The Peabody Issue
There is a school of thought that says that the relocation of
the Dine' is a giant conspiracy among Peabody Coal Co., the U.S.,
the Hopi Tribe, and the Navajo Nation, and that behind the scenes
we are all meeting secretly and deciding how best to evict the
Dine' and rape Black Mesa. Some people include the Trilateral
Commission in the list of co-conspirators. When I was starting out
working for the Nation I put in a few hours looking for evidence.
I didn't find any. I DID find a map of Peabody's so-called South
Mesa Project, a proposed expansion of the existing mines to the
south that would have included the northern part of Big Mountain,
all of Cactus Valley, and a good part of Forest Lake Chapter.
I know that in 1988 Peter MacDonald met with Peabody reps,
presumably to discuss that project. The Hopi Tribe met with them
too. There may be documents, but if so they are buried in the
files at the Minerals Department, or maybe in Akhtar Zaman's safe.
The South Mesa project was based on the theory that the Navajo
Nation would approve a new lease and the relocations that would
involve, that we would sign over a right of way for the rail line
needed to get the coal out, that the Japanese would be bludgeoned
into buying our high-priced coal in trade negotiations, and that a
billion-dollar coal port would be built at Long Beach.
Carol Retasket was the director of the Land Commission Office
(then known as Navajo-Hopi Development Office). Far as I know she
was not invited to the meeting with Peabody, nor were any of the
Land Commission members. There is no way any kind of lease
agreement on Black Mesa could be signed without Land Commission
approval. No one ever took the proposal to the chapters either.
My feeling is that everyone listened politely to the representative
of the largest private employer on the rez, took whatever documents
were handed them, then promptly dropped the whole thing.
My theory about the South Mesa Project was that it was a ruse
by Peabody to inflate its value at a time when it was being sold.
There were two bidders at the time AMAX and Hanson PLC of Britain.
By making it LOOK like there might be a big new mine on Black Mesa,
Peabody was able to jack up its putative value to the bidders. I
haven't checked, but I bet you could see a big rise in Peabody's
stock prices between 1987 and the end of 1988.
Hanson was the "winner" and since then there hasn't been a
word about South Mesa. MacDonald was ousted, replaced by Leonard
Haskie. Leonard consulted Roman on everything and I would have
heard about any move from Peabody. Hanson has traded off its gold
holdings to Santa Fe RR Co. for a bunch of New Mexico coal
reserves, and so acquired coal fields closer to the railroad lines
than Black Mesa. At this time low-sulphur coal from the great
plains is so cheap that the coal operators in the San Juan Basin
oppose bringing in the railroad. You could deliver a ton of low-
sulfur coal here from Wyoming by rail cheaper than the local mines
can sell it (or want to sell it) at the mine mouth.
In the early days there was definitely collusion among the
water and energy interests in the southwest, one of the results
being the HEALING v. JONES lawsuit and the Peabody lease. Other
parts of the big plan were the Navajo generating station at Page,
the Four Corners plant, the Bullhead City plant, the Glen Canyon
Dam and the Central Arizona Project. The BIA got Navajo to waive
most of its taxes on the mines and power plant, and to provide
free, or next-to-free water both at Peabody and at Page. The
benefit to the Nation was supposed to be the royalties ($.50 a ton
at the time) and the jobs. Peabody DID come through with jobs, but
Page and Four-corners actually imported white people to avoid
hiring Navajos.
Most of the politicians and attorneys involved are dead now.
Stuart Udall and Barry Goldwater remain from that generation,
Goldwater enjoying a new lease on life with his (relatively) young
wife, and Stu Udall is running around pretending to be an
environmentalist. He says he is sorry about some of the things he
did back then. Norman Littel, the attorney for Navajo who blew the
HEALING case, left his papers in an archive in Richmond CA. If
there was a conspiracy, you'll find the evidence there.
The Peabody Water Issue
One of the results of all that activity is the coal slurry
pipeline running from Peabody's Black Mesa Mine to the plant at
Bullhead City. Peabody has a permit to pump water from the N-
aquifer to slurry the coal. When the mix gets to Bullhead it is
separated out and the water that remains is worth hundreds of
dollars an acre-foot.
Peabody is pumping about 4-5,000 acre feet per year out of the
N aquifer. The aquifer recharges north of Shonto at a rate of
about 14,000 acre-feet per year. It's pretty clear that the water
level is being drawn down in the vicinity of the wells, that's
pretty normal. It is NOT clear that the aquifer as a whole is being
depleted. USGS says no, our hydrologists say no, the Hopis'
hydrologists say yes. A lot of the Hopis' wells and springs are
going dry but these are mostly from sources above the N aquifer -
shallow wells and springs in the sides of the mesas. My own belief
is that it is a result of the long dry period we've been having, or
maybe its because of the way they are treating the Dine'.
If you drink the water at Hopi, then drink some N-aquifer
water you'll know its not the same stuff. Drinking Hopi spring and
well water is like taking a dose of salts and often has the same
effect. N-aquifer water is GOOD - clean, pure and tasty. It's a
real shame to waste it transporting coal, but I do not think the
Hopis have proven their case. Except to themselves, and in the
press, that is.
Politically, it doesn't matter what the truth is. In the Hopi
mind, they are in danger of drying up all their water supplies.
The same way they have convinced themselves and everyone else that
the "Navajos have taken their land" and thus should be removed,
they now are getting down on the water issue. They have been
really working the press. That is the political reality, no matter
the facts.
