Background Information
Peacemaking
From the Western government perspective, they did not see any structure or representative of a government system within the Diné communities. The incoming Westerners, like the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans did not understand why the tribe as a whole did not have an organized way of living. To put it another way, before the arrival of the Americans in the early nineteenth century, the Navajo people did without a tribal-wide representative government that resembles the governments of the United States or Western European countries.2 The Dine people did have a cohesive structure, their culture, language, and land kept the people in unity. While living in scattered bands with headmen known as naat’ anniis (leaders) the community lived cohesively using their method of order. There were two naat’ aaniis within the bands. There was the Hashkeeji Naat’ aah (war leader), he knew the songs and stories of warfare. He knew to battles of Naayee’ Neezghani (Monster Slayer) and his twin brother Tó Bajish Chíní (Born-for-Water) which distinguished the war functions and peace functions in traditional Navajo stories. The Hashkeeji Naat’ aah, oversaw all war-related issues because he had extensive knowledge of war ceremonies and warfare passageways from the Twin Brothers journey narratives.3 The other naat’ aanii was the Hozhoji naat’ aah (peace leader), he had extensive knowledge of the Diné creation stories and the Hozhoji (BlessingWay Ceremony).4 In addition to the stories and ceremonies, he relied on the daily interactions with his community to maintain the people’s day-to-day activities. He used his knowledge to guide and counsel specific issues for his people to keep hózhó within the band. The two naat’ aaniis had distinct roles and expertise, and each was necessary and important to maintain hózhó (harmony) for the Navajo traditional social order.
The naat’ aaniis were leader of their band, and had the ability to influence and motivate through speeches and was very knowledgeable with songs, stories, and how to keep his community in harmony. They were well respected, and other Navajo bands knew of their leadership capability. Its common knowledge, the Navajo people knew that naat’ aaniis selected by the Diyin Diné (Holy People) and was an intermediary between the people and the Diyin Diné. According to the Dine origin story, the first naat’ anii was to correct behavior, maintain moral commands, and to enforce economic laws for the people. These commands or laws benefit the band’s order, control, and harmony of the community. Other prominent people within the group also assist the naat’ aanii, they counsel and discuss the internal matters. These leaders were hataliis (medicine men or women), hastoi (older men) and saanii (older women) addressed the band’s hunting, raiding, food gathering, the safety of the group, and other common issues discussed with the clan leaders. The main focus for the band was to survive, protect, sustain and maintain hozho (harmony).
The band population varied from a small ten to a large forty family community. Although some bands were large, they had a fundamental political body which kept their community in a harmonious state.5 The geographical area of the bands were different from one group to another. The reasons of their differences, was other tribes influenced the regions of where the bands dwelled. The Pueblos for example resided within the eastern part of the Dinetah and were more of agricultural culture, the Paiutes and Utes were enemies from the north. They have raided Navajo bands who resided in the north, and the band counter raid the northern tribes. From the south were the Apaches, who assisted in abducting women and children, then sold them to the Mexicans as slaves. To combat the abduction, the Diné raided Mexican ranches and haciendas to retrieve their women and children. In the east was the Hopi who were very hospitable in helping the smaller bands hide from the Spaniards, Mexicans, and American soldiers. The scattered bands had language, ceremonial, and leadership variations. As seen and heard today, the language and ceremonial differ from the eastern and western part of the Reservation.
Hweeldi (A Place of Suffering) - Fort Sumer, Bosque Redondo
During 1400 to 1600, the Diné people were skilled hunters and gatherers, living a nomadic way of life. The Spanish encounter during the early 1600 influence the Dine way of life becoming cultivators, planting fields of corn, weaving baskets and making clay pots. The Spanish taught the Diné how to raise domesticated livestock like horses, sheep, and cattle. They became experts in horsemanship and sheepherders.6 More Spanish ranchers began moving closer to the Navajo, and they retaliated with raids. The conflict went on for decades until 1786, Governor Juan Bautista of New Mexico territory establish a treaty with the Navajo.7 Peace honored for the remainder of the century. By early 1800, the influx of American ranchers, settlers, and prospectors caused more strife among the Navajo bands. These newcomers came to claim new lands and searched for gold. After the Mexican War of 1846 to 1848, the United States took procession of the Southwest, including the areas the tribe resided.8 Efforts to negotiate for peace agreement failed because the tribe of twelve thousand were dispersed into small bands and it was difficult to contact them to sign a single treaty. The raiding and counter raid from the Americans and the Navajo groups continued. Navajo women and children were taken and sold into slavery. Moreover, the Navajo were required to return prisoners and livestock they took in raids, whereas American of Mexican descent never repay what they have taken.9 Navajo women and children never were seen again.
