LISTEN: Big Mountain Message to Copenhagen

Louise Benally on global warming and apartheid at Black Mesa
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photos: Dan Harrison/Clan Dyken Thanksgiving Black Mesa

BIG MOUNTAIN -- As snow covers the land, Louise Benally sends a message to Indigenous Peoples and world leaders gathered in Copenhagen on Censored News Blog Radio. Benally begins with thanks to musicians Clan Dyken and friends for the Thanksgiving food boxes they brought to Big Mountain.
Benally, Navajo resisting relocation at Big Mountain, describes the ongoing harassment by Hopi BIA Rangers. Livestock are being confiscated and Navajos resisting relocation have to buy back their sheep, goats, cattle and horses. The suffering continues for the people who depend on their livestock for survival on Black Mesa, where it is a 130-mile drive to a grocery store. Navajos on Black Mesa have been abandoned by the Navajo Nation government.
Speaking to the global leaders in Copenhagen, Benally said world leaders should reconsider fossil fuel and coal mining. Pointing to the destruction by Peabody Coal on Black Mesa, Benally said, “They have depleted a lot of the groundwater.” She said the coal mining continues to pollute the air, land and water, especially in cold weather when respiratory problems increase.
“Right now this whole planet is being contaminated by fossil fuel development," she said, urging alternative energy.
“Reverse the greed for natural resources that are fossil fuels and apply pressure toward renewable energy,” she said in her message to Copenhagen. Benally said there is no such as clean energy from coal and uranium. There is no safe place to put nuclear waste and uranium mining has caused generations of death and disease for Navajos. “Leave it in the ground.”
Benally described how global warming is obvious on Big Mountain. Last summer's squash were unable to cross pollinate and the corn popped inside its husk.
“This indicates to me there is a big imbalance in nature and the heat is extreme.”
On Big Mountain, vegetation is now burnt by the sun.
Benally described her visit to the Arctic Circle. At Point Hope, the people were very concerned about the melting ice and the vanishing resources for survival.
With the Arctic faced with more mining and drilling, Benally said corporations target Indian territories. “These people have no mercy and these people will not fix problems they create.”
Benally remembered the animals in the Arctic who will have no place to survive if their ice homeland melts.
She also described her testimony in Washington DC to the UN Rapporteur on the desperate need for housing on Black Mesa, where people are unable to repair their homes under federal law. Apartheid has continued on Black Mesa since 1974, she said.
Benally encouraged Indigenous Peoples gathered in Copenhagen, the Indigenous Environmental Network, AIM West and other Native peoples, to continue to advocate for the people back home and a green future.

LISTEN: Louise Benally, Navajo resisting relocation at Big Mountain, speaks on Black Mesa, relocation and global warming. Special message to Indigenous Peoples gathered at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen.
Censored News Blog Radio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brenda-norrell
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Clan Dyken Thanksgiving Food Drive for Black Mesa
"With your help we raised a vibe and brought it along with thousands of pounds of food, supplies and firewood and served over 110 families. Our crew of about thirty people coordinated with over one hundred activists organized by Black Mesa Indigenous Support network who provided work parties as well. The days were warm, the nights clear and cold, the circle strong and time was irrelevant. The future is now and we are making it." Read more, with more photos and video at:
http://www.clandyken.com/cd/
Clan Dyken music video on Black Mesa 2009, with introduction by Tim Johnson at Dove Springs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ARXBI6ty8&feature=player_embedded
Black Mesa Indigenous Support, updates and information:
http://blackmesais.org/

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US Coyote at Work: Trust Fund Settlement Scam

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Updated with responses Dec. 13, 2009

