Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights
Showing posts with label Mojave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mojave. Show all posts
February 26, 2018
Ward Valley Spiritual Gathering Photos by Ian Zabarte, Western Shoshone
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Photos copyright Ian Zabarte
February 25, 2018
Ward Valley Triumphant -- 20 Years Later in 2018 -- by Ofelia Rivas, O'odham
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| Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, and Earl Tulley, Dineh, at Ward Valley today. |
Photos by Ofelia Rivas, O'odham
20th Ward Valley Spiritual Gathering
'Ground Zero' Victory Celebration
Celebrating the Occupation that halted a nuclear dump here 20 years ago.
Today, Feb. 24, 2018
Radio interview with Earl Tulley by Govinda at Spirit Resistance Radio.
Spirit Resistance Radio -- Govinda Dalton's interview with Earl Tulley, Dineh, as Earl was on his way to the gathering at the Ward Valley Victory Celebration to support the Mojave and their occupation 20 years ago. Earl and Govinda discuss the defense of Ward Valley from the nuclear dump, which was led by the traditional wisdom keepers.
Earl describes the resources coming into the Navajo Nation, and encourages a return to root cellars and dry storage of foods.
Earl said there's a difference between an environmentalist and an activist. Earl said an environmentalist basically writes a proposal, and when it gets funded, those people become employees. On the other hand, the activists "go on their own dime and put their lives on the line."
Sharing the news of Dine' Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, Earl said their youths have grown up in the movement, and are now adults.
Dine' CARE celebrates its 30 year anniversary on the Navajo Nation in June.
Listen to Earl on Spirit Resistance Radio:
February 20, 2018
The Rhythmic Journey Home -- Birdsingers Ensured Victory at Ward Valley
Mojave Birdsingers, Ward Valley, 1998. Photo Molly Johnson.
The Rhythmic Journey Home, Birdsingers Ensured Victory at Ward Valley
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
WARD VALLEY -- The Bird Songs once again guided those who have lived in the Mojave Desert since time immemorial, home to a safe haven.
Llewellyn Barrackman, Mohave elder, said, "The Mojave have no place to go. This is our home."
"We are the Pipa Aha Macav, the people along the river, instructed by the Creator to protect it."
Barrackman's words, before he passed to the Spirit World, were at Ward Valley, during the 113-day Occupation which halted a nuclear waste dump on sacred land in 1998.
Here, led by Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah and Colorado Indian Tribes, the Occupation faced off law enforcement, and not only survived in the desert, but celebrated a victory here.
Here, in the home of Old Mountain and Spirit Mountain, there are longtime running trails, desert tortoises and a pristine aquifer. The nearby waters of the Colorado River flow southward, across the invisible border into Mexico.
It is Silyaye Ahease, "The Place of Mesquite and Sand," a spiritual gathering ground where early Mohave collected mesquite seeds and medicinal plants.
It is the ancestral territory of Mohave, who call themselves the Pipa Aha Macav, "People Who Live Along the River." It was once their farmland for beans, corn, melons and pumpkins.
The people were travelers and singers, carried forward by their Mohave Creation and Traveling Songs. The songs described the paths of their ancestors and how to best use what was offered by the land and water.
The Bird Songs were geographic guides for desert travel, revealing the paths of migrating birds, a rhythmic map pointing out the direction of the next source of water and food.
Wally Antone, Quechan Bird Singer, said Mohave, Quechan and Cahuilla were given Bird Songs by the Creator and they tell similar stories.
"To learn to sing is to be given a gift, to be fortunate, to be appointed by the Creator," Antone said, adding that there are over 300 Bird Songs sang at funerals and other major life events.
It is Silyaye Ahease, "The Place of Mesquite and Sand," a spiritual gathering ground where early Mohave collected mesquite seeds and medicinal plants.
It is the ancestral territory of Mohave, who call themselves the Pipa Aha Macav, "People Who Live Along the River." It was once their farmland for beans, corn, melons and pumpkins.
The people were travelers and singers, carried forward by their Mohave Creation and Traveling Songs. The songs described the paths of their ancestors and how to best use what was offered by the land and water.
