Navajo Family Fights New Casino and Obama: Too Little, Too Late
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
In today's news, Calvin Johnson, Navajo, writes about the Scott Family's fight against the Navajo Nation's plan for a new casino, east of Flagstaff.
Traditional Navajos have a saying: "Gambling will steal the future from the children."
While some Indian Nations in the US have used their revenues generously for charities and the betterment of their own people, in Arizona that has not always been the case.
The Scott family's statement of opposition comes as the National Congress of American Indians announced its support for the Tohono O'odham Nation's plan to build a casino in Glendale, in the Phoenix region.
However, NCAI should talk to the Tohono O'odham people, who are living in desperate poverty despite the Tohono O'odham's longtime lucrative Desert Diamond Casino near Tucson.
Tohono O'odham are desperate for housing and jobs, even food, and question where the millions of dollars in revenues are going from the casino.
Anyone who drives by the packed casino, then drives through the Tohono O'odham Nation, can see that something is extremely wrong.
Reporters covering Indian issues know that one of the most censored issues is the extensive poverty in southern Arizona Indian communities, where there are lucrative casinos.
In other news, President Obama announced he will give $125,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize award to the American Indian College Fund.
First of all, no amount of money can ever bring back a mother's son or daughter killed in these wars, wars based on the lies of politicians. The Nobel Peace Prize for a warmonger is essentially blood money, blood money which continues the deceit of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Further, the American Indian College Fund receives a mediocre rating on the charity rating charts. In simple language this means that the people who operate the American Indian College Fund spend far too much money on themselves, and too little on American Indian scholarships.
(The chief executive officer received compensation of $213,000 in 2008 and nearly $2 million was spent on fundraising.)
President Obama's announcement comes as the Obama administration declared a winter storm emergency in South Dakota for the storm in December, months after the disaster. Lakotas, repeatedly blasted by winter storms, pleaded for aid in January and February and were ignored. Cheyenne River Sioux in central South Dakota were without electricity for weeks and water for more than six days. Indian Nations and individuals rallied to their aid with online campaigns to deliver aid and buy propane. A telephone campaign, that was organized online, urging CNN to cover the disaster in the Dakotas resulted in less than a minute of news.
Read more on Censored News Homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
References:
Navajo Family Stands Strong Against Casino:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/03/navajo-family-stands-strong-against.html
Charity rating for American Indian College Fund:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3263
Showing posts with label Navajo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Navajo. Show all posts
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Uranium Mining Begins at Grand Canyon
Uranium Mining Begins at Grand CanyonThousands of Claims Threaten Public Health and Sacred Lands
Photo (R): Havasupai gathered near Red Butte at the south rim of the Grand Canyon in July to oppose Denison Mines new uranium mining. Photo Brenda Norrell.
GRAND CANYON, Ariz. -- In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009.
Denison plans on extracting 335 tons of uranium per day out of the "Arizona 1 Mine", which is set to operate four days per week. The hazardous ore will be hauled by truck more than 300 miles through towns and communities to the company's White Mesa mill located near Blanding, Utah.
After being pressured by environmental groups, U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar initially called for a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in a buffer zone of 1 million acres around Grand Canyon National Park, but the moratorium doesn't include existing claims such as Denison's. The moratorium also doesn't address mining claims outside of the buffer zone.
GRAND CANYON, Ariz. -- In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009.
Denison plans on extracting 335 tons of uranium per day out of the "Arizona 1 Mine", which is set to operate four days per week. The hazardous ore will be hauled by truck more than 300 miles through towns and communities to the company's White Mesa mill located near Blanding, Utah.
After being pressured by environmental groups, U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar initially called for a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in a buffer zone of 1 million acres around Grand Canyon National Park, but the moratorium doesn't include existing claims such as Denison's. The moratorium also doesn't address mining claims outside of the buffer zone.
The Grand Canyon is ancestral homeland to the Havasupai and Hualapai Nations. Although both Indigenous Nations have banned uranium mining on their reservations the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management may permit thousands of mining claims on surrounding lands.
Due to recent increases in the price of uranium and the push for nuclear power nearly 8,000 new mining claims now threaten Northern Arizona. Uranium mined from the Southwestern U.S. is predominately purchased by countries such as France (Areva) & Korea for nuclear energy.
In July of 2009 members of the Havasupai Nation and their allies gathered for four days on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at their sacred site Red Butte to address the renewed threat. Red Butte has long been endangered by the on-going threat of uranium mining.
Under an anachronistic 1872 mining law, created when pick axes and shovels were used, mining companies freely file claims on public lands. The law permits mining regardless of cultural impacts.
OBAMA APPROVES NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS AND INCREASED NEED FOR URANIUM
Currently there are 104 nuclear reactors in the United States which supply 20% of the U.S.'s electricity. In January the Obama administration approved a $54 billion dollar taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005.
Since 2007, seventeen companies have now sought government approval for 26 more reactors with plans to complete four by 2018 and up to eight by 2020. New reactors are estimated to cost more than $12 billion each.
Although nuclear energy is hailed by some as a solution to the current U.S. energy crisis and global warming, those more closely impacted by uranium mining and transportation recognize the severity of the threat.
THE COLORADO RIVER, WATER & URANIUM'S DEADLY LEGACY
Uranium is a known cause of cancers, organ damage, miscarriages & birth defects.
