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Link to Update's on Desert Rock proposal....
What's going on right now on Black Mesa....
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Hello Black Mesa supporters, Below are some quick points about the EIS and the schedule of "public hearings", which are being held more as open houses then public hearings. OSM is not making room for actual public commenting (open for all to hear), instead there are a number of table being set up throughout the room and you can ask questions or submit comments to each of those tables if you choose. This is yet another example of how unfair this process is being carried out. Attached is a fact sheet that we and a number of lawyers put together regarding issues of concern within the EIS. Please take a look at the fact sheet as well as the below message. This is a critical time on energy issues throughout the Navajo Nation as well as throughout Indian Country! Please help us get the word out about Peabody's proposed Black Mesa Project and all the detrimental impact of this plan! And thank you for your concern and support.
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
.DOC or .PDF
From: "Wahleah Johns" RE: Peabody coal.html |
Black Mesa Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Public meetings schedule: * Window Rock, Arizona - January 2, 2007, 6pm – 9pm in the Resource Room at the Navajo Nation Museum, Highway 64 and Loop Road. * Forest Lake, Arizona - January 3, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Forest Lake Chapter House on Navajo Route 41 about 20 miles north of Pinon, Arizona. * Moenkopi, Arizona - January 3, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Community Center. * Kayenta, Arizona - January 4, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Monument Valley High School cafeteria, north Highway 163. * Kykotsmovi, Arizona - January 4, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Veterans Center. * Peach Springs, Arizona - January 9, 2007, noon to 3pm at the Hualapai Lodge, 900 Route 66. * Kingman, Arizona - January 9, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Hampton Inn, 1791 Sycamore Avenue. * Leupp, Arizona - January 9, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Leupp Chapter House on Navajo Route 15. * Winslow, Arizona - January 10, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Winslow High School, Student Union, 600 E. Cherry Avenue. * Laughlin, Nevada - January 10, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Laughlin Town Hall, 101 Civic Way. * Leupp, Arizona - January 11, 2007, Noon to 4 p.m.. Leupp Chapter House on Navajo Route 15. * Flagstaff, Arizona - January 11, 2007, 6pm – 9pm at the Little America Hotel, 2515 East Butler Avenue. Please come and address any and all of your concerns. You may comment in one of several ways: in writing, email, orally at one of the above public hearings. All comments are due into OSM by February 6th, 2007. Email comments to: BMKEIS@osmre.gov. In the subject line of your email, please indicate that comments are for the “BMP Draft EIS Comments.” Letters can be sent to: Dennis Winterringer, Leader of the Black Mesa Project EIS, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Western Regional Coordinating Center, P.O. Box 46667 Denver, CO 80201-6667. His telephone number is 303-844-1400, extension 1440. To view OSM documents about Peabody’s new plan, log onto: www.wrcc.osmre.gov/WR/BlackMesaeis.htm
Enei Begaye |
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DOODA DESERT ROCK VIGIL UPDATE The resistance Camp is still running strong. It is now being called a Vigil. IEN was able to send in a technical dude with a bus that has set-up a low-watt radio system and is now web-casting/streaming through the web. The camp is now radio broadcasting to the surrounding communities, and getting 35 mile coverage. They are broadcasting information about the proposed coal-fired power plant from sunrise to sunset. The energy is provided by solar, with limited battery storage at this time. Communicating as an organizing tool out to the remote areas of the Navajo reservation is a priority.People throughout the world can tune into the broadcasts and web casts by going to www.earthcycles.netThe resisters and supporters spent Christmas huddled around a campfire. Since the police and rangers came into the Camp last week (the 21st) they have kept some tribal police there. The Camp is constantly being watched 24 hours/day. It has been pretty quiet this week. There has been a steady stream of support people coming and going. The Dine’ people that are resisting this proposed coal-fired power plant NEED YOUR SUPPORT! They are inviting supporters to come to the Vigil to stand with them. A Fire has been burning day and night, with many Prayer Ceremonies taking place. The Resisters have vowed to be at the Camp for the long-haul.The DOODA Desert Rock Committee members are preparing for Court on January 3rd. This is related to the injunction filed against them. A lawyer has been retained and doing a good job. Dine’ Power Authority (DPA) and Sithe Global Power, LLC sought the injunction and have their attorneys all lined up. We are calling Sithe Global Power, the “SITHE LORDS” (Star Wars – Dark Force peeps).Since the police came in on December 21st and moved the Camp, there has been constant activity across the way with semi-trucks and other company vehicles getting ready to do drilling for water testing and road building crews. The police are reported to play with their night vision stuff at night. The Camp now has a dog and there have been no attempts lately by the police to enter the Camp at night snooping around.Last Friday, Grandma Lucy Willie butchered a sheep and the youth supporters learned the techniques of meat cutting and learned