Former Hopi Chairman Ferrell Secakuku, 69, who helped resolve a longtime land dispute between his tribe and the Navajo Nation, died Wednesday at a friend's home in Flagstaff, Ariz., said his daughter, Kim. He had suffered from cancer.
Born in the Village of Sipaulovi, Secakuku was chairman of the Hopi Tribe from 1994 to 1997. While in office, he facilitated the negotiation of the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement, which was worked out after a federal judge in 1991 ordered the tribes to reach an agreement over land they had been quarreling over since the 1800s.
