Category: Beauty Way

By any measure, the 2002 Big Mountain Food and Supply Run was a major success. Thanks to all of you who contributed in so many ways. You came to the shows, were generous during the blanket dances, made donations of food, clothing and items for the silent auctions. You helped make things happen by renting halls and volunteering to work or perform your art. You made and shared meals and magic. You pulled together as community to work for a better world, in solidarity with people of Big Mountain, who are walking the Beauty Way for all of us.

Over the past three months you have raised energy and awareness while reaching out to strengthen the connection to indigenous people who are holding on to sacred land. Over $10,000 was raised and once again it multiplied like loaves and fishes. Combined with contributions and discounts from organic farmers and merchants more than 5 tons of food and supplies were distributed to about 80 families.

Organic fruits and vegetables including oranges, apples, dates, dried fruit, beets, potatoes, a variety of squash, carrots, turnips, leeks and onions. Coffee, beans, rice, blue corn meal, Blue Bird flour, tea, herbs, spices, incense cedar from Oregon and a whole lot of love were in packed into huge boxes for distribution. There was more than a ton of dog food, 13 cords of dry, split wood and several chain saw crews were out getting even more. We were able to leave $2500 cash behind to repair the homes of a few elders.

It was the biggest work crew in ten years and everyone was riding a high vibe. Three busses anchored a wonderful camp- the Big Purple Bus with the Clan Dyken crew, Tom’s San Juan Ridge Runner and the Bio-diesel Express from Arcata,- which was packed with a most enthusiastic North Coast crew, under the direction of the esteemed Deacon Rivers of the Elvis Underground. They kicked in $2000, four chains saws, a generator and all kinds of upbeat mojo. Other contributions included a 1000 gallon water tank, assorted building materials, warm clothes, and of course songs and stories around the fire in the evenings.

This sacred land brings out the best in the people who go there to work on it. The efforts of a small group made a difference, for the people on the land and for each other.

On Friday morning after Thanksgiving, we gathered for a morning circle. Most of the food had been distributed and many chores completed. People gave thanks, shared thoughts, songs and stories. During one song I went from face to face around that circle, moving my gaze from one set of eyes to the next with each shake of the rattle. I counted 51 faces in that circle, from babies to elders, men and women of the four sacred colors – red, yellow, black and white- were all represented there. It was a beautiful site, so easy to see and feel the emotion of the moment -love and unity in action.

We heard from Louise, John, Leonard and Kee Benally, siblings who grew up in the area we were camping on. They thanked us for coming, told of some of the hardship they are facing, talked of being on the land without parents or grandparents anymore. They spoke so eloquently -of lost loved ones and the struggle to keep their culture. Of dismantled wind mills, livestock impoundment and the fierce determination to hold on.

Then two members of the Arcata crew stepped forward with gifts they were sent with from the Yurok elders of Northern California. There were blankets, an elk hide, rattles, and cedar sent from the Yurok to the Dine’ and the Benally family in attendance accepted them with grace.

It was Elvira who brought us all to tears. She is one of the Aunties who comes to the camp while we are there and makes sure everything goes along smoothly. In a shaky, but clear voice she told the circle she wanted to thank each and every one of us for coming. She said this food drive means a lot to all the people here.

"It’s a way of knowing that we are not forgotten." She said as her eyes swelled with tears. "You give so much and I have nothing to give you back."

It is of course sad to be reminded of the conditions the people of Big Mountain live under, but even sadder to hear that Elvira wouldn’t know how much she has given all of us.

Later that day one of the work crews dug out some of the old water holes in the wash behind Louise’s hogan. Water used to seep into the holes from the ground as well as collect there after a rain. It has been a drought for more than two years and the holes are filling in with sand. Combine that with the coal mine using over a billion gallons of water a year to move coal and you can understand why water is harder and harder to find. Later that night and into the following morning we were blessed with the first rain in a long time. Louise said it was a female rain- soft, gentle and nurturing- activated by the attention paid to the water spots. It was a hopeful sign for the future.

What of the future? Why do the people hang on? How could they possibly win? What are the chances for survival of the traditional Dine’ people and culture? There is hope and there are concerns.