of the various dishes that mutton can make. Lucy walked around proudly because it was a time to build bridges between the young and the old. She taught the younger ones the importance of the fight for the traditional ways of the Dine’ to protect Mother Earth. They now know what it means to be part of the land; not only as an individual but as a community protecting what is sacred and what is rightfully theirs.During the past week, the Navajo Nation Communications Office of the President has been waging a media-campaign to discredit the Dooda Desert Rock Committee and its supporters. The stakes are high. The Resisters are dealing with an energy development that has big bucks and the big boys behind it.More information about what is going on can be found on the http://www.desert-rock-blog.com A second site is being put together now, it will be at http://www.doodadesertrock.org |
Update of the Navajo Nation Desert Rock Blockade (9:30 p.m. MST, 12/21/06) Diné CARE was trying to maintain constant contact with the Blockade resisters during this very tense and critical time today. During a time period, all cell phone contact was cut-off. In the best interest of the elder grandmothers, a decision was made to post a message that Diné grandmas were being arrested and for supporters to immediately call the Navajo Nation President's office. The posting stated that if elders and supporters have been arrested, to ask the police to release them. At the time, the situation called for immediate action, and from sporadic reports from the Blockade, it appeared arrests were being made. That's when an action was posted through electronic mail and other means. After some time, cell phone connection was reestablished between Lori Goodman of Diné CARE and the Dooda resisters. According to Diné CARE , who talked with people at the Blockade, the elders were given five minutes to make a decision to leave or get arrested. The report was that many of the elders and resisters were being intimidated by the large police force. According to Dailan Jake Long, some of the grandmothers got scared. The elders and resisters were doing a prayer ceremony when police finally drove up and disrupted the ceremony. According to Dailan Jake Long, the police dismantled the camp, tossing tents and everything into a huge truck and moved it across the road away from the blockade area. No one had any access to any of the supplies, nor the food. The elders and resisters were refused access to the portable toilets. The police have posted police at the blockade entrance and two at the proposed drilling sites. The police now have 4 cops there, guarding east and west entrances. Communication is very much needed. The area is remote, with no electricity nor running water. The Dooda resisters are doing the best they can to maintain communication with the outside world. Native support groups like Diné CARE , Black Mesa Water Coalition, Indigenous Environmental Network, Indigenous Media, and others are trying as best as we can to provide support and information. It has come to the attention of the Dooda resisters, Diné CARE, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Indigenous Environmental Network and our support groups that the director of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety has issued a statement today to correct misinformation being disseminated online that arrests of Navajo grandmothers are occurring at the Desert Rock Energy Project site. Like we explained above, we understand that after everything that took place earlier today, no arrests were made. However, it is our opinion that if people from throughout the country had not made calls to the Navajo Nation today, arrests could have taken place. Again, according to the reports directly from the people at the Blockade, the police were ready and equipped to make arrests. They had paddy wagons, which are vehicles to haul people to jail. The director of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety further says that “the officers there are doing a good job and are providing the direct service that the elderly need out there. They've been helping with moving firewood provided by the Navajo Nation, and are employing 120 percent diplomacy in dealing with the situation." The Dooda resisters and elders did NOT experience the police as providing help nor exercising diplomacy. He said “online reports that there are 21 officers on the site are inaccurate. He said there are two Navajo Nation officers, one lieutenant and two Navajo rangers assisting the people." Again, this is not what the Dooda resisters have experienced. The resisters are the ones that witnessed the numerous police vehicles. They counted up to 21 vehicles today. It is reported tonight the police had tossed their food and belongings all alongside the road and the Dooda members were just putting their new Camp back together. Students from Fort Lewis College have arrived to help out and will doing video taping. More people are to be coming from Save the Peaks from Flagstaff tonight and a man from Taos brought firewood. |
