Navajos want Canyon de Chelly

Navajo seek control of area in monument they call sacredMore than 75 years ago, the Navajo Nation asked Congress to establish Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona as a national monument.

The National Park Service was charged with preserving thousands of artifacts and ruins within the monument's towering red sandstone walls, while the land, revered by the Navajo as sacred, remained tribally owned.

Now the Tribal Council is seeking full control of the 83,000-acre monument and the more than $1.8 million in federal funding that goes with it. Doing so would strengthen the tribe's sovereignty and demonstrate its expertise and competence in administering tribal land and resources to benefit Navajo people, supporters say.

"It's a site that is very important in terms of not only the historical but also the cultural and spiritual aspects of the nation," said Arvin Trujillo, director of the tribe's Division of Natural Resources. "We are moving in a direction where we're becoming better equipped to take over some of these monuments."Comment:  I visited Canyon de Chelly on my first trip to Navajoland many years ago.

For more on the subject, see Review of American Indians and National Parks.