Censored: Forgotten People on Black Mesa

Censored: Forgotten People on Black Mesa
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

The mainstream media continued aiding and abetting the dirty coal industry this week, in the genocidal targeting of American Indian lands for toxic and polluting industries that the rest of humanity doesn't want in their backyards.

Hopi and Navajo fighting Peabody Coal mining on Black Mesa celebrated a victory this week when the US Interior Dept. rejected a coal mining permit for Peabody Coal on Black Mesa. It is a victory that the majority of the mainstream media is ignoring.

Hopi and Navajo have made it easy for even the laziest journalist, or the newspaper without a dime for travel, to cover the story. There are press statements online with abundant quotes from the Hopi and Navajo who took the action and live on the land. Their phone numbers are also on their press statements, so the mainstream media has no excuse. Censored News will even send the judge's order by e-mail to anyone that requests it.

It seems the mainstream media doesn't want to admit the truth about mining on Black Mesa. Journalists do not want to take the time to understand the facts. One of these facts is that the elected Navajo and Hopi tribal councils were created by the United States for the purpose of signing energy leases. These councils are not the traditional Navajo and Hopi forms of governance. Today, the revenues go to the tribal governments, while the people living on the land continue to fight to protect the land, air and water and live free from the diseases of these pollutants and the draining of their aquifers.

The Navajo Nation Council, in its own history published in the 1980s, stated that the Navajo government was established by the US for the purpose of signing energy leases. Hopi Dan Evehema, at the age of 104, stated that the Hopi Sinom never authorized or recognized the Hopi Tribal Council. These councils became "US puppet governments" to the people living on the land and fighting to protect the land and the people.

The number of diseases and deaths related to the coal-fired power plants, coal mining, oil and gas wells and Cold War uranium mining on the Navajo Nation have never been documented. Secrecy and censorship have aided in this crime against humanity.

Individual Hopi and Navajo, and organizations and chapters, fought Peabody's coal mining permit and won a victory.

Vernon Masayesva, Hopi, said it is a new day for Native peoples.

"A great new day is dawning for the Hopi and all Native peoples in this country," said Masayesva, executive director of the grassroots organization Black Mesa Trust. His comment came in response to the news that an Office of Surface Mining administrative law judge rejected the permit issued by OSM for the Black Mesa Complex. The permit would have allowed Peabody Coal to continue mining-as-usual at the Black Mesa and Kayenta Mines on Hopi and Navajo lands.

Masayesva and former Hopi Tribal Chairman Ben Nuvamsa met with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's staff in November to ask that decision-makers at Interior be more responsive to Native American concerns and more mindful of their trust responsibilities for the 560-plus Indian tribes in the U.S.

"The Interior Secretary and the agencies under his oversight are to be commended," Masayesva said in a statement.

Wahleah Johns, co-director of Black Mesa Water Coalition, one of the petitioners in the appeal, responded to Judge Robert G. Holt's ruling. "As a community member of Black Mesa I am grateful for Judge Holt's decision. For 40 years our sacred homelands and people have borne the brunt of coal mining impacts, from relocation to depletion of our only drinking water source. This ruling is an important step towards restorative justice for Indigenous communities who have suffered at the hands of multinational companies like Peabody Energy. This decision is also precedent-setting for all other communities who struggle with the complexities of NEPA laws and OSM procedures in regards to environmental protection. However, we also cannot ignore that irreversible damage of coal mining industries continues on the land, water, air, people and all living things."

The Administrative Law Judge's order decides issues raised by members of the Hopi Nation in one of many appeals brought in response to OSM's final permit, which was issued in the waning days of the Bush Administration. The "life of mine" permit issued by OSM authorized and expanded mining operations at Black Mesa beyond the year 2026 for the remaining portion of an estimated total of 670 million tons of coal. The order cited violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA,) the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Black Mesa Water Coalition said in a joint statement.

"This is a huge victory for the communities of Black Mesa impacted by coal mining and proof that Peabody can't have its way on Black Mesa anymore," said Sierra Club's Hertha Woody, a member of the Navajo Nation. "Coal is a dirty, dangerous and outdated energy source that devastates communities, jeopardizes drinking water and destroys wildlife habitats. This decision is yet another example of why it no longer makes sense to burn coal to get electricity."