From: Wahleah Johns wahleah@mac.com Dine' Blockade Update NO Arrests Made Yet, still need people support!!!Ya'at'eeh, The Dooda Desert Rock Resistance Camp is in urgent need of people support! A major human rights violation has occurred on these families and elders, who are denied to enter there own ancestral homelands! The Navajo Nation, Dine Power Authority, and Sithe Global are terrorizing and bullying our grandmas and relatives, who are only trying to protect their homelands and their way of life! I feel disheartened to know our own Navajo Nation has been telling concerned callers that they are "assisting elders with fire wood", this is untrue. Grandmas and relatives were harrassed yesterday and police were ready and geared up to make arrest. The majority of resisters are women and a few yound men. I am urging and calling out to all our men folks to help out at this time! Where the warriors at?! We have a situation here that could use your voice, support and strength. According to the resisters, the Deputy Sheriff told Navajo permit- holder Alice Gilmore that this is not her land, and this land belongs to BHP. What gives them the audacity to tell a grandmother this, where her cultural and spiritual ties, clanship and roots are embedded in this land and her parents and grandparents have occupied these lands for countless generations that predate current arbitrary jurisdiction lines. According to the resisters, the Deputy Sheriff told Navajo permit- holder Alice Gilmore that this is not her land, and this land belongs to BHP. What gives them the audacity to tell a grandmother this, where her cultural and spiritual ties, clanship and roots are embedded in this land and her parents and grandparents have occupied these lands for countless generations that predate current arbitrary jurisdiction lines. I give thanks to the resisters, for being strong and holding down the principles that we live by as Dine people, these relatives are standing up us and for their right to live as indigenous peoples and for the caretaking and protection of mother earth. |
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Ahee'hee, wahleah wahleah@mac.com photos by Wahleah Johns |
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Below is a Press Statement released by the Dooda/Diné CARE Desert Rock Committee: Navajo Grandmothers Intimidated While Lawfully GatheredBurnham, NM and the Navajo Nation, December 21, 2006 - Paddy wagons, police and other enforcers came and attempted to haul away members of the Navajo Nation -mostly grandmothers - during a prayer ceremony this morning. The women, members of the Dooda (Navajo for "NO!") Desert Rock Committee, have been keeping a vigil at the site of a proposed coal fired power generation station that they oppose for reasons of their families' health and well being. These women were brutally forced out, their food taken away, their camp dismantled this afternoon in clear violation of their constitutional rights and in absence of any form of restraining order or other legal mandate. Although they showed legal documents that protected them, Officer Demsey claimed they were meaningless. They have committed no crimes, were not interfering with any work going on at the location, and were acting within their rights to gather peacefully in the hopes of persuading our Navajo Nation government not to make this kind of mistake again. Their vigil has been going on since December 12th, near the site where Sithe Global Power, a Texas-based energy company, proposes to build the Desert Rock Power Plant. This plant will further damage the air, water and land in the four corners area of the American Southwest, in the heart of the traditional Navajo homeland. Two other plants in the immediate vicinity are among the worst sources of pollution in the United States. Mercury, sulphur dioxide, and dozens of other toxic chemicals are spewed from these plants each day. Incidents of cancer, respiratory disease, reproductive disorders and other illnesses occur here at much higher than average rates. The plants foul the water in a part of the world where water is already scarce. Sithe, in collusion with our Navajo Nation executive office, have strong-armed, threatened, lied to and otherwise coerced our local population to accept this proposed power plant throughout the past two years. Families have had their land taken from them with insufficient compensation to move anywhere else. We've been told, as we've been told many times in the past, that this polluting monster will bring "hundreds of jobs" to the Navajo Nation, and lots of economic benefits. Time after time, we've heard this same lie for too many projects just like this one. After over a hundred years of such development the Navajo people are among the poorest people in the entire United States. Nobody is calculating the costs - to our land, to our air, to our water, to our children. Members of the Dooda Desert Rock Committee, members of Diné Care Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, and other organizations, have tried to offer alternative solutions. There are cleaner, more sustainable ways to bring prosperity to our people, without sacrificing the lives and well-being of our people. No one has listened. This is not just a local problem. This is big energy companies forcing themselves on the American people. This is a violation of civil rights and an illegal suppression of dissent here at home in the United States. This facility will further pollute the air and water throughout the area. And those who are speaking out in opposition, innocent grandmothers who only care about their families, are being silenced with violence. We ask that all who share our concern about our future, and are tired of being forced to pay the consequences of these corporations and government bodies, who care nothing for the lives of people, please lend us your support. FOR MORE INFO CHEQUE OUT THE BLOG: www.desert-rock-blog.com |
Please call President Shirely! If you are in the area or know anyone in the area please get out to the site and be a Legal Observer! RED ALERT!
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Black Mesa Water Coalition's new contact information: |
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Mailing address: P.O. Box 613 Flagstaff, AZ 86002-613 phone #: (928) 213-5909 fax #: (928) 213-5905 |
office location: 1823 N. Center St., Suite #204 Flagstaff, AZ 86004 |
blackmesawatercoalition@yahoo.com www.blacklmesawatercoalition.org |
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