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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

 

 

 

BLACK MESA, WATER, LAND, AND SOLIDARITY

 

 In the arid Four Corners region of Arizona is Black Mesa, home to the Hopi and Dineh people. They utilize traditional skills passed down from generations to raise sheep, dye wool, weave, gather plants for healing and for food, cultivate corn and vegetables, and much more. They can survive off the land. They cannot survive without it. Humanity cannot survive without learning the important lessons they offer us.

Black Mesa is also home to the largest coal deposit in the United States. This is an area where strip-mining leases were signed with energy companies who had designed a coal-fired energy grid for the urban Southwest. Promises were made for more air conditioning for Los Angeles, more neon lights for Las Vegas, more water for Phoenix, more power for Tucson--and for the Indians, great wealth. Instead, Black Mesa has suffered human rights abuses and ecological devastation; the water supply on Black Mesa is shrinking; thousands of archeological sites have been destroyed; and, unbeknownst to most Americans, close to 14,000 Navajos, or Dineh, have been removed from their homes.

WATER & THE SLURRY LINE
Peabody Coal Company mines over 1 billion gallons of pristine, potable ground-water each year. This water is mixed with coal to form a substance called slurry. The machines at the slurry entrance operate like a giant garbage disposal, grinding huge chunks of coal into nugget-size pieces through enormous steel blades. The batter is then pumped through a pipeline to a power station in the Mojave desert, almost 300 miles away. But Peabody is not alone on Black Mesa. The N-Aquifer is the sole source of drinking water for the Hopi Tribe and Western Dineh. Springs are drying up. "When springs cease to flow because of groundwater extraction, and pilgrimage to these sites become meaningless, our constitutional rights are abridged," states Hopi grassroots organizer Vernon Masayesva. Upon this water the survival of the Hopi and Navajo peoples and culture depend. The history of the current water crisis can be traced at least as far back as 1909, when the U.S. government first discovered coal beneath Black Mesa. According to data compiled by the Department of the Interior, Peabody's operations appear to be causing or contributing significantly to a range of groundwater-related problems, with profound environmental, cultural, and religious implications for the region's tribal communities. -Natural Resources Defense Council

Because of the pumping, wells and springs have dried up and the entire ecology of Black Mesa has changed. Plants have failed to reseed and certain native vegetation have died out. 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. There are reports that washes along the mesa's southern cliffs are losing outflow. There are signs that the aquifer is being contaminated in places by low-quality water from

ENERGY INDUSTRIAL TRIBAL COMPLEX
Negotiations with Reliant have been called off but…

In March 2002, the Hopi Tribal Council unanimously passed a resolution to collaborate with Reliant Energy (a Houston, Texas company that owns assets in 12 states and Europe) to develop plans for a 1,200 MW coal-fired electricity generating station on Black Mesa which would require at least 2,500 acre ft. of pristine ground water a year to operate. The Hopi Tribal Council had asked the United States Government to help in this effort.
( To learn more about 'clean coal' technology please ready Clean Coals Dirty Facts http://www.blackmesais.org/clean_coals_dirty_facts.html )

An acre-foot of water is approximately 325,000 gallons. Twenty-five hundred-acre feet of water would cover a football field nearly ½ mile deep in water. Peabody currently pumps 4,000 acre-feet of water a year from the N-Aquifer. Which is 1,300,000,000 (quadrillion) gallons a year,

This joint agreement that the Hopi Tribal Council entered for a proposed Hopi-Reliant power plant project was passed without the knowledge of communities, villages, religious leaders or concerned grassroots people. At a local demonstration Vernon Masayesva stated "This current move on the part of the council seems to be a repeat of how Peabody Energy got access to our coal resources in the 60's."

