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Just
six weeks after the September 11 attacks, a
panicked Congress passed the USA Patriot Act,
which has directly infringed on many of the
rights and freedoms granted by the Bill of
Rights. This new interactive feature summarizes
the impact of the PATRIOT Act on some of our
most cherished rights.
Resolutions
opposing the USA PATRIOT Act's erosion of our basic
liberties have been passed in 325 communities in 41
states, including four state-wide resolutions. From
major cities to rural towns, these communities represent
nearly 52 million people. Click
to see which communities have taken a stand and how
you can pass a resolution in your town.
Visit
our Video
Page for Important Topics and
Entertainment
This is
artist Jana Mashonee's first music video, filmed amid
the beautiful landscape of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal
Park
on the Arizona-Utah border.
Through a superb
combination of dazzling visual effects and a blend of contemporary and traditional music that speaks to the soul, she portrays a young Native woman on her journey of discovery of her people's tradition, of their spirituality, of self, and of the power that
they hold. More importantly, she discovers that only by embracing her
Native
heritage–and herself–is she truly liberated.
—Al Swilling,
Founder, SENAA International
Jana's music video, "The Enlightened Time," won Best Music Video award at Queens International, Buffalo
Niagara, and Accolades Film Festivals in 2007 and 2008.
—www.janamashonee.com>Info>Hot Sheet
CONGRATULATIONS,
BLACKFIRE, ON YOUR NAMA AWARD! SENAA International sends a big
"Congratulations" to Blackfire for their win at
the Native American Music Awards' 10th annual celebration
on Saturday night, 04 October.
Congratulations on your NAMA award. You
certainly earned it.
Thank you for all you have done and continue
to do to raise public awareness of the racist forced
relocations, and the human rights and Civil Rights
violations against Indigenous Americans in this
"enlightened" 21st century.
For
details about Blackfire and the other NAMA award winners,
visit Brenda Norrell's Censored
News. Also visit Blackfire's Web site at http://www.blackfire.net/
Problems
Plague 'Extreme Makeover' House The Navajo Times - Cindy Yurth - 03 JAN
2009
Originally Published 25 SEP 2008
PIÑON, AZ—There is reality TV, and
then there is reality. The difference is, reality
keeps going after the cameras stop rolling.
The "Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition" episode featuring the Georgia Yazzie
family of Piñon ended happily.
The family oohed and aahed as they were led through their
new hogan-style home, and rejoiced at the thought of never
having to pay another electric bill, thanks to the home's
solar collectors and wind generator.
But even as the show aired last October
[2007], five months after the home was completed, reality
was seeping through the cracks....
Help
the Yazzie Family Realize the Dream They Were Promised
SENAA International - 20 JAN 2009
PIÑON, AZ—On the second
day of January, a SENAA International member posted to our
discussion group an article from The Navajo Times dated 25
September 2008, titled "Problems Plague 'Extreme Makeover'
House," by Cindy Yurth. Extreme Fakeover:
Home Perdition?
The article is about
Dineh Georgia Yazzie and her family, who live at Piñon, Arizona.
The family was the recipient of a new house built by
the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" TV program that
airs on ABC network, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company.
The house was built in May 2007, and the program aired on 28
October 2007.
The article tells of a
host of problems with the new house that began to show up even
before the program aired, and the non-response of the show's
producers and the network, even though the house was under a
one-year warranty....
California Edison Closes Mohave Generating Station in
Laughlin--for Good kdminer.com - 11 JUN 2009
KINGMAN - Southern California Edison (SCE) announced Wednesday that
it is closing the door on the Mohave Generating Station near
Laughlin, Nevada, for good. The company will decommission and
start dismantling the plant in the next few months. The generating
equipment will be removed and the permits to run the plant will be
terminated in 2010.
The plant's transmission switchyard and some related facilities
will remain in place. According to a news release, no final plans
have been made for the property. However, the company is
considering selling the property and building a renewable energy
facility....
Edison to Decommission Coal-fired Nevada Power Plant Mercury News - 10 JUN 2009
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.—The
owners of the shuttered Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin,
Nev., said Wednesday that they will decommission the coal-fired
power plant that once supplied electricity to 1.5 million homes.
Southern California Edison operated the 1,580-megawatt plant since
it came on line in 1971, and the company owned 56 percent of the
facility on the Colorado River.
Edison shut down the plant in 2006 because...
Navajo Water Settlement Not Without Flaws Farmington Daily-Times - 10 JUN 2009
Officials from all
levels of government celebrated last week when President Obama
signed an omnibus bill into law to quench the Four Corners'
thirst.
The bill appropriates money to bring running water to 80,000
Navajos in between Shiprock and Gallup who do not have it by
constructing a pipeline connecting the two cities. $870 billion
was set aside thanks to the work of many of our elected officials,
including the state government, Navajo President Joe Shirley,
Senator Jeff Bingaman and many others....
Custer Rides Again in McDonald's Happy Meal Huffington Post - 09 JUN 2009
Say it isn't so! Lt.