The invasion of white people angered many of the Navajo bands, and they took precautions to protect themselves against these intruders and to defend their land and to live the life they have been living. The first colonel to arrive in the Southwest was Colonel Kearny. Kearny announced he came as a caretaker and not a conqueror. Instead, based on reports of continued clashes between New Mexican and Navajos, in 1846, Kearny ordered Colonel Alexander Doniphan into the Navajo country to ascertain whether the Navajos were willing to accept American rule.10 Doniphan’s meeting with the Navajo leaders was one of many council talks resulting in a treaty between the Americans and the Navajos. At Ojo Del Oso, or Shush Bitó (Bear Spring), as the Navajo knew the place, Doniphan asserted to the assembled Navajo leaders the United States claimed New Mexico by right of conquest and that they would protect all of its new citizens, including the Diné.11
Another colonel named Colonel John M. Washington proceeded to travel to Navajo land to control the Navajo. On August 30, 1849, with 178 soldiers, 123 New Mexican volunteers (slave raiders) and 60 Pueblo scouts, onto Navajo country.12 He requests the two groups meet with him the next day at Tseyi’ to formally sign a treaty. While the agreement negotiating conducted, one of the New Mexican claimed one of the Navajo had one of his horse. Washington ordered the rider to return the horse, but tension and conflict arise. Suddenly Washington ordered his soldiers to fire upon the Navajo. About six Navajo lays dead, including Narbona. He was shot multiple times and scalped by one of the soldiers. Narbona was a father-in-law to Manuelito. After the incident of Narbona, Manuelito did not trust the Americans.
During 1850, a fort was built in the heart of Navajo country, Colonel Edwin Sumner established Fort Defiance. More incidents between the colonel and Manuelito cause more conflicts. Battles at the fort killed many Navajo warriors. Brigadier General Carleton’s plan to remove the Apaches and Navajos to Bosque Redondo, a million-acre land adjacent to Fort Sumner. The two tribes would be grouped into villages and learn to live like an American, to farm, to become Christians, and educated in white ways. By September 1863, Carleton stated his plan: All captives who surrendered voluntarily would go to Bosque Redondo.13
The summer of 1863, Carleton initiated his strategy against the Navajos. He enlisted Kit Carson. Carson was a famous Indian fighter, and his message to the Navajos was to surrender and go to Bosque Redondo, or we will destroy you. Moving 221 men from Los Lunas to Fort Wingate, he added 326 men to his command.14 He fed his soldiers and horses on the Navajo fields of wheat and corn, then destroyed the rest of the crops. Afterward, everything he and his men encountered was damaged, the hogans, livestock slaughtered, peach trees slashed and burned. He targeted women and children, allowing the slave raiders to take them as payment. Many Navajos hid in the mountain and canyons. They believed Bi’éé’ Lichii’i (Red Shirt) Carson was on a war of extermination. By late fall of 1863, thousands of Navajo ragged and starving surrendered to the Forts. One of the surrendered Navajo was a leader, Delgadito. His band forcibly marched to Bosque Redondo. After talking to Carleton, Delgadito returned to hidden Navajo and informed them to surrender and move to Bosque Redondo to live in peace. Navajos will be shown no mercy if they continue to resist. Delgadito returned to the fort with 700 people. By the spring of the following year, about 3,000 Navajos had surrendered to Fort Defiance, which added prisoner count to 6,000 at Bosque Redondo. The scorch-and-burn campaign was winding down, but the attacks against the Navajos did not cease, slave raiders took advantage of tired and ragged women and children along the route to Bosque Redondo.
By November 1864, the military officials report that at least 8,600 men, women, and children had made the forced march to Bosque Redondo. But, it is possibly more than 11,000 trekked to the prison camp. Many died along the way, slave raiders stole many, and many perish at the prison camp. The last of the Navajo leaders surrendered. Manuelito ragged and wounded arrived at Fort Wingate with his band of 500. On September 9, he and his remaining group, which had dwindled from 500 to 23 began the arduous journey to Bosque Redondo.15 Determined to make an example of this great Diné leader, Carleton sent him through the outskirts of Santa Fe, intending to parade him in front of the New Mexicans.16 The General view Manuelito was the most stubborn of all the Navajo leaders and was the most difficult to accept peace terms during his stay are the prison camp. Shortly after Manuelito’s surrender, Barboncito took his people to Bosque Redondo. The last band to surrender. The prisoners continued to suffer from the elements of nature, lack of food, disease, angry soldiers, and other unsuitable conditions.
