Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Oregonian supporters of traditional Dine'h (Navajo) Indians held a press conference and guerrilla theatre protest on July 7th, where the Chair of Indigenous Support Coalition of Oregon, Beth Newberry delivered a press statement to representatives of Eugene's print and broadcast media. The press conference was followed immediately by a protest skit at noon at the Federal Building in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Many people came out to hold banners and signs on the street corners that said "Stop Navajo Evictions" and many motorists driving by received pamplets and honked in support.

Master of Ceremonies and ISCO President Elizabeth Howard introduced the characters of the play: two Dine'h Grandmothers and their sheep, two BIA police, and Uncle Sam, a bigger-than-life puppet played by herself.

"I've got the United States behind me" said Mr. Peabody, the second face of the Uncle Sam puppet, which appeared as two sides of the same coin. Uncle Sam chased Mr. Peabody, as the towering puppet spinned circles.

"There's enough coal here to mine for a hundred years!" exclaimed the puppet Peabody, as it's US counterpart asked the BIA to move the Dine'h.

The group is bringing a signed letter to US Representative Peter DeFazio asking his support of HR 151, to repeal part of PL 93-531, the first Relocation Act, and end the HPL housing construction and repair "freeze".

Among the statements made in HR 151 is that the Navajo Nation is one of the "most economically depressed Indian reservations in the United States." The Bennett Freeze on construction and housing repairs has affected "nearly 8,000 people...on 1,500,000 acres" of Navajo land since 1966. "Only 3 percent of the families affected by the Bennett Freeze have electricity and only 10 percent have running water." According to HR 151, "since 1966, the population has increased by approximately 65 percent... forcing several generations of families to live together in dwellings that have been declared unfit for human habitation."

According to Congress' findings in HR 151, "the Bennett Freeze is a gross violation of treaty obligations to the Navajo Nation."

Supporters of traditional Dine'h (the Navajo name for themselves, it means "the People") would like full repeal of both Relocation Acts, PL 93-531 and 104-301, but see HR 151 as an important first step and an opportunity for Congress to talk seriously about full repeals for the first time.

July 7th was the thirteenth anniversary of the first "deadline" for the forced relocation of traditional Dine'h from the HPL area in Arizona as mandated by Congress in PL 93-531, the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act of 1974. Many Navajo held out refusing to leave for years despite pressure and austerity measures from the federal government.

It's also the 33rd anniversary of Interior Secretary Udall signing the lease to strip mine coal from sacred Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona. Traditional Dine'h contend the reason for their removal is to clear the way for future coal mine expansions and other resource development. (The Bennett Freeze was signed the day after mine leases were signed in 1966.)

March 31, 1997 was the deadline for those remaining to sign leases, giving up their rights and most of their land, or relocate to "New Lands". The few Dine'h who refused to do either face forced evictions by federal marshalls after February 1, 2000, according to PL 104-301, the latest Relocation Act cosponsored by presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain.

Supporters of the Dine'h around the world including locally are preparing to stop forced evictions through legal avenues and by creating public awareness that United States injustices against American Indians continue.

Newberry explained, "Bottom line, this is a human rights issue. The bombing of Yugoslavia supposedly for human rights is the biggest hypocrisy if we ignore human rights abuses here at home. Forced evictions of traditional Dine'h is unacceptable! The People of this land will not let it happen."

Dine'h Grandmothers Need Your Help!

Waking up before dawn, the traditional Grandmothers of Dine'tah begin their day herding charro sheep out of their corrals through the arroyos, over the hills, past medicine gathering places to sacred springs. They say their ancient chants and make corn pollen offerings to the deities of these places and remember their grandmothers' teachings, "protect it."

It is a beautiful way to live, and like so many other beautiful things, it is now threatened with the brutality of huge machinery and armed police.

Elder Roberta Blackgoat has traveled the world asking for help for many years. Elder Pauline Whitesinger will shake her fist at BIA Hopi Rangers disrespecting her with notices to impound her livestock, but who will come to her aid when the multi-jurisdictional police task force led by federal marshalls tell her in an unknown language that she must go?

Peabody Coal has been strip mining coal from Black Mesa since 1966, when the first forced removals began in the northeastern region of Arizona. In 1974 Congress passed PL 93-531 with the contrived excuse that the Hopi and Navajo have been feuding over rangelands, and the US has tried to relocate traditional Navajo from lands between the mine and Hopi mesas ever since.

The federal government have been using intimidation tactics like fencing them in, setting deadlines in 1986, 1997 and 2000, and sending out armed personnel to spy on and harass them and fly over with military aircraft, but the Dine'h held ceremonies and declared their resistance to removal.

However, after decades of pressure coupled with austerity measures like impounding livestock, capping wells and bulldozing springs, seizing wood and wood cutting tools, and forbidding home construction and repairs, most of the 12,000+ Dine'h have been forced to move leaving 1000-1,500 behind.

A religious freedom lawsuit, "Manybeads v. United States et al" has gone from US District Court in Phoenix to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco twice since 1988. Meditations settled Hopi claims for lands the United States took from them, but has failed to address Dine'h concerns of how they will be able to practice their daily ceremonies far away from their shrines, or where they will be able to bury their dead.

"They made it illegal to be alive" said Louise Benally as the March 31, 1997 "deadline" approached. Fearing eviction by armed federal marshalls most of the "heads of households" remaining reluctantly signed so-called "Accommodation Agreement" leases that gave up their ancestral rights to lands they've been on since before the arrival of the Spanish. Now they live as temporary "tenants" restricted to 3 acres, with terms that make it nearly impossible for them to continue on as their traditions require.

Only three violations of term leases can cause them to be evicted anyway, with no legal recourse. Livestock quotas are far below what is required for the extended families' subsistence. The few Dine'h who have refused to sign AA leases or to relocate face forced evictions after February 1st.

The "New Lands" near the Rio Puerco were designated for Dine'h relocation settlement by Congress in 1980. The year before, an earthen dam broke releasing 1,100 tons of radioactive tailing sludge and 94 million gallons of mining effluent down river, contaminating the "new" relocation site.

Human rights violations are being investigated by the United Nations but the process has taken a long time. Complaints to the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples in 1989 led to a Special Rapporteur for Religious Intolerance holding hearings on Black Mesa in 1998. A report released earlier this year verifies the United States has violated Dine'h religious freedom, yet any strong condemnation or measures to enforce international law remain to be seen. Court-ordered evictions may happen in the meantime.