Let’s start with hope. Southern California Edison is a 59% owner, as well as the operator of the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. Coal from the Black Mesa Mine, which is operated by Peabody Coal, is mixed with water from the Black Mesa aquifer and slurried through a large pipe to reach the plant, some 275 miles away. When it arrives in Laughlin, the water is turned to steam and the coal is burned to make power for Southern California. The Navajo and Hopi tribes are saying they no longer want the water to be used in this way. Very wasteful and dirty. This has caused SCE to consider the coal supply unstable and no new way of transporting it has been presented. As part of their contract to operate the plant SCE agreed to make over 58 million dollars in air pollution control improvements to the plant in 1999. To date none of that work has been done. The expense of the pollution control improvements, which would also require a six to twelve month shut down to install, combined with the uncertainty of the coal supply has caused SCE to say it may close the plant in 2005, which would effectively shut down the mine. That would be very good news for the resistance. The mine is the reason people are being relocated. We have the window of opportunity to lobby SCE and the California Public Utilities Commission to follow through on plans to close the Mohave plant, which has been labeled as the "…biggest uncontrolled source of sulfur dioxide in the Southwest-a prime contributor to the gaseous haze that clouds visibility over the Grand Canyon." (LA Times).

Now is the time, especially for people who live in California to call the PUC and let them know we want clean energy from sustainable sources. Let them know you don’t want power from the Mohave Generating Station. You can read more about the PUC and the decision to close the plant at www.cpuc.ca.gov , use the search feature on the site to find Mohave Generating Station. You can call them at 1-866-849-8390 in San Francisco or 1-866-849-8391 in LA. You can also reach Norm Carter, a PUC advisor who is familiar with the situation at 1-213-576-7056 or public.advisor.la@cpuc.ca.gov . When I spoke with him he was very open to hearing from people and told me that written or email comments have the same weight as testimony in a public hearing. Send email with Mohave Generating Station in the subject line and your views will be passed on to the commissioners who will make the decision to either spend the money and keep the plant running or close it. Time is of the essence, as this decision needs to be made soon. Let them know California can do better with renewable, clean energy that doesn’t destroy the environment and the lives of the people at Big Mountain/Black Mesa.

Of course there are plenty of people who want things to stay as they are. The mine operators are lobbying for a relax of the environmental regulations and the people who make money on this operation, from the corporate heads down to the miners and plant workers are crying about the loss of jobs and income. They pack public hearings, hire the lobbyists and have methods of influence we can only imagine. That’s why each of us is important, we have the numbers, we just need to express ourselves. There are other jobs, better investments, cleaner sources of power and more at stake then the profits of these companies. If this plant could be closed it would be a sign that thirty years of resistance to forced relocation has not been in vain.

Then it would be time to focus on the lives of the people who live here. The hardships are mounting and taking a toll.

More elders are passing on or moving away with no one to look after them or learn from them. Less and less children are using the native tongue. There is alcoholism, drug abuse and violence. Health care is minimal at best, non-existent for the resistors. Fewer traditional doctors and medicine people are practicing their craft. Sacred sites and clean water wells have been destroyed.

The Grandmothers have held it all together all this time, through tremendous adversity. They kept the flame alive and continue to nourish hope for the future. They were the ones to call for the Sundance, to tend the sheep and weave the rugs. They called for our help and keep inviting us back. I think it’s because they believe in the future. If they believe, so do I. It’s a race for survival. Fortunately it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Our work and exchange with the Dine’ is ongoing. Please check the web site www.clandyken.com to keep up with us. We have some more projects in the planning stage. Stay in touch if you want to be part of the next trip.

– Mining and Indigenous People

Earth Island Journal,Summer 2002 Vol. 17, No. 2

www.oneworld.net

"Every time we take a breath," says former Hopi Tribal Chairman Ferrell Secakuku, "another 50 gallons of water are gone." As Peabody Western Coal Co. pumps three million gallons of pure drinking water a day from beneath Black Mesa, Hopi and DinÈ (Navajo) residents are watching the ancient springs and washes that have sustained their way of life for centuries dry up. Peabody has been sucking the life out of Black Mesa for over 30 years, and with the Bush/Cheney Energy Plan’s emphasis on fossil fuel extraction, Native communities are facing new threats to their water supplies and environmental integrity by the coal industry.

In a challenge to this renewed corporate threat, a group of Hopi and DinÈ runners gathered April 21 on the San Francisco Peaks outside Flagstaff, Arizona, where Ferrell Secakuku performed a traditional prayer ceremony to commence a 200- mile run to Window Rock, Navajo Nation. The prayer run, organized by the Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC), with the help of runners Bucky Preston (Hopi) and Cardenas Redsteer (DinÈ/Chiricahua Apache), was designed to send the message to the Hopi and Navajo Councils, as well as the government and energy corporations, that the wasteful use of their drinking water for industrial purposes must cease. The run was also intended to restore bridges between the elders and youth, and to unite the DinÈ and Hopi communities behind this vital issue.