After Hweedli
General Carleton’s plan to assimilate the Navajos failed. Carleton informed his superiors that the prison camp was succeeding, and it was not so. The Doolittle Commission, which was established in 1865 to study the conditions of native peoples in the United States, reached New Mexico in late June 1865 to investigate the Reservation and the treatment of natives by civil and military authorities.17 The written report by James Rood Doolittle observed little had been done to attend the captives’ suffering. Carleton was relieved of his command.
Of all the tribes in the United States, Navajo people were the only tribe who were allowed to return to their homeland. Prayers, songs, and 20 great Navajo leaders (Manuelito, Barboncito, Ganado, Delgadito, Armijo and others) will not sign the treaty unless the government leaders agree to let the Navajos return home and not to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The Navajo people had one goal and a mindset to return to their land. They were determined to stay within the four sacred mountains, and they believed the earth allocated to them from the Diyan Dine’e’ (holy people). The treaty was signed on June 1, 1868. It has been 150 years since the incarceration, and the signing of the agreement and many Navajo elders still remember the ordeal. They stress to the younger generations to not forget the struggles we had to endure and how we all used our prayers, songs, and ceremony to return.
After the return to the Canyonlands and desert, the people began to unite as one, not as scattered bands. They began to see themselves as a nation. The return from Hweeldi was a pivotal change for the Navajo people. Their way of life made an impact on how they live today. The elders who did not survive the long walk and the internment camp knew the ceremonial healing songs and prayers are no longer here, and all was lost. Some clans were exterminated and no longer existed, like the ‘Iich’ah Dine’ é - Moth People, and the Tseyanatohnii - Horizontal-Water-Under-Cliffs People. The change of diet consisted of white flour, coffee, sugar, beans, and pork, which were rations given at the forts. This staple distributed at the forts until the Navajos were able to sustain themselves with their crop and livestock. They had to abide by the 1868 treaty and the 13 Articles, to become farmers, cultivating fields, and herding livestock. The Navajo government did not exist until 50 years after the “Long Walk.” The main reason the U.S. wanted a Navajo government was to obtain approval for mining leases. Oil, gas, and coal were discovered on the land. A council of leaders from the different region made up the Navajo council, and today the areas are affiliated by Chapters. By 1930s the Navajo council became a formal entity and soon after the Navajo courts formed a system.
Navajo Police
The first police force organized in 1872 on the Navajo reservation. Chief Manuelito commanded about 130 men as police officers which lasted a couple of years. Most of the policing put upon the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to the Law and Order Division. Between the years of 1936 to 1942, the Navajo police agency began to exist as an organized entity: A chief of police, six departments, and a central headquarter located in Fort Defiance. In 1959 to 1960, a detective, traffic division, and liquor and vice squad established. The additional departments reflected the demands of expanding a police organization and the growing Navajo population. Each specialized unit has to justify its existence by evidencing productivity, and the easiest method is through arrests and investigations or, in other words, using the crime control model.18 This centralizing and specializing units take away local involvement and reduce their input.
According to the Skoog (1996) three model of policing may exist in Native American communities: (1) the crime control model, (2) the community policing model, and (3) the political sovereignty model; however, in reality, there is generally significant overlap among them.19 The crime control model focuses on public order, and the total power of the law to safeguard general security. It also puts police priorities first along with policies and procedures, but minimal input from the community and its citizens. This method will create internal stress from the Christian members within the Native American community and external pressure to the state and federal agencies. The second is the community policing model, is what it read, community policing. A community policing approach is very applicable to the Native American communities because there is a culture connection, and gives local control to the police and citizens. The political sovereignty model is politically extreme. The usage of this model; Native American communities, have their courts, which could decide any issues occurring within their jurisdiction, and the police would form one part of an integrated criminal justice system bases on Native American values.20 The most prevalent model used by the Navajo Nation is the crime control model.
