Pit River protecting Medicine Lake Highlands from industrial development

PIT RIVER TRIBE OF CALIFORNIA UNANIMOUSLY

RESOLVES TO PROTECT MEDICINE LAKE HIGHLANDS

FROM INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

By Morning Star Gali

Pit River Tribe

Censored News

BURNEY, Calif. – On February 15, 2013, The Pit River Tribe unanimously affirmed a resolution opposing geothermal and other industrial developments in the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands.    

The resolution affirms that geothermal development would threaten the underlying aquifer and would result in the injection of toxins into the atmosphere and waters. Further the Tribe maintains that the construction and development of even a single geothermal power generation plant would result in irreversible impacts to the sensitive cultural resources of the highlands and devastate the habitats of plants and animals.  The Tribal resolution calls upon the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service to reject all proposed geothermal development in the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands.

The Pit River Tribe has been in court since 2002 over proposed development of geothermal energy in Medicine Lake Highlands.  The Tribe has successfully challenged the extension of leasing of their sacred areas in decisions in the 9^th Circuit Court in 2006 and 2010.  The lease holder, Calpine Energy, must reapply for extensions of the leases that the Tribe maintains were illegally issued by the BLM in 1988.  Such applications for lease extensions are expected to trigger an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act.  In the mean time, the applicant has scrapped the original plan to build a 48 megawatt power plant and is reported to be leaning towards building several 100 megawatt plants in the sacred highlands.

The Pit River Tribal resolution indicates that the new proposals are incompatible with the use of the Medicine Lake Highlands as a sacred area. Geothermal development in such a sensitive hallowed place will despoil the environment and harm the Pit River Tribe.  The resolution invokes the responsibilities of the federal agencies under federal law, regulations, agreements, executive orders and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to remind the decision makers of their responsibilities to protect sacred places and the people.

“Medicine Lake is our church.  It is there we heal our bodies and our spirits.  Would you want a power plant in your church?”-  Cecelia Silvas, Ilmawi Band Elder
______________________

Morning Star Gali Assistant Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Pit River Tribe, 36970 Park Avenue

Burney, CA 96013 Office: 530.335.5421 Ext.1205 Fax 530. 335. 3140 Web Site: www.pitrivertribe.org
morningstar@pitrivertribe.org

Searching for Sugar Man wins Oscar Best Documentary

Censored News congratulates Searching for Sugar Man for winning the Oscar for Best Documentary, and the life and music of Sixto Diaz Rodriguez! Producers said Rodriguez didn't attend because he didn't want to take credit for the film, which says a lot about who he is. Censored News congratulates the people of South Africa, and elsewhere around the world, who allow censored music and thought to change their lives and the world we live in. Here's an article from Censored News on the power of music to change the world: Sugar Man, the Beatles and Buffy Sainte Marie!

Dangerous Music: Sugar Man, Beatles and Buffy Sainte Marie 

Sugar Man, Sixto Rodriquez

How music cracked open the world: Searching for Sugar Man, How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, and the music of Buffy Sainte Marie

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Searching for Sugar Man, and How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, tell the same story, in very different ways. Both films tell how music, forbidden and censored music, transformed lives, instilled hope, moved generations, and brought social change to two countries, South Africa and the Soviet Union.

While music instilled the yearning for freedom and liberation in South Africa and the Soviet Union, the leader of the so-called free world, President Lyndon Johnson was putting Cree singer Buffy Sainte Marie, the sound of American Indian resistance, out of business.

Searching for Sugar Man

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez didn't know he was more popular than Elvis and the Rolling Stones in South Africa. At a time when South Africa demanded an end to Apartheid, Sugar Man's music offered the hope of life in the open, life unbound, life beyond borders. Rodriguez' music brought the message to fight the establishment. 

Western Shoshone fighting new mining near Eureka, Nevada

Western Shoshone continue their fight against mining.

Citizen Groups File to Prevent the ‘Immediate and Irreparable Impacts from the Mount Hope Molybdenum Mine'

February 22, 2013
by Lisa J. Wolf, Correspondent
From a release by the Great Basin Resource Watch
Censored News

RENO -- The Great Basin Resource Watch (GBRW) and the Western Shoshone Defense Project on February 20th filed a ‘Motion for Preliminary Injunction’ in Federal Court in Reno following their filing a February 15th Complaint challenging the decisions of the United States Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approving the Mount Hope Project located some 23 miles north of the town of Eureka.

Mount Hope

According to the Motion, “The Project will have immediate, irreparable, and permanent impacts to the local ranching and farming communities and families which have lived there since the 1860s and to the critical environmental, historical, cultural and wildlife resources that will be outright eliminated or significantly degraded by the Project.”