The Bird Songs were geographic guides for desert travel, revealing the paths of migrating birds, a rhythmic map pointing out the direction of the next source of water and food.
Wally Antone, Quechan Bird Singer, said Mohave, Quechan and Cahuilla were given Bird Songs by the Creator and they tell similar stories.
"To learn to sing is to be given a gift, to be fortunate, to be appointed by the Creator," Antone said, adding that there are over 300 Bird Songs sang at funerals and other major life events.
The Struggle in the Mojave
For some, the land west of Needles, was a scorching wasteland of low-lying creosote, yucca and mesquite, with military overflights offering the only sound. It was little more than a place of Interstate exhaust fumes flowing behind traffic to the region's casinos.
The state of California and its chosen nuclear waste contractor, U.S. Ecology, deemed it the perfect site for a nuclear waste dump with its permanent scars.
During the occupation at Ward Valley, Bird Singers were joined by tribal and state leaders, and members of the Colorado Indian Tribes. Nora Helton, chairwoman of the Fort Mohave, and grassroots environmentalists persevered in temperatures of over 120 degrees.
With support from nearby tribes, they lived in canvas tents and old buses, relaying water and food from nearby Needles. They traveled widely, even to Nogales and Tijuana, Mexico, enlisting the aid of Mexico's Congress to halt the threat to the Colorado River.
Then, they returned to the desert.
It was perhaps the most difficult occupation in recent times.
Stormy Williams: Another California cancer cluster must not happen here
Stormy Williams, a longtime activist now buried at Ward Valley, wrote about the effect grassroots groups have had in fighting environmental threats to the Southwest environment.
"It is said that sometimes the grassroots don't know there is a dangerous problem in their area until illnesses show up. Most people do not go around with their antennae out looking for toxic-related or nuclear-related businesses.
"We all need to know what is in our neighborhoods and if we detect that something isn't right we need to get nosey and curious and start investigating."
"It is so sad when the detection comes too late, as it did for the nine children in my town of Rosamond who comprise California's worst childhood cancer cluster."
"Seven of these nine children are dead. They still don't know which of our toxic sites is at the fault.There are 24 toxic sites in the list and all are permitted businesses allowed to run amok. Over half of these children died of a rare brainstem cancer."
"It should never have happened."
Stormy and the others were determined that it would not happen at Ward Valley.
The Bird Songs, as Sheriff's Deputies Waited with Three Large Buses
During several years of occupations in the desert and ongoing legal battles designed to halt the land transfer in federal court, they gathered to perform traditional Bird Songs.
One evening, around burning mesquite branches, elders gathered and sang the Bird Songs to the rhythm of their gourd rattles. In contrast, sheriff's deputies with three large yellow buses readied to take the land defenders to jail. The Bureau of Land Management set up a command post with rangers. It was February, 1998, and the beginning of a 113-day resistance effort.
But it was the songs and prayers near Old Woman's Mountain and Spirit Mountain -- in a land without water for its occupiers -- that became the defense of the land.
Apparently a federal judge either agreed or heard their pleas in another realm, ruling that there was insufficient evidence of the effect of nuclear waste storage to desert tortoises to proceed.
Department of Interior Bruce Babbitt was not required to turn over Bureau of Land Managemnet land to the state of California. U.S. Ecology threw in its radioactive towel and declared the project "dead."
In the end, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Mexican legislators joined the fight to save the Mohave Desert from radioactive waste at Ward Valley. But it was the perseverance and loyalty of Colorado Indian Tribes and grassroots environmentalists that led to the preservation of sacred lands, endangered desert tortoises and raw desert.
Mohave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and Colorado River Indian Tribes knew that the Bird Songs have once again guided desert dwellers to a safe haven.
Llewellyn Barrackman, Mohave elder, said, "The Mojave have no place to go. This is our home."
"We are the Pipa Aha Macav, the people along the river, instructed by the Creator to protect it."
