BIG MOUNTAIN

ISSUE ONE: Relocation

In 1974 Congress, after being financially coerced by special interest lobbies, including lawyers hired by Peabody Coal Company(PCC), passed Public Law 93-531. This law authorized the partitioning of the Hopi-Dine Joint Use Area and the removal of 10,000 Dine (Navaho) people from their sacred and ceremonial lands where they have lived for thousands of years. The Dine who oppose relocation face livestock confiscation, water diversion,fencing of previously open land, the discontinuation of road and educational improvements, clearing of land and the threat of destruction of their ceremonial grounds.

The reason the US government has given for the relocation is also called the Hopi-Dine land dispute. However, the real dispute is between traditional Indians who wish to protect their land and the tribal councils and outside forces that support intense mineral extraction.

The tribal council chairmen are employees of the US government and could hardly represent the interests of Native Americans. Clearly, there is a conflict of interests. Traditional tribal leadership represents the people of the land and is distinct from and does not recognize these government paid tribal councils.

Furthermore, it is important to note that the designated land to where these people are to be relocated is the scene of the worst radioactive spill in North America. Miners have been poisoned and homes and schools built out of the radioactive waste. This is one more indication that the US Government is still involved in INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE!

ISSUE TWO: Peabody Coal Company

In remote areas of northern Arizona, the traditional Dine attempt to continue their way of life on lands where their families have lived for thousands of years. Enter PCC--a British owned corporation which operates the Black Mesa mining complex and has for years ignored all laws regarding environmental regulations.

The mine operates without the necessary permits for the slurryline, access road, and railroad, and without posting the reclamation bonds required for strip mining. A few hundred traditional Native Americans still live in the communities around the mine on disputed Hopi Partition Land. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), together with Wackenhut Security (the "hiredgun slingers of PCC"), and Hopi tribal police and BIA officials, continue to confiscate their livestock, wood and wood cuttingtools.

The BLM and other government agencies refuse to allow the indigenous people to use or dig wells for water but allows PCC to ILLEGALLY PUMP ONE BILLION GALLONS OF PRECIOUS DRINKING WATER PERYEAR, WITHOUT A PERMIT, from the aquifer for the purpose of sending their coal through slurry pipes. This action has dried up springs and wells and has done serious and possibly irreparable damage to the semi-arid desert.

PCC has been cited many times for violations which they usually ignore with the apparent blessing of the Office of Surface Mining(OSM). The Dine people are presently engaged in a battle with OSM over illegal mining practices, toxic contamination of the water, air and soil and depletion of the ground water sources upon which they depend for survival. PCC had been operating witha TEMPORARY permit for 13 years.

Continual dynamite blasting damages the homes of the Dine, but the BLM FORBIDS THEM TO REPAIR OR REBUILD. The current policy is an attempt to force the Dine to sign an agreement which will pass the problems on to their children and future generations.

ISSUE THREE: Bureau of Indian Affairs

The BIA was established to protect Indian people and Indian lands from exploitation. However, the BLM supervises the BIA, and many times in the past, the BLM has instructed the BIA to withhold that protection.

Hence, since the BLM has licensing authority for lands, the BIA is unable to protect the concerns of the Indian people and a clear conflict of interest exists in which the Indian people lose.

WE URGE THAT RELOCATION ACT #93-531 BE RESCINDED AND THAT THE US GOVERNMENT CEASE THE FORCED RELOCATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FROM THEIR ANCESTRAL LANDS.

WE URGE AN IMMEDIATE CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY INTO PEABODY COAL COMPANY'S MINING PRACTICES.

WE URGE THAT AUTHORITY FOR HANDLING INDIAN LANDS BE RESTORED TOTHE JURISDICTION OF TRADITIONAL TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS.


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