Dine' CARE Risks of Navajo Mine Press Conference Oct. 16, 2013

By Dine' CARE
Censored News

ATTENTION Navajo citizens! What: Press Conference in front of Navajo Nation Council Chambers in Window Rock. AZ
When: 10:  October 16, 2013
Who: Impacted Navajo citizens and Diné CARE
Why: To inform the people about the uncertainty, risks, and liabilities on the purchase of the Navajo MineCome out if you can and spread the word!
While Navajo politicians continue to press for more dirty coal energy, Dine' push to halt the legacy of death and disease from coal mines and coal-fired power plants, the most polluting industry on the planet and on the Navajo Nation. 
In the news:
Kathy Helms reported in the Gallup Independent that Navajo and other groups have asked the U.S. District Court in Colorado to set aside the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s approval of an expansion of Navajo Mine and remand the matter to OSM with instructions to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. 
"Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, San Juan Citizens Alliance, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Amigos Bravos – represented by the Western Environmental Law Center – have challenged OSM’s National Environmental Policy Act analysis of the Area IV North Permit Revision Application, calling it 'arbitrary and capricious.' BHP Navajo Coal Co. and the Navajo Nation are intervenors for OSM."

Read more at Daily Times:

Karen John: Why I am against the purchase of the Navajo Mine

http://www.daily-times.com/farmington-opinion/ci_24307046/letter-i-am-against-navajo-nation-purchase-bhp

Dine' Medicine People: Horse Nation should be respected without outside intervention

Jones Benally and son Clayson Benally

Dine’ Traditional Leaders express concern that Navajo Nation agreement to stop horse slaughter, while a step in the right direction, may not adequately address Indigenous rights and deeply held Spiritual beliefs

Statement by Nohooka Dine
Censored News
KAYENTA, Ariz. -- For months, Dine’ (Navajo) elders and medicine people have been reaching out to Ben Shelly, President of the Navajo Nation, to stop the roundup, sale and slaughtering of horses. 
Opposition to the roundups was based on the importance of horses to Dine’ culture, spirituality and society. 
Nohooká Dine’, represented by Leland Grass, appeared in parades and at fairs throughout the Navajo Nation to make their opposition to the inhumane treatment of horses known and to bring attention to how this issue threatens Dine’ subsistence rights. 
The Nohooka’ Dine were subsequently joined by the Dine’ Hataalii Association – the largest recognized association of traditional Dine’ Medicine People on the Navajo Nation – which passed a resolution in September opposing the roundup, sale and slaughtering of horses. Even a number of Navajo Nation Chapters came out in opposition to the roundups and refused to participate in the Navajo Nation program. Notwithstanding the protestations of the Dine’ Hataalii Association, traditional Dine’ people and others, President Shelly and his administration continued to roundup horses for slaughter.

In this context, many elders, medicine people and traditional people welcomed the announcement last week that President Shelly reversed his position on horse slaughter. The reports indicated that Shelly entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with former Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson to stop the roundup and slaughter. 
While these same elders and traditional leaders approved of the announcement, many were concerned that it took the outside intervention of Governor Richardson and Robert Redford to get Shelly to reverse course. 
The elders and medicine people have also expressed concern that this attempt at livestock reduction would soon extend to cattle, sheep and other livestock. These traditional leaders request to be included as a party to discussions on how the livestock reduction issue, in its entirety, should be addressed going forward. It is important that future discussions pertaining to MOU’s and livestock reduction involve representatives from the Nohooká Dine’, the Dine’ Hataalii Association and the Elders and Medicine People of the Dine’.

According to Leland Grass of the Nohooka’ Dine’, “horses are not only a symbol of the Dine’ people, The Great Horse Nation is a part of the Great Covenant, as a supernatural being, it possesses incredible power, it is inextricably tied to our spiritual way of life and our cultural traditions.” 
Further, according to Grass, “Our concern is the horse issue is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Department of Interior and Navajo Nation’s overall livestock reduction plans. Every Dine’ person needs to be aware that the actions of the Navajo Nation Council, President Ben Shelly and Department of Interior could be jeopardizing our subsistence rights without our free, prior and informed consent.” Representatives of the Dine’ Hataalii Association expressed similar concerns.

