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Black
Mesa Indigenous Support
P.O.
Box 23501, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002
Message Voice Mail: 928.773.8086 Email: blackmesais@yahoo.com |
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"Crisis on Black Mesa" real media video of Camp Anna Mae Sundance ground's destructionCrisis on Black Mesa is a brief and compelling documentary about the destruction and desecration of the Camp Anna Mae sacred Sundance grounds at Big Mountain, Arizona on August 17th 2001.
Crises
On Black Mesa
Produced by: Indigenous Action Media
running time: 5 min 42 seconds
indigenous_action_media@yahoo.com
Arbor Destruction Photos Close new window to return
More reports about Anna Mae Sundance destruction
Additional Contact list of appropriate public officials for people to call
"What
You Can Do" to be helpful
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Latest Anna Mae Media Articles Big
Trouble at Big Mountain: Camp Anna Mae raided, desecrated, and Dineh
elders arrested - Earth First! Journal |
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"Hopi
Tribe Offers No Apologies" -Hopi Tribal Council
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Audio Report of Native Press Conference Produced by Le Ann La Bar
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She and Leonard Benally stated the focus should remain on: Lehman Brothers CEO, Irl F. Engelhardt c/o publicrelations@peabodyenergy.com, BIA Commander Richard Angstrom, Wayne Taylor wtaylor@hopi.nsn.us tel: 520-734-2441 (x101 Wayne Taylor) and Wayne Nordwall Tel: 602-379-6600 fax: 602-379-3886 / 602-379-4413 WayneNordwall@bia.gov . Mrs Hamilton-Benally states that she is pressing charges against Wayne Taylor and the BIA for desecration of a scared site. She also stated that her exclusion order (and perhaps Marsha's and Kee Shay's) is not legal because it was issued administratively, not by the Hopi court.
Statement
from Louise Benally (8-18-01): Hey there! They tore the tree down, the
arbor and the lodges! but, the people's prayer's are still in place, the
rangers, and all the police agencies involved are all lost and have no concept
of having a life or understanding of it , so don't waste too much of your
time on them, we need pressure at all levels starting with the governor
of AZ Jane Hull, U.S. attorney general's office civil rights dept. We need
a civil rights attorney in AZ ... and fund raising for a legal project.
Contact Governor
Jane Hull at http://www.governor.state.az.us/post/index.html
or call her at 602-542-4331 or Fax 602-542-1381
Thanks to you for your support.....
take care...lb
Arrests of Dine During Sundance Ceremony at Camp Anna Mae July 2001
Additional Contact list of appropriate public officials for people to call
"What You Can Do" to be helpful
Camp Ana Mae, the well-known site of Sun Dances , home to Louise Benally and her children at the foot of Big Mountain, Arizona has been bulldozed by Hopi Tribal authorities.
Hopi Tribal police have the area secured and no one is permitted entrance at this time. One local resident has tentatively received permission to enter and photograph the homesite Saturday (18th).
Many conferences and protests concerning the relocation of Navajo and Hopi people on the division of the former Joint Use Area brought about through public law PL 93-531 have been held here over the last three decades. Louise Benally is one of the few remaining residents who abstained from signing a lease agreement with the Hopi Tribe. Louise Benally named her homesite after the late Ana Mae Aquash, the AIM activist who was murdered and had her hands cut off for post-mortem fingerprinting by the FBI in the 1970's for her pursuit of civil and religious freedom for native people.
Said Cedric Kuwaninvaya of the Hopi Land Team, "This is just one of the steps that the Hopi Tribe will be taking to enforce its jurisdiction over the Hopi Reservation." After local residents watched the Hopi Tribal staff stuff the Tree of Life into a woodchipper and haul the other remains away in trailors, he continued,"We will keep a close eye on the former site of the Camp Ana Mae to ensure that the trespassers (family) do not try and establish another camp at which they hold unwanted gatherings and celebrate their lawlessness."