Drilling for the radioactive material has been found to contaminate underground aquifers that drain into the Colorado River, and sacred springs that have sustained Indigenous Peoples in the region. In addition, surface water can flow into drill holes and mine shafts which can also poison underground water sources.
Emerging in the Rocky Mountains in North Central Colorado and winding 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River is held sacred by more than 34 Indigenous Nations. The Colorado also provides drinking water for up to 27 million people in seven states throughout the Southwest.
The river that carves the Grand Canyon has been extensively used by the agricultural industry and cities that are dependent for drinking water, so much so that it now ceases to flow to the Gulf of California, forcing members of the Cocopah Nation (The People of the River) in Northern Mexico to abandon their homelands and relocate elsewhere.
Today there are more than 2,000 abandoned uranium mines in the Southwest. U.S. government agencies have done little or nothing to clean up contaminated sites and abandoned mines. At Rare Metals near Tuba City on the Diné (Navajo) Nation a layer of soil and rock is the only covering over 2.3 million tons of hazardous waste. A rock dam surrounds the radioactive waste to control runoff water that flows into nearby Moenkopi Wash. Throughout the Diné Nation, Diné families have been subject to decades of radioactive contamination ranging from unsafe mining conditions to living in houses built from uranium tailings. Well water is documented by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as undrinkable in at least 22 communities such as Black Falls on the Dine’ Nation. According to the EPA, "Approximately 30 percent of the Navajo population does not have access to a public drinking water system and may be using unregulated water sources with uranium contamination." Flocks of sheep and other livestock still graze among radioactive tailing piles and ingest radioactive water.
According to the Navajo Nation up to 2.5 million gallons of uranium contaminated water is leaching out of the Shiprock Uranium Mill near Shiprock, New Mexico into the San Juan River every year. At the Church Rock Mine in New Mexico, which is now attempting to re-open, up to 875,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste continue to contaminate the land.
In July 1979 a dirt dam breached on the Navajo Nation at a uranium processing plant releasing more than 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and nearly 100 million gallons of contaminated fluid into the Rio Puerco (which ultimately flows into the Colorado River) near Church Rock, NM. This was the single largest nuclear accident in US history. Thousands of Diné families that live in the region, including those forced to relocate from the Joint Use Area due to coal mining, continue to suffer health impacts resulting from the spill.
In 2005 the Diné Nation government banned uranium mining and processing within its borders due to uranium's harmful legacy of severe health impacts and poisoning of the environment. And yet, high cancer rates, birth defects and other health impacts still bear out the uranium industry's dangerous legacy.
NUCLEAR WASTE & INDIGENOUS SACRED LANDS
Today the US has nearly 60,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear waste stored in concrete dams at nuclear power plants throughout the country. The waste increases at a rate of 2,000 tons per year. Depleted Uranium (DU) is a byproduct of uranium enrichment and reprocessing which has controversial military uses including armor piercing projectiles. DU has been found to cause long-term health effects ranging from harming organs to causing miscarriages and birth defects.
In 1987 Congress initiated a controversial project to transport and store almost all of the U.S.'s toxic waste at Yucca Mountain located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Yucca Mountain has been held holy to the Paiute and Western Shoshone Nations since time immemorial.
In February 2009 Obama met a campaign promise to cut funding for the multibillion dollar Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. The controversial project was initially proposed in 1987 with radioactive waste to be shipped from all over the U.S. via rails and highways. Currently a new proposal for an experimental method of extracting additional fuel from nuclear waste called "reprocessing" renews the threat to desecrate the sacred mountain on Western Shoshone lands.
Western Shoshone lands, which have never been ceeded to the U.S. government, have long been under attack by the military and nuclear industry. Between 1951 and 1992 more than 1,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated above and below the surface at an area called the Nevada Test Site on Western Shoshone lands which make it one of the most bombed nations on earth. Communities in areas around the test site faced exposure to radioactive fallout which has caused cancers, leukemia & other illnesses. Western Shoshone spiritual practitioner Corbin Harney, who has since passed on, helped initiate a grassroots effort to shutdown the test site and abolish nuclear weapons.
Indigenous Peoples in the Marshall Islands have also faced serious impacts due to U.S. nuclear testing. In her book, Conquest: Sexual Violence & American Indian Genocide, Andrea Smith reports that some Indigenous Peoples in the islands have all together stopped reproducing due to the severity of cancer and birth defects they have faced.
CONTINUING RESISTANCE
In March 1988 more than 8,000 people converged for massive 10 day direct action to "reclaim" the test site, nearly 3,000 people were arrested. Groups such as the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) and Shundahai Network continue their work to shut down the test site and resist the corporate and military nuclear industry.
Throughout the 1980's a fierce movement of grassroots resistance and direct action against uranium mining near the Grand Canyon had taken shape, galvanized by the Havasupai, Hopi, Diné (Navajo), Hualapai tribes and a Flagstaff group, Canyon Under Siege. Prayerful and strategic meetings were held once a year throughout the 80s. In 1989 a group known as the 'Arizona 5' were charged for eco-actions including cutting power-lines to the Canyon Uranium Mine. Attributable in some part to the resistance and but mainly to a sharp drop in the price of uranium, companies like Dennison were forced to shut their mines down.
