Hopi File Class Action Suit Over Black Mesa Mining

Photo: Sacred Lands Film Project
http://www.sacredland.org/endangered_sites_pages/black_mesa.html

Contact: Vernon Masayesva 928/734-9255

Black Mesa Trust Supports Traditional Hopis Suing Office of Surface Mining
Class action lawsuit alleges violations of religious freedom

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz., April 27, 2007 – Black Mesa Trust is offering its support to Hopi tribal members on whose behalf a lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining.The class action lawsuit alleges that OSM violated traditional Hopis' religious freedom when the office scheduled the comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for the Black Mesa Project during January and February, a period during which Hopi religion requires that people attend primarily to their religious obligations to the exclusion of public matters. "I had to find someone to take over my responsibilities so I could go to the hearing," said Jerry Honawa, a Hopi religious practitioner and a named plaintiff in the lawsuit. "And then it was not even a hearing," he continued. Honawa referred to the hearings on the draft environmental impact statement held by OSM on Hopi and Navajo and in surrounding towns during the comment period. Honawa is particularly disturbed by OSM's selection of Alternative A, which allows unlimited use of N-aquifer water for the Black Mesa mining operation if a proposed project to bring water from the C-aquifer south of Interstate 40 to the mine falls through. And he is upset not only by OSM's refusal to respond to his concerns at the hearings, but to the size and complexity of the document on which he was trying to comment. "It is 758 pages," he said. "I don't think anyone on the Hopi Tribal Council has read the entire document. They are just going along with whatever OSM says." The lawsuit alleges that OSM violated both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the provisions of the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act by knowingly and deliberately scheduling the comment period in the middle of the Hopi religious calendar. "There is no exceptionally compelling state interest in requiring traditional Hopis…to choose between honoring their religious beliefs and practice and grappling with reading, analyzing, understanding, and being forced to comment on a massive, complex, 758-page draft environmental impact statement on the Black Mesa Project during the religious portion of the Hopi calendar," reads the papers filed with the U.S. District Court, District of Arizona on April 16.The length and complexity of the document are also issues for Black Mesa Trust Executive Director Vernon Masayesva. "The draft EIS is not written in language that lay people can understand," he said, "and that is in direct violation of the principles of the National Environmental Protection Act. Not only was the comment period scheduled at an inappropriate time, but OSM insisted that our comments be 'concise' and refer to specific sections of the EIS. But their document does not meet the 'concise; standard, and by not writing it in comprehensible language, OSM made it impossible for us to comply with their requirements." The lawsuit also alleges that OSM's actions violated the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Under Article IX of that treaty, by which Mexico ceded to the United States the traditional lands of the Hopi people, "the United States of America agreed that the people residing in the territory acquired under that Treaty would be accorded the rights of citizens of the United States, including the right to be 'secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction,'" reads the lawsuit. Black Mesa Trust is a non-profit grassroots organization founded to protect the N-aquifer on Black Mesa for future generations of Hopis and Navajos. For more than three decades, Peabody Western Coal, the world's largest coal mining company, used water from the aquifer, the sole source of drinking water on Hopi, to slurry coal from the Black Mesa Mine to the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada. Mohave shut down at the end of 2005 because its owners failed to comply with a consent decree ordering them to install pollution control equipment. The plant remains closed and majority owner Southern California Edison has said that it has given up its attempts to reopen the facility. Nevertheless, OSM has continued with the EIS process, possibly to make the power plant more attractive to potential buyers. Without the pollution control equipment, the 1580 MW coal-fired power plant is the dirtiest in the West. -- Tanya Lee(603) 377-0267 (cell)(617) 491-6106 (tel)7270 Slayton Ranch RoadFlagstaff, AZ 860042 Chester StreetCambridge, MA 02140

Shoshone Receive 10,000 Signatures to Stop Barrick Gold

Great news from the Western Shoshone:

In the first 24 hours, the petition to stop Barrick Gold's destruction on sacred Shoshone land has received 10,000 signatures. Western Shoshone say: Keep the signatures coming. They will deliver the petition to the Barrick shareholders in Toronto. Sign the petition: http://act.oxfamamerica.org/campaign/barrick?rk=2p%5fVX971s5BuE
Top photo: GOLD MINING CORES OUT MOUNTAINS: Newmont gold mining on Western Shoshone land/Project Underground

(R) Western Shoshone Larson Bill video documents gold mining operations on Mount Tenabo near Elko, Nevada. Photo Brenda Norrell.
(L)Western Shoshone and friends on Mount Tenabo. Photo Brenda Norrell.

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News from Ghana: "Newmont Under Pressure"

http://allafrica.com/stories/200704260831.html

Around the world, gold mining targets Indigenous lands and cores out mountains for small amounts of gold:Strike at mine in Peru and talk of Barrick's purchase of Newmont:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Newmont+Barrick

Tohono O'odham Funny Lady Teresa Choyguha

Comedy night with Tohono O'Odham funny woman, Teresa Choyguha on Friday, May 11, 2007 at the Lehi Community Building, Stapley and Oak on the Salt River Indian Community, Phoenix.

