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[forwarded by Pat Morris. Thanks...]

Fri, 28 Jan 2000
http://www.greenjournal.com/

Indians Lose Again

Roberta Blackgoat, Navajo, age 83, lives in stone house with
no utilities, miles from a paved road. For decades she has
subsisted on corn, sheep, and weavings made from her home
spun wool. A federal court has told her she must leave her
ancestral land by February 1.

She won't go. She has refused ever since Congress passed the
Hopi Land Settlement Act in 1974 and since Congress passed
Senator John McCain's Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement
Act in 1996.

She has been harassed throughout this time. Some of her sheep
and goats have been impounded or shot and her well capped by
agents of  the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. She's been told she
can't gather firewood or repair her outhouse without a permit from
the Hopi tribe. Most of the 13,000 other Navajos whose lands were
taken by the two Acts have conceded defeat.

I first learned about Roberta Blackgoat in a borrowed video. The
friend who loaned it to me said it was a bootleg copy of the film,
"Broken Arrow." The Peabody Western Coal Company, he said,
had bought all rights to the film and tried to buy all copies.

The Navajo were living on this high desert in 1882 when a 2½
million acre area was defined for joint use of Navajos and Hopis.
In the 1960s a federal judge gave the Hopis exclusive rights to
650,000 acres and designated the rest as a Joint Use Area. For
years the tribes coexisted peacefully. The troubles have been
caused by the estimated 20 billion tons of coal underlying Black
Mesa.

Early in the 1970s the Hopi Tribal Council began demanding
partition of the Joint Use Area. The Council is recognized as the
tribal  authority by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but not by Hopi
religious leaders and many members of the tribe. The Council
was represented by a prominent attorney who seems to have ties
to the coal company. A vigorous public relations campaign promoted
the idea that there was bad blood between Navajos and Hopis,
conflict over grazing rights, and that peace demanded their separation.
Senator Barry Goldwater persuaded his colleagues to pass the
Hopi-Navajo Land Settlement Act which split the 1.8 million
acres in two, drawing an arbitrary boundary. Only about 200 Hopi
lived on what became the Navajo side, but 13,000 Navajo were
made squatters on what had been Navajo ancestral land, now on
the Hopi side.

Evicted from where they had been scattered across the desert,
raising sheep, thousands of Navajo were moved to clusters of
government-build houses or ranchettes, or found their way into
towns, forced into a way of life for which they were unprepared. For
many the result was poverty and alcoholism.

Some resisted, appealing to courts, Congress, and the United
Nations Human Rights Commission. The film "Broken Arrow" includes
scenes from their testimonies. Most of the Navajos, recognizing that
Indians rarely prevail when white men want their land, have left. Only a
handful, like Roberta Blackgoat, still remain. All blame Peabody Coal.

"How can it be that it's not my land," she says, "when my great-great-great
ancestors were born here, and they've been buried here? Their
prayer is still here, their holy song is still here."

Senator John McCain wrote to Attorney General Reno and Secretary
of the Interior Babbitt asking them to see to it that the remaining
Navajos are relocated. Roberta Blackgoat won't go.

===

[source: NativeNews; Fri, 28 Jan 2000 10:14:14]

Activist Mailing List - http://get.to/activist

Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 18:32:52 -0800
From: Jeff Davis <jeff@circleoflifefoundation.org>
Organization: Circle of Life Foundation
To: luna@envirolink.org
Subject: Big Mountain Alert/Julia Butterfly
 

Dear Luna and Ancient Forest supporters,

Hundreds including Julia Butterfly Hill Gather on Black Mesa to Support
Resistance of Dineh Elders

        This February 1 marks the beginning of a complex campaign to remove
Dineh from their homes, initiated by Senator and presidential hopeful
John McCain.  Elders of the Sovereign Dineh Nation have been resisting
relocation at the hands of the United States government and major energy
corporations including Peabody Western Coal Company.  Since the presence
of the highest deposits of coal, oil and uranium in North America were
discovered below the Hopi and Navajo reservation.

        Peabody Coal and the U.S government  have been waging  a long-term
campaign to drive the traditional Dineh from their ancestral homeland.
Since the 1970s more than 14,000 Dineh people residing on the Hopi
Partition Land, designated exclusively for Hopi use, have been relocated
to neighboring cities.  Within six years of the first relocation program
25% of the Dineh relocated had died from relocation related illnesses.
Today open uranium mines still lie uncovered, water, and ground
contaminated by Peabody Coal Company’s mining facilities.