Peacemaking (Restorative Justice)
Individuals who are Diné suspected of criminal offenses can be tried in federal courts for severe crimes, in states courts for committing crimes off the Reservation, and in Navajo Nation courts for lesser and certain serious criminal offenses that incurred on the Reservation. All Navajo courts function using the Western model. The states attempted to take over the Navajo court jurisdiction and failed, the BIA Courts of Indian Offenses stepped in and established their courts on the Navajo Nation. Eventually, the Navajo Nation established its court system in 1959. The courts applied the Navajo common law as their preference, although there were oppositions. By 1992, the Peacemaker Courts formalized, and Navajo judges had been discreetly using during their court procedures for many years. In October 2001, an amendment made to the Navajo Nation Judicial Code that provided enabling legislation for the Peacemaking Division (Subchapter 10, Sec. 409-4140).21 The Peacemaking Division functions and complements with the Navajo courts. There is about 300 individual located in the 110 chapters within the communities. Individuals with disputes are referred to the peacemakers by the Navajo courts, the Navajo police, the Social Services, Indian Health Services, Behavioral Health, or self-referral. Differences may be issues of land uses, grazing right, livestock issues, domestic conflict, child custody, family violence. Some criminal offenses, like sexual assault, compensations for intentional death, have dealt with, but most cases are civil disputes. A small fee is paid to the peacemakers by the person having dispute issues. Support from the judge, court staff, Peacemaker Liaisons, and these individuals organize and implement peacemaking in their communities. Peacemaking in the Navajo courts today is the same practice the Dine have been using since the 1700s.
The law enforcement on the Reservation today has infused the Western Societies of win or lose model. Before the Judicial branch from the United States government and the 1868 treaty, the Navajo communities practiced, “Navajo custom law,” which was a journey of healing and not of punishment.22 Disputes resolved by discussing the issue which included the victim, offender, the families involved, and clan members (relatives and the community members) and the community leader. The community leaders, naat’ aaniis (headmen) settled the disputes, quarrels, and family problems and tried to correct the wrong-doers. The naat’ aaniis were respected, well versed, wise, and who facilitated the session using prayers, songs, stories, and teachings, so the person involved come to a consensus and corrects the wrong to reconcile or restore hozho (harmony) with both the victim and the offender and to prevent a recurrence. The focus was to sustain the wholeness of the person and to keep the community peaceful. The offender understands self, and a solution obtained, but when the person continues to cause trouble, the victim’s family use severe punishment which brings the ‘monster’ meaning to cause poverty, which are illness, anxiety, shame, worry, and strain. It is not a choice of solving the problem, and sometimes, this strategy used, so the offender fulfills his or her obligation. Afterward, the offender was counseled again with the naat’ aanis, families, clans, and the community band. The “peacemaking” model functioned well because all involved contributed to settle the dispute.
Interview
I created interview questions for Donavan Delmar, the itinerant supervisor at the local correction facility in Kayenta. He is the current delegated lieutenant who oversees the daily operation of the correction facility. One of the questions asked was, what does he know about the peacemaking process or restorative justice system and how is the model used within the facility? Mr. Delmar stated that the facility program utilizes the Diné concept of K’e, meaning using family and clanship to support the individuals who are detained. Prayers, songs, and mediations are additional cultural pieces the facility implements to support the detainees. The purpose of using K’e for the detainees is to bring back the connection of family, enabling individuals to find their relations within the facility (even with the staff members who are employees). Respect and rapport are thus established with the detainees and staff workers. He also stated that ceremonial practices such as the t’áchééh (traditional sweat lodge) are available for the male detainees.
The Holy People taught the Diné about the t’áchééh after their emergence into the Fourth World. The Diné had many trials and tribulations and had seen many destructions. Also, the Diné needed to be cleansed physically, mentally, spiritually, and purified for a new beginning. The ceremony in the t’áchééh is a healthy cleansing and should be treated with respect because it teaches to care for one’s body and soul, using songs and prayers, and to learn one’s roots, goals, and the foundation of life. Then, individuals will believe in themselves. The t’áchééh will reconnect the person with the Holy People so he will enlighten himself and help others. The t’áchééh ceremony is a way to help individuals who have lost their way and to reconnect to the corn pollen path and their circle of life.
Mr. Delmar added that he has attended some trainings on Restorative Justice and has knowledge of the process and has seen correlations with the Diné method of peacemaking. He would like to see the restorative method used more within the local court system but stated it will take time, because the courts, jails, and correction facilities are funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The Western justice system is preferred over traditional Diné peacemaking but Mr. Delmar would like to see Restorative Justice methods return to the Navajo justice and court system. He hopes to do more when he becomes an official Supervisor. In this new capacity, he will have the authority to make decisions and implement particular corrections programs to help detainees.
Another question asked was the about juveniles who are arrested. Mr. Delmar stated, “The officer who arrests the youth usually transports the minor to the nearby juvenile facility, which is Tuba City, and they are not detained here in the correction facility.” The counselor at the site will work with the youth to correct their wrongdoing and to not punish the minor. He stated that counseling the youth is the first focus, then the schooling, culture, and language will come afterward. The goal has the minor think the wrong can be corrected and to not commit the incident again.
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