Most Censored 2007

Most Censored and Under-Reported News of Indigenous Peoples 2007
--Leonard Peltier Theater, "My Life is My Sundance"
--Canada's Counterinsurgency Draft Manual Names Mohawks as Terrorists, Calls for Ambushes and Assassinations
--Marcos and Zapatistas Return to Border, Plan Intercontinental Summit
--El Paso Celebrates Onate, The Butcher of Pueblos, With Statue
--Arizona Congressman Renzi, FBI Probe and Links to Military Intelligence and Navajo, Apache and Yavapai Lands and Business Deals
--Houston Councilman Still on Air After Insulting American Indians
--Navajos' Sanostee Chapter Opposes Desert Rock Power Plant by Resolution
--Tohono O'odham Tribal Officials Knew of Mexico's Plans for Hazardous Dump in Ceremonial Communtiy of Quitovac Near Border, but Never Told O'odham in Sonora
.............Scroll down for articles and more censored news...........................
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THANKS FOR THE UNCENSORED NEWS: .Special thanks to Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net for links to the stories on the Censored blog covering the Zapatistas in Sonora and to staff at Indianz.com for sharing the story on Racist Radio Talk in Houston.http://www.pechanga.net (Native News category)http://www.indianz.com
Special thanks to Chris Spotted Eagle at KFAI in Minneapolis for sharing Censored News on the web and on air at "Indian Uprising," a one-half hour Public & Cultural Affairs Indigenous People broadcast each Sunday at 4:00 p.m. over KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul.www.kfai.org Listen: "Programs & Schedule" or by program “Archives.”
Many thanks to Mohawk Nation News for sharing news:
Kahentinetha Horn - MNN Mohawk Nation News
E-mail: kahentientha2@yahoo.com Website: http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
A special thanks to the publishers of Narco News and the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague for continuing to publish uncensored news:http://www.narconews.com/
http://www.unobserver.com/
Many thanks to IRC Americas and Counterpunch for publishing uncensored articles on the Indigenous Border Summit and Indigenous World Uranium Summit:http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://www.counterpunch.org/

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Zapatistas Announce Intercontinental Summit

Zapatistas select Yaqui to host Intercontinental Summit
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

RANCHO EL PENASCO, Sonora, Mexico – Indigenous Peoples from Mexico and the United States met with Subcomandante Marcos and Zapatista Comandantes to establish the Indigenous Intercontinental Conference for 2007.
The Intercontinental gathering will be held in the Yaqui community of Vicam in Rio Yaqui, Sonora, on the northwest coast, Oct. 11 – 14, 2007.
Comandante David, Mayan from Chiapas, welcomed the world’s Indigenous Peoples to the intercontinental gathering.
“At this moment, we want to let the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, Canada, the United States, Central America, South America and the whole world know what we are planning,” Comandante David said in an interview here, speaking in Spanish.
“The object of this meeting is to meet one another and to come to know one another’s pains and sufferings. It is to share our experiences, because each tribe is different.”
Juan Chavez, Purepecha elder from Michoacan, said the conference would expose the treatment of Indigenous Peoples, organize resistance in defense of Mother Earth and ask the question, “What are we, as Indigenous Peoples, struggling for?”
“The answers will come in the gathering as we talk with one mind and one heart. Our brothers and sisters will be together, speaking to one another with one heart,” Chavez said in an interview.
The declaration for the Indigenous Intercontinental Conference, signed April 22, states that it has been 515 years since the invasion of ancient Indigenous territories and the onslaught of the war of conquest, spoils and capitalist exploitation.
Now, there is a new war of neoliberal extermination, which continues the destruction of Indigenous communities. Despite the long history of domination, Indigenous resistance has kept Indigenous communities alive and fighting for survival.
The Indigenous struggle was uplifted by the emergence of the EZLN, Zapatista Army of National Liberation, in the year of 1994.
The national governments of the Americas have always sought to divide Indigenous communities through the establishment of borders, reservations and legislation to fragment and neutralize Native efforts of autonomy.
However, with unity and knowledge, the struggle for liberation will be strengthened. This struggle must be known to the world, so that all people who are honest in the fight for democracy and freedom will become companions in the struggle, the declaration states.
Marcos, speaking of the need to arise in defense of Mother Earth, told Indigenous gathered here of his recent trip to support the fishing rights of the Cucapa and Kiliwa Peoples in Baja California, Mexico.
Marcos spoke of the assault on Indigenous Peoples in the Americas by corporations and governments. Holding an eagle feather given to him by the Kiliwa, Marcos said the eagle, like the Kiliwa, are at risk of becoming extinct.
Marcos held private meetings with Indigenous to organize the intercontinental conference and listen to concerns of Indigenous Peoples from different regions of Mexico and the United States.
Sharing concerns over environmental damage, hazardous dumps and the loss of languages, lands, traditions and culture were O’odham from Sonora, Yaqui from Rio Yaqui, Sonora, Mayo from Sinoloa and Raramuri from Chihuahua in Mexico. Coming from the United States were O’odham, O’otham, Navajo, Apache and Hopi.
At the heart of this gathering was the outdoor kitchen with two roaring fires, where Yaqui, O’odham and Mayo women prepared Sonoran tortillas and huge pots of soups, beef and beans. O’otham from Salt River in Arizona brought buffalo meat. Zapatista youths from Tucson, Ariz., brought chocolate cakes and others brought watermelons, papayas and pineapples.
The American Indian Movement provided security at the planning session, with AIM security guards around the clock at the entrance gate. Closer to the highway, there were up to a dozen vehicles of local and federal Mexican police and undercover officers.
Although Mexican police attempted to intimidate Indigenous Peoples by questioning them when they arrived, AIM security demanded the police halt the intimidation, which they did. While traveling in northwest Mexico, undercover police continuously followed Marcos and the Comandantes.
Marcos first came to Rancho el Penasco, south of Magdalena, in October of 2006, for the listening session with O’odham during the Other Campaign. Marcos and 10 Comandantes returned on April 8 enroute to the Cucapa Peace Camp to uphold fishing rights. Marcos and members of the Zapatista delegation returned for the Intercontinental summit planning session here April 21 –22.
With its flock of sheep and historical memorabilia, the biodiversity ranch, with a hotel/hostel and campground, has been made available to the Zapatistas by the owner.