The Black Mesa Coal Mine Complex has a long history of controversy stemming from concerns about air and water pollution, impacts to local residents, the drying of aquifers and sacred springs, and coal's contribution to global warming. Heavy metals and pollutants that result from mining operations are toxic to humans and harmful to wildlife.

On the Navajo Nation, The Forgotten People, a Navajo group working toward human rights, raised new questions about the dangerous and unregulated coal transport train that passes through their communities enroute to the Navajo Generating Station at Page, Ariz., one of the coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Nation.

The Forgotten People and three Chapters, Tonalea Chapter, Coal Mine Canyon Chapter and Leupp Chapter joined Californians for Renewable energy, Kendall Nutumya, Victor Masayesva, Jr., and Black Mesa Water Coalition to oppose the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining decision to approve a controversial life-of-mine permit for Peabody Coal Company's Black Mesa mine in the final days of the Bush Administration.

Chester Claw, President of Tonalea Chapter said, "All these years our people suffered from adverse health effects and pollution of the environment. I am speechless, at a loss for words about what Forgotten People and the other groups are doing against a big company while all the Navajo Nation has done for decades is think about money and forget about the people's health and the environment. This is 'David v. Goliath' and David prevailed."

"Now we need to focus on Salt River Project and Navajo Generating Station so they get a transportation permit to carry Peabody's Kayenta coal like they do at all other mines to ensure safety. SRP and NGS must install warning lights and barrier arms so no more people and livestock die at the railroad crossings," Claw said.

Don Yellowman, President of Forgotten People said, "What SRP and NGS are doing with an unpermitted railroad is equivalent to an unsafe semi truck driving on a highway without warning lights and improperly functioning brakes. Are they doing this because the life of our people and livestock are less important?"

The Forgotten People said that in light of US EPA initiatives, the uncertainty of the NGS, and an increasing awareness of climate change, they are urging the Navajo Nation Council to take action. The Council was urged to hold a public hearing on the Kayenta mine in a Hogan in Black Mesa, Vote No to an extension of Peabody's Kayenta mine lease, develop an alternative energy policy, and "Go Green."

While most of the electricity produced in coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Nation goes to Southwest cities, many Navajos continue to live without electricity. Many Navajos living beneath dangerous electric transmission lines which transport power to Phoenix, Tucson and Los Angeles, have only the light produced by kerosene or battery-operated lanterns.

While Peabody Coal mining drains the aquifer, many Navajos live without running water. Hauling water is expensive and requires transporation. For elderly, there is often no one to haul water for them over the rutted dirt roads, roads often impassable in winter and during rains.

For those struggling to protect the aquifer and sacred springs, the Interior ruling came as good news.

"It is good news that our concerns were heard. Water is very precious that should not be used for coal mining but instead should be used for our people. I am pleased with this outcome," said Calvin Johnson of the grassroots organization C-Aquifer for Dine'.

"Dine' C.A.R.E. commends DOI Judge Holt," said Anna Frazier of Dine' C.A.R.E. "This is a hopeful step toward a better consultation with OSM and other regulatory entities. The ultimate goals for our people and our land are for OSM to withdraw the life of mine permit, as there is no purpose and need for it, to move toward permanent closure of the existing Kayenta Mine and transportation complex and to begin total reclamation on Black Mesa."

The coalition of tribal and environmental groups who filed a related appeal of OSM's permit included the Black Mesa Water Coalition, Diné C.A.R.E., Dine Hataalii Association, Inc., Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council.

Earlier, in the 1970s, Peabody Coal orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute, to remove Navajos and make way for coal mining. The US relocated more than 14,000 Navajos. While coal mining destroyed the land and poisoned the air at Black Mesa, water was drained from the aquifer.

Coal-fired power plants are cited as a primary reason for global warming. US coal-fired power plants -- including those on the Navajo Nation at Page, Ariz., and in the Four Corners region -- are a primary reason for global warming, resulting in the melting Arctic ice and destruction of Arctic homelands for Indigenous Peoples and wildlife.

Peabody Coal orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute and coal mining on Black Mesa, carried out without a proper EIS or permits. Peabody Coal, attorneys, US senators, including John McCain, and tribal councilmen, cut backdoor deals which has resulted in more than 30 years of suffering for Navajos living on Black Mesa. Navajos resisting relocation live without basic necessities, with no one to turn to when they are cold, hungry and sick. Ultimately, the Navajo Nation government abandoned its own people on Black Mesa in favor of revenues from coal mining.