Mt. Taylor, located on Forest Service managed lands in New Mexico between Albuquerque and Gallup, has also faced the threat of uranium mining. The mountain sits upon one of the richest reservers of uranium ore in the country, it is held holy by the Diné, Acoma, Laguna, Zuni & Hopi Nations. In June 2009 Indigenous Nations and environmental groups unified to protect the holy Mountain and through their efforts Mt. Taylor was given temporary protection as a Traditional Cultural Property.
For 7 years Indigenous People from throughout the world have gathered to organize against the nuclear industry at the Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum on the Acoma Nation.
At the 2006 Indigenous World Uranium Summit on the Diné Nation, community organizations such as Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) joined participants from Australia, India, Africa, Pacific Islands, and throughout North America in issuing a declaration demanding "a worldwide ban on uranium mining, processing, enrichment, fuel use, and weapons testing and deployment, and nuclear waste dumping on native lands."
Due to recent increases in the price of uranium and the push for nuclear power nearly 8,000 new mining claims now threaten Northern Arizona. Uranium mined from the Southwestern U.S. is predominately purchased by countries such as France (Areva) & Korea for nuclear energy.
In July of 2009 members of the Havasupai Nation and their allies gathered for four days on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at their sacred site Red Butte to address the renewed threat. Red Butte has long been endangered by the on-going threat of uranium mining.
Under an anachronistic 1872 mining law, created when pick axes and shovels were used, mining companies freely file claims on public lands. The law permits mining regardless of cultural impacts.
OBAMA APPROVES NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS AND INCREASED NEED FOR URANIUM
Currently there are 104 nuclear reactors in the United States which supply 20% of the U.S.'s electricity. In January the Obama administration approved a $54 billion dollar taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005.
Since 2007, seventeen companies have now sought government approval for 26 more reactors with plans to complete four by 2018 and up to eight by 2020. New reactors are estimated to cost more than $12 billion each.
Although nuclear energy is hailed by some as a solution to the current U.S. energy crisis and global warming, those more closely impacted by uranium mining and transportation recognize the severity of the threat.
THE COLORADO RIVER, WATER & URANIUM'S DEADLY LEGACY
Uranium is a known cause of cancers, organ damage, miscarriages & birth defects.
Drilling for the radioactive material has been found to contaminate underground aquifers that drain into the Colorado River, and sacred springs that have sustained Indigenous Peoples in the region. In addition, surface water can flow into drill holes and mine shafts which can also poison underground water sources.
Emerging in the Rocky Mountains in North Central Colorado and winding 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River is held sacred by more than 34 Indigenous Nations. The Colorado also provides drinking water for up to 27 million people in seven states throughout the Southwest.
The river that carves the Grand Canyon has been extensively used by the agricultural industry and cities that are dependent for drinking water, so much so that it now ceases to flow to the Gulf of California, forcing members of the Cocopah Nation (The People of the River) in Northern Mexico to abandon their homelands and relocate elsewhere.
Today there are more than 2,000 abandoned uranium mines in the Southwest. U.S. government agencies have done little or nothing to clean up contaminated sites and abandoned mines. At Rare Metals near Tuba City on the Diné (Navajo) Nation a layer of soil and rock is the only covering over 2.3 million tons of hazardous waste. A rock dam surrounds the radioactive waste to control runoff water that flows into nearby Moenkopi Wash. Throughout the Diné Nation, Diné families have been subject to decades of radioactive contamination ranging from unsafe mining conditions to living in houses built from uranium tailings. Well water is documented by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as undrinkable in at least 22 communities such as Black Falls on the Dine’ Nation. According to the EPA, "Approximately 30 percent of the Navajo population does not have access to a public drinking water system and may be using unregulated water sources with uranium contamination." Flocks of sheep and other livestock still graze among radioactive tailing piles and ingest radioactive water.
According to the Navajo Nation up to 2.5 million gallons of uranium contaminated water is leaching out of the Shiprock Uranium Mill near Shiprock, New Mexico into the San Juan River every year. At the Church Rock Mine in New Mexico, which is now attempting to re-open, up to 875,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste continue to contaminate the land.
In July 1979 a dirt dam breached on the Navajo Nation at a uranium processing plant releasing more than 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and nearly 100 million gallons of contaminated fluid into the Rio Puerco (which ultimately flows into the Colorado River) near Church Rock, NM. This was the single largest nuclear accident in US history. Thousands of Diné families that live in the region, including those forced to relocate from the Joint Use Area due to coal mining, continue to suffer health impacts resulting from the spill.
In 2005 the Diné Nation government banned uranium mining and processing within its borders due to uranium's harmful legacy of severe health impacts and poisoning of the environment. And yet, high cancer rates, birth defects and other health impacts still bear out the uranium industry's dangerous legacy.
NUCLEAR WASTE & INDIGENOUS SACRED LANDS
Today the US has nearly 60,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear waste stored in concrete dams at nuclear power plants throughout the country. The waste increases at a rate of 2,000 tons per year. Depleted Uranium (DU) is a byproduct of uranium enrichment and reprocessing which has controversial military uses including armor piercing projectiles. DU has been found to cause long-term health effects ranging from harming organs to causing miscarriages and birth defects.
In 1987 Congress initiated a controversial project to transport and store almost all of the U.S.'s toxic waste at Yucca Mountain located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Yucca Mountain has been held holy to the Paiute and Western Shoshone Nations since time immemorial.
In February 2009 Obama met a campaign promise to cut funding for the multibillion dollar Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. The controversial project was initially proposed in 1987 with radioactive waste to be shipped from all over the U.S. via rails and highways. Currently a new proposal for an experimental method of extracting additional fuel from nuclear waste called "reprocessing" renews the threat to desecrate the sacred mountain on Western Shoshone lands.
