The Black Mesa Syndrome: Indian Lands, Black Gold

By Judith Nies

BLACK MESA is NOT BLACK and it is not a mesa. It is four thousand square miles of ginger-colored plateau land in northern Arizona, a distinct elevated landmass the shape of a bears paw. On a map, the Black Mesa coal field looks like an inkblot on a Rorschach test, following the contours of the Pleistocene lake it once was. Over thousands of years the vigorous forests and plant life embraced by the lake decayed into a bog which in turn hardened to coal—some twenty-one billion tons of coal, the largest coal deposit in the United States.

Until 1969, the coal lay untouched and so close to the surface that the walls of the dry washes glistened with seams of shiny black. With a long- term value estimated as high as $100 billion, it lies completely under Indian reservation lands, for Black Mesa is also home to some sixteen thousand Navajos and eight thousand Hopis. In 1966, the Hopi and Navajo tribal councils—not to be confused with the general tribal population— signed strip-mining leases with a consortium of twenty utilities that had designed a new coal-fired energy grid for the urban Southwest. Under the umbrella name WEST (Western Energy Supply and Transmission), the utilities promised 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.

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Big Mountain Sundance Arbor and Tree Destroyed!

Friday, August 17, 2001

by Black Mesa Indigenous Support
address: PO Box 23501, Flagstaff, AZ 86002
phone: 928-773-8086
email: blackmesais@yahoo.com

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 staff stuffed the Tree of Life into a woodchipper and haul the other remains away in trailers"

Anna Mae Sundance Arbor & Tree Destroyed - 2 arrested

Friday(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

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Evening August 18th

Statement from Louise Benally: 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. If you need info on that contact me at this address.

sparkles_plen79@hotmail.com

Thanks to you for your support.....

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
Contact list of appropriate public officials:
http://www.blackmesais.org/relocatethis.html

take care...lb

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"Hopi Tribal staff stuffed the Tree of Life into a woodchipper and haul the other remains away in trailers"

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.

Although it is not yet known exactly when the order came through, the site is reported to have been cleared Friday August 17 in the early morning hours, following the arrests for criminal trespass of Louise Benally's 17 year old son Eric Crittendon and of Arlene Hamilton-Benally, who were there at the time. Ms. Hamilton-Benally, an anglo human-rights activist, and her husband Leonard Benally had held their wedding reception a few miles away just the day before. According to Ms. Hamilton-Benally, Eric had been arrested for attempting to photograph the demolition of the arbor, sweat lodges and Tree of Life and all other components of the ceremonial area next to his mother's home. When Ms. Hamilton-Benally approached the officers to ask for his release into the custody of his family, she was arrested as well.

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 home site Saturday.

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 trailers, 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

Contact list of appropriate public officials:
http://www.blackmesais.org/relocatethis.html

For the latest information about Camp Anna Mae Sundance Grounds, go to http://www.blackmesais.org/anna_mae_sundance_2k1.htm

Thank you,
Black Mesa Indigenous Support

www.blackmesais.org

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They Are Coming Again To Take Our Land - Report From Big Mountain

Navajo-Hopi Observer- Letters to the Editor

Editor,

They are coming again to take our land and our water. Peabody Energy, the world?s largest private sector coal company, is planning to tear another 180 million tons of coal from the Hopi heartland. This ancient carbon, part of an essential internal organ of Mother Earth, will be forcibly removed to provide power to run air conditioners and VCRs for energy-hungry Californians. Scientists tell us that every year, 35,000 Americans will die from breathing the particulates emitted by coal-burning power plants and that our climate will change in ways not beneficial to life as we know it.

For forty years, huge draglines have decimated our living mesas and sacred shrines. Peabody?s mining operations have turned our land upside down, lacing it with poisons and turning it into a lifeless, silent place, empty of spirit and original, primal beauty. Peabody?s deep wells have noticeably lessened our springs and streams, and lowered groundwater levels. Now our fields stand dry and desperate in the hot wind. Our elders warned us that, ?Should this happen, our lands will shake like the Hopi rattle, land will sink and dry up. Rains will be barred by unseen forces. Plants will not grow, animals will die?and not only Hopis, but all will disintegrate to nothing.? And now they want to take more. More coal. More water. In Washington, federal officials and their energy industry ?advisors? are meeting in secret to decide the fate of Hopi land, and consequently, Hopi culture. They probably never think about the Hopi People. No. In their mind, what happens to the Hopi People is but a footnote to a tragic story rapidly unfolding. The loss of a whole community of men, women and children, a thousand-year old culture, is seen as mere ?collateral damage,? resulting from the need to meet California?s energy crisis and pay back Mr. Irl F. Engelhardt, the Chairman and CEO of Peabody who contributed $250,000 to the Republican campaign and who was one of the key energy advisors to Bush-Cheney transition team.

We are greatly concerned. Peabody Energy is planning to open new mines on the Hopi Reservation for which it will need proper permits. Only one factor remains in place to prevent Peabody from imposing additional sacrificial damage upon Hopi land. Peabody needs the federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) to approve its mining permit, which would provide Peabody with legal approval to continue and expand its mining operations. This presents a second chance for Hopi Tribal Council and the grassroots people to work together to correct numerous problems raised by the Hopi Tribe in 1989 when it rejected OSMRE?s Environmental Impacts Study (EIS) and Comprehensive Hydrologic Impact Assessment (CHIA).

Black Mesa Trust believes that mine expansion will create additional major impacts on the environment, groundwater, springs, washes, and to our culture, and that a full-blown EIS and CHIA must be done with third party oversight. We no longer trust OSMRE to conduct a credible study.

If your readers care about clear skies, clean water, healthy food and desire to live in balance with nature, I ask them to please speak up now. Ask OSMRE to conduct all necessary hydrological studies, environmental protection consideration and address the numerous issues raised by the Hopi Tribe. Express your concerns by contacting some or all of the responsible key government, tribal and private agencies: your congressional representatives, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, the Office of Surface Mining, the White House, Peabody Energy, the Hopi Tribal Council, US Environmental Protection Agency and the Black Mesa Trust.

Although the stage may be set, steps can still be taken to prevent further destruction of Hopi land, water resources, and culture. This letter is a call for help and a request for action.

Vernon Masayesva
Director, Black Mesa Trust
Kykotsmovi, AZ

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WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Contact OSMRE at these addresses:

Glenda Owens, Deputy Director U. S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement
GOWENS@OSMRE.GOV, 202-208-4006

OSMRE Public Affairs:
mgauldin@osmre.gov, jchildress@osmre.gov, cmeyers@osmre.gov, cjohnson@OSMRE.GOV,

Willis Gainer, Director
Albuquerque Field Office
505 Marquette, Ave., NW, Suite 1200
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 248-5070
E-Mail: wgainer@osmre.gov

AND, send your support to:

Black Mesa Indigenous Support
P.O. Box 23501, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002
Message Voice Mail: 520.773.8086
Email: blackmesais@yahoo.com

http://www.blackmesais.org

Dineh

Organizations

Black Mesa Indigenous Support

Independent Media

Arizona Indymedia

Blackfire