We the undersigned wish to extend this request to support our call for help.
We represent Dineh (Navajo) families living in the Black Mesa region of
Arizona and are members and Board of Directors of Sovereign Dineh Nation, the
organization we formed in October 1979 based on traditional Dineh values of
caring for and living in harmony with the earth. We are composed of all
Dineh residents and arrive at our decisions on a consensual basis, guided by
our elders and Medicine people.

As you may know, we are suffering, struggling against corporate and
governmental powers which have attacked our right to remain on our ancestral
land, to practice our traditional life-style and religion, and to retain our
civil rights. Black Mesa has special religious significance in our religion,
which compounds the desecration from the coal mines which forbids strip
mining. It is our belief that the Earth is a living entity that is being
harmed. The primary corporate power is Peabody Coal Company, which operates
two large strip mines in our area and whose activities have caused
environmental damage and the destruction of countless ancient Anasazi and
Dineh burial and sacred sites.

When we wake up in the morning the horizon is thick with dust from overnight
operation of drag lines that remove the top layers of earth to expose the
coal. Blasting is frequent and frightening. Surface water sources have been
poisoned or destroyed. Sites that were the sole source of sacred and
medicinal plants have been destroyed by the mine. The slurry line that
carries coal 273 miles to the Mohave Generating Station from Peabody’s Black
Mesa mine is threatening our sole source of drinking water. Without water we
cannot survive. Our health has been negatively impacted and many of us suffer
from Black Lung, Silicosis, respiratory and emotional distress.

The governmental powers include the Hopi and Navajo tribal governments, whose
history and operation are interlinked with the mining industry, and the US
Government, which empowered the tribal governments at our expense. The
combined actions of these corporate and governmental powers have had a
devastating impact on our families. The forcible relocation of Dineh
families living in areas partitioned to the Hopi Tribal government was
mandated by Public Law 93-531 in 1974. Over 12,000 of our people have already
been relocated at a cost of over $350 million to the US government. It has
been estimated by Thayer Scudder, the world’s leading relocation expert that
25% of those of us that relocated were dead within the first 5 years. The
relocation program has been a tragic failure. We who compose some of the
3,000 Dineh who remain on our land are currently being forced to choose
between relocation and life without civil rights under the rule of an openly
hostile government.

The government is currently implementing its final solution for our people,
involving many forms of coercion and fraud. People's firewood & livestock
have been confiscated. The rangers are conducting a campaign of intense
harassment - stopping cars on the roads, citing people for trivial offenses
and escalation of livestock confiscations. Under Public Law 104-301, passed
by President Clinton on the eve of Columbus day, 1996, the Hopi get $263,000
per signature ($25 million for 95 signatures) and since no one wanted to sign
the proposed 75-year lease agreement, the motivation for pressure is clear.

In its war against those of us who have resist relocation, the US Government
has destroyed wells that supplied water needed for our survival in a desert
environment, outlawed even the most basic home repairs, confiscated the
livestock that sustain our subsistence life-style, and subjected us to the
rule of a tribal government in which we are not allowed to vote or
participate.

Our civil rights were sacrificed to satisfy the ambitions of the coal
companies and the tribal governments. In an effort to complete our
relocation, the 1996 law provides that after February 1, 2000, the Hopi
Tribe may evict those of us who are eligible for leases but have not signed
them. On the same date, jurisdiction over grazing and other issues will be
transferred from the BIA to the Hopi Tribe. Some actions have already begun,
as some of us have received exclusion orders which seek to evict us from HPL.
The BIA has also begun enforcement of the grazing permit quotas which has
resulted in the loss of livestock as a result of confiscations. We have also
been served trespassing notices and trespassing notices. It is even illegal
for us to build an outhouse. We expect that the enforcement of the grazing
quotas, trespassing notices, and eviction processes will accelerate over the
next few months.

Despite the approach of the February 1, 2000 deadline for relocation, we
maintain our strength and commitment to protect our sacred land. We
maintain our strength as we witness the support we have from the United
Nations, Non Governmental Organizations, and on the international and
national levels. A Report issued by Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur
on Religious Intolerance of the UN Commission on Human Rights makes a finding
of discrimination by the US. Such a finding on discrimination against Muslim
Greeks, for instance, resulted in a legislative change in the Greek
constitution last year. The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights - adopted in the wake of Nazi atrocities after World War 2 - has
coalesced world attention around the successes of grass roots activism that
have resulted in scores of victories, including the dismantling of the Berlin
Wall, the end of apartheid in South Africa, to the 103-nation signing of an
anti-land mine treaty. It is our hope that your help we will be able to end
apartheid in Black Mesa.

We who are unalterably opposed to Relocation gain our strength by maintaining
our traditional religion. We wish harm to no one and don't understand why
we've been made to suffer so much for so long.

We appreciate any support you can provide to raise our profile to exert the
pressure we need for solutions, applying the context of universal principle
as we approach the February 1, 2000 deadline. If you are able to travel to
Black Mesa we urgently need on-the-land support. If you are not able to
travel here then please circulate petitions to the US Bureau of Indian
Affairs and your governmental representatives calling for repeal of the
Relocation laws. Also any financial contributions you can provide will be
used for our legal defense and outreach efforts. For more information please
contact us by e-mail: dinetah29@aol.com or our fiscal agent, Steve Sugarman,
Executive Director, Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE) by phone:
(310) 456-3534 or e-mail: SEE8541@aol.com

Please help us.

‘ahehee’, Thank you,

The following people have signed this Call for Help so far

Rena Babbitt Lane
John Lane
Ruth Benally
Elvira Herder
John Benally
Kee Shay
Paul Clark
Michael B. Weiss
Charlie Weiss
Carlos Begay
Shea Benally
Louise Singer
Glenna Begay
Lena Smith
Marie Honnie
Norris Nez
Lena Nez
Bah Begay
Henry J. Yazzie
Irene Nez
Susie Lake
Lorraine Vandever
Joan Yellowhair
Anna H. Begay
Huck Greyeyes
Genevieve Greyeyes
Pauline Whitesinger
Bonnie Whitesinger
Bob Chaat
Kee Z. Begay
Alice Z. Begay
Marsha Monestersky, Consultant

More signatures are forthcoming