The complete copy of order is available from brendanorrell@gmail.com

The complete statements from Hopi and Navajo are at Censored News: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Excerpts from order:

United States Department of the Interior
Office of Hearing and Appeals
Departmental Hearings Division
405 South Main Street, Suite 400
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Telephone: (801) 524-5344
Facsimile: (801) 524-5539

January 5, 2010

ORDER
In Re Black Mesa Complex Permit Revision.
DV 2009-1-PR thru DV 2009-8-PR
Significant Permit Revision
Permit No. AZ-001D
NUTUMYA'S NEPA MOTION GRANTED
(Docket No. DV 2009-4-PRJ)
OSM DECISION VACATED
OTHER PENDING MOTIONS DENIED AS MOOT
OTHER REQUESTS FOR REVIEW DISMISSED AS MOOT
(Docket Nos. DV 2009-1-PR, DV ... DV 2009-8-PR)

HEARING CANCELLED.

Conclusion
OSM violated NEPA by not preparing a supplemental draft EIS when Peabody changed the proposed action. As a result the Final EIS did not consider a reasonable range of alternatives to the new proposed action, described the wrong environmental baseline, and did not achieve the informed decision-making and meaningful public comment required by NEPA. Because of the defective Final EIS, OSM's decision to issue a revised permit to Peabody must be vacated and remanded to OSM for further action.

Having considered the motion, the other papers on file, and for good cause, it is ordered that:

1. The Motino by Petitioners, Kendall Nutumy, et.all, in Docket No. DV 2009-4-PR, for Summary Disposition Based on OSM's Violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), is granted.

2. The Decision, dated December 22, 2008, of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, approving the Application for Significant Permit Revision (Project AZ-001-E-P-01)(Permit AZ-001D) filed by Peabody Western coal Company for the Black Mesa Complex, is vacated.

3. The other pending motions in this consolidated preceding are denied as moot or not ripe for review.

4. The request for review filed by the following applicants are dismissed as moot.

Californians for Renewable Energy
Victor Masayesva, Jr.
Black Mesa Water Coalition
The Forgotten People
Coal Mine Canyon Chapter
Tonalea Chapter
Leupp Chapter

5. The prehearing conference scheduled for March 9, 2010, and the hearing scheduled for March 16, 2010, are cancelled.

Appeal Rights

Any party aggrieved by this decision may file a petition for discretionary review with the Interior Board of Land Appeal, or seek judicial review pursuant to the provisions in 43 CFR Section 4.1369.

--Robert G. Holt

Armchair journalists and the lessons of McCarthyism

Armchair journalists and the lessons of McCarthyism

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo 1: Navajos and Hopis protest Peabody Coal's life of mine permit in Denver; Photo 2 Hollywood blacklisted writer Trumbo