En Espanol, Narco News:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue45/articulo2637.html

Reporter’s Notebook, the Zapatista Highway
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Free language translation online:
http://www.freetranslation.com/

Reporter's Notebook, The Zapatista Highway

Zapatistas in Sonora. Photo Brenda Norrell

Reporter's Notebook, The Zapatista Highway

By Brenda Norrell

April 23, 2007

RANCHO EL PENASCO, SONORA, Mexico -- The last thing you want to happen when you are returning from a Zapatista meeting with Subcomandante Marcos in Mexico, is for the van to die on the Mexican side of the border, and to have to push it back into the United States.

But that is what happened on our way back. With a great deal of laughter, Jose and Gregorio, joined by some good-hearted volunteers, pushed the van through U.S. immigration and we coasted into Nogales, Ariz.

It was the unexpected end to a wonderful weekend of the unexpected. It began in Tucson, Ariz., with the arrival of American Indian Movement security, O'otham from Salt River Pima and Gila River, Hopi-Zia Pueblo and Tohono O'odham. With the car packed with buffalo meat from Salt River Pima, we headed down, stopping in Sonora to buy watermelons.

At the Rancho Penasco biodiversity ranch south of Magdalena, there was a larger than usual buildup of undercover Mexican police, intelligence officers driving white and grey compact cars, at the entrance gate.

Arriving from the north and south were Indigenous from many tribes for the consultation with Subcomandante Marcos and Comandantes, to plan for the Indigenous Intercontinental Conference.

Cautious, I decided to spend the first night in a nearby hotel, so I could be in touch with the international press if there were problems with the Mexican police building up at the gate. As a news reporter staying alone at a hotel in Mexico, the worst thing that can happen is to look behind you in the hotel lobby and see a dozen cars of undercover Mexican police ready to check in at the same hotel. But that is what happened. I took an Extra Strength Tylenol and went to sleep on the mattress, which was actually a slab of granite.

Then, Saturday morning, something magical happened. Indigenous arrived from all over Arizona and northern and southern Mexico. Over the fire making tortillas, working 16 hours a day, were Yaqui women from Potam Pueblo, along with Tohono O'odham, Mayo and their friends from Sonora and Arizona. They cut buffalo meat, scrambled eggs, cut papayas and of course made large pots of coffee, washed enormous amounts of dishes and laughed.

At the gate, AIM security checked the identification of everyone who entered and halted the undercover Mexican police along the highway from intimidating people arriving.

Raramuri came from north central Mexico, Purepecha from Michoacan, Yaqui from Rio Yaqui Pueblos, Mayo from Sinoloa, O'odham from Sonora and Mayans from Chiapas. They were joined by San Carlos Apache, Navajo, Hopi, Salt River Pima, Gila River Pima and Tohono O'odham from Arizona.

From this gathering came a powerful force of love and joy. Crossing the border, the old van blew steam like a tired dragon as it limped back.

There was no surrender.

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--Brenda Norrell

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(Spanish) Declaration for the Indigenous Intercontinental Conference to be held in Vicam Pueblo in October, 2007:

http://www.encuentroindigena.org/

Zapatistas uphold Cucapa fishing rights on Colorado River Delta:

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Apr07/Bacher21.htm

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http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/