Feathers Fly as Arizona Tribes Argue Over Use of Eagles, Hawks : Indians: Navajos accuse Hopis of depleting the bird populations. The birds are vital to both tribes.

PHOENIX — Each spring, members of the Hopi tribe climb across high desert cliffs in northern Arizona, looking for 20 or so baby golden eagles and red-tailed hawks to be used in religious ceremonies later in the summer.

And each spring, neighboring Navajos accuse the Hopis of trespassing on their reservation and depleting eagle and hawk populations. The birds are central to the religious traditions of both tribes.

The Hopis value them so much that their young men endure arduous, dangerous work to collect the nestlings on rugged, imposing cliffs.

The Navajos have reluctantly permitted the bird-gathering in past years but dug in their heels this year under the administration of a new president.

It took the threat of a court injunction for the Hopis to secure permission to look for eagles and hawks on Navajo land, said Hopi spokeswoman Kim Secakuku.

Navajo President Albert Hale agreed to allow Hopi eagle gatherers access to nesting sites on Navajo land this year and meetings will be held to work out a compromise that will ensure access in future years, Kim Secakuku said.

“We were in the process [of filing for an injunction] when our attorneys were able to get hold of Hale,” she said. “He was on the line before we got it filed.”

Hale suggested a meeting of “medicine people” from both tribes to work out an agreement both can live with.

But Farrell Secakuku, chairman of the Hopi tribe, said that won’t work because “Hopi medicine people generally do not take part in eagle pilgrimages.”

Both sides speak defiantly of protecting their religious freedoms. But there is more than religion at stake. The Hopis and Navajos are longtime enemies. The reservation of the mesa-dwelling Hopis, who number about 10,000, is surrounded by the Navajo Nation, which has a population of more than 150,000.

Hopis have lived in fear for generations that they would be swallowed up by the Navajos, relative newcomers to a region where Hopis have lived in established villages for 1,000 years.

The U.S. government designated more than 2 million acres as a joint use area. The tribes continued arguing and Congress partitioned the land between them in 1974.

Tribal members caught on the wrong side of the new boundaries were ordered to relocate. As many as 1,000 Navajos remain on Hopi land, however, and negotiations for their removal are bogged down.

Farrell Secakuku hinted at the linkage between the religious and land issues in a statement directed at Hale: “This type of action by the Navajo Nation is unacceptable and it will not support our ongoing and sincere efforts to reach an agreement with your people that will accommodate their living on Hopi land.”

Neither species of bird is considered endangered or threatened. John Cross, acting regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque, N.M., said his agency has been trying to get the tribes together to conduct a survey of golden eagle and red-tailed hawk populations on the two reservations.

Officials of the two tribes met earlier in the spring at Window Rock, Ariz., the Navajo headquarters, and Cross said his office is awaiting word from the Hopis whether they will attend a possible second meeting.

“The Navajos already have a plan laid out and we’re trying to get the Hopis on board,” Cross said.

The study, if agreed to by both tribes, will take up to five years, Cross said.