Colonel George Armstrong Custer has invaded Lakota country again,
this time through the Happy Meals sold to little children at
McDonald's.
Bobbie DuBray, Administrative Assistant for the Lakota Peoples Law
Project was not only shocked by this apparent display of racial
insensitivity, but also angered by it.
DuBray says, "I went through the drive thru at McDonalds on East
North Street to get a Happy Meal for my five-year-old son. I got
home and my brother opened the meal and found the Custer doll."
She said he then asked her to come and look at what he found. To
her shock it was Custer toy. Her son wanted the toy and she told
him, "No. that's a bad toy." She said that her 10 year old
daughter did not understand why the toy was bad. She and her
mother, Betty Handley, then gave the girl a history lesson "My
daughter was not taught about this in school. What are they
teaching our children?" she asked....
Supreme Court Steers Clear of Arizona Ski Resort Dispute The Arizona Republic - 08 JUN 2009
The United States
Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request by several Arizona
Indian tribes to stop a Flagstaff ski area from making artificial
snow from treated wastewater on the San Francisco Peaks.
The case has bounced through federal court for several years, and
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals considered the case twice,
first siding with the Native Americans, who revere the mountains
as sacred sites. Last August, the Appeals Court reconsidered in
favor of the management of Arizona Snowbowl....
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE Supreme Court
Affirms Tribes Have No Religious Rights Tribes and others Call For Congressional Action to Protect
Sacred Places Save the Peaks Coalition - 06 JUN 2009
Flagstaff, AZ—On Monday, June
8th 2009, the Supreme Court denied the petition by Tribes &
Environmental groups to hear the case to protect the holy San
Francisco Peaks.
For nearly a decade, the Save the Peaks
Coalition, Tribes, Environmental groups, and community members
lead an effort to stop the Snowbowl ski area’s plan to expand it’s
development on the Peaks and make snow from treated sewage
effluent. The ski resort operates on the Holy Mountain through a
lease by the United States Forest Service, which sanctioned the
proposed development in 2004.
This is the second time that a
petition for the protection of the San Francisco Peaks has been
denied by the Supreme Court....
The Long Walk Revisited Public
comment wanted on plan to make routes a National Historic Trail Navajo Times - 04 JUN 2009
WINDOW ROCK--Will the route Navajos took for the Long Walk become a
National Historic Trail?
Should the trail be commemorated given it is such a painful piece
of the Navajo past?
Those will be some of the issues discussed when the National Park
Service hosts a series of open houses on the reservation in the
coming weeks....
URI Files for Court Review over Churchrock Mine Gallup Independent - 02 JUN 2009
WINDOW ROCK — Uranium Resources, Inc. announced Monday that it is
filing a petition with the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in
Denver for an en banc, or full court review regarding its
determination that URI’s proposed Section 8 mine is in Indian
Country.
The April 17 opinion by the three-judge panel upheld a Feb. 6,
2007, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency land status
determination that certain land owned by the company’s subsidiary,
HRI, in the checkerboard area of northwestern New Mexico, lies
within a dependent Indian community....
Let There Be Light
Black Mesa residents revel in new-found power Gallup Independent - 23 MAY 2009
BLACK MESA,
Ariz. — In all of Lillie Chief’s 84 years, one of the most amazing
things she has witnessed is being able to flip a switch on the
wall and watch her home light up instantaneously. It is the first
time in her life that she has had electricity.
“Now I can see inside here,” she told Navajo Tribal Utility
Authority representatives during a May 12 visit to her home atop
Black Mesa.
The kerosene lamps she once used have now been stashed in various
corners of the home, and a new electric stove sits in the corner
wrapped in plastic, still waiting to be
hooked up. A propane stove used for cooking meals sits near the
kitchen door. But the new refrigerator her children bought for her
can be heard humming away in the kitchen....
Hopis Ready Nuke Waste
Suit Arizona Daily Sun - 22 MAY 2009
After 12 years of asking various federal agencies to clean up a
federal dump they contend is leaching radioactive waste into the
local aquifer, the Hopi Tribe is tired of waiting for action.
The Hopi Tribe filed a notice of intent to sue Thursday, stating
that a plume containing uranium and other contaminants leaching
from an open dump near Tuba City was within 2,500 feet of
contaminating water supplies for two Hopi villages. The pollution
left in the unlined dump -- a dump created by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs -- is an "imminent and substantial" threat to public
health and the environment, and is a result of multiple federal
agencies approving Cold War-era mining and milling operations that
have polluted multiple landscapes in Arizona, the tribe
asserted....
Churchrock Cleanup
Begins
URI assessment looks for radiation hot spots
Gallup Independent - 22 MAY 2009
CHURCHROCK —
Uranium Resources Inc. and Navajo Nation Environmental Protection
Agency began a weeklong assessment Monday of Section 17 in
Churchrock where its subsidiary, Hydro Resources Inc., has
proposed in situ mining of uranium.
Rick Van Horn, chief operating officer for URI/HRI, said Tuesday
that the two entities are looking at what the radiation values are
and how they impact the air, soils, and water in the area of
Section 17....
Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Ended The Arizona Republic - 09 MAY 2009
With the stroke of a
pen Friday, President Barack Obama officially ended more than four
decades of angst and anger caused by a land dispute between the
Navajo and Hopi tribes.
The presidential signature formally repealed a federal statute, the
so-called Bennett Freeze, that has prevented poverty-stricken
members of both tribes from repairing homes or even getting
electricity on 1.5 million acres of reservation lands....
Unconscionable Police Raid on Family's Home and Organic Food Co-Op Mercola.com - 04 MAY 2009
Steps have been taken to start legal action against the Ohio
Department of Agriculture (ODA) and the Lorain County Health
Department for violating the constitutional rights of John and
Jacqueline Stowers of LaGrange, Ohio.
The Stowers operate an organic food cooperative called Manna
Storehouse. ODA and Lorain County Health Department agents
forcefully raided their home and seized the family's personal food
supply, cell phones and personal computers....
Mr. King Coal's Neighborhood: Washington DC, Won't You Be My
Neighbor? Huffington Post - 28 APR 2009
What does a Wyoming rancher, a Navajo elder, a Southern community
organizer, a Latino immigrant organizer from Chicago, a young
indigenous Ottawa woman from Michigan, and an Appalachian coal
miner's widow have in common?
All of their neighborhoods are under deadly assault from King Coal.
And all of these six American heroes have journeyed to Washington,
DC this week, on their own dime--unlike the paid hacks from King
Coal's payrolls--as part of the First 100 Days of the Power Past
Coal movement to testify to representatives from Congress, the EPA
and the Council on Environmental Quality about their outrageous
living conditions under government regulated coal mining
operations and coal-fired plants.
In Mr. King Coal's neighborhood, these are their daily burdens:
Mercury poisoning, gall bladder disease, black lung disease,
devastated and impoverished strip-mined communities, depleted and
contaminated watersheds, and toxic-draped and ailing
neighborhoods....
New York-sized Ice Cap Collapses off Antarctica Reuters - 28 APR 2009
TROMSOE, Norway — An area of an Antarctic ice shelf nearly the size
of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the
collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a
scientist said today.
“The northern ice front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has become
unstable and the first icebergs have been released,” Angelika
Humbert, glaciologist at the University of Muenster in Germany,
said of European Space Agency satellite images of the shelf....
A-Twitter About Malaria An unusual competition
brings attention to a killer disease Washington Post -- 25 APR 2009 AT FIRST BLUSH, the hyped contest between Hollywood actor
Ashton Kutcher and CNN to see who could get 1 million "followers"
on Twitter struck us as, well, pointless. That is until we learned
that the bet resulted in 10,000 insecticide-treated bed nets being
sent to Africa to help stop malaria, a disease that kills almost 1
million people, most of them children, around the world annually.
On this World Malaria Day, such efforts by private citizens and
businesses, not to mention by organizations around the world that
have been pushing for decades to control and eliminate the
disease, are to be applauded. But there's a lot of work to be
done....
Black Mesa Trust Hosts Water Braiding Conference Navajo-Hopi Observer - 21 APR 2009
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Bridging contemporary western science and
indigenous wisdom was the topic of a conference that was sponsored
by Black Mesa Trust, The Center for Sustainable Environments at
Northern Arizona University, Grand Canyon Trust and the Museum of
Northern Arizona this past week at the Woodlands Radisson Hotel
and Conference Center.
A number of internationally acclaimed scientists, teachers and
artists including water science pioneer Dr. Masaru Emoto,
painter/environmental space artist Lowry Burgess of Carnegie
Mellon University and artist Michael Kabotie of the Hopi Tribe
gathered with Black Mesa Trust Board members, over 200 adult
participants and 20 young Hopi and Navajo student interns during a
four day conference that began at the Hopi Reservation and ended
at Lake Mary.
The focus of the conference was...
A-Twitter About Malaria
An unusual competition
brings attention to a killer disease. Washington Post - 25 APR 2009
AT FIRST BLUSH, the hyped contest between Hollywood actor
Ashton Kutcher and CNN to see who could get 1 million "followers"
on Twitter struck us as, well, pointless. That is until we learned
that the bet resulted in 10,000 insecticide-treated bed nets being
sent to Africa to help stop malaria, a disease that kills almost 1
million people, most of them children, around the world annually.
On this World Malaria Day, such efforts by private citizens and
businesses, not to mention by organizations around the world that
have been pushing for decades to control and eliminate the
disease, are to be applauded. But there's a lot of work to be
done....
SURVIVAL
INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
INDIA: TRIBES STAGE MASS PROTEST AGAINST BRITISH COMPANY VEDANTA 25 APR 2009
Several hundred tribespeople today staged a protest against
FTSE-100 company Vedanta, as it bids massively to expand its
controversial aluminum refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa.
The refinery occupies land belonging to the Majhi Kondh tribe, and
lies at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills, home of the isolated
Dongria Kondhs. Both tribes took part in the protests.