Lazy journalists are great friends of the corporations. They are known as "armchair journalists" because they sit in comfort and rewrite press releases from politicians and corporations. To spice it up a bit, they dial a few numbers, get a few comments and call it a news story.
They are the "darlings of the energy companies," as Buffy Sainte Marie says.
AP reporter Felicia Fonseca is a real darling of the energy companies. If you check Google breaking news this morning, you'll see the number of newspapers carrying her article stating that Hopis and Navajos say environmentalists are not welcome.
However, on Google news, there are no articles from Fonseca quoting Alph Secakuku, Sipaulovi council representative, pointing out that Hopi are true environmentalists, regardless of the current political coup in the Hopi Tribal Council. Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr., showing his true colors once again, joined the refrain by saying environmentalists were not welcome on the Navajo Nation either.
This comes as no surprise, since the modernday Navajo environmentalists have always been fought by the elected Navajo political leaders whose salaries and expense accounts come from energy royalties. While signing leases for coal mines and power plants, Navajo politicians also speak of the Beauty Way and harmony with all created things.
Navajo Leroy Jackson's life was threatened by Navajo politicians before he was found dead in 1993. Jackson was cofounder of Dine' Citizens Against the Ruining the Environment and halted clearcut logging of the old growth pines in the Chuska and Tsaile mountains. (I was a stringer for AP at the time, during the 18 years that I lived on the Navajo Nation. The threat was made to me.)
I wonder now if AP's reporter Fonseca lives on the Navajo Nation, or even stays there long enough to know what she is writing about.
Lazy journalists love the surface scum that floats to the top in life. They just skim it off and call it news.
In small newsrooms across America, armchair journalists like to sit in their easy chairs and rewrite corporate press releases and the articles of other journalists, ones actually on the scene, if it fits into their agenda. I watched the sitting journalists, in the desks next to mine at newspapers over the years. They would go out and buy newspapers, then rewrite the work of others. This thinly disguised plagiarism is easy to spot, because the journalists simply are not there.
On Indian land, it is easy to spot armchair journalists. They are the ones who don't show up. The visiting experts, if they come at all, speed back across the border, from the café or tribal newspaper office, before nightfall. AP is notorious for not being there.
Now, with the crash of the economy, large newspapers in Arizona, such as Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Star, are usually a "no show" on Indian lands in northern Arizona. Their reporters don't quote the people who live on the land, because in most cases, they don't even know them. They don't ever talk to them.
Editors are pretty happy with armchair journalists, because they don't have to worry about them begging for travel expenses to actually go out and cover a news story. Editors don't have to worry about armchair journalists working overtime. They don't have to worry about anyone threatening to file a lawsuit because the reporter actually reported something groundbreaking. Armchair journalists are usually pretty friendly. They don't have much to complain about. They rewrite something, make a few calls, and pick up their paychecks.
Above all, they are always happy to write what the editor tells them to write, just the way the editor says it happened.
You might be surprised at the sheer volume written by armchair journalists.
While the Internet has made it easy for armchair journalists to churn out fat and empty word globs, fortunately the dollars dried up and discouraged the mass marketing of pathetic rewrites. As dollars for journalists vanish and the numbers of reporters decline, another creepy phenomenon is occurring. Surviving reporters are expected to be experts on everything. They are expected to write about every issue as if they know what they are talking about.
Another interesting phenomenon in the newsroom is the old refrain: "Get the other side of the story."
When a reporter writes an article quoting only politicians or corporations, an editor doesn't say, "Get the other side of the story," or "Get the grassroots side of the story."
Yet, when a reporter writes from the point of view of the people, the grassroots people, editors say, "Get the other side of the story." Too often, this means publishing the lies of politicians and corporations. It is censorship, silencing the voices of the people.
These editors, too, are the darlings of the energy companies, because their papers publish what the corporations or politicians say, with little regard for truth. Corporations and elected politicians are considered credible, while the people on the street, or the people on the land, are not considered credible. It is stale snobbery.
More often than not, being a print or radio journalist who is actually out there on a news story means financial disaster these days. We're not just talking low pay; we're talking complete and total financial disaster.
Nevertheless, there is another way to look at it. It is like during the McCarthy era, when the witch-hunts were on, when hysteria and misinformation reigned. We look back now and cheer those who stood firm, found a way to produce their craft when they lost everything, finances, careers and even loved ones. There were writers who never gave up. They moved to Mexico and changed their names, but they did not give up.
Perhaps that is how the future will judge us, whether we give up when we lose everything, whether we sell out for a paycheck.

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter covering Indian country and Mexico for 27 years, serving as a staff reporter for Navajo Times, Lakota Journal and Indian Country Today. She served as a stringer for AP for five years and USA Today for seven years, covering the Navajo Nation and federal courts. She was censored and terminated by Indian Country Today in 2006 and created Censored News. She is a contributor to the UN OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague, CounterPunch, Narco News, Americas, Atlantic Free Press and Sri Lanka Guardian.

Statement by Alph Secakuku:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/09/secakuku-hopi-are-stewards-of-land.html

Listen to Hopis and Navajos speaking out against Peabody Coal mining in Denver:

Navajos and Hopis protested a permit on Black Mesa for Peabody Coal, which has desecrated sacred land and led to the relocation of more than 14,000 Navajos. Recording by Mano Cockrum, Hopi-Navajo, of the Hopi and Navajo panel in Denver, Dec. 7, 2008, for Censored News.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/10/Navajo-and-Hopi-protest-Peabody-Coal-in-Denver

Sheep Dog Nation Rocks: Hopi speaks out against Navajo relocation

By Bahe Katenay
Navajo from Big Mountain
Sheep Dog Nation Rocks
Published with permission

