And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >From BIGMTLIST [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 18:52:33 +0100 (BST) Subject: Black Mesa Community Support Hi Daniel etc, the attatched file (sorry its a bit big) is a cutting from the local press about BMCS along with the press release. The Chronicle might do a follow up story, this weeks with the lastest news about the Begay sister's stock being impounded. If anyone has any ideas as to how pressure can be most effecively be put on the US authorities, ie who to lobby, where people can best write to etc please let me know, as various people have written to me following the chronicle article asking how they can help. Writing to our local Member of Parliament springs to mind, as they are obliged to pursue any matter their constituents put to them, and international pressure about human rights abuses in the USA is something the USA government might respond to. I can't think of anything else right now that I can do other than travelling to Black Mesa and digging trenches around the elders properties. However as it is stock that they (HTC) are seizing at present (correct me if I'm wrong), I find it difficult to envisualise how to prevent, using NVDA (non violent direct action), the removal. Mounting watches and mobile blockades (together with mobile phones/video cams) perhaps might slow down the impoundment wagons long enough for the threatened stock to be moved to safety. Forgive my thinking aloud here in personnal ignorance of the situation on the ground there. It might be difficult to maintain moral/support for a frontline defence. On the other hand the Dineh magic is very strong...Is there a frontline defence happening? Here's the reason for existance of Black Mesa Community Support... The idea of Black Mesa Community Support is to raise money and awareness of the situation in Black Mesa. And also to highlight how local communities are linked through our common struggles against outside, so called developers. The Navajo (Dineh) have a cultural heratige and religious tradition that is thousands of years old. Their ways are in balance with the Earth. If the USA government instituted Hopi Tribal Council have their way, this traditional way of life/belief system will be erased forever. The Elders need support in the form of money (as the authorities are cutting off their traditional grazing lands with fencing and impounding their stock, their only means of survival), and political pressure on the USA government/authorities. (The US government have pledged to evict and relocate on radioactive polluted land) the rest of the resisters by the year 2000.) And the Dineh need our prayers. In return we can share their wisdom and knoledge. We must stop abusing Mother Earth for profit, and live in balance with the Creator. Peace Jim Bomford. ______________________________________________________________ Press release 30/3/99 Launch of Black Mesa Community Support. Last summer, Daniel Zapata came to the community of Eithinog, Bangor to help the community here with our fight to save the Brewery fields. His and the communities efforts, it seems have been partially successful, with a core area of the meadows to be designated as a nature reserve, maintained by local people. Daniel a Xikano-Xiximeka from Aztlan, has lived in Black Mesa, Arizona, USA, for most of his life. He has been helping the local Navajo (Dineh) and Hopi communities, which have been fighting for their survival for 19 years. The traditional occupation of the people in this area is livestock and sheep subsistance farming. They have lived on and in harmony with the land for generations. Now it seems that money has become more important than people and they are being threatened and harassed and forced to move onto radioactive polluted land. This expulsion of people from their ancestral homes is taking place today in the United States, under the auspices of the U.S. government. The Dineh who refuse to be 'relocated' face the impounding of their livestock, starvation, and a freezing winter if they resist. Three thousand people -many of them elderly and living a traditional way of life bound inseparably to their land - are suffering needlessly from the consequences of greed; about 12,000 others have already been forced or coerced from their homes. Once obstacles (ie. people and their homes and livlihoods are removed, the land is then stripped, a layer of coal/uranium ore removed, leaving a wasteland.This is similar to the situation in South Wales, where deep mine pits have been closed and instead, large areas stripped and trashed for a layer of coal have left communities with a barren wasteland. In Big Mountain the people being affected, mostly associated with the Navajo, with Hopi affected also, have a way of life and belief system that is totally connected to the land where they live. For them to be 'relocated' is for them to cease to exist. Thus, many people are resisting the 'relocation'. The Hopi tribal council, a US Government instituted body has usurped traditional religious leadership and decided to make as much cash as possible from the land under its jurisdiction. Dineh elder, Pauline Whitesinger