The Little Colorado River
Most of the western Navajo Reservation, all of Hopi, plus most
of Arizona north of the Mogollon Rim is drained by the Little
Colorado River. It's an area that was settled early on by Mormon
colonists who were bent on establishing the nation/empire of
Deseret in the American west. Later on the Navajo reservation was
expanded to the west, starting in 1868 through 1934, and the Hopi-
Navajo 1882 Reservation was set aside. The Little Colorado is dry
most of the year but when it is wet it really rips. About 145,000
acre feet a year go down past the gaging station at Cameron. Where
the Little Colorado joins the Colorado, there is a huge spring
called Blue Spring, then the place of emergence where the Dine' and
Hopi came into this world.
Water rights are a big issue in the western U.S., with a set
of laws all their own. Most rivers, the Little Colorado among them
are OVERAPPROPRIATED, subject to claims greater than the amount of
water in them. They are also subject to claims by Indian Nations:
each reservation has (mostly unexercised) water rights having as a
priority date the date of the reservation's creation. It's called
the WINTERS doctrine, after the decision of the Supreme Court in
WINTERS v. U.S. Clearing up all these water rights has been an
ongoing project in the western states for the last fifty years and
will probably take another half century to finish.
The Little Colorado River is under litigation in state court
now. The Navajo Nation is a major claimant, but there are a bunch
of non-Indian water users with early priority dates upstream,
mainly Mormon farmers and small towns, but also a few corporations
like Phelps Dodge and Salt River Project. The Hopi Tribe was a
major claimant before the decision in the 1934 case, which
effectively denied them lands along the main stem of the river and
thus denied them any main stem water rights. They still have
claims to water rights on the five washes that drain Black Mesa,
but that's it. The Navajo Nation is claiming all the water that
crosses the rez boundary, about 145,000 acre feet a year.
There have been negotiations on a water settlement going on
for years, with the federal government paying the bills. The idea
was to get the Indian and non-Indian users to agree on a settlement
and then legislate. It beats fighting in court for 50 years. The
incentive to settle is that you can get "wet water" - water
delivery or irrigation projects paid for by someone else - through
a settlement, whereas all you get out of litigation is "paper
water," a water right which you then have to use at great cost or
risk losing.
Last year the Hopis proposed in the settlement negotiations
that as part of the settlement - as the price for them and Navajo
Nation dropping some water claims - the U.S. would build a water
pipeline from Lake Powell to the Hopi villages, and to Peabody.
The Lake Powell water would then be substituted for N-aquifer water
as a slurry medium. Oh, Navajos would get some of the water too, if
there was any left over.
Since the Hopis don't have much of a claim on the Little
Colorado, it is Navajo Nation that pays the cost at the table,
giving up claims to some water rights in return for the pipeline.
The pipeline would require a right of way across the western
reservation, and one proposed source of water was Navajo water
rights in the upper Colorado River. (The other proposed source was
unused Central Arizona Project water, which in a way we paid for in
the deals referred to above.)
The August 5, 1993 Offer to the Hopi Tribe
When we saw that the Dine' families probably would not
"ratify" the Agreement in Principle and the Hopi lease proposal, we
put together a settlement offer that included construction of the
Lake Powell water pipeline - land for water - as well as three
acres of prime grazing land for every acre of land the Hopi Tribe
gave up to the Dine' families. The Hopi Tribe rejected that offer,
but went ahead lobbying for the Lake Powell Pipeline anyway.
The Land Commission stepped in to the Little Colorado River
negotiations and said that the only way the Lake Powell Pipeline
would be considered was in the context of a land settlement. On
April 20, Philip Quochytewa, the leader of the Hopi water
negotiating team (he was also on the "Hopi Relocation Task Force"
which negotiated in the MANYBEADS mediation) wrote to Roman Bitsuie
that the Hopi Tribe would not accept any linkage and that the land
and water issue should "be dealt with separately on their own
merits."
Since then the Hopi Tribe and Salt River Project have got
together, with SRP stating that it will not accept a settlement
which does not give the Hopi Tribe their pipeline. SRP is also
stating that IT wants an extension of the tax break for the Navajo
Generating Station and a waiver of Navajo preference in hiring,
which it has been ignoring all these years anyway.
The Nation has taken a position that since it is the request
of the Hopi Tribe, with support from the U.S. representatives in
the MANYBEADS mediation that there be "no extraneous issues brought
into the Little Colorado River negotiations", that we will also ask
that negotiations stick to the issue: Little Colorado River water.
There will be no Lake Powell pipeline through the settlement
negotiations.
The Hopi Tribe has also raised the possibility of Peabody
building a water pipeline as a condition for the renewal of its
mining permit. This again we oppose, not because we don't want the
water, but because it involves the a major commitment of Navajo
land and resources, with the Hopi giving nothing in return.
The Lake Powell Pipeline would have to pass through
communities full of people who suffered from relocation or were
forced off the land. And it would go through the "Freeze" area,
where memories are vivid of the Hopi "Field Monitors" cruising
around and posting any kind of "illegal" construction. For twenty-
seven years the Hopi Tribe denied requests to build or repair
homes, even in cases of medical emergency. And if anyone tried to
go ahead, the Hopis would bust them. These are the people who
would have to approve a right of way for the Lake Powell Pipeline.
Still, if there is a reasonable, permanent settlement of the
1882 land issue, the Hopis will get the water.
Eugene Hasgood
I ran into Eugene Hasgood at Bashas in Window Rock, Friday
evening. I was picking up a couple of videotapes for the weekend.
Eugene said hello, then like, about the weekend "Yeah Window Rock.
Firts you win your dough, then you rock" and he walked off
cackling, his long hair swingin behind him. Eugene is a real
traditional guy, also a scholar who publishes. He just put out a
monograph on "The Dine' Evictees of District Six". You can get a
copy by sending $10 plus postage, maybe another $2.00 to him at:
Eugene Hasgood
Box 834
Keams Canyon AZ 86034
He gets a lot of respect from the academic types, his stuff is
always well researched and all original thought.
jon norstog