Black Mesa/ Big Mountain ACTION in Denver November 7th-8th
Come show your solidarity at the action Monday, and come to find out more about this pressing threat to Navajo and Hopi people at the forum today!
Ahee'hee,
Mano
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Press Advisory
For immediate release: Friday, December 4, 2008
Contacts: Wahleah Johns, (928) 637-5281
Enei Begaye, (928) 380-6296
Navajo & Hopi tribal members travel to Denver to meet with the Western Regional Office of Surface Mining as the agency prepares to permit Peabody Coal Company’s Black Mesa Project
Panel Discussion & Press Conference Announcement
WHAT: Panel Discussion, Navajo and Hopi delegation to Denver
*free and open to the public*
WHEN: Sunday Dec. 7th, 1-3 PM (MST)
WHERE: Denver Indian Center, 4407 Morrison Road Denver, CO 80219
WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE, Navajo & Hopi People Say No to Coal Mining
WHEN: Monday Dec. 8th, 1 PM (MST)
WHERE: Sidewalk in front of Office of Surface Mining - DOWNTOWN Denver - 1999 Broadway, Suite 3320 Denver, CO 80202
Background Information:
Concerned Navajo & Hopi people will rally in downtown Denver on Monday while a small delegation meets with Office of Surface Mining (OSM) personnel at their offices in Denver. OSM is expected to make a final decision – a “Record of Decision” - on Peabody’s proposed Black Mesa Project. The controversial plan includes approval of a “Life-of-mine” permit, expanded mining operations, use of scarce water resources and an unclear buyer of the coal supply, potentially to the Navajo Generating Station in Page, AZ.
After a year of inactivity on the “Black Mesa Project” Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), the process was restarted on May 2008. Navajo and Hopi citizen’s were given 45 days to comment on a revised Draft EIS and were never offered a public commenting period. Requests for commenting period extensions were denied by OSM as well as requests for OSM to come to Navajo and Hopi lands for question and answer meetings.
The Final EIS states “if OSM approves the LOM revision for the Black Mesa Complex, the area previously associated with the Black Mesa operation (18,857 acres), including associated surface facilities, would be added to the 44,073 acres of the existing OSM permanent permit area for the Black Mesa Complex, bringing the total acres to 62,930, which would be considered as one operation for the purpose of regulation by OSM. This entire area is within Peabody’s existing coal leases. The coal-mining leases with the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation provide Peabody the right to produce up to 290 million tons of coal from the Navajo Exclusive Lease Area and up to 380 million tons of coal from the Hopi and Navajo Joint Lease Area for a combined total of 670 million tons.”
Black Mesa Navajo and Hopi residents are concerned about how this project will impact the future of their homelands given the history of Peabody's unwise use of the Navajo Aquifer to transport coal to MGS. Many community members from the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe are extremely disappointed in the lack of public outreach the Office of Surface Mining office and Department of the Interior has carried out through the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) process.
Black Mesa is the ancestral homelands to thousands of Navajo and Hopi families and is regarded as a sacred mountain to the Navajo people and plays an integral role in the cultural survival for the future generations of both the Navajo and Hopi people. Many Navajo and Hopi people stand firm and oppose this mine expansion plan and are organizing to voice their concerns to the western regional office of the Office of Surface Mining in Denver, CO. on Dec. 8, 2008.
Excellent Photo Opportunities Possible
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Awesome!
Rock on!!! We totally need to do solidarity work with these folks!
?? No mention of Bog Mountain resistance...
A major part of this struggle is the Big Mountain resistance, is there a reason that it's not mentioned?
Big Mountain is the same as Black Mesa
The whole thing IS a Big Mountain resistance issue. Big Mountain and Black Mesa are interchangeable terms for the same place. Any mention here of Black Mesa is in reference to Big Mountain.
Thanks for the comment,
M
Big Mountain Clarification
Big Mountain is a place on Black Mesa. It is located on the Hopi Partitioned Lands. Big Mountain and Black Mesa are NOT interchangeable terms!
The Big Mountain Resistance has always been about the mining of coal and subsequent government actions that have caused the forced relocation of more than 14,000 Dine' people from their ancestral homelands. How come this is not mentioned by the Black Mesa Water people if Black Mesa = Big Mountain?
It isnt even in any of their new releases. Roberta Blackgoat gave her life to fight for the future that these activists now hold, how do they honor her and the other elders still paying the price for their resistance? By making them invisible?
Maybe folks from Black Mesa spoke to this issue at the protest or panel, but the fact that its not even a part of the public information that is being disseminated is disturbing.
Its like protesting NAFTA but not recognizing the Zapatistas or mentioning the context of Indigenous resistance in Chiapas.
Where is Big Mountain? It seems its a place either too controversial for these new activists or its just not important enough.
A caravan of folks from here in Denver just went there. Maybe they know more about the resistance for life and land than just the coal and water.
For context please visit: blackmesais.org.
Direct action-
we need to organize some sort of direct action at the actual mining sites and hit them where it hurts, instead of small demonstrations which those corporate executives might get a glimpse of from their 20th story office.
unite
bring the fight to them-
if they wont listen then were going to have to make them listen! my words go out to all local community activist organizers-
we cannot afford to wait for the change or simply let the land be exploited while we hold signs on the side of the road. we need to make the change on our own terms. if we cannot stop them, atleast we can make their job as difficult as possible. i have a small number of volunteers from my area south of denver but lack adequete connections with denver area activists... who wants to help?
back up!
if you'd appreciate a young affinity group fresh-faced from DNC action ready for more direct action, I'd love to volunteer our services in defense of the land!
we are putting a party together
me and a couple other friends of mine are trying to put a party together to go out to these sites and do some direct action. so if anbody has any futher information on were these minning sites are and would like to join us. you can contact me at my e-mail address natemc13_2004@yahoo.com
The points thing isn't working right
I tried to add points to this article and when I hit the arrow pointing upward it did nothing, then I clicked "reset vote" and it dropped a point. What's the deal here? I wanted to give props and add points and it looks like just the opposite happened. Oh well, I'll just type it out: You rock Mano! Thanks for all the good work you do.
Re: Voting Broken
Does the arrow change color when you click it? If not, you probably don't have javascript enabled. The future version will be less javascript dependent.
If you reload the page, you should see your vote at the bottom of the article. Once it gets five votes, it gets auto-promoted to the front page. If it already has five votes, voting more won't do anything. Also, voting on comments doesn't do anything.
--webmonkey--