Spokesperson for the Hopi Tribe, Claire Heywood said in a telephone interview on May 23 that the Tribe "has not decided whether to work with another company to build a power plant or do it ourselves or just forget about it." She said that the Energy Team would have a recommendation on the matter soon. - Tanya Lee, Freelance Reporter, Tutuveni May 29, 2002

RELYING ON UNSUSTAINABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

The coal industry was particularly well-represented in the Bush transition. The Center for Responsive Government says that during the 1999-2000-election cycle, Reliant donated $918,000 to the Republican Party and to individual candidates. Steve Letbetter, CEO of Reliant, donated $100,000 to the Bush election campaign. Of the top 15 contributors, other energy companies include Peabody Energy and Lehman Brothers, the major stockholder in Peabody Energy (who is also the nations largest private prison funder). Based on figures released by the Federal Election Commission Peabody's chairman, Irl Englehardt, is on the Environmental Protection Agency transition team, (Peabody Group contributed $250,000 to The Republican National Committee). (Wash Post 03/25/01) Peabody spokesman Vic Svec said they were named "because of Peabody's position as the world's largest coal company and our advocacy of the use" of coal as a fuel, especially in light of rising natural gas prices. Washington Post 01/17/01 But Peabody and Black Beauty (another coal company) have an even more direct line into the transition process. The head of the coordinating group, choosing top personnel for the Interior Department and offering policy options, is Thomas Sansonetti. Until recently he was a lobbyist with a Wyoming law firm representing Peabody and other energy firms on leasing matters. Wash Post 01/17/01 The coal industry gave 88 cents out of every dollar in campaign contributions to GOP candidates or organizations. Washington Post 03/25/01

ENTER THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
All across the nation billions in American Indian royalty funds remain unaccounted for and many tribes are accusing the Interior Department for mismanaging the funds.

The Bush Administration has actually intervened in a Navajo Nation lawsuit against Peabody that produced evidence that Peabody engaged in backdoor deals with the Interior Department and diminished Navajo royalties since 1985. A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in August that the Interior Department violated its trust responsibility when it engaged in these deals. The Bush administration says a ruling ordering the Government to make payments to the Navajo Nation to make up for lost royalties could be too costly and lead to similarly expensive rulings favoring other tribes that share royalties with other energy companies.

Meanwhile, Navajo coal lights up the homes of the wealthy in the Southwest "while the defendants reap huge and illicit profits using Navajo coal to generate electricity for homes and businesses in Southern California, Las Vegas, and Arizona, thousands of Navajo homes are still without electricity"… "Where many Navajo children still read by kerosene lanterns," pointed out Navajo Nation president Kelsey Begaye. "For many years, the Navajo Nation has served as an energy colony of the U.S." Native Nations have been cheated and taken advantage of in their dealings with the dominant culture. A culture that many find foreign.

THE RAPING OF THE LAND
Many Dineh elders are opposed to continued mining. Roberta Blackgoat always use to state that coal mining is gouging out the liver of Mother Earth and all humanity will suffer.

Peabody is hoping to extend its mining operations on Black Mesa and has filed a lease extension application with the federal Office of Surface Mining. The application has a revision to the mining plan so as to allow mining in an area known as J-23, a section of the Hopi reservation where Navajo Elders reside. Peabody has determined that to mine in area J-23, it would need an additional 1,200-acre feet per year of water to slurry the coal from the mine to the power plant. This would be a 32% INCREASE despite the fact that tribal leaders have been calling for an end to Peabody's pumping of groundwater used to transport coal. Issuance of the permit that Peabody is requesting, would result in a life of mine permit, which means Peabody would be permitted to continue mining coal for as long as it takes, until there is none left within the lease area.

Both Peabody and Reliant are investigating alternatives to the N-Aquifer use though the fact remains- Peabody is still destroying the landscape. Today at Black Mesa buckets the size of a four-story building peel the topsoil off in mile-long strips, a technique called strip-mining. Bulldozers shape the under layers into enormous slag heaps; workers dynamite the exposed mineral bed, and steam shovels load the coal into massive transport trucks. By the time the coal is extracted, the land has turned greasy, all vegetation has disappeared, the air is filled with coal dust, the ground water is contaminated with toxic runoff (particularly sulfates), and electric-green ponds dot the landscape.

The people living in the area are suffering from health-problems due to the mining and blasting. The Dineh are living in fear that they will be relocated and that the whole area of Black Mesa will be forever lost to more mining and to coal-fired energy plants.

