with boos and cheers.
Bill Kramer, director and president of
the Academy Museum, said in a statement that the museum wants to tell stories of the industry.
“We are living in changing and ever-evolving times, and now more than
ever we need to come together to share
our stories, learn from one another, and
bond over being entertained and delighted,” Kramer said. “This is what movies
do, and we are thrilled to be opening such
a dynamic, diverse and welcoming institution devoted to this beloved art form.”
Jacqueline Stewart, chief artistic and
programming officer of the Academy
Museum, said officials want to engage
visitors in conversations about the history of films and the impact that cinema
can have.
“We hope visitors will learn more
about films they know and love, make
new cinematic discoveries, and feel inspired to share their own stories,” Stewart said in a statement.
A walk-through of the multi-storied
building is a movie-lovers dream. Rotating galleries have displays focused on
sets and props from the Wizard of Oz,
and costumes from the silent era of the
1920s to contemporary outfits from recent hit movies. The shark from Jaws,
named Bruce, hangs in the atrium.
The roof has a grand view of down-

town Los Angeles and the Hollywood
Hills. A 2.600-square-foot gift shop sells
everything from miniature Oscar statues
to T-shirts and other memorabilia. A café
on the lower level called Fanny’s, named
after Fanny Brice, serves up coffee and
sandwiches.
One of the most popular museum activities is The Oscars Experience in the
East West Bank Gallery, an immersive
simulation that allows visitors to step virtually onto the stage of the Dolby Theatre
to accept an Academy Award.
You tell them your name, step onto
a film stage and pick up a real Oscar
(it weighs about 8 pounds and is solid bronze, plated in 24K gold) and give
your acceptance speech while they film
it. A few minutes later they email you a
professional-looking, edited video with
the Academy logo announcing you as a
winner. I bet it will fool your friends.
The museum will be presenting a
roster of screenings — including Oscar
Sundays and Family Matinees — in the
1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and the
288-seat Ted Mann Theater on the property.
The museum is on the same block as
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
filled with some of the best art in the
world, and the La Brea Tar Pits, a prehistoric oddity of a real tar pit surrounded by
a natural history museum and a park with
excavation sites.

Ortiz said ​​GAO’s recommendations are more about
making sure that there are plans for follow-through for
work that has already been started by the Justice and
Interior Department under the Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s act.
“When GAO issues recommendations, we have a
very robust follow-up process. We will be periodically checking in with those agencies,” Goodwin said, and
both departments did agree to follow through with the
recommendations the GAO produced.
“They agreed to the recommendation and we know
that they are starting efforts to implement these recs,”
Goodwin added.
Arizona’s MMIW Study Committee on Hiatus
Arizona’s missing and murdered Indigenous women
and girls study committee is mentioned in the GAO report as one of the few local initiatives working to gather
comprehensive data on the MMIW crisis at a local level.
“It’s a good outline of what some of the issues are,”
state Rep. Jennifer Jermaine, the chair of the study committee, said of the GAO report. “It doesn’t go that into
depth on some of the issues. It’s good touchpoints for
other research to spin off it.”
The Arizona study committee launched in 2019 in an
effort to gather more information about the issue within the state. The committee published its first report in
2020.
“There is a nationwide epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and Arizona, with
22 federally recognized tribes, is at the epicenter,” Jermaine, a Chandler Democrat, said.
“Murders of Indigenous women and girls have been
steadily increasing over the past 40 years,” the study
committee’s report states. The study committee found
that only 160 murders of Indigenous females were recorded in Arizona from 1976 to 2018. An Arizona Mirror analysis of the sparse available data on MMIWG
cases found that more than 25 percent of murders involving Indigenous women in Arizona go unsolved.
Additionally, the Murder Accountability Project
found that one in three murders of Native Americans in
Arizona go unreported to the FBI.
A 2017 study from the Urban Indian Health Institute found that Arizona has the third-highest number of
missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in
the country.
That study reported a total of 506 known cases in 71
urban cities across the country and 54 cases were identified in Arizona, including 31 in Tucson.
Jermaine said the study committee is on an unplanned
hiatus because the proposed changes made to the committee were among the dozens of new state laws that the
Arizona Supreme court struck down because they were
unconstitutionally added to the state budget earlier this
year.
But Jermaine said the committee’s partnership with
Arizona State University is ongoing, and research of
missing and murdered Indigenous people in the state of
Arizona continues even though the law amending the
committee was struck down.
Those researchers helped the committee with the original report and are not bound by legislation, allowing
them to move forward with the changes they’ve made
to the study.
Jermaine said the study committee is aiming to have
another report published about missing and murdered
Indigenous peoples by November 2022, but how the
committee’s work evolves will depend on what the legislature does next year.
AZ Mirror - Arizona Mirror
This story was originally published in the Arizona
Mirror.

Keams Canyon elementary school
PO Box 397●keams canyon, az 86034
Phone: 928.738.2385 Fax: 928.738.5519
Website: kceseagles.org

“Home of tHe eagles”
Certified positions
Position title

Contract

School year

closing date

General Education Teacher

10 Month

SY 2021-2022

OUF

Physical Education Teacher

10 Month

SY 2021-2022

OUF

Substitute Teacher

On-Call

SY 2021-2022

OUF

Classified positions
Position title

Contract

School year

closing date

Bus Driver

10 Month

SY 2021-2022

OUF

General Ed. Teaching Assistant

10 Month

SY 2021-2022

OUF

Facilities Supervisor

12 Month

SY 2021-2022

OUF

Parent Liaison

10 Month

SY 2021-2022

OUF

IT Technician

12 Month

SY 2021-2022

OUF

If interested please submit the following:


Application - Online access: kceseagles.net



Copy of Certificate of Indian Blood (If Applicable)



Resume



AZ DPS Fingerprint Clearance Card (IVP Card)



Letter of interest



First Aid/CPR

Copy of current degree(s), certificate(s), teaching license(s)



Valid Driver’s License



- Official Transcripts will be required upon hiring
Full –time employment benefits
Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance and 401K retirement plan
More information
Jarrahlyn Begaye, Human Resources ● jbegaye@kceseagles.org ● 928.738.2385 Ext.2312
In accordance to P.L. 101-630, P.L. 101-647 & 25 CFR 63, all applicants are required to complete and pass a criminal background
check and character investigation (includes education, employment and reference verification) prior to hiring which includes a
favorable local jurisdiction, federal and state/county background check
Posted 12/03/2021

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Ahopi_arizona%3A88daf842c9fdc3db. Public record. Not legal advice.