        Julia Butterfly Hill, recently descended from her two-year vigil atop
an ancient redwood tree in Humboldt County, plans to join Dineh elders
in Big Mountain to support their resistance efforts.  ‘We recognize the
scars caused by our government and corporations which have violated
indigenous people and the sacred land.  We must do all we can to keep
this form of genocide from being   perpetrated.’

        The traditional Dineh elders residing on Hopi Partitioned Land have
taken a vow never to leave their sacred homeland.  They say they will
die defending it.

Hopi Tribe
Wayne Taylor, Chairman
Eugene Kaye, Chief of Staff
P.O. Box 123
Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039

Dear Mr. Taylor and Mr. Kaye,

     I am writing to urge you to support the establishment of the Dine
Nation homeland as a National Cultural Historic Site.  The land is far
more valuable for its sacred sites and medicine grounds than for any
coal company's short
term profits.  Please learn from the example of the Lakota Nation that
has consistently resisted the theft of the Black Hills and refused to
accept the one-time cash payment offered in exchange for that historic
and sacred land.
The lessons learned by the elders living on the same land for generation
after generation cannot be passed on if the land is lost.  No classroom
can replace the natural world.
     Our future on this planet, if we are to have one, depends on all
nations coming together and learning from one another.  As the native
inhabitants of this continent, the world is depending on you to teach us
how to be stewards of the land.  Selling the land so that it can be
strip mined for coal which
will only pollute the air and poison the rain is no example for this or
any other generation.  Please do not let the mistakes of the United
States become the mistakes of the Hopi as well.
     In the coming weeks, many people from all over the world will travel
to the Big Mountain region to show their support for Dine Nation and the
natural world.  Please use your power and influence to ensure that these
peaceful demonstrators and witnesses are treated with all the kindness
and respect that reflects the height of interaction between human
beings.  Heed the compass of your hearts in these trying times.  Thank
you for your leadership and consideration.

-=<+>=--=<+>=--=<+>=--=<+>=--=<+>=--=<+>=--=<+>=-

Andy Caffrey, founder
Hayduke Rocks! an Earth First! Media and Action Network

hayduke@efmedia.org
NEW, EXPANDED WEB SITE! http://www.efmedia.org
<<rest clipped>>

===
 

[source: Native News: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 13:23:37]

From: "hfcbuma@wanadoo.nl" <hfcbuma@wanadoo.nl>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 12:17:48 -0500
Subject: URGENT: MCCAIN MANIPULATES PRESS--Boston Globe - McCain &
Indian Affairs
 

Hi,

This story appeared in today's Boston Globe. It's a major series of statements
by McCain that are clearly an attempt to manipulate and coopt the press and
the
truth. Since declaring his candidacy, MANY people have asked McCain questions
about Black Mesa and his sponsorship of the1996 congressional bill (in
writing,
in person, by email, and by demonstration [including on 9/24 in Boston]). This
bill is about to go into full force February 1--the day of the New Hampshire
primary--with all its tragic consequences. McCain has continued to pressure
for
its implementation, and his congressional aide for Indian affairs is quoted in
the current (Jan/Feb.) issue of the magazine "Mother Jones" as saying on
McCain's behalf that nothing can stop the forced relocation from proceeding.

Udall was the senator filmed & quoted in "Broken Rainbow" (1985 Academy
Award-winning documentary) as saying (this is a paraphrase) that he doesn't
see
why the Indians of Black Mesa should be so upset about relocation--people get
relocated in America every day, for instance, when an interstate highway comes
through their living room...

Kelsey Begaye, the Navajo Nation President, has called these laws (1974 &
1996)
"harsh and terrible..."

Black Mesa is sacred. Only its people hold it still from destruction with
their
presence and their lives.

