Navajo courts hear ranch lease case

The players in a legal battle over Navajo ranch lands are expected to wrangle in Tohaliilee District Court today. Among the people facing eviction from ranch lands is former Navajo Nation District Judge Loretta Morris and her husband, Raymond Morris, who lost their land north of Crownpoint to a higher bidder last year. The couple has leased the land from the tribe for more than 40 years. Albuquerque-based attorney James W. Zion is representing the defendants in the case, which was moved from Crownpoint District Court. The legal case developed last year when long-time ranchers lost their land in a new, closed-bid process that awarded their land to ranchers who had higher dollar-per-head bids and promised to move more cattle onto the lands. Ranchers filed legal action against the Navajo Nation, prompting authorities to conduct an audit on the ranching program. The audit found that the tribe has 25 ranches in Arizona and New Mexico, divided into 78 ranch units and totaling about 1.6 million acres of tribal land. Ranchers of 21 of those units lost their land under the new bid system. Only the Morris couple and Farmington rancher Justin Yazzie, however, are facing eviction from their ranches. The closed-bid system required applicants to file a packet containing a ranch plan and a sealed envelope stating the amount being offered for use of the land. The minimum bid was $4 per head. Ranchers familiar with the land complained that winning bidders agreed to unrealistic ranching plans, which included increasing the head of cattle, a move that would deplete natural resources...more