"We are asking that Hopi and Navajo work together and put aside their harsh words and politics," says DinÈ Enei Begay of the BMWC.

Peabody – whose parent company, Peabody Energy, is the largest coal company in the world – has attempted to divide the Hopi and DinÈ since it brokered its secret deals with the tribal councils in the mid-1960s. It is not surprising that the leases stressed corporate profit, not environmental or cultural protection, since it was later revealed that the Hopi’s lawyer, John Boyden, was also working for Peabody.

Government agencies partitioned and fenced the land, impounded DinÈ livestock and evicted thousands of families. The breach created between Hopi and DinÈ has benefited only one sector – the corporations seeking more energy leases on Native land. Slurrying coal to Nevada As documented by the Black Mesa Recovery Campaign, Peabody applied for a "life of mine" permit for its Black Mesa Mine to the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) in January 2002, which if approved, would allow it to strip the previously untouched region of Hopi land known as J23, as well as increase their pumping of the N-aquifer by 32 percent. Most of the water taken from the N-aquifer is used to mix coal into slurry and pump it 273 miles to the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. A Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report has gathered data from the OSM, the US Geological Survey, Peabody and a private firm, concluding that "since Peabody began using N- aquifer water for its coal slurry operations, pumping an average of 4,000 acre feet – more than 1.3 billion gallons – each year, water levels have decreased by more than 100 feet in some wells and discharge has slackened by more than 50 percent in the majority of monitored springs."

Since many of the region’s other aquifers are contaminated with uranium or coal, the N-aquifer remains the primary source of water for drinking, subsistence farming and sacred religious practices. Activists feel the Department of Interior (DOI) should uphold a clause in the original leases that requires Peabody to find an alternate source of water if the tribes’ supply is endangered.

While Peabody claims to use only a small fraction of the aquifer’s water and blames any negative impact on increased municipal use and drought, the corporation sucks up almost three times the amount used by the two Indian nations combined. Most Hopi, for example, must haul their daily rations by hand, and therefore use water sparingly. "We feel strongly that Peabody is threatening the culture of our people," says Hopi Lillian Hill of the BMWC.

Local residents also fear that a Peabody expansion would bring more air pollution, respiratory problems and the destruction of burial sites and medicinal plants. While those who live in close proximity to the Black Mesa Mine feel they bear only the negative effects of coal extraction, the Navajo and Hopi governments depend heavily on royalties from Peabody. For this reason, activists are not calling for the closure of the mine. But they are urging the tribal councils to look at more sustainable forms of energy production, like solar and wind-generated power, to loosen the grip of the outside, corporate influences on the two Native nations.

"We need to stop financing the dominant society with resources from here," says DinÈ Roberto Nutlouis of the Indigenous Youth Coalition, and "to develop in a way that is sensitive to the culture of our people."

English only The lack of sensitivity for the Native cultures was demonstrated when Peabody placed the required announcements of its "life of mine" application in local newspapers. Both Peabody and the OSM have been criticized for printing the ads only in technical, legal English, which many Hopi and DinÈ don’t understand. The 30-day comment period following the last notice took place concurrently with Hopi prayer ceremonies, which strictly limited Hopi participation. Rick Holbrook of OSM claims Peabody fulfilled the legal requirements, and that the "OSM can’t hold them to anything more than is required." Holbrook says the OSM has determined that the permit will require an Environmental Impact Statement, a two-year process that will allow for continued public input.

Activists are calling for Peabody to stop its pumping of the N- aquifer no later than 2005. The company has considered building a pipeline from either Lake Powell or the Fort McDowell Reservation near Phoenix, where it has acquired water rights, but neither option will eliminate the waste caused by the archaic slurry line, the last one in the US. Activists have proposed that Peabody consider using reclaimed wastewater, or shipping their coal by truck or rail – the common but more costly method.

The slurry line may shut down regardless of Peabody’s wishes. The Mohave Generating Station is legally required to make a commitment by 2003 to install pollution-control scrubbers, and its owners are considering switching to natural gas, which would eliminate Peabody’s buyer of Black Mesa coal.

