KYKOTSMOVI—The Hopi Tribe is struggling to protect its homeland and sovereignty against attacks by local and national environmental groups seeking to force their political agendas on the tribe. In opposing these groups' efforts to undermine the Hopi government, the tribe is protecting not just its sovereignty and economy; it is in a fight for the very survival of Hopi culture and religion.

Aided by a small, but vocal, group of Hopis, these outsiders have pitted Hopi against Hopi in a divide-and-conquer strategy aimed at destroying the tribe's ability to develop its natural resources and function as a sovereign government.

Calling the Hopi Tribal Council "illegal," these groups belittle and marginalize the tribal government and its authority to decide the tribe's economic future. The Hopi Tribal Council is the tribe's governing body.

The voluntary resignation of former council Chairman Ben Nuvamsa last December did not make the council illegal. The government of the Hopi Tribe, like the government of the United States or of any state, does not become non-functional or illegitimate because one of its members quits.

The decision to resign from the council is an individual choice; it is not fatal to the tribal government. Nuvamsa is under the illusion that he is indispensable to the Hopi government's existence. Fortunately, the Hopi Tribal Council has never operated under that illusion.

The Hopi Tribal Council speaks for the entire Hopi Tribe. While individual Hopi may not always agree with council decisions, the same can be said of all governments and their people. However, individual disagreement with governmental policy does not make the government illegal.

The council declared the Sierra Club and its allies unwelcome on Hopi land to protect the interests of the tribe, including its land and resources, for the benefit of tribal members against outsiders seeking to undermine the tribe's authority and economy. No one can continue to welcome a guest into their home when that guest keeps trying to burn down the house.

The tribe's policy of developing our resources and economy is founded in Hopi religious tradition.

Our religious tradition teaches us that the Hopi settled on the Hopi mesas following our migrations, in part because the land and its resources could sustain the Hopi people. Our ancestors became stewards of the land and were promised by Maasaw that the land and its resources, both above and beneath the land, would someday help the Hopi survive and prosper.

Our decision to develop our resources is supported by that teaching. We determined that the Hopi and our culture will survive.

The Sierra Club and its allies have earned their unwelcome status after many years of using Hopi people to advance their agenda at the expense of the tribe's economy and culture.

In trying to destroy the Hopi economy, these groups are planting seeds that may destroy Hopi culture and religion. If our children have no jobs on the reservation, they will become economic refugees as they leave to find jobs elsewhere.

If our children are not here to learn our ceremonies and practice our religion, our religion and culture cannot be passed to the next generation.

If these groups destroy the sovereignty and culture of the Hopi Tribe, they will do so only because of the help they receive from Hopis like Vernon Masayesva and Ben Nuvamsa who have sold their souls to these groups and sold out their own people with their false leadership.

This destruction of the tribe and Hopi culture will be the lasting legacy of Masayesva and Nuvamsa and their followers.

Phillip R. Quochytewa is presiding officer of the Hopi Tribal Council.