Listen to Birdsingers at Standing Rock, nearly 20 years later. Broadcast live by Govinda, Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio, and recorded by Censored News.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/09/listen-colorado-river-bird-songs-at.html
Video: Listen to the Fort Mojave Bird Singers below at Standing Rock.
]Birdsingers at Standing Rock
This series at Censored News:
The Rhythmic Journey Home: Birdsingers ensured victory at Ward Valley https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-rhythmic-journey-home-birdsingers.html
Mojave Steve Lopez: Ward Valley halted Nuclear Genocide, Poisoning of Colorado River
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/02/mojave-steve-lopez-ward-valley-direct.html
The Desert Tortoise on Sacred Land, Celebrating the 20 Year Victory at Ward Valley
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-desert-tortoise-on-sacred-land.html
Celebrating Victory at Ward Valley: Corbin Harney 'Sing to the Water'
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/02/celebrating-victory-at-ward-valley.html
Laguna Pueblo Dorothy Purley Exposed Nuclear Holocaust on Native Lands. Featured in widely-censored Trespassing film to be shown at Ward Valley Celebration, Feb. 23-24, 2018.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/02/laguna-pueblo-dorothy-purley-exposed.html
Article copyright Brenda Norrell
February 17, 2018
Laguna Pueblo Dorothy Purley Exposed Nuclear Holocaust on Native Lands, in Censored 'Trespassing' Film
Dorothy Purley's words will again ring out as one victory is celebrated in the Mojave Desert at Ward Valley
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Before her death from cancer, Laguna Pueblo uranium miner Dorothy Purley, exposed how the Anaconda Jackpile uranium mine sent Pueblos to their deaths, working in the uranium mines without protective clothing.
Dorothy's words still ring out in the film Trespassing, which will be shown during the Ward Valley Commemoration on Feb. 23 -- 24, 2018.
Native American Nations -- Mojave, Chemehuevi, Cocopah, Quechan, and Colorado Indian Tribes -- halted a nuclear waste dump. The nearly four-month occupation in 1998 at Ward Valley in the Mojave Desert, protected sacred land, home to the endangered desert tortoise. The American Indian Movement served as the security.
The film Trespassing was censored in most theaters after its release in 2005. The film tells the story of the nuclear holocaust in Indian country. It includes Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader Corbin Harney speaking on the genocidal ecocide of the Nuclear Test Site on Western Shoshone land.
Dorothy awakened Native communities to truth and her voice rang out around the world. She was among those who gathered in Tucson to create the Indigenous Alliance without Borders in 1997.
Today, Dorothy's words are timeless, as new threats are on every horizon, globally and in Indian country.
The old threats remain as strewn radioactive tailings remain scattered on Indian lands, from Pueblo and Navajo lands to Lakota lands, and in the Northwest.
Dorothy passed to the Spirit World on Dec. 2, 1999, at her home in Paguate.
Many others have passed to the Spirit World who appear in the film Trespassing, Llewellyn Barrackman, Betty Barrackman, Basil Fass, Fort Mojave, Mamie Harper, Colorado River Indian Tribes, Corbin Harney and Bill Rosse, both Western Shoshone.
Dorothy's words in Trespassing
DOROTHY PURLEY
DOROTHY PURLEY
People should be aware that it could be happening in your part of your country. We're not the only ones that are in this situation.
Dorothy Purley, former Uranium Miner, Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico
A lot of people across are having the same problems. And I think we should really, truly find out, you know, if you're being, um, poisoned in an, in any way, especially through this radiation. I think that a lot of us are being aware of right now of what's going on. Way back, you know, it was kind of hard, not being well-educated, not knowing what to expect.
DOROTHY PURLEY
When they used to blast, all that yellow stuff would come toward the village. You know, we Native Indians have the things like drying food out in the sun, and, (stammers) our meats and stuff. And yet, we breathed it and ate it. And, you know, we weren't aware of it. I feel betrayed because we weren't really told. We weren't really made aware of what we were getting ourselves into. I think if the mine hadn't opened, I don't think any of our lives would have been in jeopardy at all.
DOROTHY PURLEY
They've destroyed enough of our land, and that's all they're out, is, they mean to destroy other Native American lands, you know. That's why I'm gonna say. Why are they doing this? Are they trying to get rid of us? I don't think that's fair.
