BIG MOUNTAIN UPDATE: November 1995
Thank you for your prayers and support. We have been very busy lately
preparing legal documentation and acquiring evidence to support our
case. Because we are devoting so much time to this urgent project, we
are not able to answer all e-mail inquiries right away. Please be
patient.
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW COURT PROCEEDING:
Dineh Alliance vs. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
(OSM) and statutory party Peabody Western Coal Company (PWCC),
Administrative Law Court, Judge Ramon M. Child presiding.
Dineh Alliance legal briefs are due November 27 and response is due
December 18. A decision will be made sometime in January, 1996. Black
Mesa residents now have legal representation: Mick Harrison of
GreenLaw, noted for his success in other major environmental suits, is
heading the legal team.
If there is one way more than any other that you can help, it is with
funding. THIS IS OUR BEST CHANCE YET TO WIN. WE NEED FUNDS to pay for
legal expenses, court transcripts, xeroxing, and faxes. Tax deductible
contributions can be sent to Dineh Alliance's fiscal agent, Don't Waste
Arizona, Inc. Please address checks: Don't Waste Arizona Inc., on memo
portion of check note: for Black Mesa Legal Fund. Don't Waste Arizona,
Inc., 6205 S. 12th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85040.
PROPOSAL TO NAVAJO NATION TO SUPPORT SOLAR CONVERSION:
We have been very busy lately, deciding our strategies and conducting
meetings. We are proposing solar conversion for the Navajo Nation. The
Black Mesa region is one of the best sites for solar in the country.
This would create more jobs, not ravage the earth, provide more funds
for the Navajo Nation, and provide longer term job security. Coal from
Peabody's Black Mesa/Kayenta mining complex powers Las Vegas and
southern California. Presently, Peabody pays the Hopi and Navajo a
fraction in royalties from the profits they make. By having a massive
solar project on Black Mesa, the Navajo Nation would make more money
than they will lose in Washington, DC budget cuts, that at best will
only return funding to prior subsistence levels. Presently, most of the
profits from Peabody go to Hanson Holding Company, London, England, a
multi-national corporation while environmental devastation remains on
Black Mesa.
CALL FOR A MEETING WITH PRESIDENT ALBERT HALE, THE NAVAJO NATION:
Please tell President Hale to meet with the people of Black Mesa. He
has been cancelling meetings with us since October 5. Tell him to meet
with us and seriously consider our environmental concerns. Tell him to
schedule a special session of the Navajo Tribal Council so that we can
meet with him and the Navajo Tribal Council. It is imperative that
Dineh Alliance present our environmental concerns and host a solar
presentation that was presented recently at Hardrock Chapter House.
Please call and write:
President Albert Hale, The Navajo Nation
Box 9000
Window Rock, AZ 86515
Phone: (520) 871-4941
RECENT LIVESTOCK CONFISCATION:
On October 16, 1995, some our livestock were confiscated. Hopi Rangers
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been confiscating our livestock at
will with complete disregard for the law. However, we just had a
victory and recently some of our confiscated livestock have been
returned at the government's expense. We secured their release minutes
before a Public Auction where most of them were going to be sold. The
Hopi Rangers and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been confiscating our
livestock without giving us adequate notice and without posting legal
notices as required by law prior to their confiscation. We hope to stop
all livestock, wood and wood cutting tool confiscation, especially with
winter approaching.
Please call and write to them to stop confiscating our livestock, wood
and wood cutting tools. We have a right to live on our ancestral land
and graze our livestock. We do not accept that we or our livestock are
"trespassing". Violations of our civil and constitutional rights will
not be tolerated and are viewed as harassment and a nuisance pepretuated
by the Hopi Rangers, the BIA and the U.S. government in an attempt to
force us off our sacred ancestral land, rich in coal deposits, for
expanded mining activities by Peabody Western Coal Company.
Livestock that used to cost $100.00 to release now costs $1,000.00.
This is an increase of 10X the previous rate and a deviation of general
BIA policy (this was stated by past Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah
in a letter to Ada Deer, Bureau of Indian Affairs). And since this
increase, the Navajo Hopi Land Commission says that they do not have the
money to pay for the release of our impounded livestock.
We believe that such actions by the Hopi Rangers, Bureau of Indian
Affairs and the U.S. government is continuing in an effort to force,
coerce and starve us off our land. We will not accept forced or coerced
relocation by the Hopi Tribal Council or by Peabody Western Coal
Company.
