And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From BIGMTLIST The press release about Big Montain on the AOL website news may be gone by now; I couldn't find it a couple of hours ago. As far as range conservation, the act mentioned below clearly demonstrates what a lie is being told. When livestock are impounded, and then the owner is charged money to get them back, this is ransoming, not range conservation. The BIA are acting like horsethieves, not responsible servants of the public. No people should have to fear and grovel before its government! If ever there was a time to raise one's voice against injustice to the Dineh, it is now, before it is too late. Word of this is spreading throughout the country on the internet, and now is beginning to be picked up more by mainstream media due to the news release over the PR Newswire (the tab for this service was picked up by a supporter) and the many letters and phonecalls that you all have made. I hope we can ride this rising wave and increase its intensity with letters, emails, faxes, phonecalls and visits to those public officials who are responsible for this outrage, whether through their actions or their inactions. From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 02:29:47 EST To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Please post this link to the Big Mountain list To the Big Mountain list, This press release is on AOL. Just go to the selection on their home page NEWS then go to the SEARCH category and type in Navajo. This article will come up. More later, Marsha Go to NEWS This coming Monday, 67 sheep are targetted for confiscation from Caroline and Bert Tohannie. Caroline said she saw you in Tuba City. So did Ella Begay. Ella and her sister had their donkeys and horses taken when they were at the Tuba meeting. They waited for the BIA to come all day Monday and missed the meeting we were at. Then when they went to the meeting on Tuesday in Tuba the BIA came and entered their corral and took their animals without anyone even being there. They were told their animals were safe in the corral if they were not grazing. These people are among the poorest of the poor. They live near Joan Yellowhair who lives in a bunker. The BIA said that the cost for Rena Babbit Lane's horse for capture and the first 2 days in impoundment is $883.00. A horse, Jerry, Rena's son says costs about $150.00. This is hundreds of dollars more than they ever charged before. Elderly Navajo Indians Threatened With Starvation Sovereign Dineh Nation Faces Livestock Impoundments On Black Mesa BIG MOUNTAIN, Az., Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Bureau of Indian affairs (BIA) has launched a massive campaign of livestock confiscation targeting the elderly Dineh (Navajo) families who reside on the Hopi Partitioned Lands created by the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act. This area, larger than the state of Rhode Island, is the poorest region of the U.S., with an annual per capita income lower than in many Third World countries. The elderly people rely upon their livestock for survival, living a traditional subsistence lifestyle on land their families have inhabited for hundreds of years. The BIA ended a self-imposed two-year moratorium on livestock confiscation in January by mailing notices to all owners of livestock without valid permits, with impoundments scheduled to begin on Feb. 15, 1999. People who have not signed leases with the Hopi Tribe are not eligible for permits. Many who have signed leases received allocations far below the number needed for survival. The BIA claims their sole purpose is to protect deteriorating range conditions. The people claim that the problem is BIA range management policies outlawing their traditional use of separate summer/winter camps, which sustained herds 4-10 times larger prior to BIA intervention. This current BIA livestock impoundment continues 25 years of abuse and harassment aimed at expelling the people of Black Mesa from their homeland. While the BIA claims that range management is an independent issue, the targets of the impoundment campaign are the same people threatened by other policies resulting from the 1974 Relocation Act. Over 12,000 people have already been forcibly expelled from their homes, and many government policies have been designed to drive out those remaining on their land. For 30 years, the people have been subject to a freeze on housing improvements that has made it illegal even to fix a broken window. The government routinely confiscates their firewood in winter, and the people have been stripped of their civil rights. It is imperative that these people be protected by the same rights afforded to all Americans and that the world know what is happening here. The people threatened by the planned BIA livestock confiscation are all elderly people who have no means of survival other than their traditional herding. Zonnie Whitehair, the owner of the largest herd in the area, is faced with the confiscation of her entire flock of 200 sheep. Her husband, Oscar, died in December, and if her sheep are taken, she has said that she will soon follow. Roberta Blackgoat, like many other grandmothers, faces the possible confiscation of her entire herd. In addition to losing their primary food source, the grandmothers would lose their source of wool to weave rugs that provide their only funds for survival. As she has stated in reference to the BIA policy, "This is not range management--it is murder." SOURCE Sovereign Dineh Nation CO: Sovereign Dineh Nation ST: Arizona IN: SU: 02/18/99 18:25 EST http://www.prnewswire.com ******************************************** You are on the BIGMTLIST, a moderated mailing list of Big Mountain relocation resistance information (not discussion or debate). To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the subject header. For non-list members receiving this post as a forwarded message, you may subscribe by emailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "subscribe" in the subject header. For Big Mountain and other activist internet resources, visit "The Activist Page" at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/welcome.html Also, for great internet tools please visit: http://www.msw.com.au/cgi-bin/msw/entry?id=1271 ******************************************** &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