The refinery has already been condemned by government officials for
regularly breaching safety standards, and emitting ‘alarming’
pollution. Over a hundred families lost their homes to their
refinery. Many more lost their farm land and with it their
food-security and self sufficiency....
Navajo Uranium Mine Workers Seek Health Assistance Farmington Daily-Times - 22 APR 2009 The Navajo Nation Dependents of Uranium
Workers Committee will meet for the second time in a month to
update community members and hear feedback from residents who
suffer from cancer, kidney disease, birth defects and other
illnesses resulting from prolonged radon exposure from uranium
mines.
The health problems date back to work in the 1950s and '60s, said
Phil Harrison, Council Delegate for Red Valley/Cove Chapter of the
Navajo Nation. During that time, uranium mine workers were exposed
to high levels of radon, which has caused inter-generational bouts
of illnesses in communities across the Navajo Nation....
Paving the
Way
Black Mesa:
From wagon trails to pavement
Gallup Independent - 18 APR 2009
BLACK MESA — Snow fell
Friday morning as Black Mesa residents broke ground on
what soon will be a 7-mile stretch of pavement on
N-8066. Although the light dusting soon turned the
dirt road to mud, it was viewed as a blessing, sealing
30 years of planning and lobbying for transportation
funds.
A festive atmosphere
prevailed at Black Mesa Community School where local
residents, tribal and Bureau of Indian Affairs
dignitaries gathered to celebrate the occasion....
Opening Up Government
A welcome change of heart on freedom of information
Washington Post - 28 MAR 2009
DURING ITS eight years, the Bush administration treated the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) at best as a joke, at worst as an enemy.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft determined that the Justice
Department would defend agency determinations to withhold
information unless those decisions were found to "lack a sound
legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on
the ability of other agencies to protect other important records."
Translation: Agencies were empowered and even encouraged to resist
compliance with FOIA, which was meant to provide citizens a
reasonable means to obtain information about the workings of their
government.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. rescinded the Ashcroft
memorandum last week and in its place installed guidelines that
should promote a more faithful application of the freedom of
information law....
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
PARAGUAY: BRAZILIAN RANCHER GREETED BY ‘ILLEGAL’ ADVERT
Survival International - 26 MAR 2009
A Brazilian rancher destroying uncontacted Indians’ land in
Paraguay has today arrived in that country to be greeted with a
national newspaper advert denouncing his actions as ‘illegal’.
Sr. Marcelo Bastos Ferraz represents the Brazilian firm Yaguarete
Porá, which created a storm of controversy last year after
satellite photos revealed it was illegally clearing vast areas of
forest in western Paraguay. The area is home to the last
uncontacted Indians outside of the Amazon basin, who are members
of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe....
Education of Native American Culture Stressed Cronkite News Service - 26 MAR 2009
A lack of knowledge
about Native American history hinders politicians as they deal
with issues important to Arizona's tribes, a Navajo lawmaker said
Wednesday.
"We need to educate them on the foundations of Native governments,"
Sen. Albert Hale, D-Window Rock, said as the Legislature's Native
American Caucus held its first meeting. "We can step forward and
be an example of how we can deal with these issues in Arizona."...
Arizona Group
Awarded $20,000 for Environmental Justice Project
$800,000 for Environmental Justice in 28 States
USEPA - 25 MAR 2009
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is
awarding $20,000 to Forgotten People CDC of Tonalea, Ariz., an
organization working with western Navajo Nation communities to
tackle environmental justice challenges.
Nationally, the agency is awarding 40 grants in 28 states totaling
approximately $800,000 to community-based organizations and local
and tribal governments for community projects aimed at addressing
environmental and public health issues.
“These grants mark the beginning of a full-scale revitalization of
what we do and how we think about environmental justice,” said EPA
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Environmental justice is not an
issue we can afford to relegate to the margins. It has to be part
of our thinking in every decision we make.”...
Obama Defends Push to Cut Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts Washington Post - 25 MAR 2009
President Obama defends his proposal to cut the tax deductions that
wealthy Americans can claim for their charitable donations by
arguing that the shift would not have an adverse effect on giving,
but two independent analyses concluded that the proposal could
result in a drop of as much as $3.87 billion for the already
reeling nonprofit sector....
Bennett Freeze Officially Thawed Arizona Daily Sun - 14 MAR 2009
The U.S. Senate has
voted to lift a decades-old ban on development on about 700,000
acres in Arizona's Black Mesa region that both the Navajo and Hopi
tribes claimed as their own.
The Senate unanimously approved a bill by Arizona senators John
McCain and Jon Kyl on Thursday night to lift a ban on development
in the "Bennett Freeze" area. The ban had prevented about 8,000
Navajos who live there from putting in electric lines, repairing
leaky roofs and running water lines to their homes unless the
improvements were approved by the neighboring Hopi Tribe. Action
by the House is still required, but no opposition is expected....