One of the residents in Diamond Valley nearest to the proposed mine said, “We own the closest private property to the Project in two directions.  Our ranch and farm are located close enough to Mount Hope to be adversely affected by the mining caused imparment of our air, increased heavy truck traffic, and the very real damage to our business from the massive pumping and resulting drawdown of groundwater.  Our water is not infinite.  Adding to our water over appropriation problem is very wrong.  I believe it is wrong to break laws that are in place to protect us, in the name of progress.”

“The Western Shoshone that toured the Mount Hope site in 2007 all agreed that the impacts to the water resources, loss of mature piñon/juniper forest, and destruction of cultural sites to too high of a price for this mine, “ said Larson Bill, Western Shoshone Defense Project.  During the tour Western Shoshone Elder Bernice Lalo of Battle Mountain said, “I don’t understand this attitude of destruction.”  Pauline Estevez, Timbisha Shoshone said as we passed a spring, “what is important is what is here now ... that spring is our ancestor, it is a cultural site.”

Dine' Angela Davis: The Enemy Within: Navajo Generating Station

Angela Davis, Dine' writes to the Alamo Council Delegate, regarding sponsorship of lease extension for Navajo Generating Station, one of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the US. It is fed with coal ripped from the earth by profiteer Peabody Coal, which continues the suffering of Navajos on Black Mesa, to provide electricity for the Southwest while many Navajos go without.

The Honorable George Apachito
P.O. Box 827
Magdalena, NM 87825

Dear Delegate Apachito,

Yah’at’eeh. It has come to my attention that you recently sponsored a resolution (004-13) that recommends that the Navajo Nation extend the lease for the Navajo Generating Station. I’m writing to urge you to put a hold on voting on this resolution to extend the lease until further study and review by all our tribal delegates. I think more time to decide on the vote can ensure that the Navajo Nation obtain the maximum amount of economic compensation for our natural resources and investments. This involves too many parties (Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power Project, Los Angeles Water and Power, Arizona Public Service, Nevada Power and Tucson Electric Power Company, for example) to make such a monumental decision in the short time frame currently allowed. I understand that there is pressure to vote quickly on the matter from many parties, but I think it is worth the wait to ensure the best outcome for everyone involved, especially our tribe.

To me, it seems that outside interest groups, mostly energy companies, will benefit most if the resolution is passed as it is currently written. Although the Navajo Nation stands to receive 43 million dollars annually through 2044 if the deal goes through, I do not think that is enough to justify extending the lease so quickly. If the proposed resolution passes and the extensions are granted without adequate research, we may never know how we could have benefited more and will be indentured to the power companies for decades. I urge you to think about the future generations and how this decision will affect them financially, environmentally and more importantly, health-wise. Investing more money into the dirty, coal-fired plants is not a good decision environmentally, financially, or physically in the long-run. Investing in solar and/or wind energy is healthier, environmentally safer, and technologically efficient. I am aware that there are 538 workers, eighty-three percent of which are Navajo, at the Navajo Generating Station. Keeping their jobs is important and that is why I encourage a smooth, gradual transition from coal mining to solar/wind energy. Perhaps they can still hold their jobs during the transition, especially since the coal industry is dying and other sources of energy are currently being explored.

In conclusion, I would like to express my disappointment in you sponsoring this bill. You are my chapter official and I thought you had more of a conscience when it came to the environment and protection of our natural resources, given that you recently opposed uranium mining in the eastern agency. Many people accuse Alamo Navajo of being traitors to our tribe and often refer to us as “the enemy Navajo”. I think that is really sad. You sponsoring and supporting this bill would truly make us just that -- the enemy Navajo; we will be regarded historically as the band of Navajo that does not care about the health of the environment, the fair and honest management of our resources and most of all, our people’s health. Let us change that negative view of our people. I know you have it in your heart to do the right thing and withdraw your sponsorship of this bill or at least table the discussion until more research and discussion can be done. Thank you very much for your time. Ahe’he’he.

Sincerely,

Angela Marie Davis
Artist
Writer

LA MARIE DAVIS, DINE [Navajo] : L’ENNEMI DE L’INTERIEUR : LA CENTRALE NAVAJO

On February 28, 2013, in Amérindiens en lutte, Big Mountain/Black Mesa, Navajos, Uranium, Oil, Coal, etc/Uranium, Pétrole, Charbon..., by Chris P

ANGELA MARIE DAVIS, DINE : L’ENNEMI DE L’INTERIEUR : LA CENTRALE NAVAJO

Publié par Censored News
Dimanche 24 février 2013
See original article in English
Traduction Christine Prat

Angela Davis, Diné, écrit au Délégué au Conseil d’Alamo à propos de son soutien à l’extension du contrat pour la Centrale Navajo [Navajo Generating Station], l’une des centrales au charbon les plus polluantes des Etats-Unis. Elle est alimentée avec du charbon arraché à la terre par les profiteurs de Peabody Coal, qui entretiennent les souffrances des Navajos de Black Mesa pour fournir de l’électricité au Sud-ouest, alors que de nombreux Navajos doivent s’en passer.

