The recent warnings of exclusion (officially removed and banned off of Hopi Partitioned Lands) & detainment of non-Indian supporters staying as guests of elders and families living in remote areas throughout Black Mesa draw concern of local and international support & human rights organizations.
Black Mesa Indigenous Support 03/22/07
These invited guests are staying with elders who may otherwise live alone. The lives of these elderlies are often filled with hardships, especially during the harsh winter months. There is the constant need of hauling water, chopping wood and caring for livestock. For many years, the efforts of Black Mesa Indigenous Support have been mainly humanitarian, which include assisting in requested relief to the elders and their families by having guests stay with them and help with their sheep, household chores, and companionship. It is an added stress upon them to feel that their welfare is threatened by banning this type of support.
“These sheepherders are here because we, the residents of Dzil Ntsaa (Big Mountain), asked them to help us. I do not want my guest or guests of other families mistreated nor harassed. They are citizens of the United States and guests/peace observers and volunteers for the good of the Dine people.”-Anonymous Dineh resident.
The rights that we recognize and refer to are applicable to these elders remaining on the land of their grandmothers and are outlined in International Human Rights under the Geneva Convention:
Article 5. - No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 9. - No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 12. - No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 15. - (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality., (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 17. - (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others., (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18. - Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19. - Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20. -(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association., (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 22. - Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 25. - Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Article 27.- (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits., (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28. - Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
We do not imply any intention to obstruct Hopi ancestral rights to these areas affected by relocation and land-partitioning policies. We are aware of past common usage of Black Mesa by both Hopi and Dineh. Our presence as an outside support organization is to intervene rightfully as American citizens to ensure that human rights are respected. We believe that the relocation policies infringe upon these rights.
We are aware, also, that court orders and public laws have subjected certain Dineh households to have no recognized legal status of residency, and non-Hopi to be illegal guests. We are aware of the permit process desired by the Hopi Tribe. However, we acknowledge the invitations and the sovereignty of the Dineh on the “Hopi Partitioned Land” in whose homes we stay and will continue to follow that right of association. Additionally, we will continue to recognize and support the right of the families to reside and remain on the land of their grandmothers regardless of outside laws that are passed. And we will continue to inform the international communities of the Dineh resistance to these laws.
Black Mesa Indigenous Support volunteers honor and utilize the practices of non-violence and compassion. Guests are briefed before arriving on the land about understanding cultural sensitivity, self-sufficiency and that no alcohol, drugs, or weapons are allowed.
The attempt to apply Exclusion Orders on guests of the families is not only an issue of politics. It is an issue of interfering with compassionate and harmless elder care that is especially needed here where no official tribal programs provide such services. To put these elder residents in danger without physical assistance just because they are impeded and abandoned by existing laws and the agencies that uphold them, does not justify further legal harassment through the elimination of volunteer assistance. All families have the right to determine who stays in their own homes without interference, as we understand it, for both the Dineh and Hopi, in accordance with traditional laws. This blessing of help should not be denied to the elders.
Black Mesa Indigenous Support, US
Christa Luginbühl, Executive Director, INCOMINDIOS Switzerland
Mr. Henrik Persson, BA., Board member, Fourth World Association of Sweden
Mr. Carl Schlyter, Member of the European Parliament, Green Party of Sweden
Mrs. Elly De Groen, Group of the Greens, Europa Transparant, Netherlands
Mr. Alain LIPIETZ, Les Verts-Europe-Ecologie, FRANCE
Mrs. Satu Hass, Group of the Greens, FINLAND
Mr. Raül ROMEVA i RUEDA, Iniciativa Per Catalunya Verds, SPAIN
Mr. Claude TURMES, Les Verts, LUXENBURG
Mr. Cem ÖZDEMIR, Group of the Greens, GERMANY
Mrs. Caroline Lucas, UNITED KINGDOM
Mrs. Lilian Mikaelsson, Chairwoman/Director of the Stockholm Saami Association,
Sweden
Carina Gustafsson, Director, The Wild-Oak Network, Sweden
Mrs. Luisa Morgantini, Confederal Group of the European United Left- Nordic Green Left,
Italy
Mrs. Eva Goës, Chairperson, Green Forum, Stockholm, Sweden
Mr. Kenneth Diner, Executive Director, Association for Indigenous Peoples, Sweden
Mr. Haru Yamaguchi, Mr. Nagai Katsumi & Mrs. Miyuki Nippashi, Board of Directors,
Walk In Beauty Project, Japan