A Global Retreat As
Economies Dry Up
As World Trade Plummets,
Bustling Ports Stand
Idle And Foreign Workers Track Back Home Washington Post - 05 MAR 2009
SINGAPORE—This shimmering city-state was the house globalization built. When
world trade boomed, Singapore's seaport at the crossroads of East
and West became the Chicago O'Hare of freighters and supertankers.
Singapore Airlines took off despite serving a country with no
domestic air routes. Nearly everything manufactured here is made
for export. One out of every three workers is a foreigner.
But as
the world enters a period of deglobalization, Singapore is a
window into the reversal of the forces that brought unprecedented
global mobility to goods, services, investment and labor. With
world trade plummeting for the first time since 1982, the
long-bustling port has become a maritime parking lot in recent
weeks, with rows of idled freighters from Asia, Europe, the United
States, South America, Africa and the Middle East stretching for
miles along the coast. "We're running out of space to park
them," said Ron Widdows, chief executive of Singapore-based
NOL, one of the world's largest container lines....
For Indian Tribes,
Economic Needs Collide with Tradition USA Today - 03 MAR 2009
LAME DEER, Mont.—Jobs
are scarce and poverty is pervasive on the Northern Cheyenne
Indian Reservation, but rich coal deposits lie beneath the buttes
where wild horses roam.
For decades, many members
of the tribe have resisted coal mining. Now, increased demand for
coal and the election of a new tribal president who is determined
to create jobs are reigniting debate over energy development among
the reservation's 4,500 residents. It's a conflict between tribal
traditions and economic self-sufficiency that has long divided
people here and on other reservations across America with coal,
oil and gas and other mineral reserves....
A Capitol
Offense Thousands protest against coal in
front of D.C.'s Capitol Power Plant Grist.org - 02 MAR 2009
No
one was arrested, but not for lack of trying.
An estimated 2,500 people protested
outside Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Power Plant on
Monday -- the nation's largest act of civil
disobedience against coal power.
Anti-coal activists from all corners
of the country braved the sub-freezing
temperatures and six inches of snow the city
received Sunday night. The uncharacteristically wintry
conditions egged on global-warming skeptics, but
the crowds marching around the plant weren't
deterred by the bad weather....
Greetings from the Forty
and Eight:
On February 4, 1967 in the Central Highlands of South
Vietnam (II Corps), in the general area of Pleiku, a member of the
United States Army became a casualty of the 10,000-day war and a
statistic of what eventually exceed 58,000 Americans. His name
holds a place of honor on Panel 37E - Line 23 of the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington , D.C.
His name is not easily perceived, Huskie Yazzie Begay
Ten, but his spirit is reminiscent of that of the Navajo Code
Talkers and the heritage of our Native Americans. Born in Arizona
in 1945 and drafted into the Army, Huskie Y. B. Ten entered into
the ranks of hero protecting his fellow soldiers in combat. For
this, he was awarded the Silver Star for Gallantry in Action....
Navajo
Council OKs Power Plant
Arizona Star - 28 FEB 2009
The Navajo Nation Council voted 71-8 Friday in Window
Rock to approve right-of-way easements for a proposed coal-fired
power plant on the reservation, marking the tribe's last step in
what has been a long process.
The tribe will receive $3.5 million in fees in
exchange for granting rights of way for transmission, data,
electrical and water lines, water wells and road access for the $3
billion Desert Rock Energy Project in northwestern New Mexico....
A
Petition from the Big Mountain Situation From Bahe Katenay - 27 FEB 2009
As we speak, there exists a state of fear and anxiety
in a traditional community at Big Mountain in the heart of Black
Mesa. And as we speak, the federally deputized officers of the BIA
Hopi Agency Police and Rangers are patrolling this region where a
few traditional elders continue to live and also resist federal
mandates to relocate. I want to bring your attention to one
particular situation that is an example of the wide-spread acts of
injustice, human rights violation, religious intolerance, and
threats of property destruction....
Navajo
Nation gets $34M for Housing Stimulus The Farmington Daily Times - 27 FEB 2009
The Navajo Nation will receive $34.4 million in
housing funds under the national stimulus package.
The money comes from the Department of Housing and
Urban Development. It will be used for new home construction,
housing rehabilitation and housing-related infrastructure....
Justice
for American Indians NY Times - 23 FEB 2009
The federal government has a long history of cheating
American Indians, and not all of this dirty dealing is in the
distant past. On Monday, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a
suit by the Navajo, who lost millions of dollars’ worth of coal
royalties because the government helped a coal company underpay
for their coal. A lower court ruled for the Navajo Nation. The
Supreme Court should affirm that well-reasoned decision....
Green Coalition Says Time
Is Right for Initiative Navajo Times - 19 FEB 2009
WINDOW ROCK—The time is ripe to start "greening" the Navajo
Nation, say representatives of the Navajo Green Economy Coalition.
The coalition hopes the Navajo Nation Council will pass two
bills during its spring session that would establish offices aimed
at creating green jobs. The bills are sponsored by Speaker
Lawrence T. Morgan (Iyanbito/Pinedale).