Western Shoshone lands, which have never been ceeded to the U.S. government, have long been under attack by the military and nuclear industry. Between 1951 and 1992 more than 1,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated above and below the surface at an area called the Nevada Test Site on Western Shoshone lands which make it one of the most bombed nations on earth. Communities in areas around the test site faced exposure to radioactive fallout which has caused cancers, leukemia & other illnesses. Western Shoshone spiritual practitioner Corbin Harney, who has since passed on, helped initiate a grassroots effort to shutdown the test site and abolish nuclear weapons.
Indigenous Peoples in the Marshall Islands have also faced serious impacts due to U.S. nuclear testing. In her book, Conquest: Sexual Violence & American Indian Genocide, Andrea Smith reports that some Indigenous Peoples in the islands have all together stopped reproducing due to the severity of cancer and birth defects they have faced.
CONTINUING RESISTANCE
In March 1988 more than 8,000 people converged for massive 10 day direct action to "reclaim" the test site, nearly 3,000 people were arrested. Groups such as the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) and Shundahai Network continue their work to shut down the test site and resist the corporate and military nuclear industry.
Throughout the 1980's a fierce movement of grassroots resistance and direct action against uranium mining near the Grand Canyon had taken shape, galvanized by the Havasupai, Hopi, Diné (Navajo), Hualapai tribes and a Flagstaff group, Canyon Under Siege. Prayerful and strategic meetings were held once a year throughout the 80s. In 1989 a group known as the 'Arizona 5' were charged for eco-actions including cutting power-lines to the Canyon Uranium Mine. Attributable in some part to the resistance and but mainly to a sharp drop in the price of uranium, companies like Dennison were forced to shut their mines down.
Mt. Taylor, located on Forest Service managed lands in New Mexico between Albuquerque and Gallup, has also faced the threat of uranium mining. The mountain sits upon one of the richest reservers of uranium ore in the country, it is held holy by the Diné, Acoma, Laguna, Zuni & Hopi Nations. In June 2009 Indigenous Nations and environmental groups unified to protect the holy Mountain and through their efforts Mt. Taylor was given temporary protection as a Traditional Cultural Property.
For 7 years Indigenous People from throughout the world have gathered to organize against the nuclear industry at the Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum on the Acoma Nation.
At the 2006 Indigenous World Uranium Summit on the Diné Nation, community organizations such as Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) joined participants from Australia, India, Africa, Pacific Islands, and throughout North America in issuing a declaration demanding "a worldwide ban on uranium mining, processing, enrichment, fuel use, and weapons testing and deployment, and nuclear waste dumping on native lands."
Klee Benally (Diné) is a collective member of Indigenous Action Media, on the Board of Directors of the Shundahai Network, and is a musician with the group Blackfire.
Author Mary Sojourner assisted editing this article. For further information and action:
Southwest Research and Information Center
http://www.sric.org/
http://www.sric.org/
Shundahai Network
http://www.shundahai.org/
http://www.shundahai.org/
Nevada Desert Experience
http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org/
http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org/
The Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
Grand Canyon Trust
http://grandcanyontrust.org/
http://grandcanyontrust.org/
Uranium Watch
http://www.uraniumwatch.org/
World Information Service on Energy: Uranium Project
http://www.wise-uranium.org/
http://www.uraniumwatch.org/
World Information Service on Energy: Uranium Project
http://www.wise-uranium.org/
Western Mining Action Network
http://wman-info.org/
http://wman-info.org/
Network Sortir du Nucléaire
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/
Sources:
Addressing Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation - Map of contaminated wells
http://epa.gov/region09/superfund/navajo-nation/contaminated-water.html
Tuba City Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/tubacity_title1.html#_ftn51
EPA summit addresses uranium cleanup
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2008/08august/081408epa.html
Conservation groups challenge uranium mining threat to Colorado River
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/30/conservation-groups-challenge-uranium-mining-threa
Addressing Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation - Map of contaminated wells
http://epa.gov/region09/superfund/navajo-nation/contaminated-water.html
Tuba City Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/tubacity_title1.html#_ftn51
EPA summit addresses uranium cleanup
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2008/08august/081408epa.html
Conservation groups challenge uranium mining threat to Colorado River
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/30/conservation-groups-challenge-uranium-mining-threa
A peril that dwelt among the Navajos - L.A. TImes - November 19, 2006
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/19/nation/na-navajo19
Uranium Mining & Milling
http://www.wise-uranium.org/indexu.html#UMMCI
Colorado River Facts
http://www.azhumanities.org/movingwaters/faq.html
Nuclear power inches back into energy spotlight
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2009-03-29-nuclear-power-energy-return_N.htm
AREVA: France’s nuke power poster child has a money melt-down
http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=506&lang=en
Environmental Working Group - January 2008 - Report: Grand Canyon Threatened by Approval of Uranium Mining Activities
http://www.ewg.org/reports/grandcanyon
Shiprock Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/shiprock_title1.html
Grand Canyon Trust
http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/
The Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/19/nation/na-navajo19
Uranium Mining & Milling
http://www.wise-uranium.org/indexu.html#UMMCI
Colorado River Facts
http://www.azhumanities.org/movingwaters/faq.html
Nuclear power inches back into energy spotlight
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2009-03-29-nuclear-power-energy-return_N.htm
AREVA: France’s nuke power poster child has a money melt-down
http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=506&lang=en
Environmental Working Group - January 2008 - Report: Grand Canyon Threatened by Approval of Uranium Mining Activities
http://www.ewg.org/reports/grandcanyon
Shiprock Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/shiprock_title1.html
Grand Canyon Trust
http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/
The Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
Southwest Research and Information Center
http://www.sric.org/
http://www.sric.org/
Nuclear Free Future
http://www.nuclear-free.com/
http://www.nuclear-free.com/
Klee Benally
indigenousaction@gmail.com
http://www.indigenousaction.org/ - Independent Indigenous Media
http://www.oybm.org/ - Indigenous Youth Empowerment!
