Traditional Dineh Land Rights at Risk on Big Mountain

"Ya'a'teeh, my name is Helena Begay, born to the Red Running Into Water clan, and born for the Yucca Fruit clan. My maternal grandfather's clan is Manygoats and my paternal grandfather's clan is Within His Covers, of Black Mesa, Arizona, from the United States. I am here representing the Sovereign Dine' Nation. The Dine' people of the southwestern region of the United States still have strong ties to their original homeland. The umbilical cord is usually buried inside the sheep corral, which bonds us with our ancestral lands [with bonds that] cannot be broken. There is not a day out of the week we set aside for the purpose to say thank you through our prayers. To the Dine' people, every inch of the land is sacred to us, therefore every day is a holy day. We, the Dine' nation, still practice our cultural and traditional ceremonies. With this way of life, natural medicinal herb are still used today by herbalist and medicine people during ceremonies...

"The land titles are traditionally transferred down to the daughters of the family, but under the Accommodation Agreement, this is not possible. We did not ask to be fenced in or to sign treaties for our people to abide by. The Dine' people today still practice and respect their ceremonies; these are the natural laws that we still honor. The Government broke the Treaty of 1868 by utilizing our young educated men and our language as war tactics to win World War II. Now, with only six months from the deadline, we wish to appeal to the United Nations system to intervene before it is too late. We think of and ask for our future generation that our traditional land rights and the traditional ways of passing the land on to the youth be recognized and respected so that we can continue to exist as Dine'. We will continue to fight for what rightfully belongs to us. To me, home is where I find comfort and family, to the Dine', this land is our home."

Dineh (Navajo) families living in the Black Mesa region of Arizona are currently struggling against corporate and governmental powers which have attacked their right to remain on their ancestral land, to practice their traditional life-style and religion, and to retain their civil rights. The primary corporate power is Peabody Coal Company which operates two large strip mines in the area. Its activities have caused environmental damage and the destruction of burial and sacred sites. The Hopi and Navajo tribal governments, created by the US government at the expense of the people on the land, are interlinked with the mining industry.

These actions have had a devastating impact on the Dineh families, over 12,000 of whom have been forcibly relocated from their ancestral land. In 1982, the executive director of the Navajo-Hopi Relocation Commission resigned, saying, "The forcible relocation of over 10,000 Navajo people is a tragedy of genocide and injustice that will be a blot on the conscience of this country for many generations."

The 3000 Dineh who remain on the land are currently being forced to choose between relocation and life without civil rights under the rule of an openly hostile government in which they are not allowed to vote or participate. Families near the mining area are subject to the routine destruction of their burial and sacred sites by mining activities which have also destroyed water supplies, defaced the landscape, and affected their health.

In 1996, the tribal governments negotiated, and Congress passed, the Accommodation Agreement, permitting specified individuals to stay on their land for 75 years, while foregoing their right to relocation benefits. Those ineligible to sign were require to move on. Most Dineh reject the Accommodation Agreement because they do not recognize the US or tribal government's right to turn them into tenants on lands they have occupied for hundreds of years. Under the Accommodation Agreement, the Dineh can no longer protect the land from strip mining, fencing, and commercial grazing.

The driving force behind the oppression was the discovery, early in the century, of enormous reserves of low-sulfur coal beneath the Dinehs' ancestral lands. In 1922, the US imposed a government on the Navajo, carefully selecting its leaders, in order to facilitate the tribes' approval of oil leases sought by Standard Oil. The Navajo and Hopi tribal governments continue to receive most of their funding from mining revenues. If Peabody wishes to mine where a Dineh family lives, it contacts the tribal governments, which are contractually obligated to evict the family. The Dineh face a deadline of February 1, 2000 for eviction or relocation to the Newlands, an area which was contaminated by a large radioactive spill from old uranium sediment 20 years ago.

