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Black Mesa Indigenous Support P.O. Box 23501, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002  Message Voice Mail: 928.773.8086 Email: blackmesais@riseup.net Newsletter:blackmesais@lists.riseup.net

LETTER OF CONCERN

April 29, 2004

SUBJECT: Dineh (Navajo) Sponsored Gathering Fear Law Enforcement Intervention

TO: Whom It May Concern

A Dineh sponsored gathering was initiated in celebration for the continued resistance to the forcible relocation programs, the BIA-Hopi Area Agency's implementation of a state of fear, and steady coal mining expansions. Another aspect to this celebration is to honor resistance leader and traditional matriarch, the late Roberta Blackgoat. The honor also goes to the lives and legacies of the past traditional elder leaders and residents of Big Mountain who have passed on. This Gathering is scheduled for May 6 thru 9, 2004 in the heart of the resistance territories of Big Mountain also known to government agencies as, the "Hopi Partitioned Lands" (HPL).

Due to the degree of threats from the BIA, local tribal and State authorities, and examples in their previous response to the Sovereign Acts of the Dineh resistors, the coordinators and local residents fear another mobilization of various law enforcement agencies to seal off the area to others from attending this gathering. Furthermore, these agencies especially the BIA-Hopi Area Agency's BIA Police may try to arrest key coordinators or mutual participants. Such reaction from the authorities is likely despite the resistance leaders' extended invitation to both Navajo and Hopi tribal officials as well as informing them about the gathering. Another concern of the Dineh sponsors is how the authorities and tribal officials might misinterpret or misrepresent the traditional efforts at this Gathering as an event of unlawfulness or activities motivated by outside influences.

Examples of previous response by the authorities:
-1992 A Spring Gathering by resistors is forced to stop and was moved outside the demarcation boundary.
-1996 BIA Police used an inter-community disturbance to blockade entrance to Sun Dance (#1) and arrested two local residents.
-2001 Elder resistors acknowledged tribal policy to apply for a permit to hold an event but were denied without the privilege to appeal. Sun Dance (#2) proceeded, and BIA and State Police blockade all entrance routes and arrested five resistor women. A month later, escorted by BIA and State police, tribal work crews desecrated ceremonial structures and shredded the ceremonial Tree of Life. One local resident is arrested in front of his home for trespassing.
-On a daily bases, resistor residents of the HPL are monitored for wood-fuel cutting, gathering vegetation for ceremonial use, home repairs, and maintenance of water wells.

It is acknowledged that according to a U.S. Judicial systems the Big Mountain area has been "legally awarded to the 'Hopi tribe' and jurisdiction is applied accordingly," but this does not mean that international human rights and sovereign treaty rights should be violated. The Dineh sponsors of the gathering are, however, hopeful for a positive response from the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribal governments to acknowledge this traditional resistors' assembly. The world and the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs need to begin recognizing that both traditional Dineh and Hopi need their ancient freedom to utilize their homelands as a place to assembly and share traditional ceremonies.

Your help is needed: Please inform these federal, tribal and state authorities to allow these indigenous people the pursuit of happiness and the right to retain their culture which needs to be practiced upon their ancestral lands. Inform them that their interventions are in violation of international Human Rights Conventions and valid treaties established between the said tribe and the U.S. government.