and the other elders, maintain very strongly that they will not give way to the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs, A US government organisation) intrusions into their land. Whitesinger stated: "My feelings at this point are tremendously great with anxiety. If the comes when they drag me from this beloved Ke'ya. I will not allow myself to be placed among those relatives who have been relocated. That will make me feel as a conquered being and to be completely subjected to the Laws of the district of Colombia. I say No! If I am to be confined let me be detained within the facilities of the BIA jails. Perhaps there, I will feel there was a purpose to my detention, and it is because I or we have fought hard to uphold the supreme laws of the Creator. " "We might be old, but our vows and obligations of the sacred ways is to protect the placements of the offerings , the ancient chants and sacrifices at all the sacred shrines upon which surrounds Great (Big) Mountain. We (will not move) because we have to sustain the rules of the Sacred Rainbow that Encircles us." In the Origin stories of the Dineh, Great Spirit specified the areas of the land base or aboriginal homelands. these were outlined by four sacred mountains to the four cardinal points and by four sacred rivers each with a gender. The outer perimeter was a rainbow, and creator placed this for the purpose of Sovereignty. In Dineh, the term 'land' is only translated as: Area beneath the Soles of thy feet, so they say, Ke'ya. Today, some traditionals would normally refer to sovereignty as, The Rainbow that encircles Us. This can be noticed also in the sacred Sand paintings and often appears in other religious illustrations. Another elderly resistor, Mary T Begay, states: 'Our way of life is our religion, and our teaching. If we are relocated by force, we will die slowly. The people would not be in balance with Mother Earth and Sky Father and the spiritual people. In every way, here we are connected to the land. We belong here.' Traditional Hopi who came to offer their support to the resisters in March of 1997 emphasized the importance of the spiritual position. Thomas Banyacya said, "No courts, no lawyers, no white man's law. We obey the law of the Creator. This is our land. This is your land." The resisters are having their livestock impounded by BIA officials. The following is an extract of a letter sent to the BIA in Washington by the elderly resisters: "The US government is currently engaging in a policy of depriving elderly people of their sole means of survival in a program that serves no practical purpose other than to intensify the suffering already imposed upon these people. A impoundment notice has been sent to Zonnie Whitehair. Zonnie Whitehair is an elderly grandmother whose husband died on December 11, 1998. The only possession she has is her herd of 200 sheep, on which she depends for her survival. The BIA threatens to confiscate her entire herd within the next 10 days. Most other Dineh residents of HPL have received similar letters and face the threat of immediate impoundment. The situation is now urgent. Last week the Hopi BIA's (Bureau of Indian Affairs) Fred Chavez stated that starting Monday Feb. 15th "BIA impoundment trailers are now moving up to HPL (Hopi Partition Lands) to conviscate all illegal Dine' livestock." Recent reports say BIA personnel are already on the HPL designating which herds will be taken. The elderly resistors need support and prayers to help them stay. Send checks in sterling to: Black Mesa Community Support, c/o Pen y Parc Pentraeth Mam LL75 8HJ Telephone 01248 450 168 All money will be sent to a supporters fund called Bucket Line to the elders The idea is to make not just a fundraising campaign but also to share information about the Navajo people and religion. People can write for info sheets if they wish. Or access the internet site directly themselves. There is also a website entitled "Big Mountain Relocation Resistance" http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm __________________________________________________________ >From the North Wales Weekly Chronicle, Anglesey edition, April 1st, 1999 Navajos get help from Ynys Mon An Island man is reaching out to help Navajo Indians in America. Jim Bomford of Pentraeth is launching the Black Mesa Community Support appeal to help the Indians who are being forced to leave their homes and land. "The Navajo people are sheep and stock farmers, as are the people of Wales," said Mr. Bomford. "But the aauthorities are trying to cut off their grazing and force them from the land," he added. Die Slowly "So we need to get them supplies from outside." An elderly resident of Black Mesa, Arizona, Mary T. Begay said: "Our way of life is our religion, and our teaching. "If we are relocated by force, we will die slowly," she added. "In every way here we are connected to the land. We belong here." More information available from: Black Meas Community Support Group, C/o Pen y Parc, Pentraeth, Anglesey, LL75 8HJ. --------- ******************************************** 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/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