According to Dr. Anthony Lee, the President of the Dine’ Hataalii Association and Leland Grass, “hopefully, we will have a place at the table so that we can ensure and allow our elders and medicine people to express that horses should be cared for with dignity and respect.” Dr. Lee also expressed, the horses are actually gifts coming from the domain and home of Father Sun. More specifically, the colored horses bring life blessings to the Dine’ people during the spring, fall, autumn, and winter months. In return, we should render offerings for horses during the four seasons. This is the proper Dine’ traditional protocol.


For More Information:

Leland Grass, Nohooká Dine’, sacred4s@hotmail.com

NOW! Tarsands Megaload heads to Nez Perce Oct. 15, 2013

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• By Wild Idaho Rising Tide Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 Second and Washington Streets, near Moscow City Hall, Moscow, Idaho TONIGHT! If state/corporate powers send four small "sump sections," we cannot rail against "megaloads"? If they do not disclose module destinations, we cannot protest Alberta tar sands mining? If they do not invade Highway 12, we cannot defend indigenous and public lands, waters, air, roads, and rights? WRONG! Meet the regional megaload greeting party, Omega Morgan! With a mid-afternoon media release, the Idaho Transportation Department confirmed that likely Alberta tar sands equipment shipments with unknown ultimate destinations will travel through the Highway 12 sacrifice zone: northbound on U.S. Highway 95 between Lewiston and Coeur d’Alene and eastbound on Interstate 90, starting on Tuesday night, October 15. Omega Morgan is hauling four sump sections in two pairs from the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Washington, embarking on Idaho Highway 128 at 9:30 pm and 10:30 pm, and reaching the Idaho/Montana state line at 5 am and 6 am on Wednesday morning. Each oversized cylinder measures over 20 feet wide, 15 feet tall, 75 feet long, and weighs under 80,000 pounds. Due to the width of these modules, three flagging teams, two pilot vehicles, and portable signs will travel with each pair of transports that cannot legally delay other vehicles for more than 15 minutes and must pull over to let such traffic pass. State and city officials have advised that these ‘mini-megaloads’ are not pieces of the 21-foot-wide, 255-foot-long, 644,000-pound evaporator currently stranded at the Port of Wilma, with plans to cross U.S. Highway 12 scuttled by Nez Perce and allied protests and federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s preliminary injunction. Resources Conservation Company International (RCCI) has filed an appeal of this decision with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) members and regional activists are coordinating local, anti-megaload actions in downtown Moscow starting at 8:30 pm, to confront Big Oil’s return to Moscow streets and Highway 95 in north central Idaho. We will continue to defend the community of life and climate of Earth with our full participation tonight, as we together raise our voices and impose our bodies against General Electric, RCCI, and Omega Morgan. The ecological, human, and global climate consequences of their dirty energy mining degradation of the boreal forests and peat bogs in First Nations homelands are too dire to not act against this transportation venture. We encourage everyone to bring your friends, family, signs, banners, and musical instruments, and if so moved, practice civil disobedience and initiate blockades to counter corporate oppression and bolster our regional resistance. Please join WIRT activists at the corner of Second and Washington streets, near Moscow City Hall, at 8:30 pm and beyond, to monitor the megaloads south of Moscow and/or to replace and create megaload protest signs lost on Highway 12, before convoys enter Moscow at approximately 10:30 pm. We heartily welcome your spontaneous expressions of anti-tar sands passion and force on every Northwest/Northern Rockies megaload route! Also see: Judge again says no to megaloads on Hwy 12: http://missoulian.com/news/local/judge-again-says-no-to-megaloads-on-highway/article_83d50254-31e9-11e3-b882-001a4bcf887a.html

Ride for Unci Maka Cheyenne River