For More Information
Contact:
Rachel Scala
rscala@juno.com
Morning August 18th
Today (8-17-01)
at approximately 5 a.m., the Office of Hopi Lands, Hopi Range Management, Resource
Enforcement Services, Hopi Tribal Police, Navajo County Sheriff, and BIA impoundment
trailers entered Camp Ana Mae, a sacred religious area located in Big Mountain,
AZ. Awakened by sounds of machinery, several witnesses observed the desecration
of the sacred Sundance ground. Land management employees were observed cutting
down arbor logs and the Sundance tree with chain-saws. A front-end loader destroyed
sweat lodges, fire pits, sweat rocks, alters, and the Sundance arbor. Religious
paraphernalia, which included tobacco ties, flesh offerings, and eagle feathers
were seized or left behind and trampled by machinery. Eric Crittenton, a resident
of Camp Ana Mae, was arrested while trying to photograph the destruction. Eric,
who is a minor, was home alone at the time of the incident. Local residents
arrived at Camp Ana Mae around 8 a.m. to take part in a weekly prayer and sweat
ceremony. To their shock and disbelief, residents were blocked by local, state,
and federal law enforcement. Officers stated that all trespassers would be arrested.
Residents counted fifteen vehicles leaving the area, and included several trailers
piled with confiscated arbor logs and the Sundance Tree.
Received from
Brenda Norrell
Afternoon August 17th
Hopi Tribal
Chairman, Eugene Kaye confirmed that:
Bulldozers
and Chainsaws have destroyed the Sundance arbor at Camp Anna Mae. The office
also says that "No personal residences were destroyed, only the Sundance
arbor and tree."
Two people were cited/arrested: one young Dine', a "minor" who was
documenting, attempting to photograph the destruction by bulldozers and chainsaws
on his homeland, at the home of his family. His arraignment is set for Monday
August 20 at a.m. and he is charged with criminal trespass.
He is currently being held, until bond is being raised. Hopi Tribal Council Court, Highway 264 Milepost 398.6, Keams Canyon, AZ (520) 738-2233
The other
person arrested was Arlene Hamilton, who had previously been charged at an exclusionary
hearing by the Hopi Tribal Council. She was cited and escorted from the reservation.
Morning August 17th
Big Mountain Supporters: It is with great sadness and not a little anger that I must pass on to you information I received in two urgent phone calls this morning. The Corporate Hopi Rangers along with units from the BIA police and the Navajo County Sheriffs (60 cops by one estimate) have seen fit to take it upon themselves to begin tearing down the Sacred Sundance Tree and the surrounding arbor at the Sundance grounds at Anna Mae Camp on Big Mountain. This is an stunning escalation of the continuing harassment and religious rights violations that took place this July when these same law enforcement agencies attempted to keep the sacred ceremony from happening at all. Louise Benally's eldest son Eric was at the homestead when the troops arrived and was arrested while attempting to document the disrespectful and violent destruction. His uncle John may have also been arrested, but this has yet to be confirmed.
This heinous crime against the Peoples rights to religion and land is akin to the destruction of any church, synagogue, or temple. We call on all people of faith to stand up in support of these traditional Dineh People. Please call Gail Norton at the Department of the Interior, the head of the regional BIA and the Hopi Tribal Council and tell them that what they are doing is a crime according to international law and also according to the Native American Religious Rights act.
Please feel free to contact me for any further updates on this situation. I have been told that the next target may be the burial site of the late elder who passed away just before the Sundance in July. And forced evictions may not be too far behind in the plans of these misguided agents of the corporate giants that direct and pay for the destruction on the Altar and elsewhere on Mother Earth.
Walk in Beauty, Michael Gerell
I have just recieved an emergency phone call from the land.
This morning Friday August 17, 2001 at 5:30 a.m. Hopi Rangers, BIA police, and Navajo Police entered the Anna Mae Sundance grounds and began dismantling the arbor.
The sacred Tree of Life
was also removed. A car has been impounded and a Dineh youth has been arrested.
I am ommitting their names until I can get permission to post them. There is
an urgent call for supporters, observers, and media.
I will let you know as I recieve more details.
Sharon Lungo
Arrests of Dine During Sundance Ceremony at Camp Anna Mae July 2001
Additional Contact
list of appropriate public officials for people to call
"What You Can Do" to be helpful