http://www.savethepeaks.org/ - Protect Sacred Places
http://www.taalahooghan.org/ - Flagstaff Infoshop
http://www.blackfire.net/
indigenousaction@gmail.com
http://www.indigenousaction.org/ - Independent Indigenous Media
http://www.oybm.org/ - Indigenous Youth Empowerment!
http://www.savethepeaks.org/ - Protect Sacred Places
http://www.taalahooghan.org/ - Flagstaff Infoshop
http://www.blackfire.net/
CENSORED NEWS: This uranium mining, transport and processing threatens the water supply and health of Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai, Navajo and Ute in this immediate region, as well as visitors, other residents and those living along the Colorado River.
GRAND CANYON TRUST: "Denison Mines, a Canadian company, recently revived operations at the Arizona 1 uranium mine on the Arizona Strip adjacent to Grand Canyon. This industrial activity threatens not only the visitor experience at Grand Canyon National Park, but the water supply for twenty-five million people in Nevada, southern California, and Arizona, as well as seeps and springs in the park. Worse yet is the fact that much of the uranium will be shipped to Korea."
GRAND CANYON TRUST: "Denison Mines, a Canadian company, recently revived operations at the Arizona 1 uranium mine on the Arizona Strip adjacent to Grand Canyon. This industrial activity threatens not only the visitor experience at Grand Canyon National Park, but the water supply for twenty-five million people in Nevada, southern California, and Arizona, as well as seeps and springs in the park. Worse yet is the fact that much of the uranium will be shipped to Korea."
Uranium Mining in Region Resumes
By CYNDY COLE
Arizona Daily Sun
Driven by a rebound in prices, uranium mining has resumed in northern Arizona after a hiatus of about 20 years.
Employees working for Denison Mines began removing high-grade ore at the Arizona 1 mine north of the Grand Canyon in late December, according to the company’s president, and trucking it to a mill near Blanding, Utah.
The mine is about 45 miles southwest of Fredonia in Mohave County, and about 10 miles from the boundary for Grand Canyon National Park. Read more ...
Employees working for Denison Mines began removing high-grade ore at the Arizona 1 mine north of the Grand Canyon in late December, according to the company’s president, and trucking it to a mill near Blanding, Utah.
The mine is about 45 miles southwest of Fredonia in Mohave County, and about 10 miles from the boundary for Grand Canyon National Park. Read more ...
TELL DENISON TO STOP:
Denison Mines is mining uranium on the lands of the Havasupai, Hualapai and Paiute at the Grand Canyon; Ute and Navajo in Utah and First Nations in Saskatchewan. TELL THEM TO HALT: Denison Mines Corp. Atrium on Bay 595 Bay Street, Suite 402 Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 2C2 Telephone: 416-979-1991 Fax: 416-979-5893 info@denisonmines.com
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tsoodzil: Protecting the mountain of sprinkled turquoise
Thanks to John Redhouse for his history of the efforts to protect sacred Mount Taylor. This painting by Navajo artist Shonto Begay is in Redhouse's compilation, Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum, A Reader 1987 -- 2009.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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
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.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Uranium in Indian country: Paul Zimmerman releases 'The Cult of Nuclearists'
Zimmerman releases chapter of new book to Censored News to aid in the struggles of Indigenous Peoples
From author Paul Zimmerman to Brenda Norrell:
"I recently read your article on CounterPunch.com about proposed uranium mining in the Grand Canyon. It got me thinking as to whether or not I could make some small contribution to the struggle, being played out yet again, between native peoples and what I call the Cult of Nuclearists. I decided to release a chapter that I'm very proud of from my newly published book. When you read the attached document, and if you find it of worth, I would be honored if you would share it with whatever groups and individuals you are aware of who may find it interesting and informative."
A Primer in the Art of Deception
The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium Weapons and Fraudulent Science
by Paul Zimmerman
Copies of this book can be ordered at http://www.du-deceptions.com/ or by contacting the author at either info@du-deceptions.com or P.O. Box 145, Lyndonville, NY 14098
Excerpts, read full chapter at link below:
"... Peoples of the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo and Acoma Pueblo suffered the greatest impact from this invasion by the large energy companies. Their familiar pastoral economy was rapidly transformed into a mining-industrial economy,and they became a mining-dependent population (Kuletz). Recruited as a cheap source of labor for the mines, Native Americans were exploited economically, receiving two-thirds the salary of employees brought in from off the reservation (Churchill). During the uranium boom of the 1970s, the median salary for the Laguna Pueblo was 50 dollars per week(Kuletz). Maximum economic gain for the mining companies was the driving force for the abuses showered on Native American communities in the Four Corners region ..."