A l’Honorable George Apachito
P.O. Box 827
Magdalena, NM 87825
Nouveau-Mexique

Cher Délégué Apachito,

Yah’at’eeh. J’ai appris que vous avez récemment soutenu une résolution (004-13) qui recommande que la Nation Navajo prolonge le contrat de la Centrale Navajo. Je vous écris pour vous presser de suspendre le vote de cette résolution jusqu’à ce qu’elle ait été étudié plus avant et passée en revue par tous nos délégués tribaux. Je pense que prendre plus de temps pour décider peut assurer que la Nation Navajo obtienne un maximum de compensations économiques pour nos ressources naturelles et nos investissements. Cette question implique de trop nombreuses parties (le Projet d’Energie et Amélioration Agricole de Salt River Project, l’Energie et Eau de Los Angeles, le Service Public d’Arizona, l’Energie du Nevada et la Compagnie d’Energie Electrique de Tucson, par exemple) pour prendre une décision si monumentale dans le cours lapse de temps accordé actuellement. Je comprend qu’il y ait des pressions de tous côtés pour que le vote se fasse rapidement, mais je pense qu’il vaut la peine d’attendre pour assurer le meilleur résultat pour tous, spécialement pour notre tribu.

Il me semble qu’en dehors des groupes d’intérêts, ce sont surtout les compagnies d’énergie qui profiteront le plus de la résolution dans son texte actuel. Bien que la Nation Navajo doive recevoir 43 millions de dollars par an jusqu’en 2044 si l’accord est passé, je ne pense pas que ce soit suffisant pour justifier l’extension du contrat aussi rapidement. Si la résolution passe et les extensions sont accordées sans étude adéquate, nous pourrions ne jamais savoir comment nous aurions pu obtenir plus d’avantages et nous serons liés aux compagnies d’énergie pour des décennies. Je vous demande instamment de penser aux générations futures et de vous demander comment cette décision les affectera financièrement, écologiquement et, plus important, sur le plan de la santé. Investir plus d’argent dans l’énergie sale des centrales au charbon n’est pas une bonne décision à long terme, ni sur le plan écologique, ni sur le plan financier ni sur le plan physique. Investir dans l’énergie solaire et/ou éolienne est plus sain, plus sûr pour l’environnement et techniquement efficace. Je suis bien consciente que 538 travailleurs, dont quatre-vingt trois pourcent sont Navajos, travaillent à la Centrale Navajo. Il est important que leur emploi soit préservé et c’est pourquoi j’encourage une transition graduelle et en douceur du charbon à l’énergie solaire/éolienne. Peut-être peuvent-ils conserver leurs emplois pendant la transition, d’autant plus que l’industrie du charbon est mourante et que d’autres sources d’énergie sont actuellement explorées.

En conclusion, je souhaite exprimer ma déception de vous voir soutenir cette proposition. Vous êtes le représentant officiel de mon chapitre [­circonscription] et je pensais que vous feriez preuve de plus de conscience lorsqu’il s’agit de l’environnement et de la protection de nos ressources naturelles, étant donné que vous vous êtes récemment opposé à l’exploitation de mines d’uranium à l’est. Beaucoup de gens accusent les Navajos d’Alamo d’être des traitres à notre tribu et nous sommes souvent nommés « le Navajo ennemi ». Je trouve très triste que le fait que vous souteniez cette proposition risque de faire de nous justement cela – le Navajo ennemi ; nous serons considérés dans l’histoire comme la bande de Navajos qui ne se soucie ni de la santé ni de l’environnement, ni de la gestion juste et honnête de nos ressources, ni, par-dessus tout, de la santé de notre peuple. Changeons cette vision négative de nos gens. Je sais que vous pouvez trouver dans votre cœur ce qu’il faut pour faire le bon choix et retirer votre soutien à cette proposition ou au moins geler la discussion jusqu’à ce que des recherches supplémentaires puissent être faites. Merci beaucoup pour le temps que vous m’accorderez. Ahe’he’he’

Sincèrement,

Angela Marie Davis

Artiste, écrivain