"Alvin Clinton, Navajo elder who defied the Hopi Tribe and was arrested and jailed in 1991 while blocking the fencing-off of a religious butte by the Hopi Tribe — passes on"

TEESTO, Ariz. February 4, 1998, 12:15 p.m. The Navajo Nation grieves, yet again, the loss of another of its revered tribal members. On Sunday, February 1, 1998 at around 11 a.m. at his residence near Star Mountain in Teesto, Alvin Clinton, 74, passed away.

Clinton was a traditional medicine man who aggressively blocked the fencing-off of a religious butte near his home in March 1991 by Hopi tribal rangers and the BIA. During a scuffle which ensued and captured on video, he was arrested and jailed by the BIA and later charged with malicious mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer. Later, two of the charges were dropped.

After the incident, he told the Navajo Times,
>"The federal government is beginning to understand what is happening to the Navajo people here. They are beginning to realize that we need some protection from the Hopi Tribe in order to continue our traditional religious practices."

"Being a medicine man he understood the history and religious significance of Star Mountain, Finger Point Butte, Egloffestein, Horse Point, and many other sacred buttes near Teesto," said Elmer Clark, a close relative, and a member of the Navajo Nation Council representing the Teesto Navajo community. "He developed charts and illustrations to convey his knowledge and religious importance of Star Mountain.
"To the very end, he never wavered on his religious beliefs or compromised them. He was the last of the Navajo warriors, in the tradition of Ganado Mucho and Manuelito," he continued. "He never accepted or considered any options offered by the Hopi Tribe which he believed would compromise his beliefs and values."
In recent years, due to declining health, he became less active in the 24 year-old Navajo-Hopi land conflict. Last year, in March 1997, he was one of few who out- right refused to sign a 75-year Accommodation Agreement with the Hopi Tribe. When asked by a CNN reporter if he was going to sign the agreement, he told them, "When you sign [the agreement], you sign your life away."

And recently in October, he was one of eight Navajos who filed a class action lawsuit against Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of Interior which "challenged" the Accommodation Agreement. The suit alleged, among others, that the agreement was faulty, contained no provisions for funding, and signatures were obtained by coercion.

His resistance to Public Law 93-531, the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act of 1974 began long before October 1988, but in that year he began testifying as a witness on sacred sites and Navajo customs during the Manybeads vs. United States hearings and during subsequent negotiations on behalf of the Navajo Nation. In the following years, he also testified during many other "land dispute" cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal District Court in Phoenix, Ariz.

Upon learning of Clinton's passing, Navajo President Albert Hale said,

"His humbleness, honesty and candor in refusing and sometimes challenging the federal government's Navajo/Hopi Relocation Act was well known to all. For many people across the country who sympathize with Navajos, he represented the struggle for resistance and bringing public awareness to the plight of Navajos facing relocation."
A medicine man and veteran of World War II; he served in the U.S. Marines and was honorable discharged in 1944. He worked for the Indian Health Service in Winslow for 23 years before retiring in 1988. He leaves behind his wife Ida Mae, three daughters, four sons, 18 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

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