From author Paul Zimmerman to Brenda Norrell:
"I recently read your article on CounterPunch.com about proposed uranium mining in the Grand Canyon. It got me thinking as to whether or not I could make some small contribution to the struggle, being played out yet again, between native peoples and what I call the Cult of Nuclearists. I decided to release a chapter that I'm very proud of from my newly published book. When you read the attached document, and if you find it of worth, I would be honored if you would share it with whatever groups and individuals you are aware of who may find it interesting and informative."
A Primer in the Art of Deception
The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium Weapons and Fraudulent Science
by Paul Zimmerman
Copies of this book can be ordered at http://www.du-deceptions.com/ or by contacting the author at either info@du-deceptions.com or P.O. Box 145, Lyndonville, NY 14098
Excerpts, read full chapter at link below:
"... Peoples of the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo and Acoma Pueblo suffered the greatest impact from this invasion by the large energy companies. Their familiar pastoral economy was rapidly transformed into a mining-industrial economy,and they became a mining-dependent population (Kuletz). Recruited as a cheap source of labor for the mines, Native Americans were exploited economically, receiving two-thirds the salary of employees brought in from off the reservation (Churchill). During the uranium boom of the 1970s, the median salary for the Laguna Pueblo was 50 dollars per week(Kuletz). Maximum economic gain for the mining companies was the driving force for the abuses showered on Native American communities in the Four Corners region ..."
"The desecration of sacred lands by uranium mining interests is never ending. A particularly appalling example became public knowledge in 2008 when newspapers reported that VANE Minerals, a UK mining company, was petitioning the US government for mining rights in the Grand Canyon."
Read Zimmerman's chapter online:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2009/09/paul-zimmerman-cult-of-nuclearists.html
Read more:Read Zimmerman's chapter online:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2009/09/paul-zimmerman-cult-of-nuclearists.html
Photo: Havasupai Gathering to Halt Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon/Photo by Brenda Norrell
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Filthy development in the Four Corners
A new report shows the poisoning of the Four Corners region, which has been used as a sacrifice area by the US gov
ernment since uranium mining, power plants and oil and gas wells took over the region in the mid 1900s.
Who lives there? Navajos, Utes, Jicarilla Apaches and non-Indians, all breathe the air and drink the water. They also die of cancer and respiratory diseases. --Censored News
Tribal, Environmental Groups Call for Quick Action to Safeguard Four Corners Region from Dirty Energy Development
http://www.wildearthguardians.org/library/paper.asp?nMode=2&nLibraryID=776
New Study Shows Air Pollution Reductions from Oil and Gas, Coal Burning Needed to Protect Public Health; Future of Desert Rock in Question
Wild Earth Guardians
Photo of NM power plant by National Park Service
FARMINGTON, N.M. - A new report shows that dirty energy development is the biggest threat to clean air in the Four Corners region, spurring WildEarth Guardians, Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, and the San Juan Citizens Alliance to call for quick action to reduce air pollution and safeguard public health.
“This report confirms that dirty energy is taking a dangerous toll on clean air and public health in the Four Corners,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “But more importantly, it confirms that with cleaner energy we can make progress toward keeping communities safe.”
The Air Quality Modeling Study for the Four Corners Region, prepared for the New Mexico Environment Department, shows reducing pollution from oil and gas operations and coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners is the most effective strategy to keep harmful levels of ozone air pollution in check. Ozone, the key ingredient of smog, is a corrosive gas that can trigger asthma attacks, scar lungs, and lead to premature death. It forms when two key pollutants—nitrogen oxides, or NOx, and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, react with sunlight.
“Protecting public health in our medically under-served tribal communities should be prioritized,” said Lori Goodman of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment. “Tribal members are passing resolutions for clean energy solutions. The New Mexico Environment Department and federal agencies need to act on our serious air quality issues.”
The Four Corners region is on the verge of violating federal health standards that keep children, seniors, and even active adults safe from ozone. If ozone levels escalate at the Navajo Lake ozone monitor in San Juan County, New Mexico, the region will likely violate these standards, triggering more stringent clean air safeguards and federal oversight.
When ozone levels are high in the Four Corners region, the latest study shows that local oil and gas drilling operations and coal-fired power plants are the largest local contributor to the problem. The study sates “local oil and gas and EGU [electric generating units] are the biggest contributors to local ozone episodes.”
(See Report at page 5-2). The study reveals that oil and gas drilling operations are the largest source of human-created VOCs, while both oil and gas and the region’s two coal-fired power plants - Four Corners and San Juan - release three and a half times more NOx than the region’s cars and trucks.“These findings underscore the need for clean energy solutions in the Four Corners,” said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator with the San Juan Citizens Alliance.
“And with our communities struggling against mounting air pollution, the time for solutions is now.”
The report also models several scenarios to determine the most effective strategy for combating ozone. The report found that curbing VOC and NOx pollution from oil and gas drilling, together with NOx cuts from coal-fired power plants will achieve “the overall largest” and “the most wide-spread” ozone reductions. (See Report at page 5-3).These findings support New Mexico Environment Department efforts to cost-effectively reduce NOx and VOC pollution from oil and gas operations in San Juan County and neighboring Rio Arriba County. The Department is developing proposed rules that would reduce emissions from natural gas compressor engines and pneumatic controllers at oil and gas wellsites. The proposed rules are available here.
In addition, the study continues to call into question the future of the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant. The power plant would add more than 2,000 tons of NOx emissions into the air of the Four Corners region.
