Written By a Hopi/Hunkpapa Lakota

I went to school with Cheryl T. and she wrote this on her myspace.. I thought it was clever. So here it is...


I was just thinking about my time at the University of Arizona, sitting in my favorite American Indian Law class. It was taught by a woman name Eileen Luna-Firebaugh and a man by the name of Joseph Brewer. Joseph stood up and begun what we all thought was just a regular day of class. I was excited to look into another case and give my opinion on a discussion that was brought up. Just about everyone in the class was Navajo. If they weren't Navajo, they were white. And then there was me. Nevertheless, Joseph began to speak of something he was told a long time ago.



This happened back in the day when territorial boundaries were still very loose. But it all happened here in Arizona. The federal government went to Native nations in search of land claims. The first Native representative who spoke to the federal agent was an Apache. They asked this Apache man where the tribal limits to his people were. They then gave this Apache man a marker to use. He circled the northeast region of Arizona. Next was the Navajo man. They asked him the same question. The Navajo circled the region the Apache did and then some. Then it was the Hopi’s turn. This Hopi representative looked the federal agent straight in the eyes and circled the entire state of Arizona.