.
In 1998, a historic 113-day occupation of the proposed dumpsite by the Five River Tribes (Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and Colorado River Indian Tribes) along with environmental activist were assembled at the site to fight and stop the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump. The 113-day occupation prevented federal police from entering the site as well as prevented the test drilling for the dump that would have http://mondoweiss.net/2018/02/extracting-organizing-palestine/amp/?__twitter_impression=true the sacred land of Ward Valley. The occupation ended in victory when the U.S. Department of the Interior rescinded the eviction notice and canceled test drilling. On November 2, 1999, the Interior Department terminated all actions regarding the Ward Valley dump proposal, which officially ended the extensive conflict.
The proposed dump, which would have been in the center of eight wilderness areas, amidst of critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise, enclosed by the pristine golden canyons and cave paintings of the Old Woman Mountains, and east of the foothills of the Stepladder Mountains that remain covered in a forest of cholla cacti was utterly eliminated by the coordinated effort of dedicated Native and non-native people joined together for the love of Mother Earth.
--Molly, Censored News
More:
The proposed hazardous waste dump on sacred land at Ward Valley, California, was halted by the occupation and lawsuits.
http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/ward.html
Censored News. Copyrights by each author and the filmmakers.
Please share our links.
Statement at the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference The Hague
Holland, May 1999
Dorothy Purley
Laguna-Acoma Coalition
Laguna-Acoma Coalition
(Delivered by Carletta Garcia)
Good Afternoon,
It is an honor to visit your beautiful country. My name is Dorothy Purley. I am a Native American Pueblo Indian form the United States of America. I live in the Southwest region called New Mexico.
I live on an Indian reservation where the U.S. government forced my ancestors to live so many years ago. The early European settlers forced us off our lands and claimed them for their own. We were finally placed in areas that were usually uninhabitable. What the government did not realize was that these areas were rich in natural resources. The community where I live in is called the Laguna Pueblo. It is where the world’s largest open pit uranium mine once was.
In 1935 when the mine first opened, it was truly a godsend to my poor native people. We have always lived in poverty, which seems to be a government standard for Native American Indians. The money that was earned enabled us to feed our families and for the first time and to, become independent. Yes, times were good back then. But, what the government forgot to tell us was that the uranium was dangerous and would become hazardous to our health. They did not tell us that it would also bring death and destruction to others.
Our health was not only the only thing that was in jeopardy at that time. The explosives that they used to dismantle the uranium caused our homes to become unsafe. Our village was just 1000 feet from the mining area. We could smell the sulfur and other blasting compounds that they used in their explosives. They usually conducted their blasts during our noontime and evening meals, when our village women would dry their fruit and vegetable during the harvest season. A fine layer of dust would cover our food, but we simply rinsed it off not knowing that it was toxic.
In 1975 I became an employee at the Anaconda Uranium mine. I was now a single parent and had to support my daughter. I was employed as a truck driver and hauled high-grade uranium ore to the milling site. I was exposed to high amounts of radiation and did not know this at that time. We would eat our lunches while sitting atop the high-grade ore. We were never advised of any safety techniques or given any safety equipment at the time.
During my employment at the time, I never realized that there was any danger and was never advised about any of the harmful effects of radiation. They never told us that they were going to use this uranium to make a weapon of mass destruction. The company never gave us any information whatsoever. Just recently, our tribe learned that the government and the mining operation knew about the danger that mining uranium ore would bring. As early as 1935 when the mine first opened, there were documents from scientists warning them to minimize exposure to the uranium ore. It said that people should not be exposed for more than two weeks without potential harm. I worked at the mine for eight years. Some of my people retired after thirty years at the mine.
Today my people on the Laguna reservation are suffering from numerous effects of radiation poisoning. We have seen a rise in mental and physical abnormalities. Our cancer rate is rapidly increasing. I myself have been fighting cancer for 6 years now. I have gone through high-dose chemotherapy on three different occasions. I am again in remission for the time being. When I am in better health, I travel as much as possible. I try to help people understand that there is extreme danger where there is radiation. I use myself and my family as an example of what can happen.
