Hopi trespass charges dismissed

By DAILY SUN STAFF 03/05/2002

The Hopi Tribe has lost its criminal trespass case against five Navajo women who participated in last summer's Sundance ceremony on the Hopi Reservation.

Hopi Chief Judge Gary LaRance dismissed the charges, ruling that Hopi prosecutors had failed to prove that the women entered an enclosed, fenced or cultivated area without authorization.

The ceremony took place at Camp Anna Mae, a closed area of the Hopi Reservation. Prosecutors alleged the women did not seek permission to hold a gathering in a close area.

The women -- Joella Ashkie, Ruth Benally, Louise Benally, Elvira Horseherder and Pauline Whitesinger -- were represented by attorneys Joe Washington and Robert Malone. The dismissal came after two days of testimony by witnesses for the Hopi Tribe.

In a press releas! e issued by the tribe, Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. called the dismissal a "technicality" and not an indication of the women's claim to have a right to be at Camp Anna Mae.

Further, Taylor noted that the judge declined to hear testimony on allegations that the arrests violated the defendants' religious rights.

"Dismissal of this case in no way sanctions the holding of any future gathering on Hopi land without the expressed consent of the Hopi Tribe, regardless of the purpose of the gathering," Taylor said.

Copyright 2002 Arizona Daily Sun