PLEASE SEE THE UPI STORY RELEASED AGAIN TODAY BY BOSTON-BASED REPORTERS, BELOW
THE BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE. IT TELLS THE TRUTH.

thank you,

Carol
 

Boston Globe Online / Nation | World / McCain seizes opportunity to discuss
Indian affairs
----- Original Message -----

       McCain seizes opportunity to discuss Indian affairs
       By Curtis Wilkie, Globe Correspondent, 1/28/2000

       HAMPTON, N.H. - Though he campaigned as a ''proud conservative
Republican'' along the New Hampshire seacoast yesterday, Senator John McCain
departed again from his party's mainstream by empathizing with the plight of
American Indians.

       It is an issue that McCain embraced early in his congressional
career when
he took up Indian causes that other Republicans ignored, and McCain said he
regretted that he was rarely asked about the issue as a presidential
candidate.

       His chance to discuss Indian affairs came in response to a question
at a
Hampton town meeting. McCain responded by calling the treatment of Indians
''one
of the darker chapters of the American people.''

       He described a Lakota (Sioux) reservation in South Dakota ''where
people
live in the worst conditions of grinding poverty.'' McCain criticized some of
the tribes for imposing their own rigid bureaucratic rules, ''stifling free
enterprise'' on the reservations. In some cases, entrepreneurs are forced to
wait two or three years to start businesses, he said.

       Traveling in his campaign bus, McCain was asked to elaborate on his
interest in Indian issues. He described a lonely battle in the ranks of
congressional Republicans.

       When he arrived in Congress in 1983, McCain said, he was recruited
for a
Republican slot on an Indian affairs subcommittee by Representative Morris K.
Udall, the Democratic chairman of the House Interior Committee.

       ''The only way I got it was that nobody else wanted it,'' McCain said.
''When I talked to a lot of Republicans'' about taking the Indian affairs post
''they said: `They don't vote and when they vote, they vote for Democrats.
Don't
get involved.'''

       McCain said he was persuaded to take the job after an ''eloquent
speech''
by Udall, a fellow Arizonan who made great strides to support Indian causes.
Though a Democrat, Udall became one of McCain's mentors.

       After taking the position, McCain said, he was approached by another
Democrat, Representative Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, on behalf of ''this
little tribe up in Connecticut that had been having trouble getting
recognized.''

       McCain said he looked into the case and discovered ''the Republicans
had
been the ones blocking it.'' He determined that the Indians' plea was
legitimate
and won recognition for the tribe.

       ''Know which tribe?'' McCain asked, then answered his own question.
''The
Pequot, now the proud owners of the largest casino in the world.''

       McCain's work on behalf of a cause unpopular among Republicans was
praised
yesterday by Bob Neuman, a former spokesman for the Democratic National
Committee and longtime aide to Udall, who died in 1998. ''John McCain has been
absolutely spectacular on Indian issues,'' Neuman said.

       While discussing his break with Republican doctrine, McCain had kind
words
for Bill Bradley - considered something of a renegade among the Senate
Democrats. ''From time to time Bradley took on issues that didn't make him
popular. For example, he was an Eastern senator who got involved on water
issues
in the West, on some land issues, on issues where some of his colleagues said:
`This guy ought to stay out of it, it's my state.'''

       This story ran on page A27 of the Boston Globe on 1/28/2000.
       ¸ Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
 

___________
 

UPI STORY:

By Donna R. Bassett and Edward W. Bassett

BOSTON Dec. 10 (UPI) - The New Hampshire presidential primary coincides
with the
next forced relocation of American Indians while U.S. troops continue to block
ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and the world's largest coal company prepares to
expand its strip mining of American Indian lands, according to published
government documents and leading authorities.

Two presidential candidates, Democratic Vice President Al Gore and Republican
Sen. John McCain, have stakes in the ethnic cleansing and strip mining issues.
Spokespeople for both have declined to comment on the forcible relocation of
Navajos or say if their candidates have accepted campaign contributions
from the
Peabody Coal Co., which calls itself the world's largest coal company and is
already strip mining the Indian lands in northern Arizona. McCain, the Arizona
senator and chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee who sponsored the
1996 Navajo-Hopi Relocation Act (Public Law 104-301), urged the use of
force to
stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. Gore, the leading Democratic candidate, has
written a book, "Earth In The Balance: Ecology And The Human Spirit."

Gore wrote that "Native American religions ... offer a rich tapestry of ideas
about our relationship to the earth" in his chapter on "Environmentalism of
the
Spirit." McCain's election campaign Internet page says, "we have a profound
duty
to be responsible stewards of the natural treasures that sustain us." He says
that "to waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the
land
will result in undermining (in) the days of our children."

