The Dispute -- Traditional People vs. Peabody Coal and $-makers
The traditional Hopi and Dineh (Navajo) people have been the
"caretakers" and inhabitants of the sacred land in the four
corners region for hundreds of years. Today, these peoples in
the Black Mesa of northern Arizona are living under the shadow of
mining blasts by Peabody Coal Company, a subsidiary of Britain's
Hanson PLC. They are facing the threat of further relocation by
tribal and Federal officials who are accommodating the corporate
mining interests.
The native peoples of this land were granted legal ownership by
the US government in 1882 and the Hopi and the Dineh have been
peacefully co-existing there ever since. In the 1950's, Peabody
Coal Company orchestrated a plan to pry their way in to strip-
mine. Through the US government, John Boyden (representing both
Peabody Coal Company and the Hopi Tribal Council) reorganized the
tribal councils into groups that he could manipulate. He set
them up to falsely represent the native people so that they would
negotiate away the land, and to create the illusion of a land
dispute between the Hopi and the Dineh. In response to this
bogus land dispute, in 1974 the US government divided land that
was jointly shared by the Dineh and Hopi people and established
Hopi Partition Land (HPL) and Navajo Partition Land (NPL). This
law further divided the native people and forced the relocation
of those people who were living on the wrong side of this imposed
line. It is widely suspected that this action was taken to move
Dineh people off of land that Peabody wanted to mine for coal.
To this day, the traditional people of both nations say that
there is no conflict between the Hopi and Dineh nations. The
traditional people have historically boycotted the tribal council
elections as this form of government is a form of imposed
assimilation to European ways. The true conflict exists between
the people who want to maintain their traditional way of living
and those who aim to reap money profits through destruction of
the land.
Stolen Birthright
This past August, Dineh people living in Big Mountain on HPL were
threatened with an Agreement in Principle (AIP). This document
(drawn up by mediations among federally appointed mediator Judge
McCue, lawyers representing the Hopi and Navajo tribal councils,
the Justice and Interior Departments, and a lawyer representing
the traditional Dineh people resisting relocation) contains a
seventy-five year lease of the Big Mountain area which would be
paid for by the Navajo Tribal Council to the Hopi Tribal Council
so that resisters could remain on the land.
Lease payments would cover homestead and farming rights of
thirteen acres per Dineh family, plus designated grazing areas.
The people would agree not to live away from the land for more
than two years, not to sign off or sublet the land to others, not
to run a business or use the land for mining, not to commit a
felony, and to remove trash (including old cars for salvage), or
else face relocation. Under the lease, the Dineh traditional
people would have to agree that no land within their territory is
sacred or will ever be sacred under federal law, and they would
agree not to bury their deceased on that land.
Currently, sacred and burial sites are holding up mining
activities by Peabody Coal Company in other areas in the region.
Hence, a motive arises behind the AIP: forfeit of recognition of
sacred and burial sites will lead to easier mining operations and
faster profits by corporations such as Peabody in the future.
The US government has agreed to back up the lease by giving the
Hopi Tribal Council up to 500,000 acres of land elsewhere and
approximately 21.3 million dollars. The Hopi Tribal Council
would maintain jurisdiction over the land and the US government
has agreed to help enforce the lease provisions. After the
seventy-five year lease would end, the same lease would be
reconsidered for renewal.
The people living on the land now had the land passed to them
from their relatives. Traditionally, the Dineh pass on their
land matrilinearly. The lease of the AIP threatens their ability
to carry on this fundamental part of their culture. Signing the
agreement would be signing away their ancestral heritage.
Accepting the provisions of the lease would be to invite in a
landlord and to self-inflict restrictions on their way of life.
The Dineh community in Big Mountain rejected the AIP by a vote of
206-1.
Traditional people tell us that as of November 1, officials from
the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the US Justice Department have
been visiting them in their homes, pressuring them to change
their votes and threatening to confiscate their sheep. Head of
the Justice Department's mediation team on relocation, Attorney
Steenland chastised the Navajo Tribal Council and the lawyer
representing the traditional Dineh people for not pressuring the
resisters hard enough to sign the AIP. In a letter last summer,
he implied that forced relocation would be the only alternative.
Illegal Mining on The Black Mesa Indian Land
Meanwhile, the people in the nearby areas of Forest Lake, Cactus
Valley, and Red Willow have been tormented by the mining
activities of Peabody Coal Company since 1966. Their livestock,
their medicinal herbs, their air, their water, their land, their
sacred sites, and their burial grounds have been contaminated by
the process of the coal extraction. In mid-October, almost 200
people of the area sent citizen's complaints to the Office of
Surface Mining to notify the government of illegal nighttime
blasts, home frames cracking, windows breaking, and people and
livestock effected by the airborne coal dust.
Further, Peabody has been operating wells, a road, a railroad,
and a slurry line, outside of the permit area. Their mining pits
have damaged the scarce water supply of the native people.
Peabody has neglected their legal requirement minimize
environmental damage and to restore the land to its pre-mined
state.
Youth Support of Traditional People in the Black Mesa Area
A Big Mountain Support Group is starting up at the University of
Arizona, working closely with other support groups and with the
regional SEAC chapters. Big Mountain Support Groups exist all
over the US and in Europe. These groups focus on sending support
in the form of money, non-perishable food drives, gardening
supplies, and other physical aids directly to the people on the
land. They maintain political pressure on government officials
through letter-writing campaigns, phone/fax-in's, and meetings.
They also work to spread awareness of the situation in the Black
Mesa in their communities. They bring representatives from the
land to speak in their region. As well as local activities,
these groups can strengthen the circle by networking with other
indigenous support groups and holding joint events such as
rallies, conferences, and fundraisers. Consider starting up a
Big Mountain/Indigenous Support Group or Committee in your area.
Every year the people in Big Mountain hold a spring gathering,
welcoming supporters to the land. At this event, people take
part in activities such as tree-planting, setting up perma-
culture projects, and building structures. The 1994 spring
gathering is scheduled to take place the weekend after Earth Day.
SEAC college groups are in a special position as most of our
schools hold stock in major corporations such as Hanson PLC, of
which Peabody Coal Company is a subsidiary. Look into your
school's holdings and demand that the administration to invest
your money productively. This sort of pressure on corporations
could collectively lead to some policy changes.
Take Action:
Request that the following government officials take action
against forced relocation of the Dineh people in Big Mountain.
Ask them to see to it that Peabody Coal Company be held to US
mining laws and that the people of Forest Lake, Cactus Valley,
and Red Willow be protected from the mining activities. Send
letters to:
Attorney General Janet Reno
10th and Constitution Ave, Room 4400
Washington, DC 20530
Representative Bill Richardson
Native American Affairs Subcommittee
House of Representatives
2349 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt
Interior Building
1800 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
For more information on supporting the Big Mountain resistance,
contact the Big Mountain Support Group/UA, PO Box 1891, Tucson,
AZ, 85702-1891, or email: jimerfie@gas.uug.arizona.edu.