Please call and write:
Robert Carolin, Supertindent
U.S. Department of the Interior
Hopi Indian Agency
P.O. Box 158
Keams Canyon, AZ 86034
Phone: (520) 738-2249
Re: Hopi and Navajo Partition Lands
TOXIC SPILL REPORTED BY DINEH ALLIANCE TO EPA:
A toxic spill occurred in our community on October 3, 1995, when a truck
containing two trailers had one trailer overturn. For the previous two
weeks, over 120 trucks, as many as 20 a day, from morning to late at
night, were travelling on local dirt roads, carrying toxic waste from
seepages in oil, diesel, and gasoline underground storage tanks at the
Peabody mine site. The dirt roads are narrow and cannot handle that
volume of traffic without severe degradation. Some horses were hit with
no attempt at investigation or recompense.
Thanks to petitions signed by residents and rapidly submitted by Dineh
Alliance to the EPA, truck traffic was halted.
PROPOSED THIRD AGREEMENT:
We are resisting the third proposed Agreement by the Hopi Tribal
Council. This agreement is the same agreement that we rejected two
times before. And the same agreement that the Navajo Nation Tribal
Council overwhelmingly rejected before. All proposed "changes" still do
not address our religious concerns, even though the Mediation process
arose from the Manybeads lawsuit filed for Religious Freedom. We still
are not allowed to bury our dead. There is still no provision for
future generations. Now we are being offered two terms of 25 years, not
even the 75 years we were offered before. We want a permanent
resolution to remain on our land and do not accept living under Hopi
Tribal Council jurisdiction. The Hopi Tribal Council during the
Mediation process has consistently said they will not consider stopping
nocturnal visits to our elders homes, will not consider stopping the
livestock and wood confiscation, and will not consider our religious
concerns. We have been denied housing improvement for over twenty years
and have notices posted on our homes if we try to fix them, even in
preparation for winter. Our elders have been denied housing improvement
even in cases of demonstrated need. We are religious prisioners on our
own sacred land. We believe that in order to practice freedom of
religion, we must achieve a permanent resolution, not a 75 or 50-year
time limit. We cannot expect justice from the Hopi Tribal Council many
years from now, when we cannot get justice now. We believe that this
Agreement presents a legal way, that if signed will force us off our
land. And because we have been abandoned and neglected by the Navajo
Nation and abused and harassed by the Hopi Tribal Council, we believe
that in order for us to continue to preserve our traditional way of
life, on our ancestral land, we must live by home rule in our Sovereign
communities.
Please write and call President Albert Hale. Tell him to honor his
pledge and the Navajo Nation Tribal Council Resolution to stand by
residents of Hopi Partition Land and support repeal/amendment of Public
Law 93-531, the Relocation Act.
Please visit the Dineh Alliance Web page (address above) for an Overview
of the crisis.
Also ask President Hale to honor his promise to the people to pay for a
lawyer of OUR CHOICE for the Land. Now that we have a lawyer working in
our interests, it is President Hale's duty to provide funding.
The traditional resisters of Big Mountain will be hosting the 1995 Fall
Gathering at Camp Ann Mae. On Nov. 22 we are calling for a day of fasting
and prayer on this " Day of Mourning"; we invite all Red Nations and
supporters world-wide to join us in solidarity in this spritual struggle. On
Nov 23, we invite all who can, to come to our sacred land to partake in a
day of festivities and feasting. A Pipe Ceremony will also be conducted.
Purification ceremonies will be offered for participants on both days.
The annual Traditional Support Caravan from Boulder, Co. will arrive on Big
Mountain during this week, and help is needed to distribute the food collected.
We pray for justice; please pray for us. Thank you for your support.
We will write more soon.
Mervyn Tilden ( National & International Spokesperson)
===============================================================================
The Sunbow Walk to Big Mountain has not been confirmed. No contact or
arrangements with the traditional Dine' have been made; The authority to
make any decisions regarding Big Mountain rests with the traditional
peoples, and this has not been given to anyone. We speak and decide for
ourselves. We expect hard times should harsh winter conditions prevail,
increased Hopi Tribal Police & Bureau of Indian Affairs harassment, (we are
on the Hpoi Partitioned Land), and other problems that arise with
unauthorized actions. Therefore, in the best interests of our struggle, we
feel it is best to recognize that the Sunbow Walk should not proceed to Big
Mountain. With all respect, any information regarding a stayover on Dine'
land is in fact erroneous in nature.