Just recently my daughter’s husband was diagnosed with rare skin cancer.
Although he never worked at the uranium mine he was exposed to radiation in many ways. His older brother worked for the underground mine, and dust from his clothing would contaminate their household. My son-in-law also lived next to the railroad which carried the radioactive high-grade ore to the mill site. The distance of 60 miles or more alongside the tracks is still highly contaminated to this day. Many more of my people will become ill with cancer and other rare diseases as time goes on. I pray every day that such devastation will never again occur on my beautiful sacred lands.
My greatest hope is that mankind will realize that we need to keep our Earth Mother as healthy as we can. I know that there are better ways to produce power by using solar energy, wind and water. These are natural powers that our Great Spirit has given. We were meant to use these. By doing this we will keep ourselves healthy and have a peaceful existence.
I strongly believe that we do not need any more nuclear weapons. There are never any winners of war, only victims. We do not need any more deaths and destruction in our world. We have had enough already. The only true way to live is through peace and harmony. My hope is that by sharing my story, that it will inspire others to make better decisions for themselves and their loves ones. I wish you long life, peace and happiness. Thank you.
3 December 1999
It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform friends and other activists of Dorothy Purley's death last night.
Dorothy, whose family and community have been devastated by weapons and power-related uranium mining in New Mexico, died of congestive heart failure after being hospitalized for several weeks. Dorothy had struggled against aggressive cancers and the nuclearism that caused them by meeting and speaking with people across the United States, and she took her clear and powerful message to Europe and Japan.
We were privileged to include Dorothy in the Global Hibakusha delegation to the Hague Appeal for Peace conference and to be able to share her with New England peace activists last August. When hospitalization due to cancer prevented her from traveling to the Hague, her daughter Carletta Garcia came in her place and read Dorothy's statement which appears above. And, when she was well enough to travel again, she joined us in New England.
I live on an Indian reservation where the U.S. government forced my ancestors to live so many years ago. The early European settlers forced us off our lands and claimed them for their own. We were finally placed in areas that were usually uninhabitable. What the government did not realize was that these areas were rich in natural resources. The community where I live in is called the Laguna Pueblo. It is where the world’s largest open pit uranium mine once was.
In 1935 when the mine first opened, it was truly a godsend to my poor native people. We have always lived in poverty, which seems to be a government standard for Native American Indians. The money that was earned enabled us to feed our families and for the first time and to, become independent. Yes, times were good back then. But, what the government forgot to tell us was that the uranium was dangerous and would become hazardous to our health. They did not tell us that it would also bring death and destruction to others.
Our health was not only the only thing that was in jeopardy at that time. The explosives that they used to dismantle the uranium caused our homes to become unsafe. Our village was just 1000 feet from the mining area. We could smell the sulfur and other blasting compounds that they used in their explosives. They usually conducted their blasts during our noontime and evening meals, when our village women would dry their fruit and vegetable during the harvest season. A fine layer of dust would cover our food, but we simply rinsed it off not knowing that it was toxic.
In 1975 I became an employee at the Anaconda Uranium mine. I was now a single parent and had to support my daughter. I was employed as a truck driver and hauled high-grade uranium ore to the milling site. I was exposed to high amounts of radiation and did not know this at that time. We would eat our lunches while sitting atop the high-grade ore. We were never advised of any safety techniques or given any safety equipment at the time.
During my employment at the time, I never realized that there was any danger and was never advised about any of the harmful effects of radiation. They never told us that they were going to use this uranium to make a weapon of mass destruction. The company never gave us any information whatsoever. Just recently, our tribe learned that the government and the mining operation knew about the danger that mining uranium ore would bring. As early as 1935 when the mine first opened, there were documents from scientists warning them to minimize exposure to the uranium ore. It said that people should not be exposed for more than two weeks without potential harm. I worked at the mine for eight years. Some of my people retired after thirty years at the mine.