The coalition is made up of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, the
Grand Canyon Trust, and Sky One New Mexico - non-governmental
organizations that have in the past sometimes been on the other
side of projects supported by the Navajo government....
EPA
May Reverse Bush, Limit Carbon Emissions From Coal-Fired Plants Washington Post - 18 FEB 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency will reopen the
possibility of regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired
power plants, tossing aside a December Bush administration
memorandum that declared that the agency would not limit the
emissions.
The
decision could mark the first step toward placing limits on
greenhouse gases emitted by coal plants, an issue that has been
hotly contested by the coal industry and environmentalists since
April 2007, when the Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide
should be considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act....
Protesting is not
Resisting,
Resistance Is Based on Profound Manifestos: “Ancient Big Mountain Supreme Ways Dictates Dineh Resistance,
Pauline Whitesinger Continues to Defy BIA Police Harassment
& Threats” by Bahe Y. Katenay
Sweet Water Stronghold,
Big Mountain, AZ. February 9, 2009—Dineh elder resister of the
traditional lands of Sweet Water is bundled up for the chilly
winds as she takes some hay out to her sheep and goats. The herds
need a little extra feed before going out to graze. The
non-Indian, volunteer supporter is dressed warm and ready to
follow the sheep as he chops some wood for grandma, Pauline,
while the herds nibble on the scattered hay on the ground. Not
many non-Indian volunteers do occasionally make themselves
available from their busy lives to come out for short stays and
help traditional, elder resisters. Very few traditional elder
residents are now left throughout such regions affected by the
harsh relocation laws of 1974....
California
Utility Looks to Mojave Desert Project for Solar Power New York Times - 11 FEB 2009
The largest utility in California, squeezed by rising
demand for electricity and looming state deadlines to curb fossil
fuels, has signed a deal to buy solar power from seven immense
arrays of mirrors, towers and turbines to be installed in the
Mojave Desert.
The contracts amount to the world’s largest single
deal for new solar energy capacity, said officials from the
utility, Southern California Edison, and BrightSource Energy, the
company that would build and run the plants. When fully built, the
solar arrays on a sunny day would supply 1,300 megawatts of
electricity, somewhat more than a modern nuclear power plant.
That is enough electricity to power about 845,000
homes....
Utahan
in Line for Top Indian Affairs Job
Interior Department: Echohawk would be first high-ranking Mormon
in Obama administration Salt Lake Tribune - 10 FEB 2009
Washington--President Barack Obama is likely to tap
Utahan Larry Echohawk as the head of the Interior Department's
Bureau of Indian Affairs, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.
Echohawk, a Democrat who teaches at Brigham Young
University's law school, would be the first high-ranking Mormon
nominated to Obama's administration, and the only Utahan so far in
a senior role.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Echohawk declined to
comment, saying he "can't talk."
The White House did not respond to requests for
confirmation Tuesday; but...
White
House to Elevate Indian Affairs, Appoint Special Adviser Salt Lake Tribune - 09 FEB 2009
Washington--President Barack Obama will soon name a
senior White House adviser for tribal issues in a move that
elevates the concerns of American Indians to a higher point than
previous administrations.
First Lady Michelle Obama told employees at the
Interior Department on Monday that American Indians have a
"wonderful partner in the White House right now," and
her husband plans to improve that relationship even more.
"He'll soon appoint a policy adviser to his
senior White House staff to work with tribes and across the
government on these issues such as sovereignty, health care,
education -- all central to the well-being of Native American
families and the prosperity of tribes all across this
country," the first lady said....
Legal
Backlash Directed at OSM over Peabody Western Coal Permit Indian Country Today - 10 FEB 2009
DENVER – A controversial federal decision
enlarging a northeastern Arizona coal mine permit area has been
appealed to the Department of the Interior on charges that the
Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Enforcement violated six
federal laws.
Eight
Native and environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club,
joined in the request for review that alleges violation of the
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, National Environmental
Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Religious Freedom
Restoration Act, Endangered Species Act and Administrative
Procedures Act.
The
filing with the Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals asks
that a life-of-mine permit issued Dec. 22 to Peabody Western Coal
Co. be invalidated or the organizations are prepared to take the
matter to court....
ENERGY:
Clean Coal’s Dirty Mess
A tale of 2 power plants: Tennessee’s experience shows
how environmental concerns can be misdirected
Star-Telegram - 10 FEB 2009
On Dec. 22, a deluge of coal-ash slurry broke through
a retaining wall near the Kingston Fossil Plant, a power plant in
eastern Tennessee. Black sludge inundated a valley and destroyed
houses as it surged down to the Emory River, where hundreds of
fish soon lay dead on fouled banks.
Helicopter
video footage showed a landscape resembling the moon’s surface,
with more than a billion gallons of sludge covering 300 acres. The
disaster also temporarily halted an incoming train loaded with
coal. This presumably came from other industrially ravaged
landscapes to the east, where entire Appalachian mountaintops are
routinely bulldozed into valleys to access seams of Paleozoic
carbon.
