SHIPROCK - Tribal officials are proposing more severe sentencing for criminals on the Navajo Nation.
The tribe's Law and Order Committee this week is holding public hearings regarding changes that could be made to Title 17, the tribe's criminal code that deals with sentencing on the Navajo Nation. A public hearing will be held 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Shiprock chapter house.
The changes could include steeper penalties for a variety of crimes, including the possession of alcohol one of the most common offenses on the Navajo Nation.
The committee is reviewing the code because in January 2000 the tribe eliminated or lessened jail terms and fines for nearly 30 offenses. The tribe had limited resources to penalize offenders, according to the committee.
Early history of Hopi pottery
The Hopi call their ancestors, Hisatsinom, "People of Long Ago." The public and most anthropologists refer to these people as the "Anasazi," a word that has become popular in the general literature.
Early Hisatsinom are called the Basketmaker people. The Basketmakers were a hunting and gathering people who became increasingly sedentary as their reliance on agriculture increased. As early as A.D. 700, the Basketmaker people began making plain pottery.
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