Peabody might have gained a new customer as Reliant Resources of Houston entered the scene, with promises of jobs, revenue, and a long-term solution to the water needs of the Hopi. But at the end of May, the Hopi Tribal Council cancelled its agreement with Reliant, citing the corporation’s "internal troubles." Reliant Resources’ parent company, Reliant Energy, is one of the power companies being sued by the State of California for price-gouging and "over- scheduling" during 2001’s power shortages. Reliant’s CEO Steve Letbetter has been documented by the NRDC to have raised $200,000 for George Bush’s campaign and inaugural committee; the Sierra Club points out that Bush’s hands- off stance toward the California energy crisis has enriched Reliant and other Houston-based energy corporations.

The Hopi Tribal Council is currently undecided as to whether it will pursue a similar project with another company, but opponents feel that other alternatives must be considered.

"This issue provides the opportunity for the Chairman to call a summit of Hopi people to talk about a sustainable economy for the tribe," says Vernon Masayesva, Executive director of Black Mesa Trust.

Many Hopi say they were ignored during Reliant’s initial consultations with their Tribal Council, and are opposed to the invasion of another corporation that will continue to devour their water and coal and funnel the energy to air conditioners and microwaves in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

The lake of tears Strip mines in desert areas are difficult and costly to reclaim, so their scars are often left unhealed as they are abandoned by the government as "National Sacrifice Areas."

The Zuni people have seen the homelands of numerous First Nations in the Four Corners region sacrificed for coal, uranium and profit. So as the Phoenix-based Salt River Project (SRP) threatens the Zuni Salt Lake with plans of a coal strip mine, a strong opposition has solidified into the Zuni Salt Lake Coalition – composed of the Zuni Pueblo, Center for Biological Diversity, Citizen’s Coal Council, Water Information Network and Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice Program.

For thousands of years, the Zuni, Laguna, Acoma, DinÈ, Apache and other tribes have journeyed to western New Mexico to collect salt from the lake for domestic and ceremonial use, and to make sacred offerings to the deity Salt Mother. The different nations could gather without fear of conflict, since the lake was respected as a traditional neutral zone.

SRP’s Fence Lake Coal Mine would operate on 18,000 acres, approximately 10 miles northeast of the Zuni Salt Lake. The Coalition, citing hydrological studies conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and a private firm, is convinced that the mine’s pumping of a nearby aquifer will lower the level of the lake. They are also worried that mining and the construction of a railroad to ship the coal to SRP’s Coronado Generating Station in Arizona will destroy burial sites, ancient trails and the habitat of antelope and golden eagles in areas that are Traditional Cultural Properties.

The mine’s state permit was recently renewed for another five years by the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division (MMD). The DOI issued a Federal permit on May 31, which will enable SRP to begin excavating coal by 2005, before the supply from its mine near Gallup disappears.

Brian Segee of the Center for Biological Diversity says his organization is calling for a new supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, and is appealing the state permit. The Zuni coalition will also litigate federal approval, since as Segee says, if "this mine goes in, there will be immediate proposals for expansion and other mines."

Jim O’Hara of the MMD says it is stipulated in the permit that if the water level of the lake is affected, then SRP must cease pumping the aquifer, but Segee argues that the BIA has declared that the system of monitoring being used is faulty, and the baseline data skewed. SRP claims to have consulted with the Zuni, and that the project will bring them jobs and benefits, but Zuni Coalition member Cal Seciwa writes that the approval of SRP’s permit is "all for the sake of revenue for state and local counties around the development site," and that "very few benefits will materialize for our Native people and communities."

SRP, a co-owner of the smoke-belching Mohave Generating Station, claims that "you can buy clean, green energy from SRP."

But if SRP "is being as ‘Earthwise’ as they claim," states Andy Bessler of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice Program, "they will drop plans for the Fence Lake Coal Mine and look to energy from wind and solar, not dirty coal."

In several Native religions of the Four Corners, it is the Kachinas that bring rain to the land. Without it, crops wither and livestock dies. In the Desert Southwest, it has been one of the driest years in history, sending a message to people that sacrificing water to obtain coal-produced energy will not only affect the lives of the Hopi, DinÈ, Zuni and other Native peoples – but will unbalance the entire ecosystem."We truly believe that water is life," says Bucky Preston. And all life needs water.

For further information and more numbers, contact: Andy Bessler; Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice Program; P0 Box 38, Flagstaff, AZ 86002-0038; (928)774- 6103. Brad Miller is a freelance journalist currently working out of the Desert Southwest somewhere between the Navajo Nation and the Mexican border.