Today my people on the Laguna reservation are suffering from numerous effects of radiation poisoning. We have seen a rise in mental and physical abnormalities. Our cancer rate is rapidly increasing. I myself have been fighting cancer for 6 years now. I have gone through high-dose chemotherapy on three different occasions. I am again in remission for the time being. When I am in better health, I travel as much as possible. I try to help people understand that there is extreme danger where there is radiation. I use myself and my family as an example of what can happen.
Just recently my daughter’s husband was diagnosed with rare skin cancer.
Although he never worked at the uranium mine he was exposed to radiation in many ways. His older brother worked for the underground mine, and dust from his clothing would contaminate their household. My son-in-law also lived next to the railroad which carried the radioactive high-grade ore to the mill site. The distance of 60 miles or more alongside the tracks is still highly contaminated to this day. Many more of my people will become ill with cancer and other rare diseases as time goes on. I pray every day that such devastation will never again occur on my beautiful sacred lands.
My greatest hope is that mankind will realize that we need to keep our Earth Mother as healthy as we can. I know that there are better ways to produce power by using solar energy, wind and water. These are natural powers that our Great Spirit has given. We were meant to use these. By doing this we will keep ourselves healthy and have a peaceful existence.
I strongly believe that we do not need any more nuclear weapons. There are never any winners of war, only victims. We do not need any more deaths and destruction in our world. We have had enough already. The only true way to live is through peace and harmony. My hope is that by sharing my story, that it will inspire others to make better decisions for themselves and their loves ones. I wish you long life, peace and happiness. Thank you.
3 December 1999
It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform friends and other activists of Dorothy Purley's death last night.
Dorothy, whose family and community have been devastated by weapons and power-related uranium mining in New Mexico, died of congestive heart failure after being hospitalized for several weeks. Dorothy had struggled against aggressive cancers and the nuclearism that caused them by meeting and speaking with people across the United States, and she took her clear and powerful message to Europe and Japan.
We were privileged to include Dorothy in the Global Hibakusha delegation to the Hague Appeal for Peace conference and to be able to share her with New England peace activists last August. When hospitalization due to cancer prevented her from traveling to the Hague, her daughter Carletta Garcia came in her place and read Dorothy's statement which appears above. And, when she was well enough to travel again, she joined us in New England.
| Link
This series at Censored News:
The Rhythmic Journey Home: Birdsingers ensured victory at Ward Valley
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-rhythmic-journey-home-birdsingers.html
Mojave Steve Lopez: Ward Valley halted Nuclear Genocide, Poisoning of Colorado River
The Desert Tortoise on Sacred Land, Celebrating the 20 Year Victory at Ward Valley
Celebrating Victory at Ward Valley: Corbin Harney 'Sing to the Water'
Laguna Pueblo Dorothy Purley Exposed Nuclear Holocaust on Native Lands. Featured in widely-censored Trespassing film to be shown at Ward Valley Celebration, Feb. 23-24, 2018.
|
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September 30, 2015
Mojave Desert Natives Expose Dark Side of Solar
By Robert Lundahl
"Who Are My People?" Debuts at Three Film Festivals
When Green is Not Sustainable: Native Elders Fight Energy Development on Sacred Lands in the West
"Who Are My People?" by documentary filmmaker, Robert Lundahl, poses a conundrum for audiences. How can energy plants proposed to mitigate atmospheric carbon and fight climate change be so bad for the environment and for people? The film is revealing of contradictions in federal policy and law, and the difficulties Native Americans face in protecting antiquities.
The film has been accepted to three festivals. The Joshua Tree International Film Festival, and the Tulalip Tribe's Hibulb Film Festival, where it played in September 2015, and the Red Nation Film Festival in Santa Monica/Los Angeles, to be scheduled in November. Check the website for the schedule as it is announced - http://rednationff.com. DVD copies are available for education/libraries and for home use, on-line at http://advocacyfilms.com/purchase-dvds-for-libraries/ and http://advocacyfilms.com/purchase-dvds-for-home-use/. Public performance rights are available. Please email the filmmaker robert@studio-rla.com.
