Declaration of Norris Nez
Dated: April 26, 2012
I, Norris Nez am informed and in good faith submit the
following to The Honorable Mr. James Anaya, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, United Nations Commission on Human Rights. I hereby state
the following: I am a Hathalie (Medicine Man).
I have traveled to the United Nations in New York and Geneva,
Switzerland and am part of Forgotten People’s April 2007 submission on “Stakeholder’s
views for the Study on Human Rights Obligations related to Equitable Access to
Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation the Right to Water.”
From the whole experience of relocation, came uncertainty like people blowing into the wind and drifting in whatever direction they find themselves drifting. I think about it. As a Medicine Man and traditional healer, I think about what ways we can redirect this path of destruction. I think about this often. I constantly ponder on that and see it deteriorating in front of me. I see all the detriment and I feel helpless to know what course of action can reverse that.
There
are prayers and songs that would help but not many people’s prayers go beyond
the clouds
into the universe. I have these prayers. It is
my recommendation I be given an opportunity
to say these prayers in an upcoming forum on water.
Hathalie (Medicine Man) & Board of
Director
Forgotten People
P.O. Box 371
Tuba City (Navajo Nation), AZ 86045
(928) 283-5259
Consultation with The Honorable Mr. James Anaya, United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Tucson, AZ, April
26-27, 2012
Topic: Land and Resources – Forced relocation and US Government
& Corporate Collusion
As a Medicine Man plaintiff giving testimony to protect Dook'o'oosliid
(the San Francisco Peaks) from the use of
reclaimed sewage for Snowbowl, a ski resort (See Hualapai Tribe v. United
States Forest Service, No. 06-15455 (9th
Cir., March 12, 2007), I appreciate your January
2011 report on the USA: Situation of the Native Americans in relation to
artificial snowmaking from recycled wastewater in the San Francisco Peaks. I support your call for existing government
programs and policies to consult with indigenous peoples and take into account
their religious traditions in government decision-making with respect to sacred
sites.
In Big Mountain, Black Mesa, on
Hopi Partition Land (HPL) there were many sacred sites where offerings were
given. The Holy People, the Star People
recognize us by these sites that are sacred where we
Diné, five fingered humans give offerings. They acknowledge that we are doing
our duty to give our offerings to the Holy People. These places are for the wellness of the
people, not only the Diné. Our prayers
are said for all mankind.
Relocation by the US government
and Peabody Coal Company destroyed the things that brought stability to the
people in a spiritual sense, a connection to the Holy People and our faith in
our spirituality that had a solid foundation.
The Four sacred mountains is not a physical boundary. It is the land where people lived and where
prayers and ceremonies were carried out and offerings given that was vibrant in
the region the people were forced from. In
a spiritual sense that is what created that connection and stability.
People were forced to go in different
directions and their ties to the land were cut.
This is how we lost that stability and foundation that was meant for us
by the Holy People for us to live by. It
is what we lost in an intangible spiritual sense what was lost and that loss
contributed to the confusion and alienation, transported into suffering,
despair and hopeless.
Relocation translated into all
these negative things. The people that
relocated lost their understanding of who they were once that spiritual aspect
was lost. Then we lost ourselves and
started wandering not knowing who we are and it spiraled out of control and we lost
our youth who should be our warriors who should be leading the fight for our
people. We lost that important vital energy that should have been harnessed and
kept for the peoples benefit.
Many of the people, elderly,
traditional people and their extended families did not have a chance opposing a
US government relocation program. Experts warned and people suffered from the
start even thinking about relocation.
Many people that relocated to the New Lands are no longer with us. When
I go to the New Lands, it is abandoned, like a ghost town. The community is disintegrating. It is fading into the environment. There is no hope in that place. Even with the young people, my son, many
wandered and got sidetracked into border towns where they became alcoholics.
In Black Mesa area there were
many key sites where offerings were given and Peabody has destroyed these
sites. When the land where we prayed and strived to give our offerings and ask
for forgiveness and work diligently to have association with Holy People is
disturbed and destroyed you find yourself wandering and that connection has
been cut. We become lost and drift. That
takes over our place on this earth. That
connection has been severed and we feel disconnected. That is a feeling people have experienced. That
is why the prayers or ceremonies that were conducted are lost. It is because the land is destroyed.
Corporate and government collusion by Peabody Coal Company
and the US government to take our mineral and water resources. They used relocation
as a wedge to carry out a manufactured land dispute and used the Navajo Nation and
Hopi tribe as pawns to pit two tribes against each other so Peabody could gain
access to our lands and water. Corporate mis-use
of water is responsible for global warming, changing weather patterns and
drought. It affects our cornfield so corn will not grow. It affects animals,
birds that fly, insects, everything that lives on this earth.
Currently, we are
demonstrating to stop President Ben Shelly of the Navajo Nation from signing a
water rights settlement of the Little Colorado River that gives our water to
Peabody Coal Company and Navajo Generating Station and forever waives injury to
our water, past, present and future when we do not have a drop of water to
drink and many of my people are drinking contaminated water. Contamination is
everywhere, in the water and on the land, with plans for more power plants and
contaminated run-off into our rivers.
Desecration of the land has
devastated our ability to heal through ceremony and relocation has denied us
new generations of Medicine Men that would have continued to practice
traditional ways, and give us a way to share our knowledge with younger people
so we can carry on the traditional Diné ways.
This knowledge and continuation has been severely impacted. We have lost
those healers and we have lost our solid foundation with the Holy People.
From the whole experience of relocation, came uncertainty like people blowing into the wind and drifting in whatever direction they find themselves drifting. I think about it. As a Medicine Man and traditional healer, I think about what ways we can redirect this path of destruction. I think about this often. I constantly ponder on that and see it deteriorating in front of me. I see all the detriment and I feel helpless to know what course of action can reverse that.
If more mining takes place, more
people will be forced to relocate and that same process will repeat itself just
like what happened before and how we lost the young people. It is right in front of us. How can we ignore
that it will repeat itself? Relocation
is death to our people and our future. I pray for your intervention so our
people and future generations can live in peace and security on our ancestral
lands.
Respectfully,
Norris Nez, Hathalie (Medicine
Man) and Board of Director
Forgotten People, Navajo Nation