Tests of river water near the spill found high levels
of lead, cadmium, thallium and other toxic heavy metals. One
sample tested by the Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 23
had an arsenic concentration 149 times the federal safety
standard....
"Sometimes We
Pray"
Chinle PTSD group going
strong after a year, meets needs of Veterans of all ages Navajo Times - 05 FEB 2009
CHINLE—There
are things about post-traumatic stress disorder that only fellow
sufferers will understand.
The way a
whiff of Chinese food can trigger a flashback to a Vietnamese
village that was abandoned so quickly that family dinners were
left boiling on the fire.
That
strange, loud voice you get when you're talking to your wife but
really trying to shout down an uninvited memory.
Tucking a
hunting knife under your mattress, just in case.
And
worse....
Tenn. Coal Ash Disaster Raises Concerns about Similar Sites Nationwide With Streaming Video and Downloadable Audio
PBS NewsHour - 02 FEB 2009
In December, tons of spilled coal ash devastated the town of Kingston, Tenn. Tom Bearden reports on the
disaster's effects on residents, cleanup efforts and the debate over safety standards for other coal ash
storage sites around the country.
TOM BEARDEN, NewsHour correspondent: Even today, it's difficult for anybody who hasn't been to Kingston, Tenn., to understand how big the problem is. Video just doesn't do it justice.
In the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 22, 5.4 million tons of ashes created by 50 years of burning coal to generate electricity here burst through a dike, spreading like an avalanche for more than a mile, burying 300 acres of riverbank several feet deep, spilling out into the nearby river itself.
Paul Schmerbach is an environmental program manager with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, or
TDEC....
'We Were Denied' Groups appeal U.S. decision to meld Black Mesa Mine with Kayenta mine permit
by Cindy Yurth - Navajo Times Hard Copy - 29 JAN 2009
CHINLE - A coalition of tribal and environmental groups Jan. 22 filed an appeal seeking to reverse the U.S. Office of Surface Mining's recent decision to incorporate the idle Black
Mesa Coal Mine into Peabody Western Coal Co.'s existing life-of-mine permit for its Kayenta Mine....
Above
and Beyond
Was a Navajo soldier overlooked for a Medal of Honor?
Cindy Yurth - 27 JAN 2009
KITS’IILI, Ariz. — As Tom Gorman read the
citations for the two posthumous Congressional Medals of Honor
recently awarded to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom, they
sounded familiar.
Both men had thrown themselves on live explosives,
using their bodies to shield their comrades from the full force of
the blast.
Two years earlier, Gorman, the claims agent at the
Navajo Veterans Affairs’ Chinle office, had read an almost
identical account of a Navajo soldier as he entered information on
Vietnam veterans into the office’s computer database.
He went back into his files and took another look....
Challenge
Our Leaders Regarding "Clean Coal Technology"
SENAA
International - 25 JAN 2009
We need to send a message to our leaders, to the media, and to corporate America that, as it now stands, there is no such thing as "clean coal technology," and that before the use of coal can even be considered as a clean source of energy, much more research, development, and work must be done.
Simply "talking the talk" doesn't change the facts of the matter. Before anyone can herald the existence of "clean coal technology," it must first be developed; and a small-scale, working model must be built to demonstrate its efficiency and cleanliness.
Measurements of the amount of energy yielded per ton of coal
by "clean" methods, and realistic rather than speculative comparisons to
the energy yield of present-day "dirty" methods of burning coal must be made. The comparisons must be demonstrated and recorded. The amount and nature of pollutants and potentially harmful, cumulative emissions must be measured and recorded over a realistic test period. Effects of such emissions on the environment, on human health, and on the health of wildlife must be assessed and addressed before any entity can go forward with any coal technology that claims to be "clean."...
Going Green for Navajo is All Natural Gallup Independent - 19 JAN 2009
WINDOW ROCK—The tradition of the Navajo people long ago was to live a sustainable life in harmony with the earth.
Navajo people would tend to the cornfields to provide nourishment and build hogans out of natural materials for shelter.
So today’s Navajo Green Job initiative builds upon the traditions of the Diné, presenters said during the Power Shift to Navajo Green Jobs community summit Saturday at the Navajo Nation Museum....
No
Thaw
Despite Agreement, Bennett Freeze Residents Still 'Poorest of the
Poor' Navajo Times - 15 JAN 2009
WINDOW ROCK--More than two years ago, President Joe
Shirley Jr. announced that the 40-year-old Bennett Freeze had been
lifted through a "historic" agreement with the Hopi
Tribe.
But according to a "Final All Chapter
Summit" report published Aug. 6, not much has changed in the
700,000-acre area.
And in the words of Navajo-Hopi Land Development
Office director Roman Bitsuie, the people there remain the
"poorest of the poor."...
Navajo
Sends Recommendations to Washington Gallup Independent - 15 JAN 2009
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation sent the
Obama-Biden transition team the “Navajo Nation Federal Agenda
for the Obama-Biden Transition Team and 111th Congress,” which
includes a list of 27 policy recommendations.
The first policy recommendation is to allow in-kind
contribution to apply toward federal matching fund requirements.
