Lane pleads not guilty to cutting fence in Freeze

By Sararesa Begay
Diné Bureau

KEAMS CANYON — Navajo elder Rena Babbitt Lane pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday in Hopi Court for allegedly cutting a fence on the former Bennett Freeze area near the Western Navajo Agency.

The Nov. 4 incident took place in an area involved in the Navajo-Hopi land dispute, or the former Bennett Freeze area. Lane, 84, adamantly against forced relocation, lives in a remote region of Black Mesa, without electricity or running water. She can neither speak, read or write English. Lane's alleged crime was going into another grazing area. She had gone through a section of barbed wire fence to retrieve her goats that had wandered off.

Lane alleges that three officers one Hopi sergeant and two Navajo officers dragged her from bed, pushed her around and threatened to take her to jail and make her walk home, about 100 miles away, and threw her cane on her roof.

"Ever since that day, it has not been good with me," said Lane, who suffered a heart attack during the police raid. Additionally, she charges they told her they would let the coyotes eat her sheep.

Lane has had a long-standing conflict with Hopi and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials, including a 1974 confrontation in which Lane suffered a broken hand.

Originally, it was reported that the three rangers involved were Bureau of Indian Affairs employees, but a BIA spokesman from Washington D.C. said that was not accurate.

"They are not BIA employees," said BIA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Warren Youngman.

Related cases
Lane's attorney, James W. Zion, also represents two other interrelated cases that include clients, Marsha Monestersky, a paralegal, and The Forgotten People.

Monestersky is facing exclusion from the Navajo reservation by Vernon J. Roanhorse, senior prosecutor of the Nation's Tohajiilee/Alamo district. The Forgotten People are opposed to the Hopi-Navajo compact relating to the Bennett Freeze area.

A hearing scheduled for Monestersky on Dec. 19 in Tuba City was postponed, at the request of Roanhorse, and no new date has been reschedule at press time.

Zion received a faxed "saying it was postponed until a later date."

The notice did not include when that date would be, he said.

He agreed with the request in hopes of getting the petition cleaned up, Zion said.

"I want them to get all that junk out of there," Zion said.

The petition to ban Monestersky from Navajo, filed by Roanhorse, is long on gossip, but short on facts, Zion said.

Monestersky is described as a "well-known agitator" on the Hopi reservation, in Roanhorse's petition. It continues to say that Monestersky has caused disharmony through her actions, including unauthorized actions while purporting to be a lawyer. The petition reads like a 100-page dossier listing her height, weight and even that she's Jewish.

Zion has described the accusations against Monestersky as hearsay, untrue, irrelevant or "hilarious Hopi gossip."

The evidence in Roanhorse's petition includes one witness asserting that he believes Monestersky is making money from her grant writing efforts to assist the Navajo Bennett Freeze residents and stashing it in a secret bank account, and that she was banned from the Hopi reservation.

The first scheduled hearing was postponed Dec. 5 due to a filing error by the prosecution. The order for the hearing was issued under the "rules of civil procedure," when it should have been under the "rules for exclusion proceedings."

The move to ban Monestersky came about after she spoke out against the alleged abuse that Lane said she was subjected to by Hopi law enforcement officers.

Someone "high up" in the Navajo government is trying to shut Monestersky up, Zion added.

Roanhorse's petition also notes Monestersky's activities earlier this year on behalf of the Forgotten People and charges that she created public announcements and helped organize meetings to oppose the Hopi-Navajo Compact. It contends that Monestersky misled people by acting as a lawyer.

Monestersky is a paralegal and, as such, is allowed to assist a registered attorney and prepare court documents, Zion said. Monestersky is assisting him in the Bennett Freeze litigation, Zion added.

The Nation's position is that Monestersky has misinterpreted the compact and stirred up trouble between neighbors and households in the affected area. At one point, the Tuba City Chapter passed a resolution to ban Monestersky the vote was 34-0 with 19 abstentions.

Sararesa Begay can be reached at venisondine@hotmail.com or by calling 505-371-5443.