Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

We the undersigned wish to extend this request to support our call for help. We represent Dineh (Navajo) families living in the Black Mesa region of Arizona and are members and Board of Directors of Sovereign Dineh Nation, the organization we formed in October 1979 based on traditional Dineh values of caring for and living in harmony with the earth. We are composed of all Dineh residents and arrive at our decisions on a consensual basis, guided by our elders and Medicine people.

As you may know, we are suffering, struggling against corporate and governmental powers which have attacked our right to remain on our ancestral land, to practice our traditional life-style and religion, and to retain our civil rights. Black Mesa has special religious significance in our religion, which compounds the desecration from the coal mines which forbids strip mining. It is our belief that the Earth is a living entity that is being harmed. The primary corporate power is Peabody Coal Company, which operates two large strip mines in our area and whose activities have caused environmental damage and the destruction of countless ancient Anasazi and Dineh burial and sacred sites.

When we wake up in the morning the horizon is thick with dust from overnight operation of drag lines that remove the top layers of earth to expose the coal. Blasting is frequent and frightening. Surface water sources have been poisoned or destroyed. Sites that were the sole source of sacred and medicinal plants have been destroyed by the mine. The slurry line that carries coal 273 miles to the Mohave Generating Station from Peabody’s Black Mesa mine is threatening our sole source of drinking water. Without water we cannot survive. Our health has been negatively impacted and many of us suffer from Black Lung, Silicosis, respiratory and emotional distress.

The governmental powers include the Hopi and Navajo tribal governments, whose history and operation are inter-linked with the mining industry, and the US Government, which empowered the tribal governments at our expense. The combined actions of these corporate and governmental powers have had a devastating impact on our families. The forcible relocation of Dineh families living in areas partitioned to the Hopi Tribal government was mandated by Public Law 93-531 in 1974. Over 12,000 of our people have already been relocated at a cost of over $350 million to the US government. It has been estimated by Thayer Scudder, the world’s leading relocation expert that 25% of those of us that relocated were dead within the first 5 years.

The relocation program has been a tragic failure. We who compose some of the 3,000 Dineh who remain on our land are currently being forced to choose between relocation and life without civil rights under the rule of an openly hostile government.

The government is currently implementing its final solution for our people, involving many forms of coercion and fraud. People's firewood & livestock have been confiscated. The rangers are conducting a campaign of intense harassment - stopping cars on the roads, citing people for trivial offenses and escalation of livestock confiscations. Under Public Law 104-301, passed by President Clinton on the eve of Columbus day, 1996, the Hopi get $263,000 per signature ($25 million for 95 signatures) and since no one wanted to sign the proposed 75-year lease agreement, the motivation for pressure is clear.

In its war against those of us who have resist relocation, the US Government has destroyed wells that supplied water needed for our survival in a desert environment, outlawed even the most basic home repairs, confiscated the livestock that sustain our subsistence life-style, and subjected us to the rule of a tribal government in which we are not allowed to vote or participate.

Our civil rights were sacrificed to satisfy the ambitions of the coal companies and the tribal governments. In an effort to complete our relocation, the 1996 law provides that after February 1, 2000, the Hopi Tribe may evict those of us who are eligible for leases but have not signed them. On the same date, jurisdiction over grazing and other issues will be transferred from the BIA to the Hopi Tribe. Some actions have already begun, as some of us have received exclusion orders which seek to evict us from HPL. The BIA has also begun enforcement of the grazing permit quotas which has resulted in the loss of livestock as a result of confiscations. We have also been served trespassing notices and trespassing notices. It is even illegal for us to build an outhouse. We expect that the enforcement of the grazing quotas, trespassing notices, and eviction processes will accelerate over the next few months.

Despite the approach of the February 1, 2000 deadline for relocation, we maintain our strength and commitment to protect our sacred land. We maintain our strength as we witness the support we have from the United Nations, Non Governmental Organizations, and on the international and national levels. A Report issued by Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance of the UN Commission on Human Rights makes a finding of discrimination by the US. Such a finding on discrimination against Muslim Greeks, for instance, resulted in a legislative change in the Greek constitution last year. The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - adopted in the wake of Nazi atrocities after World War 2 - has coalesced world attention around the successes of grass roots activism that have resulted in scores of victories, including the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid in South Africa, to the 103-nation signing of an anti-land mine treaty. It is our hope that your help we will be able to end apartheid in Black Mesa.

We who are unalterably opposed to Relocation gain our strength by maintaining our traditional religion. We wish harm to no one and don't understand why we've been made to suffer so much for so long.

We appreciate any support you can provide to raise our profile to exert the pressure we need for solutions, applying the context of universal principle as we approach the February 1, 2000 deadline. If you are able to travel to Black Mesa we urgently need on-the-land support. If you are not able to travel here then please circulate petitions to the US Bureau of Indian Affairs and your governmental representatives calling for repeal of the Relocation laws. Also any financial contributions you can provide will be used for our legal defense and outreach efforts. For more information please contact us by e-mail: dinetah29@aol.com or our fiscal agent, Steve Sugarman, Executive Director, Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE) by phone: (310) 456-3534 or e-mail: SEE8541@aol.com

Please help us.

‘ahehee’, Thank you,

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The following people have signed this Call for "Help" so far!

Rena Babbitt Lane
John Lane
Ruth Benally
Elvira Herder
John Benally
Kee Shay
Paul Clark
Michael B. Weiss
Charlie Weiss
Carlos Begay
Shea Benally
Louise Singer
Glenna Begay
Lena Smith
Marie Honnie
Norris Nez
Lena Nez
Bah Begay
Henry J. Yazzie
Irene Nez
Susie Lake
Lorraine Vandever
Joan Yellowhair
Anna H. Begay
Huck Greyeyes
Genevieve Greyeyes
Pauline Whitesinger
Bonnie Whitesinger
Bob Chaat
Kee Z. Begay
Alice Z. Begay
Marsha Monestersky, Consultant
Nancy L. Thomas

More signatures are forthcoming...