“Many programs require that Native American Tribes
provide a certain percentage of the total funding amount in
matching funds in order to receive federal funds,” the document
states....
Tribes:
Time for Supreme Court to Step In Gallup Independent - 12 JAN 2009
WINDOW ROCK — It is now time for the U.S. Supreme
Court to step in, several tribes are saying with a petition to the
court for a writ of certiorari in Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest
Service.
The Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe are among the
petitioners asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision
by the en banc Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. With that
decision, the Arizona Snowbowl is able to use treated wastewater
for artificial snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks, which are
considered sacred to at least 13 Native American tribes....
Letter
to the Editor: Navajo Times Peabody
Plans Carry Harmful Impacts The Navajo Times - 09 JAN 2009
Peabody Coal Company's massive coal mining expansion
plans on the proposed Black Mesa Project outlines many harmful
impacts to the ecological and cultural systems on Black Mesa. The
Black Mesa Project has global repercussions particularly to the
environment, Black Mesa Navajo, and Hopi communities.
Therefore, it is important to protect Black Mesa as a
sacred (religious), cultural, and historic landscape by having the
area designated as Traditional Cultural Property under Section 106
of the National Historic Preservation Act, and under the RFRA
agreement.
Black Mesa has many religious shrines and offering
places located on its landscape. However, it must be stressed that
the whole Black Mesa region, including Navajo Mountain is a female
goddess that is lying by her male mate the Chuska Mountains....
Heat Sends Southwest
Climate Back in Time Christian Science Monitor - 08 JAN 2009
Bandelier National
Monument, N.M.—For 15
years, Craig Allen, a scientist with the US Geological Survey, has
monitored a 2.7-acre plot here in northern New Mexico. During that
time, he’s witnessed smaller tree species succeeding larger
ones. He’s seen dry years, bark beetle infestations,
large-scale tree dieback, and finally, a shift toward grassland.
To Dr. Allen, these changes tell a tale of combined human impacts
– overgrazing, fire suppression, and climate change. And they
underscore how human activity can amplify the effects of natural
cycles to alter a landscape dramatically.
The
American Southwest may be drying, one of the predicted
consequences of human-induced global climate change. Less water in
an already semiarid region will affect how, and for what, people
use water. Allen also suspects that tree dieback here may be part
of a worldwide phenomenon. As temperature extremes have inched
higher in semiarid regions globally, forests have succumbed to
heat stress....
Feds Approve Black Mesa Life-of-Mine Permit The Navajo Times - Cindy Yurth - 08 JAN 2009
CHINLE – In a move that surprised no one, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining gave Peabody Western Coal Co. a Christmas present, approving the company's application to roll the closed Black Mesa Mine into the life-of-mine permit for the Kayenta Mine.
The record of decision, available for download at www.wrcc.osmre.gov/, was published Dec. 22.
Peabody's spokeswoman Beth Sutton said the move gives the company more "flexibility" in the use of its coal leases, although any new mining in the Black Mesa Complex, as the incorporated leases are being called, will still have to be approved by OSM....
Tribes Appeal Decision in Arizona Snowbowl Case Arizona Central - 05 JAN 2009
FLAGSTAFF—American Indian tribes are asking the U.S. Supreme Court
to review a lower court's decision that allows for snowmaking on an
Arizona peak the tribes consider sacred.
The tribes met Monday's deadline for an appeal in the Arizona Snowbowl
case....
Navajo, Hopi Citizens Vow to Stop Peabody Coal Mine Expansion Native Times - JANUARY 2009
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. - Two days before Christmas, officials from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining have granted a permit to Peabody Coal Company to expand their mining operations on Navajo and Hopi lands, despite opposition from local communities and problems with the permitting process including lack of adequate time for public comment on a significant revision to the permit, insufficient environmental review, and instability in the Hopi government preventing their legitimate participation in the process. OSM's "Record of Decision" is the final stage of the permitting process for the proposed "Black Mesa Project," which would grant Peabody Coal Company a life-of-mine permit for the "Black Mesa Complex" in northern Arizona. Tribal citizens protest the expanding mining operations of Peabody Coal Company.
Black Mesa Water Coalition, a Navajo and Hopi citizens organization working on indigenous sovereignty and environmental protection, has vowed to stop Peabody from causing further harm to Black Mesa. “We are looking into our options for how to stop this process from moving forward, including legal action. The permitting process was flawed and clearly rushed through before President Bush leaves office,” said Enei Begaye, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition....
Navajo, Hopi Citizens Vow
to Stop Peabody Coal Mine Expansion Native Times - 03 JAN 2009
Flagstaff,
AZ — Two days before Christmas, officials from
the U.S. Office of Surface Mining have granted a
permit to Peabody Coal Company to expand their
mining operations on Navajo and Hopi lands,
despite opposition from local communities and
problems with the permitting process including
lack of adequate time for public comment on a
significant revision to the permit, insufficient
environmental review, and instability in the Hopi
government preventing their legitimate
participation in the process....