Helena Begay, representing the Sovereign Dineh Nation, told the UN's Working Group on Indigenous Populations, in Geneva this past July, "We are accused of allowing our livestock to overgraze the land. These animals provide natural fertilizers for the land they graze on. The more land that is being strip mined by Peabody Coal Company, the more natural herbs, vegetation, water and people are being destroyed. Burial sites, the roots of the Dine', are also being ripped out of their peaceful resting places along with the rich mineral resources the land contains. We are caretakers of the land and in return the land takes care of us. The land titles are traditionally transferred down to the daughters of the family, but under the Accommodation Agreement, this is not possible."

Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and much of the southwest are lit up by Peabody Coal. A Dineh man who works for Peabody Coal told the chairman of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, "My people are suffering many effects from the mining. When we wake up in the morning the horizon is thick with dust from overnight operation of drag lines that remove the top layers of earth to expose the coal. Blasting is frequent and frightening.

"Surface water sources have been poisoned or destroyed. The slurry line that carries coal 273 miles to the Mohave from Peabody's Black Mesa mine is threatening the sole source of drinking water for communities in the area. Scarce water beneath the desert that has been there since the Ice Age is being depleted at the rate of 3 million gallons each day just to carry coal. Rena Babbitt Lane is one elder who lives on top of the slurry line but has to travel 20-30 miles round trip each day to haul drinking water for herself and her animals.

"Of great concern to me, is that in addition to the coal miners (many of whom have silicosis and black lung), most of the local residents living in the mining area have respiratory problems, some with life threatening conditions. The fine black dust covers our clothes when we hang them to dry on the clothes line. It forms a film on the counter tops inside our homes and gets into the barrels we use to store our drinking water. Also, when we butcher our livestock we find black spots on their organs.

"A 1996 decision by Administrative Law Court Judge Ramon Child reads: 'The Navajo Nation, with head offices in Window Rock, Arizona, near the New Mexico State line, shares very little of the $45,000,000 annual royalty from the mine, or benefit therefrom, with the members of the Navajo Nation who reside in the proximity of the mine. Thus, while the Navajo Nation benefits from the proceeds of the mining, the unhappy fact is that its members who live near the mine suffer from the effects of that same mining.'

"What I am telling you is difficult for me since my livelihood depends upon the continuation of the mine. However, in the end, I must consider what the cost is to Dineh lives and our environment resulting from Peabody's mining activities."

This article was compiled by Selma Sternlieb, Peacework staff. Most of the information comes from an article in Verdict magazine by Marsha Monestersky, Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation, a grass-roots organization of traditional Dineh families on Black Mesa. To receive a copy of Verdict call the Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals at 323 934-2569. Suggested donation: $5. Ms. Monestersky can be reached at PO Box 1968, Kaibeto, AZ 86053; DINETAH29@aol.com

If you want to help shut down the Mohave Generating Station, supplied by Peabody Coal Company's Black Mesa mine, which is responsible for human rights and environmental violations, including the depletion of a sole source aquifer for the Hopi and western Navajo people, contact Sharon Lungo, Action Resources Center, arcla@envirolink.org.

Some suggested actions:

. Sign onto our resolution.

. Join letter-writing campaign.

. There's a call for people to go to Arizona to be sheepherders and witnesses this fall and winter. They also need volunteers with vehicles in the BMIS office in Flagstaff. Can you help in Arizona?

. If you want ISCO to mail you an orientation packet, email Indigenous Support Coalition of Oregon <isco@efn.org> (and if you can send $3.50 that would be great, to help cover copies or mailings). If you want to start a group in your state, they'll forward info on how to get a starter kit and video from ARC. Thanks for caring.

Also call: Black Mesa Indigenous Support PO Box 23501 Flagstaff AZ 86002; 520/773-8086; <fbmsn@hotmail.com> or <granmonta@hotmail.com> Plan to make contact early because sometimes it takes a while to hear back-they spend a lot of time out on the land. Check their web page: www.netmaor.com/unity/unity.html

Or try: Bob Dorman's web page at www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm. It has many photos.