Locals in the area have been organizing protests against the continued use of N-Aquifer. Members of the Hopi Tribe have been frustrated by the lack of progress made by the federal government to address concerns about the N-Aquifer. Local organizers have stated that the OSM, the Secretary of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency must be called into account. They must be required to enforce and to protect not only our natural resources but also our religious sites, Tribal sovereignty, our inalienable right to self-preservation as unique individuals and our cultures. Such violations must not continue.

A DUTY TO ACT
In an era of transnational corporations operating all over the globe, the methods of separating indigenous peoples from their land and natural resources have outstripped any agency or nongovernmental organization to monitor or regulate. It's up to the people-the grassroots organizations and individuals who care to STAND IN SOLIDARITY!, and unify with all those affected by the mining and the pumping. There are many issues within Black Mesa, all of which are interwoven and interconnected. WE SHARE A COMMON ENEMY here. Do not miss your opportunity to participate in making a vital decision for the preservation of the indigenous cultures of the earth, of the Hopi and Dineh.

Black Mesa Water Coalition has been working on a process that will result in solutions for a sustainable economy. Solar and wind electrical generation do not use any water or coal to generate electricity. Leonard Selestewa, Chairman of Black Mesa Trust, argues against the need for a power plant to stimulate the Hopi economy. " We should be doing feasibility studies on alternative, renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power."

  • Write letters to the tribal councils and other governmental agencies.

  • Ask yourself the question of why do these issues spark your interest. Most of us are from or benefit from the dominant western society
    (Adapted from The Black Mesa Syndrome: Indian Lands, Black Gold, Judith Nies & Natural Resources Defense Council Draw down Report)

Speak Truth to power! Stop the use of the N-Aquifer!
Stop the destruction of the Earth & her children!!

Tribal Governments

  • Hopi Tribal Council
    Wayne Taylor, Jr., Chairman & Eugene Kaye, Chairman's Chief of Staff,
    The Hopi Tribe
    P.O. Box 123
    Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
    tel: 520-734-2441 (x101 Wayne Taylor) (x107 Eugene Kaye)
    fax: 520-734-6665
    e-mail:(for Wayne) wtaylor@hopi.nsn.us
    (for Eugene) jacquelinenahee@hopi.nsn.us

  • Tell them to not build a coal-fired power plant on Black Mesa and to come up with feasibility studies that look at other (sustainable) options. Tell them to support their people in their endeavor to be true stewards of the land.

  • The Navajo Nation
    Kelsey Begaye, President
    P.O. Box 9000
    Window Rock, AZ 86515.
    tel: 928-871-6352
    email: kabegaye@navajo.org

  • "All water, coal & other materials underneath what used to be the 1882 Hopi Reservation, also belong to the Navajo Tribe. Therefore, this prefect simply will not work unless the Navajo Tribe is brought into the loop." -Hopi grassroots leader.

United States Government

Mining Corporations
Dineh families living on Black Mesa are trying to be heard on the international level.
United Nations Special Rappatour
European Union

GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS TO CONTACT

Black Mesa Water Coalition represents a common interest by students of Northern Az. University & Flagstaff community members to aid in the struggle to end the pumping of groundwater from the N-Aquifer. bmwc31@hotmail.com

Black Mesa Indigenous Support is a group of individuals acting to support the sovereignty of the indigenous people affected by mining activities on Black Mesa, who face forced relocation, environmental devastation, and cultural extinction at the hands of multi-national corporations, and United States and Tribal Governments. www.blackmesais.org

Natural Resource Defense Council's purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends. http://www.nrdc.org/water/conservation/draw/drawinx.asp

Sierra Club Environmental Justice Projects: Arizona. http://www.sierraclub.org/environmental_justice/projects_az.asp

WHEN IS IT ENOUGH?
EVERY DAY THAT WE WAIT TO ACT, THE PROBLEM GETS HARDER TO SOLVE.

Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS) works to support the sovereignty of indigenous people on Black Mesa facing forced relocation, environmental devastation, and cultural extinction at the hands of multi-national corporations, and United States and tribal governments.
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