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| Louise Benally of Big Mountain speaks at hearing on revitalizing coal. Screenshot Censored News |
"The Navajo Nation has provided coal to the big cities for decades, while the people of Black Mesa have nothing to show for it," Dine' from Black Mesa told the Council.
"We are supposed to be the Protectors of the Earth."
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"This is where my ancestors have lived and stewarded the land with their animals, and where I will do the same," said a young Dine' woman from Black Mesa. "Winters now bring hardly any snow." Speaking for the water, she told the Navajo Nation Council, "Today you are borrowing from us just to keep a few dollars in the government and saddling my generation and future generations, for which there will be no solutions." Climate change is accelerating the changes, she said, adding that the new fossil fuel projects are not the answer. She worries about the air and the water so life can continue here. "I just want to live the rest of my life on Black Mesa, and I don't know how that is going to happen." |
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| Percy Deal, Black Mesa Dine', greets those gathered during the hearing. Censored News screenshot. |
Percy Deal spoke of Trump's federal order and the bill now before Congress. "The bill is extremely dangerous."
Deal said Navajo President Buu Nygren should have come to the people, and talked with the people to seek their opinion and review his plans, as the Navajo Council is doing today, before going to Washington and endorsing the push for new coal development.
Deal said he was a high school senior when the coal mining began. The people here on Black Mesa were never told about Peabody Coal's before the lease was signed.
"Fifty years is a very long time."
"The people were never told about the water being subjected to contaminated," Deal said of Peabody Coal's mining on Black Mesa, pointing out that traditional herbs began to disappear, it became hard to grow food, the air was changing, and the snow was vanishing.
"The ground was drying up, the cornfields were less productive."
"Wild animals were disappearing, the air was changing."
"They could no longer see San Francisco Peaks."
Speaking eloquently, Dine' elders and youths described the destruction brought there by Peabody Coal.
"There is no such thing as clean coal," a Black Mesa community member said. She pointed out that while Peabody Coal ripped through the land, Dine' here were forced to haul their water.
Asdzaan Chishi Comments: Transcript and video
“Speaker Curley, I’m here to speak in Opposition of Trump’s Executive Order and President Buu Nygren’s statements in support of this EO.-My mom grew up at Dinnebito’ and Łíí’bito’ here on Dziłyíjiin and lost her precious childhood homelands to relocation. I grew up in T’iisNazbas where her relocation home was built.-In TNP, we have many abandoned uranium mines. NN wide, we’ve had over 1,000 abandoned uranium mines, which will take at least 100 years to remediate.-Now we have uranium hauling across our NN, plus the only active uranium mill near us in Blanding, UT and another uranium near Monticello, UT that just started up again the other day.-We have a history of coal mining and power plants that has burdened our environment with detrimental impacts to our land, air, water, livestock, andespecially to our people.-Our Diné people die from cancer at 4 times the rate of the rest of the U. S.-For decades our people have seen huge transmission pylons running all across our Rez, right in front of homes without electricity and water, delivering electricity to cities off our Rez.-The tragic Era of the Navajo-Hopi Relocation should be reminder and lessons learned that the extraction industry has not brought the promised wealth to our people. Black Mesa is now left in a worst state today with their aquifers depleted, inadequate reclamation, starving livestock without vegetation. Most of my Dziłyijiin relatives, were left to suffer the devastating impacts of relocation, livestock reduction by shooting of their animals, clear-cutting, inhumane treatment and human rights violations of Dziłyíjiin residents for decades, compounding Intergenerational trauma, which you can hear in the emotional voices of those speaking today.-Our Rez has been designated as a National Sacrifice Zone for extractive industries to exploit for the last 100 years and this HAS TO STOP!-This is environmental injustice that creates a huge equity gap for our people. We cannot continue to sacrifice the health and well-being of our people and our Mother Earth, Nihimá Nahasdzáán.-Decades of extraction has only benefitted the prosperity of those cities and people OUTSIDE our reservation.-These are the reasons we are here, to say Dooda to anymore coal and fossil fuels extraction in our communities.-We want to be able to ensure our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have clean water to drink, uncontaminated lands they can farm on, and clean air to breathe, so they can thrive in a healthy environment to carry on our culture and language as Nihok’áá’ Diyin Dine’é.-We have NOT been given an adequate informed consent process and an unbiased educational report by a third-party entity, outlining both the pros and cons with many of these Minerals Extraction proposals.-Now NTEC is wanting to buy Four Corners Power Plant to continue fossil fuel coal burning, which adds more carbon to our atmosphere and increasing Climate Change and our warming planet. NTEC wants to use Carbon Capture Sequestration (CCS) to capture the carbon and bury it underground in the San Juan Basin where me, my children, and grandchildren live and farm. If this happens, we face the threat of groundwater contamination and dangerous carbon breaches in the event of earthquakes. Environmental Scientists have tested CCS and concluded that is NOT a solution for Climate Change, that it does NOT meet the U.S. Clean Standard rates, and should NOT be funded by the FedGov, States or other governments.-We need a Just and Equitable Transition NOW to a truly clean fossil-free economic energy future, like sustainable solar and wind energy for our Diné communities FIRST! No more of our resources and water to industry, it’s way past time to put our Diné communities first!-Ahxéhee’ for this Public Comment Hearing and listening.”
https://www.facebook.com/tonizhoniani
-- Part II https://www.facebook.com/tonizhoniani/videos/1203702101240498/
-- Part III (after lunch) https://www.facebook.com/tonizhoniani/videos/1445953923063551
-- Watch live on Navajo Nation Council Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/navajonationcouncil/videos/1385171825861649
Recorded videos are posted after livestream concludes.
"Tó Nizhóní Ání thanked the coal-impacted communities that made it to the Public Hearing on Coal hosted by the Forest Lake Chapter. |
| Forest Lake hearing on coal. Screenshot Censored News |
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| Chili Yazzie, longtime human rights advocate and farmer from Shiprock, New Mexico, spoke in Dine' at the hearing. Screenshot Censored News. |
Navajo Nation Council is holding this hearing following Trump's executive order
Friday, May 30, 2025 9:00 AM
1. Call Public Hearing to Order; Roll Call; Invocation
2. Welcome/Introduction
3. Purpose of the Public Hearing and Procedures: Hon. Crystalyne Curley, Speaker, 25th Navajo Nation Council a. Purpose of Public Hearing: To gather public input from the Navajo Nation on the federal executive order 14261,’Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241,’ which is aimed at revitalizing the coal industry by reducing federal oversight and expanding coal production. b. Presentation on Federal Executive Order 14261 c. Process to be Recognized to Provide Verbal or Written Statement d. Time Limit: 5 minutes per speaker
4. Public Comments/Recommendation(s)
5. Final Thoughts and Next Steps 6. Close of Public Hearing; Announcements; Adjournment
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