.On February 1, the day of the New Hampshire primary, "321 households"
(approximately 1,200 people) are scheduled to begin forcible relocation,
according to an Oct. 1, 1999, report by the U.S. Office of Navajo-Hopi Indian
Relocation (ONHIR), an executive commission that reports directly to President
Clinton. Already, some 15,000 Navajo Indians have been forcibly relocated.

Asked if President Clinton could call a temporary halt to the relocations,
Paul
Tessler, the legal counsel to the ONHIR commission said, "I presume the
president could direct us to do something or not to do something."

Because of the destructive impact of involuntary relocation on people who have
strong religious and cultural ties to the land, "this is a case of ethnic
cleansing," according to California Institute of Technology anthropologist
Thayer Scudder, who has testified before Congress on the Navajo situation and
has been recognized by leading international anthropological organizations for
his 40 years of work in this area.

"It's not intentional ethnic cleansing," he said. "It is due, primarily, to
the
ignorance, insensitivity, and arrogance in all three branches of the U.S.
government," going back to 1848 when the U.S. government first took control
over
the lands now used for Indian reservations.

Unlike the phenomena in Kosovo, there have been no mass executions that
grabbed
international headlines. But a much larger part of the Kosovo situation
were the
hundreds of thousands of people forced off of their land.

"Can you imagine," Scudder asked, "any circumstances where 15,000 (white)
Americans living on Indian land would be forcibly relocated? Can you
imagine any
circumstances where 15,000 rural black Americans" would be forcibly
relocated?"

"The Japanese relocation 1942 was larger," he noted, "but this is the largest
forced relocation in the United States, in a rural area, since the Japanese
war
relocation. And it is just as unethical and just as much ethnic cleansing."

Noting that the relocation costs are now "over $350 million," and will
probably
escalate "to over $400 million," Scudder said, "imagine how that (money) could
have been used for the joint development of Hopi and Navajo Indians."

Furthermore, a tangled set of laws now lets the U.S. Interior Department's
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) impound Navajo Indian sheep and arrest Navajos
for simply repairing their homes. These laws also allow the government to
bulldoze those repaired homes.

Although U.S. law has established that American Indians are citizens and have
the right to vote, a 1974 U.S. Appeals Court ruling (Healing v. Jones) said
that
Hopis and Navajos "only have rights through their tribe," and not as
individuals, according to former ONHIR Executive Director Leon Berger.

Instead of individuals owning property on Navajo and Hopi lands, the two
tribal
councils have the authority to lease lands on behalf of tribe members.
Therefore, both tribal councils began to profit from mining leases after an
estimated $10 billion in coal deposits was discovered in the area during the
1950s.

Peabody Coal now is "in a beautiful position because the government" is
relocating the Indians, said Berger, who resigned from the NHIR because he
felt
"the commission did not work hard enough to achieve a compromise that the law
made possible." Scudder noted, "it's much easier to mine land where there
are no
people."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3 days to the final solution for the Dine'h at Big Mountain, AZ, USA.
UN draft declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 10:
"Indigenous Peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or
territories. No relocations shall take place without the free and in-
formed consent of the Indigenous Peoples concerned ....(...)........."
 >See the video "Vanishing Prayers" at: http://www.freespeech.org/senaa<

===

[source: NativeNews; Fri, 28 Jan 2000 15:12:20]

From: "Katie O." <oconnoka@hotmail.com> (by way of Robert Dorman
<redorman@theofficenet.com>)

Hello,
Louise Benally asked me to let people know about an action on 2.1.00 at John
McCain's Tuscson office.  It would be really helpful if you could post the
following on your web site so other activists can be alerted to and
participate in this event.  Thank you!

Katie O'Connor

--------------------------------------------------------
On February 1, 2000 there will be a vigil at Senator John McCain's
headquarters in Tucson, AZ from 10:00am until 3:00pm.  We will be protesting
the 1996 Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act and Relocation law 93-531.  These laws
violate the religious freedom and human rights of the people at Big
Mountain.  All who are interested in religious freedom and human rights
issues should attend.
______________________________________________________

For more information on this on-going human rights crisis in the United
States, visit my web page at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm
 

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