Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

A Dineh delegation just traveled to Los Angeles for a House of Blues Martin Luther King Jr. Benefit Concert on Sunday, January 17th to honor the Dineh. The delegation consisted of Roberta Blackgoat, Pauline Whitesinger, Glenna Begay, Caroline Tohannie, Rena Babbitt Lane, John Lane, John Benally, Leonard Benally, Tom Bedonie, Carlos Begay, Lenora Hathalie, and others.

John Trudell, Jackson Browne, the band Indigenous, Medusa, Mauro Olivera, Floyd Westerman and others performed. It was at the House of Blues in Los Angeles in the presence of over 1,000 people that Roberta Blackgoat received a Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights award 'I Have a Dream' on behalf of Sovereign Dineh Nation. Liberato Bautista, Assistant General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church was in LA at the time and spoke, announcing that he will be joining the Dineh delegation in Geneva. I also received a Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights award 'Spirit of the Drum'. It was nice to have a happy occasion to celebrate.

In LA, we did two radio programs and a demonstration at Southern California Edison. The electricity used to light up LA comes from the Mohave Generating Station-currently under suit by the Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club- supplied with coal from Peabody Coal Company's Black Mesa mine.

--There will be a Native American Prayer Ceremony and Demonstration at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, January 21 to oppose the relocation and genocide of the Native Americans at Big Mountain, Arizona.

The Manybeads lawsuit was filed in 1988 on behalf of the Dine' (Navajo) who face eviction from their traditional lands as a result of a law passed by the US Congress in 1974. The law required the eviction of all people living in an area which contains the nation's richest coal deposits and which is larger than the State of Rhode Island. Over 12,000 people were forcibly relocated, but several thousand have remained on their land despite all attempts to remove them.

The lawsuit claims that the forced relocation from their ancestral land violates their right to practice their religion. The traditional Dine' religion is based on a spiritual relationship with their ancestral land, and to separate them from their land would have the same impact as telling a Christian that they would no longer be able to worship Jesus. The lower court ruled against the Dine', but the 9th circuit appeals court requested the parties work out a mediated settlement. A settlement was reached between the Hopi and Navajo tribal governments (which are both financed primarily by Peabody Coal Company) and the US government, but was rejected overwhelmingly by the Dine' people. Congress ratified the settlement in 1996 and ordered the eviction of all people not accepting the solution.

In December 1998, the people on the land resisting the government settlement received notices informing them that they will be evicted in the next 90 days. The Dine' believe they must remain upon their lands, where their families have lived for countless generations, but they have been powerless to stop the destruction of their homes or of their sacred and burial sites.

For over two decades, the United States Government has committed gross violations of human rights, relegating the Dine' people to second class citizens, denied inalienable fundamental rights guaranteed to every other US citizen. Leon Berger, Executive Director, Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation Commission, upon resignation stated, "The forcible relocation of over 12,000 Navajo people is a tragedy of genocide and injustice that will be a blot on the conscience of this country for many generations."

In April 1997, when all efforts to obtain justice in the US judicial system failed, the Dine' filed a formal request to the Untied Nations Commission on Human Rights to conduct an investigation of violations perpetuated against them by the US government. Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance of the UN Commission on Human Rights visited Black Mesa in early February 1998. This is the first time the US has been formally investigated by the United Nation for violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief. This issue is the chief focus of the UN Report on Religious Intolerance in the US that will be presented in Geneva Switzerland in early April 1999 and the General Assembly in the fall. It is expected that the US will be cited for human rights violations in the case. While the UN decision is not legally binding in US courts, such mandates have been responsible for ending Apartheid in south Africa and the banning of land mines in Liberia.

On January 17th, representatives of Sovereign Dine' Nation traveled to Los Angeles to receive an International House of Blues Martin Luther King Jr. 'I have a Dream' award. The Dine' people believe just as Martin Luther King Jr. has said, "I have a dream that someday soon we will be free."

As the delegation travels north to San Francisco to appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for religious freedom, they remember the 'Spirit of the Dream". Over 400 million US tax payer dollars have been spent to fund relocation. Can US citizens allow forced relocation in the year 2000 within the borders of the United States?

-We urge you to join us on Thursday, January 21 at noon to support Freedom of Religion.

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Unfortunately when Pauline Whitesinger returned home she received a 90-day eviction notice. It is most probable that Roberta Blackgoat, Ida Mae Clinton, Sarah Begay and Kee Z Begay among others also received this notice. We will be getting a copy of the notice to stop the eviction process.

By federal law, P.L. 104-301, no one can be evicted before February 1, 2000. The federal officials are as aware of this deadline as the Dineh people are, however, the Navajo Hopi Indian Relocation Commission is doing this as an overt act of aggression to scare the people. At the same time this is happening, the Navajo Hopi Land Commission members were just stopped from misusing $2.7 million dollars, with Relocation Commissioners planning to each receive $250,000 for their own use. As you will notice in the news articles, funds that are supposed to be available for the payment of grazing fees and the release of impounded animals for HPL residents was also mis-spent.

Yours sincerely,

Marsha Monestersky
Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation
Email: DINETAH29@aol.com