To Alfredo Figueroa, Chemehuevi cultural monitor and founder of La Cuna de Aztlån Sacred Sites Protection Circle, federal decisions to site energy plants in the desert are nothing short of disaster.
The giant Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, outside Las Vegas, has been shown to devastate the birds of the Pacific Flyway. It is also built atop the route of sacred pilgrimage, atop altars, and cultural resources, on the old Salt Song Trail, sacred to the Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi and Uto-Aztecan peoples.
The National Congress of American Indians has stated in its Resolution #LNK-12-036:
"Whereas, BLM, as a result of its fast-track process, has failed to conduct meaningful consultation with Tribes, particularly with CRIT (Colorado River Indian Tribes), and has taken actions that violate federal laws which include provisions designed to protect Tribes' sacred places and cultural resources, such as the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act..."
"Whereas, BLM, as a result of its fast-track process, has failed to conduct meaningful consultation with Tribes, particularly with CRIT (Colorado River Indian Tribes), and has taken actions that violate federal laws which include provisions designed to protect Tribes' sacred places and cultural resources, such as the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act..."
Dr. Alan Hoffman, advisor to 5 presidents, states: "What all this comes down to in my mind is a clash of values: a people's religious beliefs and culture (which are hard to argue with) vs larger societal issues related to energy and climate. Not an easy balance to achieve."
Who Are My People? features a scene in which Figueroa, Mojave Hereditary Chief Reverend Ron Van Fleet, and Chemehuevi Elder, Phillip Smith, lead a group to the top of Metamorphic Rock, where trails converge, just outside Ivanpah's boundaries.
Here are triangular altars, shaped like arrowheads, that point in the direction of Clark Mountain to the West and Spirit Mountain to the East. Clark Mountain is the site of purifying hot springs, and Spirit Mountain is the center of creation for all Yuman and Hokan language speakers. The mountain, a Traditional Cultural Property, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 8, 1999.
In the film, Lowell John Bean, Ph.D. explains that for all cultures, "history becomes religion," and he places Native opposition to the building of large, renewable, solar plants into context, as the tribes of many different language groups fought "Termination" policies of the US Government in the 1950s, and residential schools in the 1960's, to which Indian youth were compelled go. The residential schools forbade tribal children from speaking their language, and according to Bean, enacted a deliberate policy of the US government intended to "deculturate" tribal peoples.
For filmmaker Lundahl, who made two previous films with Indian communities in Washington State, "Unconquering the Last Frontier," and "Song on the Water, "Who Are My People?" carries on a commitment to recording the history of the interactions of tribes and the federal government over energy. "I had worked on a documentary dealing with the conversion of military bases in California, in 2009, and was introduced to CAre, Californians for Renewable Energy. CAre asked if I would consult to help the organization prepare a legal complaint v. the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, and six of the first 10 Utility-Scale renewable energy plants in California."
Plaintiffs Alfredo Figueroa (Chemehuevi/Yaqui), Reverend Ron Van Fleet (Mojave Hereditary Chief), and Phillip Smith (Chemehuevi), became the subjects of the film.
Lundahl's camera follows these Native Elders (Figueroa worked alongside Cesar Chavez and with the UFW, United Farm Workers), and all, including Quechan elder Preston Arrow-Weed, are known as "Ward Valley Veterans" for their actions in stopping the construction of a nuclear dump site along the Colorado River at Ward Valley.
"Who Are My People?" is a work of history chronicling a generation of Indigenous leaders who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s; now elders, they fight what is perhaps their last battle.
As we see in the film, these elders have quite a bit of fight left in them. Two of the projects that impact tribal lands come to an inglorious end for developers before the camera's lens.
For more information about "Who Are My People?" visit http://whoaremypeople.com. For more information about filmmaker Robert Lundahl and RL | A visit http://planet-rla.com.
###
Robert Lundahl
Principal
Robert Lundahl & Associates
robert@studio-rla.com
Skype: robertlundahlfilms
415.205.3481--Direct
Principal
Robert Lundahl & Associates
robert@studio-rla.com
Skype: robertlundahlfilms
415.205.3481--Direct
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