The latest modeling report is available on the New Mexico Environment Department’s website.
Date: 7/22/2009 Press Release
Author: WildEarth Guardians
Contact: Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 573-4898 x537
Email: jnichols@wildearthguardians.org
Additional Contact: Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator, San Juan Citizens Alliance: (505) 325-6724
Listen at: Censored Blog Talk Radio: Pueblo and Navajo Uranium Victims speak at Havasupai Summit
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/ ... Pueblo and Navajo uranium victims at Havasupai Summit at the Grand Canyon: Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo; Carletta Garcia, daughter of Dorothy Purley, ore truck driver, Laguna Pueblo; Larry King, Navajo from Church Rock, NM; Phil Harrison, Navajo from Cove in the Four Corners area. Music recorded live: Birdsongs, Navajo and Supai traditional songs and Summit Dub Squad. Recordings by Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/
ernment since uranium mining, power plants and oil and gas wells took over the region in the mid 1900s. Who lives there? Navajos, Utes, Jicarilla Apaches and non-Indians, all breathe the air and drink the water. They also die of cancer and respiratory diseases. --Censored News
Tribal, Environmental Groups Call for Quick Action to Safeguard Four Corners Region from Dirty Energy Development
http://www.wildearthguardians.org/library/paper.asp?nMode=2&nLibraryID=776
New Study Shows Air Pollution Reductions from Oil and Gas, Coal Burning Needed to Protect Public Health; Future of Desert Rock in Question
Wild Earth Guardians
Photo of NM power plant by National Park Service
FARMINGTON, N.M. - A new report shows that dirty energy development is the biggest threat to clean air in the Four Corners region, spurring WildEarth Guardians, Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, and the San Juan Citizens Alliance to call for quick action to reduce air pollution and safeguard public health.
“This report confirms that dirty energy is taking a dangerous toll on clean air and public health in the Four Corners,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “But more importantly, it confirms that with cleaner energy we can make progress toward keeping communities safe.”
The Air Quality Modeling Study for the Four Corners Region, prepared for the New Mexico Environment Department, shows reducing pollution from oil and gas operations and coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners is the most effective strategy to keep harmful levels of ozone air pollution in check. Ozone, the key ingredient of smog, is a corrosive gas that can trigger asthma attacks, scar lungs, and lead to premature death. It forms when two key pollutants—nitrogen oxides, or NOx, and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, react with sunlight.
“Protecting public health in our medically under-served tribal communities should be prioritized,” said Lori Goodman of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment. “Tribal members are passing resolutions for clean energy solutions. The New Mexico Environment Department and federal agencies need to act on our serious air quality issues.”
The Four Corners region is on the verge of violating federal health standards that keep children, seniors, and even active adults safe from ozone. If ozone levels escalate at the Navajo Lake ozone monitor in San Juan County, New Mexico, the region will likely violate these standards, triggering more stringent clean air safeguards and federal oversight.
When ozone levels are high in the Four Corners region, the latest study shows that local oil and gas drilling operations and coal-fired power plants are the largest local contributor to the problem. The study sates “local oil and gas and EGU [electric generating units] are the biggest contributors to local ozone episodes.”
(See Report at page 5-2). The study reveals that oil and gas drilling operations are the largest source of human-created VOCs, while both oil and gas and the region’s two coal-fired power plants - Four Corners and San Juan - release three and a half times more NOx than the region’s cars and trucks.“These findings underscore the need for clean energy solutions in the Four Corners,” said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator with the San Juan Citizens Alliance.
“And with our communities struggling against mounting air pollution, the time for solutions is now.”
The report also models several scenarios to determine the most effective strategy for combating ozone. The report found that curbing VOC and NOx pollution from oil and gas drilling, together with NOx cuts from coal-fired power plants will achieve “the overall largest” and “the most wide-spread” ozone reductions. (See Report at page 5-3).These findings support New Mexico Environment Department efforts to cost-effectively reduce NOx and VOC pollution from oil and gas operations in San Juan County and neighboring Rio Arriba County. The Department is developing proposed rules that would reduce emissions from natural gas compressor engines and pneumatic controllers at oil and gas wellsites. The proposed rules are available here.
In addition, the study continues to call into question the future of the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant. The power plant would add more than 2,000 tons of NOx emissions into the air of the Four Corners region.
The latest modeling report is available on the New Mexico Environment Department’s website.
Date: 7/22/2009 Press Release
Author: WildEarth Guardians
Contact: Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 573-4898 x537
Email: jnichols@wildearthguardians.org
Additional Contact: Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator, San Juan Citizens Alliance: (505) 325-6724
Listen at: Censored Blog Talk Radio: Pueblo and Navajo Uranium Victims speak at Havasupai Summit
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/ ... Pueblo and Navajo uranium victims at Havasupai Summit at the Grand Canyon: Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo; Carletta Garcia, daughter of Dorothy Purley, ore truck driver, Laguna Pueblo; Larry King, Navajo from Church Rock, NM; Phil Harrison, Navajo from Cove in the Four Corners area. Music recorded live: Birdsongs, Navajo and Supai traditional songs and Summit Dub Squad. Recordings by Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Bahe Katenay: On Big Mountain, building the earth lodge
By Bahe KatenaySheep Dog Nation Rocks
Published with permission
Navajo Big Mountain matriarch Pauline Whitesinger stands next to her earth lodge that began collapsing in late 2007. Photo copyright Bahe Katenay.BIG MOUNTAIN, Black Mesa (Arizona), November 18, 2008 – A nice peaceful morning in the Dineh resistance stronghold known as Sweet Water was again disrupted by a uniformed officer from the Office of Hopi Lands. This officer who had a badge that indicated he was with the Hopi tribal police claimed he was not serving a “noticed” on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, nor the U.S. government. The small 82 year old matriarch, Pauline Whitesinger, was trying to speak in the Dineh language to the thick and tall Indian officer that cannot understand Dineh and who was ‘assigned’ to meet with (grandma) Pauline about her “unauthorized” reconstruction of a traditional earth lodge.
