Navajo appalled by Navajo president's statement on environmentalists

Appalled by Shirley's statements on environmentalists

by CALVIN JOHNSON
Leupp, Arizona
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

President Shirley released a statement on September 30, 2009 stating that “he strongly supports the Hopi Tribe’s resolution to declare local and national environmental groups unwelcome on Hopi land and environmental activists and organizations are among the greatest threat to tribal sovereignty, tribal self-determination, and our quest for independence.”

This statement stems from the Hopi Council’s and Shirley’s belief that environmental groups helped the closure of the Mohave Generating Station, the demise of Navajo logging and the closure of a sawmill at Navajo, New Mexico, shutdown of the Black Mesa Mine and now Desert Rock Energy Project.

This statement is appalling and misleading because as elected leaders, we are suppose to protect our people and mother earth from harmful containmants that cause numerous health diseases, destroy sacred sites and deplete and contaminate precious water resources attributed to mining and power plants (coal).

Providing information that Desert Rock Energy Project is the cleanest coal plant is also misleading. I want to reiterate that the best machines in the world can not remove 100% of the sulfur, mercury and other pollutants from coal and burn it free of emissions. This “Clean Coal” is non existent. If there was such a thing as “clean coal” (free of pollutants), our people would be embracing Desert Rock happily.

Shirley also states that most often they (environmental groups) do not try to work with us but against us, giving aid and comfort to those opposed to the sovereign decision-making of tribes.

This statement is also misrepresented because most environmental groups are made up of impacted grassroots indigenous individuals (youth, elders and future generations) who want their concerns and voices to be heard instead of meetings and plannings that are held with Peabody, Sithe Global, Mohave Generating Station and the Gaming Commission (Twin Arrows Casino) behind closed doors.

Over the past few decades, impacted residents have been brushed aside and forgotten about because all we focus on is the dollars being promised. That is why they (grassroots) seek help from other environmentalists who have a goal to help protect the health of the people including our mother earth that we all live on.

Shirley states that our people die as a result of poverty, which is manifest as social problems like alcoholism, drunk driving, drug abuse, child neglect, child abuse, domestic violence, divorce, teen pregnancy, gangs, and lethal violence. This could be reduced by investing millions into small local businesses across the reservation such as grocery stores, auto shops, feed stores, restaurants, shopping centers, laundromats, hotels, farming, ranching, in partnerships with local vendors, which would create thousands of jobs, generate taxes and revenues which would fund education, police departments, and health agencies. The money generated would stay on the Navajo Nation. This can be accomplished by involving and including impacted grassroots from the very beginning to the end.

Creating power plants and casinos and blaming and disrespecting our own grassroots people (youth, elders and future generations) is not the answer to these problems.

Calvin Johnson
Leupp, Arizona