The same US government that brought us the home mortgage, seize-everything-you-have scam, and the bail-out-the-billionaires programs, now says it will benevolently buy up Indian land and give it back to Indians?
Right.
In the so-called settlement of the US Trust Fund lawsuit, the US says it plans to buy up Indian parcels and give the land back to Indian Nations.
The US has also made a big deal out of $1,000 or $1,500 payments to land owners for all the resources it has stolen.
What a joke. It is a bizarre agreement which prevents the US from paying Indian people what they are owed.
To sweeten the deal, the US says it will set up an Indian education scholarship fund. Yes, that one has been used before too, by Ben (Nighthorse) Campbell, who eventually admitted it was a scam.
Who would monitor all this benevolence? The US of course.
This "sweet" deal, which still must go before Congress and a federal judge, comes on the heels of the IRS auctioning off Crow Creek Sioux land.
Now, the US says: "Just trust us."
The US wasn't the only one benefiting from the stolen resources and missing funds from Indian energy resources.
Thanks to Interior Department whistleblowers, we know that the underpayment for energy leases on Indian lands meant enormous wealth for energy companies, including oil and gas corporations drilling on Navajo Nation land in southeastern Utah.
While the money disappeared in Interior sinkholes, and energy corporations became fat cats, Navajos living around the oil and gas drilling became sick from the toxins in their land, water and air. Many Navajos still live without running water and electricity.
Another scam carried out was by power plant coal companies whose weight scales showed less coal than was actually being taken from Navajo lands in New Mexico. This fact was exposed by a former director of the Arizona Dept. of Weights and Measures.
With this history, why would anyone trust the US government and the Interior Department?
Reader responses to settlement:
--Beads and trinkets ... We asked for tribal leadership and the best legal minds and this is what we received? Sad day for Indian Country.
--Cowboy Banks Get Big Bucks as Indians Get Little:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&sid=am2L.MPQibzY
--Very sad and an embarrassment to all who have any sense of right and wrong.
--Only 300,000 Native Americans holding IIM trust fund accounts will share this settlement, if you don't receive an annual 27 cent lease check, you receive nothing. I assume that the period starts when the BIA took over mismanaging the lease income. It doesn't include any other controversies involving treaty violations, it only applies to the BIA's ... See Moremismanagement of these IIM accounts.
I remember clearly that when Ms. Cobell started this lawsuit, no one said a word; I voiced my concerns about its effect on treaty claims. If you read the report on her website, you'll see that it only deals with BIA mismanagement of IIM trust funds.
And when the Cobell checks are disbursed, the people don't have to sign them if they don't agree with the Cobell checks.
My next question that I'll have to ask is whether the land that the tribes have been buying from individual Indians means that the tribe will receive Cobell checks.
--I think the settlement is seriously flawed and is a ripoff for our ancestors who waited ... waited ... and waited for their lease checks only to discover it was a small amount. My mother and father went through this every year before Christmas. They were surely disappointed because they had to feed 13 children for the year.
Response to NARF, Native American Rights Fund, applauding the agreement:
--Saw where John Echohawk is pleased with this settlement. Amazes me. Our people get ripped off and our "leaders" are "pleased." Now on to deal with the tribal trust funds that have more than 5 times that amount involved. Lets see if these leaders get tickled white over it. Stunned by the acceptance of this theft. Our people have been turned into beggars for their own money and "leaders" are pleased. Decolonialize your mind ... its our peoples money and your are pleased that 34 billion was successfully stolen ? Whose side you on? Take of that colonial suit and be indigenous. As long as we respond and act like beggars we will be teated like beggars.
--Good for NARF ... a lot of the people don't agree. When you have the attitude that it is better than nothing you leave your self open to always taking better than nothing -- a beggars stance. A lot of our people are not beggars and rightly see a 1/10 award with 30+ billion left on the table as more theft. When leaders condone more theft they ask for more theft. Yes the tribal trust is coming and it will be more theft if this is any indication ... leader approved fat takers. I applaud those who have their own minds still and see it for what it is: A knife in the back ... pulled ten percent out and called progress.
--$47 billion gonna pay $1.4 and then use $2 billion to buy our lands ... dayum ... the fat takers are at work!!
--Sounds like "fork tongue"
--The answer would be, NO. Trust fund of a broke government. Heck of a deal!
--$2 billion to buy land from us? How much more land do they want to take away from us? They need to give back what was taken already, not thinking of making our reservations even smaller. --fat takers
--Affirmative! They can start by transferring national forest/federal lands adjacent to reservations back into tribal trust lands
--Do we have any tribal leadership that is going to back our interests? Or is it status quo?
--That is just a drop in the bucket as far as I am concerned. That is only a portion of the interest that they are paying. The caretakers say their rent is way over due.
--What is the "buy land from Native Americans" mean ... or is it "naive" american's
--What about (1) the interest lost and (2) a penalty of mismanagement! Did I read individuals will receive $1,500? I wonder how much the lawyers will get off the top?
--Hey, you know that's a fat chunk off the top but let's get the land back to start with eh.
--A prophecy says we will get our land back. It is just detail right now.
--This deal smells as sweet as cow patties.
--This had to come at some point, and of course Indians are getting the fuzzy end of the lolly pop! Was there ever any question about the outcome?
--I'm surprised they didn't throw in pox blankets with this one.

News article on settlement:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091209/NEWS01/912090301/1002/news01/Parties-reach-deal-in-Indian-trust-suit