FLAGSTAFF -- When the Dineh resisters at Big Mountain declared their independence in 1977 they further declared they would submit their conditions beyond and bypass the Navajo Nation or the BIA. They would present their conditions directly to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
What am I talking about? Well, they held this Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission hearing in Flagstaff (in December) and I wonder how can a governmental organization be intent on hearing such conditions?
However, it's kinda kool that a Hopi person eventually reminded everyone about the real situation of human rights violations on Black Mesa. I don't know what this Navajo Nation commission seeks, but at the United Nations level, the Dineh have presented the conditions of violations committed by institutionally-designed policies of racial and genocidal practices.
Excerpt the article, "Human Rights Commission hears testimonies of 'racism,'" by S. J. Wilson in the Navajo-Hopi Observer, December 31, 2008
FLAGSTAFF -- Four of the five members of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission recently visited the communities of Winslow and Flagstaff to hear public testimony regarding race relation issues in areas including housing, education and civil rights ...
Bob Lomadafkie, a longtime citizen of Flagstaff and a member of the Hopi Tribe, spoke about the effects of relocation on members of the Navajo and Hopi tribes, and the allegiance held by many traditional Hopis against the relocation of their Navajo neighbors.
"We were opposed to relocation; we feel it was wrongfully imposed on the Dine'," Lomadafkie said. "We also addressed the pow wow in Flagstaff; there was a lot of negative talk that put Native Americans in a bad light."
Lomadafkie is on several boards for Flagstaff organizations and is involved in issues such as homelessness and the recruitment and retention of Native American students at Northern Arizona University (NAU) - where he finds that one of every four students is Native American - predominantly Dine'."
Read article in Navajo Hopi Observer:
http://navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=7454
Signed by Sheep Dog Nation Rocks:
That Annoying Sheep Dog
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducated the person who learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours!”
--Cesar Chavez, (activist & educator)

Masayesva: Congressman defending Black Mesa

Rep. Raul Grijalva Stands Up for Hopi People, Resources, Sovereignty
By Vernon Masayesva

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. (Nov. 9) – Rep. Raul Grijalva, R-Ariz., has sent an urgent letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne requesting that he direct the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement to stop work on the Black Mesa Project draft environmental impact statement.
Black Mesa Trust Executive Director Vernon Masayesva lauded the representative's effort to ensure that the Interior Department meets its trust responsibility to Native peoples. "Rep. Grijalva has seen into the heart of this issue and taken a stand to defend our interests and rights, especially our right to protect the N-aquifer underlying Black Mesa from further corporate abuse."
In his letter, Grijalva told Kempthorne that allowing continued access to the aquifer for coal mining "would result in irreparable damage to the sole source of drinking water for many Hopis and Navajos. Moreover, past water withdrawals from the Navajo Aquifer have already caused sacred Hopi springs to dry up, irreparably harming the tribal communities."
He also pointed out that "there is no actual proposed project involving Black Mesa Mine to be analyzed" since the only customer for the coal (Mohave Generating Station in Laughline, Nev.) shut down in 2005. Grijalva wrote, "the pending EIS [is] not only premature, but in direct conflict with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act."
The Black Mesa Project DEIS proposes to combine the Kayenta Mine and the Black Mesa Mine (both on Black Mesa in northern Arizona, deep in the Navajo and Hopi reservations) and to resume coal mining at the Black Mesa Mine, which has been shut down since Mohave Generating Station. The Office of Surface Mine suspended work on the DEIS in May 2007 when Southern California Edison stopped funding because it had not found buyers for the Mohave Generating Station who would restart the power plant. In May 2008 OSM reopened the comment period on the DEIS until July 7. OSM states on its website that the agency plans to issue the final environmental impact statement this month.
In the letter Grijalva reminded Kempthorne that the Hopi government is in disarray at the moment and, therefore, "no one has the authority to consult with OSM and make decisions on behalf of the Hopi Tribal Council on matters related to the mining and water withdrawals on Black Mesa."
In conclusion, Grijalva said, "I believe a delay in processing the EIS is warranted and ask that the process be delayed until OSM can determine the actual purpose and need of this project" and until the Hopi tribal government "is again intact."
Masayesva and other Hopi tribal members expressed their gratitude to Grijalva for his support of the Hopi people, defense of their natural resources and respect for the tribe's sovereignty and right to self-determination.