Holding Her Ground
NOT LEAVING: Pauline Whitesinger is one of the last Navajo remaining on this land after Congress drew a boundary through a 1.8 million acre area between the Hopi and Navajo tribe in 1974. (Gail Fisher / LAT)
RESISTER: Whitesinger is among eight Navajo families with 22 adults that remain on this land in Arizona after one of the largest forced migrations in the U.S. since the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. (Gail Fisher / LAT)
AS HER ANCESTORS LIVED: Pauline Whitesinger lives in a hogan with no electricity or running water on the Hopi reservation in Arizona. I know if I relocate, I will die of loneliness, she says. (Gail Fisher / LAT)
LIVING OFF THE LAND: Pauline Whitesinger believes that land cannot belong to one person. Instead, a person belongs to the land on which they were born. (Gail Fisher / LAT)
THREE DECADES LATER: Whitesinger, who has resisted relocation since 1974, says: It is like floating down a river. Each year passes by, and its just another season of winter, and time goes on. (Gail Fisher / LAT)
DEEP ROOTS: The U.S. has forced 12,000 Navajos from land that was returned to the Hopis in 1974, but Pauline Whitesinger wont go. (Gail Fisher / LAT)