He had photo-copies of Pauline’s earth lodge with some additional documents that he referred to as ‘complaints’ from a recent officer that discovered this construction in May 2008. As another Dineh gentleman showed up at the scene, the officer immediately walked over to seek a translator –something he should have seek within his own law enforcement department. The officer only wanted two questions answered:
‘Why is she building this hogan without Permission?’
‘What is she going to do with this hogan or why does she need it?’
The Dineh gentleman attempted to clarify the issues by asking if the tribal police agency keep a record of conversations made with Grandma Whitesinger or other documents related to her position about residential rights that she has been denied. The officer had no knowledge about recent records or about the history of this resister’s position toward the relocation and the land-partitioning policies throughout the 30 plus years, or throughout all the years that equaled this young officer’s age.
“Why she does this without permission is because she does not recognized the authority of the U.S. government or (your) alien and foreign authority,” the Dineh man clarifies.
“Grandma, here, still recognizes the supreme authorities of the local deities and she also honors her ancestors’ legacies. She truly and deeply believes that is where she receives the ‘official’ authorization to rebuild this traditional lodge.”
The translator adds, “The hogan is part of her ancient culture and it is necessary to her being. Not only is it for ceremonial purposes but it is her home where she will be warmer in the winter as opposed to that cinderblock and un-insulated house. There, you have heard the same repeated answers to your same concerns!”
The officer who seemed to be wasting his time by bringing up the same concerns and question asked as he tried to keep his authoritarian composure, “What do you mean ‘alien’?!” The translator’s reply again is rhetorical, “Well, since you are not here on behalf the feds or the BIA, are you here on behalf of the traditional Hopis?”
As if he had to answer that question, the officer explained, “The traditional Hopis are all gone!”
The translator reassures, “Your official duty today is alien because of that, because you represent something alien and a traditional Hopi would not tell us that we, Dineh, exist without permission…”
“No, (we) are a ‘new’ generation,” states the young but determined and armed officer.
Still at ease, the translator wishes no further dialogue concludes, “Yeah, a ‘new’ generation with alien-forms of idea and perceptions…”
Grandma Pauline who hates these sorts of police visits tells the translator, “I like to hear a summary of what you two have said to each other, but I also want to say this to him. Since May of this year your fellow officers and perhaps, you yourself as well would drive by slowly or sometime they would stop along that road, there. Then, very recently when I asked some helpers to begin working on the roof of the lodge, a ranger truck parked on that road and they seemed to be looking through binoculars. After all the prowling around and all this time, you finally come to me asking two questions.
“Leave the lodge alone! Let me dwell here freely! My only intention is to exist here as my forefathers have and I don’t intend to bother you.”
A Commentary with Recommendation:
After the lost deputy left, Grandma Pauline made further comments about the state of society, Chief Loner wonders also: “Where is that activism? Especially, indigenous activisms like AIM or other urban Indian bands of activist? Is activism only a fashion or an expression trend?”
This grandmother matriarch has stood her ground out in the remote country of Big Mountain for over thirty years. Now, it really seems that society sees her the same way the oppressors does, “those lawless Navajos.” Members of society who expressed humanitarian thought through Gandhi or MLK, or those who recently ‘voted’ to put colour in the White (marble) City of the district of Columbus do not seem to care about spirituality and ancient culture.
Does (it) only come down to fulfillment? Like, “I have voted and I won so, my efforts were fulfilled.”
There is evidence that the traditional Hopi resisters to modernization have questioned the state of society and perhaps, they felt that society has no time for ancient cultural and spiritual ways. So, as long as one, individual traditional life knows they have fulfilled their spiritual obligation and if the rest of the community chose to adapt to the “new generation,” an individual traditional life will conclude it has fulfilled his or hers.
Society and non-Indian activism are more into an eco-management mentality by addressing institutional-designed environmental policies and questions. The old Indian traditions of land base society are now obsolete. Pauline Whitesinger in her remote corner of the universe somehow and always know about the state of the world politics without going on the internet or reading bibles on how to be an activist and to have ‘love.’
Grandmother Pauline who is still strong said something that was quite shocking, “I don’t care anymore. I will build that lodge and (they) can come out with their heavy machine and level the hogan! I don’t care anymore because I’m old and cannot maintain my herd of sheep and goats, and (they) can haul all them away, too. At least, I may have fewer worries and just sit in this little house everyday and look out onto the empty lands.”
Grandma’s final comment about that morning’s disruption was that the ranger-police was actually not wasting his time:
“He is the initial point of a plan. What will follow after today’s visit might become a stupid move for them. All these years the United States has been trying to make the so-called, ‘Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute’ happen…”
© Sheep Dog Nation Rocks 2008
“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)
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